Let’s say that you’re the “Managing Editor” of a website known far and wide for calling women “whores,” as well as an assortment of other 4- and 5-letter words generally considered crude sexist slurs. Let’s just say that you had a convention, and that during this convention your official spokeswoman went on a bit of a name calling rampage on Twitter, repeatedly attacking a woman who had tried to report on said convention as an “attention whore,” a “fame whore,” and a “little whore,” and offering similar “whore”-based assessments to other critics of the site.
And let’s just say that despite all this you also had a desire to convince the world that your site was not actually the misogynistic cesspit that it so obviously is. Would you:
1) Apologize for using the words “whore” and “bitch” and “c*nt” and other similar sexist epithets against women.
2) In your capacity as editor, quietly remove the word “whore” (and “bitch” and “c*nt”) from future postings on the site, and tell your PR maven to maybe come up with a less misogynistic insult of choice.
3) Start calling men whores so that no one can accuse you of hating women because, see we use “whore” to refer to men too!
The answer, of course, is 3 — at least if you’re Dean Esmay, “Managing Editor” of A Voice for Men. In a recent comment thread on AVFM, he declared:
![Screen Shot 2014-07-08 at Tue, [Jul 8], 14 5](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/screen-shot-2014-07-08-at-tue-jul-8-14-5.png?ssl=1)
CONFIDENTIAL TO D— E—-: No one is buying your bullshit. Also, if you want to try to convince the world that you’re a Friend of Sex Workers, you should probably stop using the word “whore” as an insult for women or men.
BS: Now This is how you craft an insult. Not that not a word about anyone’s sex life (in any way, shape or form) was used.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
maistrechat: That’s why I said they hadn’t been reading my comments very carefully.
I think BS was reading as well as he is able.
Flying Mouse: That story is a piece of cult fiction; by which I mean the author is, in fact, a cult leader. I’m not going into more detail, because his followers might descend.
And while that fic may be anti-randian, that group isn’t really.
My theory is that Bittersteel thinks Cersei Lannister is a real person and the embodiment of feminism.
Argenti: I’ve long wanted to get a 1,500 piece done of Streeetttch!
But Green and Brown
Would probably be good too.
You get Streeetttch on a puzzle and I’ll help assemble it. Much as I love Green and Brown, it looks to have less references than Starry Night.
Cult fiction…the Harry Potter thing I’m not reading no matter how many times a certain PITA tells me I should? (He messaged me the other day wondering what’s up with me…if I thought he’d get it was sarcasm I’d reply “oh just wondering if you still think heart disease is worse than genocide”. That little personality cult is the worst)
@pecunium – Damn! That would be why he knew the subject matter so very well. I will keep that in mind and stop linking accordingly.
Flying Mouse: If you want to know about them, you can drop me a line, but it’s much more cultic than AVfM: and no less damaging to it’s adherents; perhaps more.
Argenti: Look at the feathers, rock, and sky in Stretch. The referents are evil.
@pecunium – I think I’ll be a chicken and pass. Just that thought of a cult built around those ideas gives me the shivers. I had a hard enough time reading about the carryings-on of Rand’s little inner circle in Nathaniel Brandon’s memoir.
It should, they are worse than Randians.
@pecunium
I like to know what the cult is your talking about or where it was mentioned on the post?
@Ken L
I admit I’m curious myself, but it sounds like he doesn’t want to discuss them and have them turn up after a google alert. At least that’s how I read pecunium’s earlier comment.
@brooked
Maybe he can point out the cult fiction part and one of us can figure it out. And let the other know
I’m guessing it’s the mega creepy one whose cult inspired this last time we talked about it in the threads. If it is, you really don’t want his mob descending.
@kitteh
Thanks to you and google I now know what you guys are discussing and it’s yikes inducing. A nerd cult, just what the world needs.
Oh, those people. No, let’s not summon them, they don’t seem like they’d be fun to have around and I’m not willing to clean up after they pee on the virtual rug.
Yeah, skirting around the mention of ’em is quite close enough.
“It’s not a racial slur. There are thugs of all races. It refers to a type of person who engages in destructive and criminal behavior and is admired by the whole world for being a “badass” who destroys peoples’ lives. An example would be Ted Bundy. ”
Ted Bundy is “admired by the whole world”?!
If we’re going to summon people with wacky ideas let’s at least summon the entertaining ones.
They are not. They are not fun in person, and less fun in comments. The sad thing is, so long as one doesn’t get them onto their bugbears, they can be wonderful people. That said, it’s hard to avoid their bugbears, unless the interactions are constrained.
Ken L. A piece of fiction was mentioned. More than that I will not say. I’ve had personal interaction with the leader of same. and there has actually been fallout in my personal life, and it’s far too likely I will interact with that person again, so I am quite reluctant to borrow trouble.
If anyone here has ever read anything by Sherri Tepper, they remind me of the will bring about the end of humanity and everything else in the universe if we let them cults that she often creates.
In your personal life, pecunium? Shit.
Someone really needs to get onto the idea of creating a cult that’s just more fun to be in than any other. None of this doomsday stuff.
Oh wait, that’s the cult of the Furrinati, isn’t it?
BTW since I’m thinking of Tepper anyway, The Companions is worth a read for anyone who’s a devoted member of the cult of the Furrinati, as is The Family Tree.
Curiosity got the better of my caution and I started googling the clues everyone else left. Darn. I’d heard of those guys before, but I had no idea they were linked to that particular author (none of my searches turned up anything connecting the two, either). The last discussion of those guys must have predated my lurking, or happened while I was on an internet break in the interim.
Yuck. Sorry I opened that can of worms, everyone.