Once upon a time, you may recall, women were denied the right to vote, couldn’t own property, were prevented from having careers of their own. Well, it turns out that all of these pesky “restrictions” weren’t really restrictions at all! They were protections that men provided women out of the goodness of their hearts. Men protected women from the terrible burdens of voting and property-owning and so forth, because they just cared about women so much.
Or at least that’s what a lot of Men’s Rights Activists seem to think, judging from this highly edifying discussion in the Men’s Rights subreddit.
![rogersmith25 325 points 1 day ago As I read /r/mensrights[1] more and more, it is becoming increasingly clear to me that the primary female privilege is empathy. If a woman or girl is hurt, people care. If women are kidnapped, there is international media attention. If women are killed, their deaths are highlighted. If there is a conflict between a man and a woman, then people will jump in to defend the woman. If women are under-represented in an area, people want to take action to make things "equal". If a man is hurt, it's funny. If men are kidnapped, we hear silence. If men are killed, their deaths are glossed over. If there is a conflict between a man and a woman, people will attack the man. If men are under-represented in an area, the president will call it a "victory" (as he did regarding the female majority in colleges). Basically, people are programmed to have more empathy for women than men. 200 years ago, that empathy manifested itself in keeping women safe from harm by having them stay home to raise the family rather than die on battlefields or toil in mines. It was empathy not misogyny that kept women from having careers. Present-day, work is safe in offices, so today we have campaigns for women to earn more money and yet have more "balanced" lives where they can both raise a family and earn an "equal" career and, in other words, "have it all". permalink save report give gold reply [–]sierranevadamike 82 points 23 hours ago wow... as a history major, I never looked at the "repression" of women throughout history as empathy rather than misogyny. I NEVER considered this option.. blew my mind.. thank you](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/empathy1.png?resize=567%2C594&ssl=1)
It wasn’t just sierranevadamike who was “blown away” by rogersmith25’s comment: the Men’s Rights mods were so impressed that they reposted it and pinned it as the top post in their subreddit.
Apparently every day is “Opposite Day” on the Men’s Rights subreddit.
EDIT: Here, courtesy of Cloudiah, some more pictures of girls and women protected from that big nasty world out there.
I was a nurse aide for four unhappy months. For minimum wage I got to lift heavy old people, wipe butts, get smacked around and groped (once) by my dementia residents. I got to diaper the one guy because I’d had martial arts training and was good at dodging a punch.
I was bit once as well (fortunately, no teeth, but his gums left me with a bruise.).
I had been exposed to three different bodily fluids within the first week-I found getting thrown up on especially festive. My back hurt most of the time I was there, my bad knee got bad again, and I caught a viral bronchitis the home didn’t bother to tell me one of the residents had. Also, I never knew thrown human feces had that kind of adhesive properties.
…It was the bullying assholes I worked with and the level of staffing that made me quit, though. I was showing up, working as hard and as fast as I could for 8 hours, and didn’t feel that I was providing good care. Or that that was GOING to happen, because I was assigned too many residents. After I gave notice, they actually cut staffing further.
I got minimum wage, at the time $7 an hour.
Note, all my coworkers were women.
That is a dangerous, ill paid, and really nasty job.
It’s neither rocket science nor reality, especially if you chose to preference the “men protected women” trope over the fact that most of the kinds of protection you list were mutual protections, in that the woman protected the man as well, and the fact that a lot of the protections that weren’t mutual fell under “men protecting women… from other men.”
How on earth is you saying the majority of that paragraph not the same as dictating your own perception of reality onto the rest of us on this blog?
You don’t even follow your own advice.
And you’re factually wrong. Women didn’t get “financial protection” for centuries – laws prevented women from inheriting anything, women couldn’t open bank accounts as individuals, or take out housing mortgages, or enter many jobs. Those aren’t financial protections, they’re financial obstacles. They’re also a matter of historical record – so it’s not our “perception of reality”, it’s what actually fucking happened.
You’ve confirmed you’re not here in good faith. Fuck off.
So insanitybytes finally stripped away the veneer. Surprise, surprise.
RE: insanitybytes22
Anytime a woman attempts to speak for herself, she is immediately shut down.
…you do realize it’s mostly women telling you you’re full of shit, right? Are they just “not thinking for themselves”? Are they secretly being controlled by male posters here? Is THAT why people pay me money?
In the lower classes, men often provided protection, financial protection, emotional protection, protection from crime, protection from invading armies.
WHERE IS YOUR EVIDENCE. I SEE NO EVIDENCE. How can I take you seriously without a shred of evidence? Other posters here are linking to stuff, you haven’t. My grandmother was a disabled impoverished woman fighting cancer with six kids. Sure, her husband “protected” her… but he was a pedophile who molested her children in exchange. But hey, what do I know! I’m obviously a wealthy ivory-tower elite who doesn’t know a thing about working for a living! I’m sure he was just totally an exception and that most poor women felt totally equal with their husbands.
RE: sparky
Was insanitybytes22 always a troll?
They stated flat out they were “anti-fem” a while back.
blahlistic…
Eldercare is honestly high up on my list of “Oh God No” jobs for the reasons you listed, and I have nothing but respect for the women (and yes, it is almost all women) who do it for a living, especially those that manage to make it a vocation. But, you know, apparently getting shit on and destroying your back isn’t worth more than minimum wage.
Actually, my grandmother’s personal aide took a side job for about a week working at a eldercare foster home, and had to quit because her back couldn’t handle it. My grandma was rather small, and could walk for short distances and had a wheelchair otherwise, so it wasn’t a problem with her, but it isn’t a job you can keep doing into your golden years, that’s for sure.
The idea that recognizing oppression weakens its victims is odd and insidious.
@Blue Collar Nerd– TRUTH. It has been gone over time and time again here and in other places that they simply don’t have solutions. They just get together and complain about women. If that’s what they want to do with their time? Fine. But calling it a movement and holding pathetic little “conferences?” Is disingenuous and laughable to say the least.
Mutual symbiosis my ass. Men are definitionally the oppressors of women, and nothing more than an artificial class constructed by patriarchy. The vast majority of men in my life have caused me trauma. Nearly all of my friends have also been abused by men. I get along with some men, but most men are horrible human beings. I don’t give a fuck about their “protection” of women.
Laughing my fucking ass off, here. Hi, working class feminist here. Stop trying to dictate your perception of reality onto me, as if you have a better perception of my experiences than I do. And stop trying to use the working class as some kind of idealized prop for your backward-ass ideology. We’re people, not examples.
Men working for wages (a hallmark of the lower and lower-middle classes as upper classes tended to work for salary) often squandered the money:
http://bit.ly/1qiumYE
http://bit.ly/1v6oW7a
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/leisure/pubgambling.html and quote from this:
Angela’s Ashes: http://bit.ly/1makKOu
I was about to say something flip like “maybe that’s b/c the MRA’s are Fox News watchers, and don’t want any of that librul worker’s rights shit…”
…Actually?
+++applies analysis+++
…Hypermasculinity would dictate that being concerned about one’s safety is an unmanly concern.
The MRA’s are all about idealized masculinity and not ACTUAL masculinity.
Actual masculinity really strives to come home with all body parts attached.
They are also all about finding things to blame on women.
QFT. (As an aside, I finally looked that up and was mildly saddened to find that it doesn’t stand for “Quite Fucking True”, as my headcanon holds, but for “Quoted For Truth”, even though really it amounts to the same sentiment. I suppose I just prefer my sentiments to be slightly profane :P)
Hardhats ? Fire exits? Fire extinguishers? Safety protocol? Safety inspections? Pfft. That stuff is for women and cowards! /sarcasm
@dustedeste– DUDE, I also thought it meant “quite fucking true.” Guess it doesn’t. Hahaha. 😀 But, hey. Doesn’t mean it can’t have a double meaning now.
I like “quite fucking true.” It can mean both.
So sayeth WWTH because you know, as a feminist I like dictating my reality to people.
redpoppy – I’m… actually super excited that someone else thought the same thing as me! We’re clearly soulmates! *quantum-connection high five*
Yeah, dunno if I count, being male and all, but I’m a disabled poor feminist fresh out of homelessness. Back when I was more capable of working, I never made more than $11 an hour, and I NEVER got benefits. If feminism were for the elite only, it would have nothing to offer me, but the folks here helped keep me afloat during that time!
But I’m sure I’m just not thinking for myself. Not like insanitybytes, she obviously has TRUE FREE WILL, not like the rest of us sheeple. *eyeroll*
What are you even trying to argue, insanitybytes22? Yeah, a lot of feminists fail at addressing issues that don’t affect them personally. But to counter that, you’re suggesting that everyone fall into patriarchal gender roles because, um, men are natural protectors? What’s your point?
@ wordspinner:
I’d be willing to deal with one alzheimer’s person, incontinence, unpredictability and all…That is a doable thing.
Trying to keep up with 12 of them was a bit much…and it wasn’t SAFE.
They were on high doses of antipsychotics to keep them pacified. Which meant they could get up, fall down and fracture a bone in the blink of a freaking eye. Meaning that it was a matter of time until one of my residents got hurt even though I WANTED to do right by them.
I was walking in the door angry to be there. Not at the residents, mind you, but at the situation.
So I needed to get out.
I mean, others have already fisked this better than I could have, but apart from the facts… Even if this is true, how can men and women have anything like healthy relationships if the reality is that relationships are kind of a protection racket. As Cliff Pervocracy used to say, “Nice gender you’ve got there. Shame if something were to happen to it.”
dustedeste– *quantum high five returned* Among my circle of friends, I’m notoriously bad at acronyms. I always think they stand for one thing or another but I’m usually wrong 80% of the time. So I just gave up and made up whatever meanings I wanted for any acronym. I live dangerously, I know.
Theladyzombie
My grandmother was a brilliant mathematician and she taught calculus in the 50s and 60s. My grandfather wouldn’t let her use her income to pay bills, groceries, ANYTHING pertaining to living expenses. Lest his ego get bruised if he wasn’t single handedly supporting the whole family (four kids, including my dad). I suppose the joke was on him since she just saved it all and donated to various scholarships and bought really expensive art. He relaxed over the years as he witnessed all his sons marrying brilliant women and feminists (like my mom). He married a feminist too but didn’t realize it until late in life, haha. I loved him dearly. He was a very talented photographer and artist. Just a product of his upbringing. I always called him “endearingly sexist” because he had such a warped view of women, but all positive. Benevolent sexism? At least he liked smart women.
redpoppy – What’s life without a little risk? No risk, no reward! Unless you’re, like, CEO of a bank or whatever, but those guys suck.
I wonder what Ms. Independant Woman thinks about lesbians like me who aren’t interested in having any “male protectors”. I’m guessing we don’t exist?