So over on the Men’s Rights subreddit, one mangry MRA is outraged to discover the existence of a handyman company in his area called “Hire a Hubby,” which apparently oppresses him as a man because, well, I’m not sure why it oppresses him exactly. Anyway, he asks the classic MRA question WHAT IF THE GENDERS WERE REVERSED!!???
Huh. What would happen if there were a catering or cleaning company called Hire a Wife?
Well, brace yourself because whatever would happen already did happen, because there are a bunch of companies called that. One in the Detroit area. One in Calgary. One in Kirkland, Washington. One in Tasmania.
And then there’s Wife for Hire in North Carolina.
I for one am outraged. At least by the web design of that last page. Hey, 1997 called and wanted its scrolling marquee back!
Ooops, blockquoted instead of linked. (Odd attack of blockquote monster):
Here’s the link.
Apparently the oppression and misandry is so devastating that it renders dudebros completely unable to do a cursory Google search. Or they’re just lazy.
This reminds me of a similar nontroversy I read about on Gawker a week or two ago. Some Silicon Valley techbros got into a lather because someone started a company in the Bay area that allows one to hire attractive men to clean the house topless. They pulled the same “what if the genders were reversed? This would never stand!” crap. Because there aren’t a bazillion topless cleaning service in which the maids are attractive women or anything!
Woody or any other lurking MRAs reading this,
This is why nobody takes you seriously. This is why nobody sensible actually thinks misandry is a thing.
seraph: One of my previous jobs involved doing lots of websites. One I remember was for a “Honey-do’s” service. Given the glamor-shot photos of the rugged male proprietor we used, I couldn’t help but think that way myself.
WWTH, I think that we can chalk this up to MRAs living in Imaginary Backwards Land, which is a dimension parallel our own. Occasionally, they migrate through to our dimension and get incredibly confused by feminists (and most of the general public) here not understanding misandry, which actually does exist in Imaginary Backwards Land.
When I was a kid my friend and I would paint rooms in our bikinis. We had a first coat in under an hour guarantee and everything. It was a good gig.
I agree with Grumpy that it is a bit offensive, but as Cassandra said… This kind of gender role stuff is something feminists are opposed against.
I find the “hire a spouse” thing kinda uncomfortable just because… I dunno, I love my husband a lot, so EMPLOYING someone as one just feels really creepy for me. Even though I know I’m missing the point.
My natural reaction to whenever they are “outraged” about something (very frequently) is to yawn. Does anyone else do this?
Well, feminism *is* the giant wrong tree everyone keeps barking up, as we know.
MISYAWNDRY!
cloudiah, EXACTLY. Lord it makes me tired.
I wonder if it would blow their minds to suggest that home repair/improvement could only be done by a man is, in itself, sexist against women?
Of course it never occurs to them that the owner of the service might have chose it himself.
In other news, MRAs have discovered yet another jpeg that will BRING FEMINISM DOWN:
Did he turn out to be a bachelor?
Cloudiah, that may be the Most Horribly Designed Thing Of Any Kind I’ve Ever Seen. Egads.
I would fucking love to read some Paul Elam fan fiction. Woody? Are you there, Woody? Have you composed any fan fiction about Paul you’d share with us? Woody?
MRAs reliably churn out terrible jpegs. Too bad there’s no money in that — if there were, they could easily fund a whole network of DV shelters for men.
They’d only be happy if the ‘hubby’ rented was hired to sit on the couch and play vidya games. Preferably while eating sammiches.
LOL, like they actually want to help men and would do so if they had some money. What was I thinking with that?
As the former child of a marriage of people almost completely socially incompatible, I can attest that having the option to hire non-sexual escorts on a regular basis could probably keep many such marriages going (I’ll guess here) perhaps 10%-25% longer. How desirable that might be is open to interpretation.
The terrible site advertised on the terrible mere Cloudiah posted also has this on it. Charming. So charming.
http://image.basekit.com/bkpam293229_real-sexism.jpg
Um, did anyone else get sick from that scrolling marquee? Or is it just me?
OK, granted, I’ve been vomiting all night, but I thought I was done. I felt OK. Then I clicked that link, and BAARRRFFF! I was only there for two seconds.
Who knew it could be so triggering?
I think I’ll go away now. Later, y’all.
Wow, cloudiah, how haven’t your eyes burned out of your head looking at these monstrosities? For realskies?
Also, is male circumcision really ‘promoted’ in the states? (I’m the assuming the ‘creator’ of the ‘piece’ is USian) being the norm isn’t necessarily the same as promotion…
Also, why wouldn’t people condemn fgm? I know it’s attempting to make a gotcha, but it seems to be suggesting that you may either support one or the other and that fighting against the barbaric practice of fgm somehow means you support male circumcision. But no, I’m sure that was unintentional.
If it’s not just a maid service, but also involves cooking and grocery shopping, and the like, why not “Hire a Housekeeper”?
And for a handyman, “Hire a Handyman”? I wouldn’t even care if the “handyman” were a handywoman. Handyperson doesn’t flow well.
And I have to go again. Bye!