Yes, I’m cribbing from r/againstmensrights again, but this is really too good not to share. Legendary Men’s Rights Crank DavidByron2 offers a little biology lesson to his comrades on the Men’s Rights Subreddit. I’m sure this will be news to a lot of you gals as well.
Only modern day women have monthly periods. In history women were more or less permanently pregnant until they hit menopause or died. When you’re pregnant you don’t get periods. Modern women choose to have periods instead of being permanently pregnant. That’s a choice given to them by men, even while men still have to continue with their historic gender roles of protecting the no-longer-always-pregnant women.
Huh. Never mind that birth control of various sorts has been around since time immemorial. And while most methods of birth control were a bit less than reliable until the twentieth century, various cultures have used extended breastfeeding to successfully ward off pregnancy. So no, women were not permanently pregnant until the smart mens came along and selflessly gave birth control to the women.
RE: Leah
He reminds of that Ray Wolf dickhead who talks about how painful his girlfriends pregnancy was for HIM and completely disregards her feelings and safety:
What’s that dude mean, “How I Delivered My Daughter”? Dude, you ain’t the one with the baby inside you! You don’t get the credit!
ignorant, foolish men should just keep their traps shut about pregnancy, period.
It’s my belief that cis men in general need to shut the fuck up about pregnancy, because they’ll never experience, never once think they’ll experience it, and therefore, shouldn’t get to talk or legislate about how others should experience it.
RE: roguepixie
Then they come up with ‘cute’ terms like ‘gash cash’ to imply that women get money for either having vaginas or for having been wounded in life
You’re telling my money comes out of my vagina whenever I want? WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME?
I have no idea what this dude’s point is, except to demonstrate that he’s an MRA and born to whine reactively, as the sparks fly upward. Thus I will simply point out that while it is true that one does not typically have periods during pregnancy, this reprieve is repaid with a vengeance during the several weeks following childbirth. The uninitiated might try googling “lochia.”
(And “history of abortion.”)
Leah, that article was absolutely sickening. He refers to his wife/mother of his child as “the poor bitch” and is more worried about his poor penis while she’s evidently having all the fun being pregnant … WTF? I didn’t read through much of the comments section, but was relieved to notice that all the comments I did read were people pointing out how disgusting his attitude is, which really says a lot. And OF COURSE he has to throw his money/status in there, and poke fun at women seeking middle management careers (never understood why the MRAs make such a big deal about this, compared to other career paths).
As for me, I have neither periods nor pregnancy. I have the Mirena IUD. It was very painful to get put in (twice … once every 5 years), but the peace of mind it gives me is great. I’m in an LTR and don’t plan on having kids, so for me it’s the perfect solution! 🙂
I still think Menopause at 30 is the winner!
I’m just waiting for one of them to point out that there are MEN in MENstruation and MENopause. And to seriously think that they themselves are the reason for that (and not, oh no never, some Latin word for “month”.)
Women in hunter-gatherer societies probably didn’t always menstruate, due to low body fat.
They had to breastfeed for 4 years. Women in such societies had an average of 2 surviving kids…we humans pretty much barely exceeded replacement as far as reproduction went.
It wasn’t until agriculture that women got enough calories in to have large numbers of kids, and it was expeditious to do so, because you were breeding your own workforce and fighting force.
I have a hunch the biblical homosexuality prohibition was. really about ” hey, they’re not making more Jewish warriors! They’re betraying the cause! ”
Totally speculation on my part.
Hahaha, this guy’s misandry radar is going to go through the roof when he finds out that most forms of hormonal birth control stop periods is all together. WOMEN REALLY CAN HAVE IT
ALLNONE. You know. Whatever.Me, I’ve never been on the pill or any form of hormonal birth control, even when I was in a long term relationship. This was the height of misandering, because it meant my partner always had to wear a condom. But as weird as it sounds, I actually quite like my period. I don’t know why. It’s probably because I’m one of the lucky people who only get very mild cramps/fairly minimal mood changes.
However, I do get ovulation cramps or mittelschmerz, which is pretty cool if a bit painful. It’s basically a sharp pain in my abdomen that lasts between 6 and 12 hours. It always happens exactly 14 days before my period, almost down to the hour, and it alternates sides every month, so I can literally feel my ovaries taking turns. One month I got the cramps on both sides and I was like OMG I AM RELEASING TWO EGGS AT ONCE I COULD HAVE NON-IDENTICAL TWINS.
This has been entirely too much information about tinyorc’s period. TL;DR While mildly inconvenient, mainly my period reminds me how awesome bodies are.
Well, you see, when the egg is sitting there in the ovary it can’t just move itself along, because women are lazy and ineffective. Thus, a man must take that little lady by the hand and persuade her eggs to get a move on by talking directly to the appropriate area (which the woman herself may consider a welcome change from him talking to her boobs).
And this is how menstruation happens.
RE: tinyorc
Rogan: I actually found your biology rather interesting. Also, I tried HBC and it just had me climbing walls. Testosterone turned out better, with fewer unpleasant side effects for me. (Though eventually I ended up quitting that too.)
My personal favorite HBC story is that my rapist basically tried to persuade me that condoms were unnecessary. He even gave me fucking bullshit print-out statistics, which I did not read because I knew they were full of shit. Apparently a twenty-year-old getting condoms is too difficult, but a sixteen-year-old getting HBC is just totally easy.
It is one of my few sources of pride that during the Raping Year, I still managed to control THAT. Maybe he still got to rape me, but at least asshole did not get to impregnate or bareback me.
Hey, the guy’s making a serious point! You little ladies should be THANKING him for your periods.
I suggest sending in your used tampons.
This is all I can hear when MRA’s speak.
Blahtastic: Women in hunter-gatherer societies probably didn’t always menstruate, due to low body fat. They had to breastfeed for 4 years. Women in such societies had an average of 2 surviving kids…we humans pretty much barely exceeded replacement as far as reproduction went.
It wasn’t until agriculture that women got enough calories in to have large numbers of kids, and it was expeditious to do so, because you were breeding your own workforce and fighting force.
Nope. Hunter gatherers tended to be better fed than agriculturalists, and healthier. However, agriculturalists used the land more densely and could also build governments, which is why they won out. Modern hunter-gatherers got pushed to the margins, of course.
Extended breastfeeding was a way of preventing pregnancy as well as feeding kids. Hunter-gather societies, like agricultural societies, could always produce more kids than they could sustain – the usual response was contraception, abortion or deliberate exposure.
If it pleases the committee, I could crap, vomit and faint on him for good measure.
face + palm = catharsis
LBT and Leah: that raywolf article had me facepalming like you wouldn’t believe, BUT I am delightfully surprised at the number of comments that call him out for treating his wife like breeding stock. And they are heavily upvoted too.
@ Phoenician…I was repeating what I learned in cultural anthropology class.
maybe the professor was mistaken? I dunno.
I do know HG people tended to be healthier, they certainly ate a better diet. They seem to have suffered less fluctuation in food supply according to fossils and coprolites- that at least I was able to find out with a brief search and skim.
* shrug*
Maybe he means men give them the choice not to be pregnant by not raping every fertile woman into pregnancy? I’m not even sure if I’m being sarcastic or if I really believe they’d think something that horrible.
Wouldn’t be at all surprised if this was part of it. But personally, I can’t help but suspect that some patriarch somewhere decided it was gross, like with eating shellfish, after which it became an aspect of tribal identity: “We’re not like all those other Canaanites, who engage in such depraved practices!”
Now we know what’s up with the two-dot ellipses. That third period gets lopped off and sacrificed to the ladiez, to be redeemed for cash and merchandise.
@Jurgan Oh, that’s exactly their line of thinking. They want women to be constantly aware of the horrible things they COULD be doing to them, and be properly grateful to them for not doing those things.
Not to mention that women don’t get pregnant every single cycle, even if they are sexually active and not using birth control. That isn’t something you need a biology class to know–it is basic common sense based on experience with reality.
Oh. Wait.
Look at this adorable dog who doesn’t believe an open door is open, and at how they convince him he can come in:
>fetches a padded envelope<
PADDED envelope. HA!
Now I’m trying to figure out if that could be an actual method of protest. Say, sending used tampons to politicians who are woefully ignorant yet adamantly opinionated about women’s reproductive health/sexuality, along with some snarky message like, “Since you’re so invested in what goes on between my legs, I thought you’d appreciate this.”
Probably not a good idea from a hygiene perspective, but fun to imagine.
Policy of Madness: Now, you just stop that!????
Jurgan: Yes! Yes, they would. Trust me. Yeah.
I am literally unable to respond to this because it’s too fucking stupid.
Here is a picture of a baby penguin instead: http://i.imgur.com/kv0nzBQ.jpg