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.
If these idiots can take credit for birth control they can take credit for the holocaust, the Armenian genocide and other nasty shit. Not to mention that one guy’s weird pro incest article
Dear Ray Wolf’s Girlfriend- dump that fucker. Always, with that particular kind of dude, what I mostly feel is intense sorrow that some poor person feels like they have to put up with that kind of treatment to “earn” scraps of grudging affection.
Like, wouldn’t it be nice if the feminists really WERE taking over? But we’re not, and I know this, because the first symptom would be all women having too much self-respect to so much as look at people like Ray Wolf.
The monthly periods are actually result of better nutrition more than lack of pregnancy. A lot of the time, gatherer-trapper-hunter humans were, if not pregnant, simply too malnourished to have periods (or even get pregnant, in worst cases).
“Misogynist Racist Asshole” is also a good idea.
While there’s some evidence they had lower body fat than those in agricultural societies that does not mean malnourished. They did have a diet lower in carbohydrates and animal fat (since you need agriculture and domesticated animals for lots of bread and fatty meat, game animals are quite lean) which does lead to putting on less body fat even if someone is otherwise well nourished.
LBT: had a more normal cis man written about how he experienced his wifes’ pregnancy, I wouldn’t mind. But Ray Wolf is just co self-centered that it’s disturbing to think he’s going to be a father.
Bina: MEN-stration of course! there you have it! MEN gave us periods as well! it’s SCIENCE and you can’t argue with that!
That Ray Wolf article was so skeevy that I literally went and took a shower.
It’d be very entertaining in the summertime, especially if you send them by fourth class mail.
There was serious talk of doing that in the 1990s when the Howard government introduced the Goods and Services Tax, and taxed pads and tampons as being cosmetics or luxuries.
Choosing “to have periods” sounds like an odd description for women opting out of frequent pregnancies and extended breastfeeding.
Yes, I have this understanding that women in historical societies were generally much burdened with reproduction and childcare work (and only menstruated on average some 10 years of their lives in total). Their husbands maybe provided most of the economic support for the children, hardly any for the women themselves.
In modern society, there’s less reproductive and childcare work around, so women have more equal burden and also better bodily autonomy. Men still support their own children mainly economically, women mainly physically. Society collectively provides some economic support for children, as a humanitarian and future investment.
“My Rhetoric’s Appalling”?
@Puddleglum:
You mean we’re TRIBBLES?
lowquacks, hi! 🙂
Hello kittehserf! I have one more kitty than last time I commented here! He’s a tuxedo-patterned kitty called Bobby and he’s integrating well enough. Has a great super-wide tail and lethal extra-long claws with a fierce inward curve like a Gurkha knife, but is thankfully possibly the most relaxed cat ever.
Don’t have any pictures right now, but will pop round here when I do have – cat pictures are as much part of the mission as mocking misogyny, right?
Also, that stork in the OP illustration is really cute.
Phonecian in a time of Romans: “Hunter-gather societies, like agricultural societies, could always produce more kids than they could sustain – the usual response was contraception, abortion or deliberate exposure.”
You sure about that? Everything I have read about gatherer/ hunter societies has said that infant mortality rates were extremely high – WITHOUT deliberate exposure. The birthing process was a very dangerous one for child and mother.
Also, no reason to think that the women were SO well fed, men kept the meat to themselves, with the dogs (who went on the hunt) getting more of the meat than the women ever did. In times when gathering was lean the women would have got very thin indeed, therefore conception during those times would have been much less likely.
Just a little addition to the whole thing, what David said is very true as well. Not to mention I know a LOT of women who take birth control specifically so they can control when, and if, they want to have periods at all. Periods while on a pill are basically just pointless leakage since there is no egg to flush out anyway. The sugarpills in between are just because having a period is “normal”.
For many women, monthly periods are not a choice either. I also know women who only have them once every two-to-three months, not at all due to various reasons, or they just get them when ever due to very irregular cycle. Many of these ofc “fix it” with pills… some just don’t get any thanks to contraception… some started getting heavier and more frequent flow because of contraception.
Damn, MRM biology never gets anything right.
I tried reading the Ray Wolf article. I got to the part where he said that coaching his girlfriend through a natural birth wouldn’t be much different than that one time he helped birth a calf. I couldn’t go on after that.
I was also appalled that in his entire discussion of how great natural birth is, he never once mentioned discussing it with his girlfriend. I would think that as she is the one who is actually giving birth, she might have an opinion.
Oh, wait…I forgot. Women aren’t supposed to have opinions, especially about our own bodies. We need strong decisive men to tell us what to do. (Sarcasm Alert!)
That Ray Wolf article is one of the nastiest things I have ever read. I am embarrassed to know that he originates in the same city I do.
Briefly off-topic question for mods and/or Mammotheers who have been around longer than I have:
I ran across a truly appalling article in TIME that part of me would really like to see the community shred to itty bitty pieces, but a) it’s not directly related to this topic, and b) it manages to be both word salad and brazen rape apologia, and so I don’t want to just drop it somewhere it doesn’t belong.
Is there a good way to share that kind of stuff? Do I email it to the mod address? Or do I leave it in the comments? Or something else…?
Thanks for advising!
It could always be fake blood.
We know they’ll be just as grossed out because eww, women.
Emailing David is always a good idea.
I have also seen (and probably dropped a few myself) articles linked here in the comments, you can always leave a warning before the link and voila!.
Misogyny and rape apology are pretty much on topic anywhere in Mammoth, as far as I could tell.
Hm, more of their pattern of blind hatred toward women no matter what they do. Family planning=evil when women do it, but a proud sign of modern civilization when men do it.
Done. Thank you!
It was just a wrong choice of words – I didn’t actually MEAN malnourished. I’ve gotten a lot of brainfarts lately. Thanks for pointing it out, Naoadi.