You may remember woman-hating white nationalist F. Roger Devlin as the guy who invented “hypergamy” – or at least the misogynistic cartoon version of the concept popular in Men’s Rights and other “red pill” subcultures.
Well, Devlin also has some thoughts on domestic violence, and they make even less sense.
In a recent post on the far-right Counter-Currents Publishing website, Devlin takes on what he calls “The Question of Female Masochism.” His basic thesis: that women – or at least a lot of them – get a sexual thrill out of being physically abused.
His proof? That Clark Gable won the hearts of female moviegoers by playing a series of macho cads. And that Tammy Wynette married a number of men who allegedly abused her. Devlin writes:
If Tammy Wynette never took up with a man who failed to abuse her, there can be only one explanation: Tammy had a thing for nasty boys.
If you put a woman like this in a room with a dozen men, within five minutes she would be exclusively focused on the meanest, most domineering and brutal fellow in the room.
Also something about cavemen and chimps and how women are a bunch of manipulative monsters; my eyes glazed over.
So far this is fairly standard-issue misogynistic victim-blaming. But Devlin, clever fellow that he is, takes it a step further.
As he sees it, society has done such a good job of controlling the violent tendencies that women secretly pine for “rough men” like Clark Gable, who aren’t afraid to put women “in their place” even if it means punching them in the nose.
A society-wide failure of men to take charge of women is likely to produce a great deal of conscious or unconscious sexual frustration in women which may express itself as sadism.
And so, as Devlin sees it, these women – a bunch of mascochists turned sadists – are taking their revenge against wimpy men by … supporting laws against domestic violence. No, really, that’s what he thinks:
Is the Violence Against Women Act an attempt to get back at men for their failure to put women in their place? Surely women would rather have Clark Gable than take out more restraining orders, force men to take more anger management classes, enjoy more absurd police-state protections from men who are increasingly wimpy anyway.
Uh, what? I’ll let Bea Arthur handle this one.
The “arguments” and “logic” of the ROKs and MRAs always seem to have that ‘word salad’ quality which characterizes the speech and writing of sociopaths. Of course, in the sociopath mind, any act can be justified, with the goal of spinning the victim(s) into the perpetrator(s). Still confused about what Tammy Wynette has to do with all this lol
It is true that sometimes people are fascinated by villainous or cad-like male characters. But nowadays people are becoming more interested in female villains too. Both Wicked (book and musical) and Maleficent (Angelina Jolie movie) were very successful and although Snow White and the Huntsmen ostensibly had Snow White as a protagonist, most agree that the Wicked Queen was by far the most interesting character. Does this mean that men naturally like abusers too?
Also, women know that irl John Hamm is not an asshole. Amazingly enough, we can tell that the character is not the same person as the actor playing him.
Do women really like Don Draper though? I haven’t really heard women saying they do. Jon Hamm is likeable, charismatic and very good looking. That doesn’t mean Don is likeable. He’s a well written and interesting character and Mad Men is a good show. None of that means I like the character of Don Draper as a person and I think it’s made pretty clear by the writers that you’re not supposed to.
It’s just that manospherian and/or right wing reactionary dudes are pretty simple minded. These are the same guys who missed the point and saw Walter White as a “badass” hero and Skyler as a “c*nut” who totally killed his buzz all the time. They can’t imagine that women are capable of watching Mad Men (or any other well written show) with a critical eye because they aren’t intellectually capable of basic analysis. We must only like it because Don Draper is dreamy.
Yeah, true that. How can some people tell the difference, I wonder? I think a media consumer class should be taught in grade school.
Or, going back to the old faithful of angry resentful dudes on the internet – are women attracted to Brad Pitt because he played a scary asshole in Kalifornia and a bank robber in Thelma and Louise, or because he looks like Brad Pitt?
Hmmmmm. I wonder. Maybe it’s less scary to think women like assholes than women feeling physical attraction to some men.
They still need to explain why I feel exponentially more attracted to men who I’m already attracted to when I see them doing something sweet.
Speaking strictly for myself, I’m gonna go with “because he looks like Brad Pitt”. He also played a dumb-but-hot jock in Burn After Reading. Not much bad-boy shit going on there, but he was hilarious.
And I find Keanu Reeves attractive in everything, even though he can’t act at all and is thus unconvincing in almost every role (except Bill and Ted’s).
To be fair, the wetsuit in Point Break did help.
Keanu Reeves. 🙂
Minor quibble for Jenora Feuer: Arsenic and Old Lace starred Cary Grant, not Clark Gable. Cary Grant was well known for his comedic talents, Clark Gable not quite so much. They were both classic Hollywood leading men who played a range of characters, but Gable’s nickname “The King” came from his particularly fprceful voice and appearance, while Grant’s lighter debonair touch made him a more flexible but less commanding leading man.
I had a crush on Brad Pitt when I was a teenager. It had nothing to do with him in Thelma and Louise or Kalifornia. It was all about Louis in Interview with the Vampire. Louis is one of the least bad vampires out there (until Twilight came along anyway). Lestat even got annoyed with Louis for being too goody goody and not killing humans. In fact, that was a pretty major plot point in the first half of the book and movie.
Huh, that’s odd. Every time try to read anything by this Devlin guy my vision goes blank and I start hearing “Cthulhu F’thagn” chanted over and over.
Is that normal?
**chuckle**
The funny thing about Interview with the Vampire is that in the book Lestat was supposed to be at least as handsome as Louis…
(Normally I love long hair on men, but Tom Cruise should never, ever do that again.)
I totally loved the book but didn’t believe any of them in the movie. And you’re right, ck, tom cruise with long hair was a really bad thing.
I am a Robert Downey fan myself.
Someone should tease this guy and Elam to “debate” whether what the monolithic women want is to be abused, or to abuse men and boys. Until they agree. And leave the rest of the world alone.
Well, I tried to watch the Paul Elam whine and cheese cocktail hour but it felt like watching Jordan Owen on his couch with the belts, just that bit too skeevy. I wanted to take one for the team but I just couldn’t hang in there. He is so condescending, he reminds me of my ex- husband.
PS I don’t think the event will make the MSM, there are only 84 people watching. Including me.
Maybe it’s just because I need sleep but I keep reading the title of this post as “The Manureosphere”, and it makes so much more sense that way.
…
…
I really did that, didn’t I.
Excuse me, I think I need to go bang my head against the wall to knock a few things back into place. I can’t believe I did that.
zennurse: I bet Elam doesn’t have any plastic skulls either, does he? He’s really behind the times here.
@Moggie
I spotted your KLF reference.
Thanks @Zennurse and @isidore3.
That interviewer was awesome,I think it counts as brain bleach. Maybe Mr Blanc could go to a seminar and get some tips on how to squirm on TV without anyone noticing.
Also at around the 2.17 mark when he’s taking about confusion I’m sure I can hear someone laughing from behind the camera.
Buttercup:
I <3 the Henri IV reference.
schwadevivre:
This!
Tracy:
LOL!
cassandra:
I’ve only seen Keanu in Dracula (in which he was eye-rollingly bad) and The Lake House, in which he was quite good, iirc (only saw it once a few years ago). I liked him in that but really wished someone had thrown Harker off a cliff at the start of Dracula. 😛
I thought they both looked atrocious in that movie. As did Antonio Banderas. Who the fuck was responsible for those appalling wigs, anyway?
Now, as for Clark Gable, this is the image I prefer (never seen any of his movies: I bailed on Gone with the Wind before he appeared).
http://www.kittenspet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Celebrity-Cats-22.jpg
And! Because I’ve been on a Captain Hook kick lately and someone knows very well how to add to the fun, this:
http://i.imgur.com/fK9jbGI.png