Over on Reddit, a regular on the Blue Pill subreddit — devoted to mocking Red Pill ridiculousness — recently reposted the cartoon above, one of The Onion’s brilliant parodies of the terrible political cartoons that are pretty much omnipresent in every second-string newspaper in the country. I don’t think I’ve ever posted it here before — I’m not sure I ever saw it until today — so I thought I’d share it here as well.
What makes this particular cartoon extra delicious is that its “argument,” such as it is, is one that a lot of Men’s Rights Activists actually believe. Indeed, it calls to mind the cover of the revised ebook edition of Warren Farrell‘s seminal MRA manifesto The Myth of Male Power, in which a picture of a woman’s posterior is presented as if it truly is, somehow, a threat to the rights of men:
Hell, as you can see, that woman’s butt is literally shattering the word “power.” The only question in my mind is whether the butt-damage was caused by some overenthusiastic twerking, or by a particularly powerful fart.
But Farrell — who is essentially the Founding Father of the Men’s Rights movement — didn’t mean it as a joke. As he explained in the new introduction to his book, he intended the cover to highlight the power “genetic celebrities” — his term for attractive women — have over hapless horny men:
When asked about the cover in a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread, Farrell doubled down:
MRA’s: when the arguments of your most famous “intellectual” are indistinguishable from a parody editorial cartoon in The Onion, it might be time to rethink your whole movement.
My favourite part of the whole argument is the idea that most men don’t grow out of ceding rational control of our behaviour over to the instinctual mind. In the same way that all adult males can’t help dropping everything and crying when hungry, or smearing feces all over everything.
That last one probably explains something about the argumentative style of the MRA movement.
I don’t think that is is safe to be around men who have that particular world view. The capacity for rational decision making is a necessary component of participating in society.
There’s a difference between powerlessness and abdication of one’s self-restraint.
For instance, if I vomited upon Will Farrell’s shoes, I would be abdicating my self-restraint. He nauseates me, but I am not powerless to avoid hurling on his shoes.
I can honestly say that I have never felt imprisoned by men’s supposed inability to be attracted to an imperfect bottom. Regardless of how you parse that mess of a sentence David quoted above.
I have a powerful reaction to the posteriors of ‘genetic celebrities*’ as well. Somehow, I learned a certain degree self-control over that reaction. Farrell cannot? No, he chooses not to.
*Which I can’t help but think is an amusing way to refer to ‘people whose asses turn me on’. I am convinced that my taste in g.c.s is vastly different from his, and that he does not realize that his own taste is not a law of nature.
I keep picturing him falling to his knees all end of Planet of the Apes style, crying “asses!” as dramatically as possible.
This. They’re not even willing to try to exercise the basics of self-restraint, then they get angry when people laugh at them.
That cover is still classier than that proposed one of the topless woman in the kitchen. The cracks on Power are ridiculous though, but really the title The Myth of Male Power would run a book regardless what the cover is.
The thing that amazes me is that, even if you grant the premise that men are aroused by a woman’s naked butt, why is there no individuality in how that attraction is expressed by all the varieties of men?
So they see a nicely shaped butt. What next? Helpless in the grip of irresistible sexual arousal? Or just a mental acknowledgement of “that’s nice”.
Thinking of men I’ve known over the decades, most would be interested. From then on? The breast or leg or hair fanciers would want to check out whether the butt was attached to the features they are most attracted to. Even if their prime interest is in butts, some men like them model slender, others like them athletically strong and muscular, others are more interested in how they fit in with the shape of the torso generally – whether that shape is long distance runner or “good child-bearing hips” or any of the other individual preferences of different men.
Now we’re reduced to those with a focus on that body part only. Does anyone seriously entertain the idea that all men who fancy that body part in that form, and there are no dirty fingernails or braying laughter to detract from its attraction, that all of them would be sexually aroused at all, let alone equally? Obviously the whole group is potentially interested. Some of them would be really keen. Some would be thinking/ talking about how this woman fits their ideal. Just how many men – within that particular group – would be reduced to distracted prisoners of overwhelming lust?
The whole idea is ludicrous.
I want to sign up for patriarchy-smashing levels of fart power.
Farrell really does believe the twaddle about men thinking with their dicks, doesn’t he? What an idiot. Nay, what a misandrist!
Your wish is my command …
http://i.imgur.com/ccgnz6t.jpg
That character got friendzoned by a chimp too, if you recall. Seems fitting.
I wish it was true – my butt would totally be an alpha oppressor. If size was a consideration, that is.
In fact, I might just grab my leggings and go oppress some “hapless” males right now!
Bwahahahaha!
Hmm, we should plan our oppression outfits for tomorrow. I feel like the rainboots I’ll be needing may ruin the effect, no matter how tight my leggings are.
Oh look, it’s Dat Ass again! No, not the butt…the author. >rimshot!<
Ahem. Seriously: if all we feeeemales had to do to gain power over men was paint on some leggings and parade our "genetic celebrity" status, wouldn't we in fact comprise 100% of heads of corporations and states, instead of the teensy, weensy minority of leaders we actually comprise?
This argument is as dumb, stupid and immature as the idea that a shirt covered in corseted cartoon ladies is a sign of "female empowerment" and "women owning their sexuality".
… Who feels “powerless” when viewing an attractive butt? There are plenty of emotions to feel, to be sure, but “powerlessness” I really can’t see as one of them. Maybe I’m an unredeemable perverted wierdo (*ahem*), but I truly don’t see sexual attraction itself as a power play.
In actual, literal, 100% perfectly serious honesty? The whole idea of “thinking with your dick” seems to me to be an inside joke among penis-havers, a wink-wink-nudge-nudge excuse that assholes play up and pretend to be real thing so they can “get away” with lewd behavior. If you took Warren Farrell, put him in an interragation room, placed an attractive naked woman in front of him, he would retain full cognitive faculties and probably ask to leave.
If these jokers literally believe they become helpless quivering puddles in front of the mighty ass… I don’t even know what to say. The concept is utterly alien to me, a sexual cis hetero male.
Maybe I’m some sort of sexual version of that dude from Unbreakable.
Even if we were to take this (really very stupid) argument seriously, ridiculously hot women are, what, maybe 1% of the population? Or less, if you’re applying to kind of conditions that a lot of MRAs seem to? Actual Victoria’s Secret or Sports Illustrated models, in other words. In that case there are, hmm, maybe a couple of dozen of them at any given time, since they age out of that category by their mid twenties?
Not sure what the way some men may theoretically react to the butts of those particular women has to do with men’s rights, or anything else really other than the bank accounts of the women in question.
I would describe my feeling when I see an exceptionally nice butt as “delighted”. Perhaps this is because I have a uterus, and if I had a penis I’d start crying instead, but this has not been my observation so far.
Dudes in power joke about their wives controlling them in the same way that people joke about being owned by their cats. It’s fun to joke around, but everyone knows it isn’t actually true.
*deep breath*
*braces for rotten vegetables*
My cat may like to think she has power, but I’m the only one who knows how to operate the can opener. Thus it is with bank accounts too.
Warren Farrell and his ilk are genetic paparazzi.
And I don’t mean that in a good way.
Oh cassandrakitty, everyone knows that it’s your cat’s perfect rear that holds the true power.
(That part too. “men’s inability to be attracted” to women without a perfect rear? That right there is news to this man)
LOL. My kitty has thumbs, but they’re not really much use to her. So she’s left with just staring pitifully at me and letting out long, querulous meowwwwwwwws when she wants something…be it “in”, “out”, chow or just attention.
It’s the way she twitches it when she’s about to pounce on something, I am helpless, unable to resist the magical power of the butt. The power of butt compels me. And you too
He does know that not all straight men are ass men, right?
I think that he is trying to suggest that men become starstruck by meeting a genetic celebrity the same way many immature people become starstruck when meeting a sports or media celebrity. Juvenile behavior justified and target blamed.