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 reaction to nice butts depends entirely on who they’re attached to. If it’s another woman, it’s admiration plus a little bit of envy: “Must be nice to be her, I bet she never has trouble buying pants”. If it’s some random dude, it’s “O hai there, cute butt, nice to see you, bye!”, followed five minutes later by total forgetfulness of said butt and the dude it’s attached to. And if it’s a non-random dude I happen to personally like, then it’s “O hai, cute butt, come hither!” But(t), at no point ever do I feel robbed of my power or sense of self-control just because I’ve seen an awesome arse. I’ve always felt that butts are pretty silly looking, actually, and even the really effin’ cute ones aren’t the first thing I generally notice about a person.
And now I’ve got that song from The Simpsons stuck in my head.
Oh my God, I was wrong. It was ass all along. You’ve finally made a beta out of me…
“Genetic celebrity”? **gigglesnort** Yeah. These assholes hate attractive women — because they’re (the assholes) bitter, narcissistic, insecure dolts who are obsessed with all the alleged validation pretty women are supposedly withholding from them. Shit. Eugenics is a Nazi thing. Also, if she’s pretty enough, you get to call her dumb. Why? Because reasons. Throw everyone under the bus who doesn’t buffer your fragile ego.
Bingo. It’s the get-out-of-jail-free card – literally, in too many cases. Oh, yrhonour, I was overcome, I couldn’t think, I was mad with desire, blah blah blah. The horrible thing is, it works.
I’m pretttty sure this is correct. My butt’s not “perfect” (whatever that might be, and whose taste are we talking about anyway?) and never has been, but somehow or another Mr K seems to have coped quite well with this terrible situation.
Of course it’s different with cats. Cats know that we think we’re only pretending to be their slaves. It’s a double-bluff sort of thing. We think we’re really in charge and pretending to be their slaves, but that’s what they want us to think.
I don’t think my butt’s ever been perfect (too flat) even when I was in the age range of maximum harassment, and yet I was pretty much beating them off with a stick for a while. From this I have concluded that some dudes just don’t care that much about butts, and the ones that do are presumably bothering someone else, while the ones who’re obsessed with boobs pester me.
Oh man… Once in my highscool dorm, some kid was walking around taking a poll of everyone; “Big booty, or little booty?” I answered kinda randomly, and he looked at me like I was a shape shifter pretending to be human that had just blown its cover. I had no idea what was going on.
Despite that, I’m still highly skeptical that a “perfect” butt exists.
Also, that “women feel imprisoned” bit? I don’t think I’d use that word for when my once-upon-a-time boyfriend told me he wasn’t attracted to my ass. Disappointed, hurt, disgusted with his silly pickiness, annoyed, and really having to bite my tongue in order to keep from yelling “BULLSHIT”, yes…but not imprisoned. Because when we first started going out, he wasn’t even looking at my ass. I had to tell him to keep his eyes on the road when he was driving, because he kept staring at my face.
Kirbywarp – “That’s BigbooTAY!”
@Robert:
At the time it came out as “Biboody lilboody?” It took a couple repeats for me to understand what he was talking about.
Did he tell you this unprompted or did you ask? Because I really see no need to be all “btw, I don’t like your ass” to someone you’re dating. Either you dislike it enough to break up, in which case you do so, or apparently it’s not that important, in which case why would you feel the need to point your dislike out to the other person? It’s not like they can just magic themselves a differently shaped ass.
I wonder how Dr Evopsych Bullshit explains all the centuries in the one-culture-that-really-matters, ie. western Europe, in the centuries when men couldn’t actually see even the outline of women’s butts when we were dressed? How did people ever reproduce in the days of crinolines or panniers or farthingales or just multiple layers of skirts?
I don’t suppose it ever occurs to Dr Fuckwaditis here that men are people, that attraction is individual and can be to a whole range of characterisitcs (physical and mental) that make up one particular person? I mean, we already know he doesn’t think women are people; that’s the baseline with misogynists. But this asswaffle makes it clear he doesn’t think men are, either.
It’s true. Women have always oppressed men with their butts. Why, it’s even depicted in great art works!
http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/2013-12/enhanced/webdr06/2/11/anigif_enhanced-buzz-26099-1386001368-13_preview.gif
(I happen to prefer what’s going on above the neck to what lies below the waist, but that’s just me, refusing to “feel imprisoned” by biotwoofy BioTwoof™.)
I don’t get why anyone would give credence to a man who writes about psychology and sociology, yet lacks an understanding in either. Makes sense since Farrell never studied either – it was Economics (a field that, within the U.S., is almost entirely made up of Libertarians). If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Economics and Business majors in colleges, it’s that they’re some of the most socially regressive (if not outright horrible) individuals imaginable. They willingly excuse unethical practices that’s to the detriment of many, as long as it can be justified with “profit increase” and “growth.”
The fact he had to drop his “study” on incest, due to the fact he wasn’t getting enough positive responses from women, should be a sign he doesn’t even understand how research and testing are generally done by psychologists and sociologists. He had a theory he wanted to prove right and yet, when it couldn’t, he just dropped it rather than admit it was totally fucking bogus.
Yeah, I have a psychology degree and don’t recall learning about women oppressing men with their butts in any of my classes. Of course, academia is part of the feminist socialist conspiracy so I guess I’m just brain washed.
That whole thing where he had a hypothesis, didn’t find the results he was hoping for, and concluded that the female respondents must by lying really was a great example of how not to do research.
WWTH, I just did a most inelegant splorglaff at that!
I’ve heard this argument way too often from dooods. Basically: the history of social and political oppression of women and their under representation in the halls of government are irrelevant. As long as a woman is not obligated to have sex with a guy whenever he wants then it the woman who holds the true power.
There is also my favorite feat of mental contortionism- men are the superior intelligent, logical sex, more intellectually evolved. Yet simultaneously ruled by primal urges, incapable of controlling themselves around others body parts.
Heads I win, tails you lose.
@weirwoodtreehugger:
“Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Cyrus answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto her, Technically you are correct. Yet thee shall instead cause me to be offended because of thee. Cyrus answered and said unto him, Lord, I shall never offend thee. Jesus said unto her, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt twerk at me thrice. Cyrus said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not twerk at thee. Likewise also said all the disciples, despite being much confused.”
I have no idea what prompted this, but I certainly never asked. In fact, I was never even particularly self-conscious about my butt until he mentioned it and started razzing me about it, and pointing out how much more “attractive” women with tiny heinies and “coconut-crushing thighs” (yes, he actually used those words!) were. I think it was just because he was one of those immature turds who, when they get a dumb thought stuck in their heads, simply MUST utter it, no matter how much it hurts the other person.
And of course, when I told him I was hurt and to stop harping on the subject because there was nothing I could do about it, he put on the sulky-pouty face and made out like I couldn’t take a joke, and that I must not really love him since I wasn’t about to knock myself out in the gym or starve for him, etc. I was mystified as to why it even mattered to him at all. His butt certainly wasn’t an issue for me, and I never gave it a moment’s thought (and told him so, too). But I did notice that he harped on it a lot more after he’d introduced me to his college buddies…one of whom had a poster on his bedroom door of six surfer girls in different-colored thong bikinis, standing with their backs to the camera. And the girls these guys hung out with were all much more athletic than me (hi, complete non-athlete here). One of them was a competitive cyclist.
If I’d been more assertive at the time, I’d have told him to stop trying to compare apples to oranges…or in this case, apples to tiny little apricots. But as rotten luck would have it, I was clinically depressed at the time (undiagnosed and unmedicated), and this dude was just such a completely insensitive putz that he ended up making everything worse with his unhelpful “suggestions” on how to “improve” myself. I was completely squelched. We broke up a few months later, and shortly after that, my depression lifted. Go figure!
On an aside note (or should I say backside note?) Don’t underestimate the destructive power flatulence. I recently farted while squashed into a leather sofa. It was excruciating. I think I might have second degree burns on my butt.
When he put on the “sulky-pouty face,” he was attempting to shame you into not analyzing his superficial objectification of your body — and the fact you own it, and not him. But I know you know this already, Bina. Good thing you got rid of the dumbass.
Haha what? Did he really try and do a study on incest, and then get upset when he didn’t get the responses he thought he would? What a piece of work…he just packed up his toys and went home huh.
And yet doesn’t he refer to the responses that did match up to what he wanted and still defend his conclusion? When I first heard about this, I had no idea that he had given up on the responses. That makes it extra hilariously disgusting.
Oh, he dumped me. But that was all right; I’d been a lot sadder WITH him than I was without him. It was mainly the rejection that stung, but since it was largely pre-emptive, just not having to hear it anymore was a weird relief. His attitude was way more of a bummer than my horrible, imperfect butt was.
There is an amusing coda to this story, BTW: A few years later, I ran into him in a bar and didn’t recognize him at first, because he’d physically aged a lot for such a young guy, and gained a lot of weight, too. He actually had to tell me who he was before the light dawned. Meanwhile, I looked much the same as before, and pretty damn good if I do say so myself. I thought to myself: Yes, there IS a Karma, and She’s a bitch. Ha, ha.
I did manage to refrain from laughing in front of his face, which is more than I can say for what he did behind my ass.