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.
It is not only cats who have the power of butt oppression:
A cat in a BUMble bee costume.
http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v1/2046006810_2/Dog-Cat-Pet-Supplies-Lovely-Bumble-Bee-Dress-Up-Costume-Apparel-Coat-Clothes-Free-Shipping-FMHM468.jpg
Ok, I’ll stop now.
@ skiriki – SQUEEE!!!! Little stubby baby legs, little triangle tail!!!!!! What more could a loyal serf hope for in a liege? “Yes, my liege, I will bring you all the tuna and chicken and catnip!”
@ kittehserf – that is a truly oppressive butt! (I’d love to be oppressed like that)
@ wordsp1nner – twerking Corgis for everyone!!!! (If I ever run for office, this will be my only platform)
OMG, fuzzy kitty butts and waggy tailless doggy butts are the cutest oppressors there ever could be.
Back to the KardashiAss That Didn’t Break the Internets: A lot of people seem to forget that Kim K. was already stinking rich and famous merely on account of her dad being O.J. Simpson’s lawyer. She has never been your average struggling exploited Hollywood hopeful; she was born on third base and probably thinks she hit a triple. She’s so insulated by privilege that she actually had to get pregnant by a black guy and have their kid before she knew what racism was, even a little bit. The idea that she got rich and powerful off her ass alone, or her Ray J sex tape, is just one more myth that needs to die in a fire. She didn’t have to do ANY of those things to get rich, famous or powerful; she just did them to keep her name on the gossips’ radar, and to keep her bank account nicely topped up. But hey! Let’s hold her up as an example of Farrell’s Theorem of Callipygian Power at work. And forget all the equally pretty but much less privileged callipygians out there who will never be rich OR famous no matter whom they schtupp…
Ahoy, grumpyoldnurse – did you get my email yesterday?
Where’s the idea that men deserve to be “physically hurt, financially hurt, and/or emotionally humiliated” for, uh, initiating poorly come from? I’m guessing “initiating” would be something like, say, asking somebody out on a date, or propositioning them for sex, or something, and the awkwardness and disappointment that come from a “no thanks” then might possibly be describable as “emotional humiliation”, I suppose? Not sure where the other two come from – if you’re physically hurt for “initiating”, it’s likely to be by a jealous possessive partner of the “genetic celebrity” in question and not in a way that disproves “male power” or a patriarchal society. “Financially hurt” could possibly mean that people might want someone fired for sexual harassment, I suppose, or I think that’s what Farrell might be going for, but that belief isn’t because the “initiation” was “awkward”.
@Bina
There’s an odd little counter-hate-ish movement around Kim Kardashian and the others in her family where “complaining about the Kardashians as if they’re something particularly new or different is pretty boring and/or predictable, there’s often some racist/sexist/classist elements to how it’s done, and some part of their renown and/or fortune is due their own skills or work, and there are far more nuanced or reflexive ways of looking at ‘trash’ pop culture” becomes “if you don’t think Kim Kardashian or the Kardashians are really great in just about every way, you’re obviously just blind to their greatness and/or reinforcing existing power structures.”, and it continues to bewild me.
@Kittehs
One of my cats loves to do that sitting-on-faces thing! It’s very cute.
@David
I noticed while trying to copy-paste the Farrell quote above that the images of text in the articles don’t have tooltips – this could possibly be an accessibility issue.
Has this been mentioned here before?
http://thegrio.com/2014/11/12/kim-kardashian-butt/
The photo with the champagne is recreation of a photo that same photographer did in the 70s. The original photo was part of a series called Jungle Fever and (as you might guess from the title) was seriously racist and fetishising of black women.
Hi lowquacks! Good to see you!
Our Fribs likes sitting almost on top of faces, but luckily for me it’s her front end, not her back end, that gets so close. Her back end is dangerous. 😛
@ kittehserf – I did, indeed.
I must apologise for being late. I’ve been in a bit of a fog and far too emotional today.
Now that I think of it, Billie’s more into deciding she wants to be a scarf then sitting directly on faces.
Also, you might be interested to know that I’ve got myself another little furrinati (who hit 1 year old at the beginning of the month!) and will hopefully be adopting another kitty soonish – he’s an older cat, which is always a hard type of cat to find a home for, but we think he’s wonderful.
That’s fine, grumpyoldnurse – I just wanted to be sure it’d got through and not been devoured by your spam filter! 🙂
lowquacks, yay for more kitties! We buy older ones too, come the time. Fribs is the last one we had as a kitten and she’s 19 now. I hope you’ll share pics with us!
Fribs is definitely the scarf cat. I made the big mistake of giving her a cuddle up at shoulder level a while back, and it instantly became an Olde Traditione. I notice this tradition always kicks in when I’m sitting down to do knitting … not when I’m watching telly or not doing anything in particular, just when I’m knitting and need to have 1) a free view and 2) use of my arms.
Funny that.
Yay, lowquacks! May you have many years of oppression by kitty butts.
While on the topic of cats (par for the course around here), I also find myself newly oppressed as of yesterday. Her name is Minako and she’s a friendly fluffy ginger-ish sweetheart, roughly three years old.
Feels good to be properly in service to the furrinati again.
Oh, Amnesia, I’m so glad you’re ready to have another kitty! Minako sounds adorable – any chance of piccies sometime?
CAT PICS CAT PICS CAT PICS!
Congrats to all who have committed to the service of new furrinati.
Seconded!
“Reinforcing existing power structures”? Whaaaaa? Being born to money and influence (which all the Kardashians are) IS an existing power structure. I mean, how dense and privilege-blind does one have to be in order not to realize that?
Testing, testing…
Okay, that didn’t work. I’ll just use links.
Minako
Minako Close-up
Minako Profile
Hungry Minako
Minako being very oppressive
It’s also worth noting that when Kim Kardashian intentionally had her own photos posed and published, specifically to “break the internet” — so if we roll with MRA logic, she is purposefully using her butt to oppress — she was criticized, mocked, and parodied all over the place. Seriously, I think I saw about six viral photos making fun of her picture before I ever even saw the clumsily censored version of the original. I’m sure some folks enjoyed her photo for its own sake, but the overwhelming public reaction was to shake their heads and laugh.
On the other hand, the photos that actually did “break the internet” (in the way people intend the metaphor) are the ones that were stolen and distributed without their owner’s consent.
So the oppressive power of the female butt is only oppressive if she doesn’t want to oppress anyone with it. Which means it’s a lose-lose for women (can’t use the power; can’t prevent other people from using it). Which means it’s not a power.
Aw, you’re a fluffy adorable little oppressor, yes you are!
Look at Minako! She’s controlling teh internetz! <3
Warren Farrell sounds like he has an unhealthy obssession with beautiful women. It’s completely normal for a man to be attracted to them, but when one starts to talk about oppression and how everyone is out to get them, something is seriously wrong. It would be like an alcoholic saying he was “oppressed” by beer.
Elliot Rodger and Roosh V is likewise fixated on attractive women. I Wonder compulsive urge they all seem to have is what fuels the misogyny and hatred.
All hail Minako! All hail Bootsy! All hail Maru!
(seriously, that is my new chant, now)
@Leah
It does seem like that.
I mean, look at how they go on and on about how awful women are – abusing their ‘power’, refusing to give them what’s their ‘right’ by birth (and really, what’s stronger than birth-right that’s by definition entirely unearned?).
Then look at how much they obsess over getting what women refuse to give them, and can’t see that they refuse entirely because they act like it’s their birth-right.
I’m not sure how anyone can be so blind to what’s a) right in front of them and b) being said to them by the subject of their desire on a daily basis*.
* though to be fair it probably comes out as ‘Stop being a dick’ or ‘Fuck off, you creep’ most of the time. But you’d think they’d pick up pointers while they’re trolling in places like this.