[UPDATE 2: Pogo now says his misogynistic posts were an “experiment.” For my take on this, see here.]
[UPDATE: Pogo has taken down several of the blog posts mentioned in this post. I have replaced the links to the vanished posts with links to archived versions.]
So you know that dude Pogo, who makes all those amazingly perky-yet-somehow-also-ethereal music/video mashups using snippets of old Disney movies and the like?
Turns out he’s a bit of a misogynistic dickbag.
Yep. On his Pogomix blog, Nick Bertke (his real name) has been posting a bunch of tiresome and achingly unoriginal rants about feminism and the alleged privileges of women that might as well have been cut and pasted from the Men’s Rights subreddit or A Voice for Men.
In “Why We Should Envy Women” he argues that “[d]espite what all these feminists talk about, women actually have things pretty damn good. Better than men, I would say.”
He presents a little list of ways he thinks women have it better than men; it’s an assortment of MRA clichés, a sort of mashup (yep) of Warren Farrell and Girl Writes What, as filtered through a million crappy blogs.
– You are naturally endowed with a more valuable, sought after and artistically favorable body.
– At the bat of an eye, you can be excused from accountability regardless of the magnitude of your actions.
– At 18, you lose the protective status of the child but retain the protective status of the female. …
– Society excuses you from needing to work and says all you need is a hard working and generous man. …
– You are granted the rights of a democracy without the burdens of military service.
The creepiest item on the list is undoubtedly this one:
– You can give the opposite sex a thrashing when the person deserves it.
That’s right: the guy who created the gorgeous “Alice” and the charmingly catchy “Upular” envies women’s alleged ability to beat up their boyfriends without consequence, apparently wishing he could do the same to women when they “deserve it.”
Seemingly channeling the “red pill wisdom” of the internet’s self-proclaimed masters of “Game,” Bertke goes on to explain that women are basically overgrown children needing the “discipline” of a firm father figure.
I’ve always found that the more I treat a woman like a child, the stronger the relationship, the better the sex and the more often it happens. Discipline, reprimand and complete indifference. I think the feminine woman craves the attributes of a firm father in the man she enters a relationship with. The more I realize it, the more I see modern feminism in a different light – it could well be little more than the collective feminine cry for drama and childlike retaliation.
Sigh. He seems to have turned this rant, or portions of it, into a video. (I could only make it through about 30 seconds before my annoyance got the better of me and I turned it off.) [UPDATE: He’s deleted the video.]
In “5 Things I’ve Learned About The Real World,” Bertke urges his readers to, yep, “take the red pill for a minute,” and offers more, er, insights into women’s alleged desire for “fatherly order.”
A lot of women you meet, feminists in particular, will preach that you are the source of their failures and womanly strife. This won’t stop them from playing powerless, and they’ll insist that you roll up your sleeves and rescue them from their mysterious bonds. The collective female cry for fatherly order requires that you as a man are expected to make the world spin.
As you may have noticed, Bertke’s prose is not quite as elegant as his songs. He can’t even keep his metaphors straight.
In “Where Feminism Goes Wrong,” he informs us that “inequality is a door that swings both ways but feminism by definition and in practice treats it as a one way street.” (Here’s an archived copy of the post in case he takes it down too.)
Yep. Inequality is somehow both a door and a street.
He goes on to declare that:
Feminism is taken prisoner by too many women and re-branded as a self entitling social status posing as a humanitarian ideology. There’s really only two possible explanations for why feminism has become a bait and switch: 1. Feminism is revealing its self to be a camouflaged push for gender supremacy, or 2. Feminists just aren’t doing a very good job of communicating their true cause.
There’s actually a third explanation, more convincing than the first two, which is that Nick Bertke has no fucking clue what he’s talking about.
Misogynistic outbursts are apparently not a new thing for Bertke. Last spring, after erratic behavior on his part led some of his fans to worry that he might be undergoing some sort of breakdown, one Redditor reported that “some fans and friends close to Nick that have stated that he’s done something similar in the past, going on a rude, sometimes misogynistic rant and basically acting like a 12 year old … .”
It’s always disappointing to find out that someone whose work you enjoy and admire is a shitty person. Alas, he’s far from the first talented musician to turn out to be a woman-hating asshole.
Bertke, dude, stick to sampling other people’s words. Your own words are terrible.
H/T — @Metz77 on Twitter, who alerted me to Pogo’s asshattery.
EDIT: Reworded a couple of things.
@ sunnysombero
Can’t assist with the US I’m afraid but if you want to use England & Wales as a start you can get most of the info from these two articles to put something together for the 2011-2012 period.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/13/rape-investigations-belief-false-accusations
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10657485/Men-and-boys-get-raped-too.html
To head off arguments that the figures are skewed because women don’t get prosecuted for making false complaints you could perhaps take as the highest possible figure the number of acquittals in rape cases (or even complaints that don’t lead to prosecution). Of course anyone with even the slightest knowledge of law (and indeed some basic common sense) will know that acquittal does not equal false complaint, but it seems a lot of people don’t understand that.
I doubt though that our MRA friends will be convinced by evidence, but good luck anyway.
*gets soapbox, slams it down on the ground*
Okay, time to rant my ass off.
First of all, I’m sick of these guys using the draft as an excuse. NEWSFLASH: YOU DON’T HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR IT, EITHER! SO STOP BRINGING IT UP!
And second of all, I did not enter a relationship because I needed to be lectured. In fact, I HATE being lectured like I’m a child. I’m twenty-goddamn-six years old, I know the difference between right and wrong.
Wait. It’s that Fifty Shades bullshit, isn’t it? “Oh, let’s treat her like a child because it’s a best selling book, which means it’s what ALL women want!”
TIRED OF THIS. TIRED.
(I was going to type some more, but I kept screaming in my mind because OH MY GOD, THE NON-LOGIC BURNS ME SO MUCH.)
New Red Pillers/MRAs are the worst, as they’re always way too eager to preach this fascinating new gospel they’ve discovered. It’s like when someone discovers religion and has to tell everyone about it 24/7. Can’t wait to hear him try to start arguments that have already been beaten into the ground over the last decade.
Luckily, I never heard of this bozo till now. But oh, what an introduction:
I am? Funny, but that’s not what the ex-boyfriend who made fun of my butt said.
I can? Funny, but that’s NOT what the lawbooks all say.
I do? Um, what fucking “protective status of the female” might that be? Because last I checked, there wasn’t any. In fact, as a “female”, I’m vulnerable to everything from rape to being chronically underemployed and underpaid.
It does? Funny, but society also tells me I need to work hard — like, full time — at being pretty and fuckable in order to catch said man. And I only get to actually snag him if I’m still under 25. I’m 47. Where the fuck is he?
I am? Oh yeah, I am. Well, here in Canada, so are men. There is no compulsory military service for persons of any gender up here! How afuckingbout that!
I can? Why no, I can’t. The Criminal Code of Canada says that I can be charged with assault if I do that to a man — the same as if a man did it to me! Advantage: NO ONE!
COOL STORY, BRO. Filed under “You Must Be Still A Virgin”, because I know precisely NO woman who wants to be treated like a child right before having sex, and I would dump any man who did this to me and expected to seriously get sex out of it. Not least on account of you sounding just like a closet pedophile. Creepy much?
COOL STORY, BRO. Filed under “You Have Obviously Never Met A Feminist”.
(Or, come to think of it, ANY woman who would talk to you for longer than five minutes before figuring you out for a patronizing wanker and a sexual dud, and politely excusing herself to lock herself in the loo until you are gone.)
Inequality: It works BOTH WAYS! Which means it’s like totally EQUALITY!
Translation: My fingers are fluttering madly and my keyboard is clicking and clacking away, but nothing that makes a particle of sense is coming out! Isn’t this Red Pill grand? Hey…why do I suddenly feel this overwhelming need to turn around, drop my pants, and spray poop all over my monitor?
Yeah, this one obviously hits every branch of the Stoopid Tree on his way down. Thud, thud, thud, thud, THUD.
@Alan
Thank you, that’s great. I won’t spend too long in that particular comment section because Oh My God the amount of whinging by dudes is un-fucking-believable. I’m not exaggerating when I say that most of the comments are men going “waaah Yes Means Yes definition of consent means that courts will send a man to jail based on a woman’s word! Waaah what if she cries rape after regretting sex (because that’s totally a Thing To Be Seriously Worried About)? It’s not fair I’ll have to videotape sex and/or not bang drunk women any more because then I’ll be considered guilty until proven innocent! Abuse of judicial process! False accusations! WAAAH!!!”
I’m utterly horrified by this, I’ve been a fan of Pogo since his “Alice” video. This feels like being slugged in the face by someone you trust. Mainly though, does this guy not realize this is kinda professional suicide?
I mean I could be wrong, but I assume a LARGE portion of his fan base is ladies. Why in the name of Jeebus would he go through all the trouble of posting an actual video on one of his two channels telling women what he thinks of them and how they should be treated? What the hell could he be hoping to gain?!? Could it be he’s gone through a rough break up and isn’t thinking clearly, trying to let off some team?
I noticed that on his Pogomix website, his blog doesn’t seem to get that much traffic, if the amount of comments on each post is to be believed. Maybe he was frustrated that no one was reading his important, insightful writing on women and realized that his heavily visited youtube channel was a better venue.
I’m calling it now, this is probably going to cost him, you know, $$$$-wise. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but those companies that commission him to to remixes of their stuff probably don’t want to be associated with that kinda thing.
Its SUCH a damn shame though! I have had “The Trouble” stuck in my head since it came out. It always stupefies me how people capable of making such beauty can be so sick and hateful at the same time.
– You are naturally endowed with a more valuable, sought after and artistically favorable body, provided you are young, slender, young, and white with long hair, large breasts and a small waist, as well a perfect face, although you cannot spend any time or effort cultivating any of these things lest you be called shallow and vain, and the penalty is that people will only care about your body from that point on.
– At the bat of an eye, you can be excused from accountability regardless of the magnitude of your actions, because you are universally considered less than fully human and therefore cannot be truly responsible for anything, just as a child or a dog would not be responsible.
– At 18, you lose the protective status of the child but retain the protective status of the female, regardless of whether you would prefer to stand on your own. You will be condescended to your entire life and people will try to “protect” you from things you don’t need protection against, which often turns out to be only an excuse to restrict your behavior.
– Society excuses you from needing to work and says all you need is a hard working and generous man, but it will then damn you for not being “independent.” However, if you remain independent, society will repeatedly remind you that you are nothing until you have children and a man, and people will call you a spinster and make cat lady jokes. The narrative of “you can have it all” is replaced with “you must have it all,” and anyone who fails at the perfection game in either arena, or worse, does not participate in it, is brutally castigated for it.
– You are granted the rights of a democracy without being permitted to bear all the burdens of military service, because you are assumed to be incapable from day one whether you are capable of doing the same work as men or not. If you join anyway, you may be viciously mocked by your fellow service members for either being a slut or being frigid (based on whether you will sleep with them), and you run a very real risk of being raped by one or more of them, which, if it happens, will probably never be punished. Some branches of the service are better than others and some groups are better than others, but it’s unlikely you’ll find this out until it’s too late.
– You can give the opposite sex a thrashing when the person deserves it, because no one will take you seriously as an aggressor in any capacity, whether it’s crime or more positive situations such as work, sports or sex. If you ever show an assertive nature, you are immediately branded a bitch, and a great deal of your energy will have to be spent on pretending to be passive if it is not your nature. Any leadership role becomes a delicate tightrope walk between “bitch” and “mommy,” and those opting out of caregiving attitudes will be assigned the former.
Shout-out to @caroramsay on twitter, who made me aware of this in the first place.
SO MUCH THIS. At work I’ve been put in charge of small groups of young men before (and sometimes some older men who should have known better) and been accused of being uptight, “mothering” or killjoy when I tried to get them to just act professional for five fucking minutes and not get themselves into trouble because guess whose shoulders it falls on if they do? One of said groups got nicknamed “The Inbetweeners” for obvious reasons and they did not stay employed for long, thank God.
It’s so disappointing when men talk about the way men treat beautiful young women as the way they treat all women. I don’t know what’s worse, the fact they treat beautiful young women like children or the fact that they don’t see older, less physically attractive women at all.
Re: Yes Means Yes:
Would it be pushing the rules too far to wonder aloud how many MRAs blow a gasket over affirmative consent because they have something to hide, and whether or not the answer to that question is “Abso-fucking-lutely all of them”?
“You are granted the rights of a democracy without the burdens of military service.”
I’ve noticed how MRAs will argue that men are oppressed because women don’t have to sign up for Selective Service, yet the MRAs are also staunchly opposed to women joining the military. The degree of doublethink exhibited by the MRAs is quite astounding.
Although I completely agree with your labeling of Nick as a misogynistic douchenozzle, there are a couple of [what I think are] minor misunderstandings that may slightly hurt the cause:
I don’t think “envies” is the right word here. If we entertain his idea that all women can get away with domestic abuse simply because they are women, he’s frustrated with that “fact”, sure… but that doesn’t necessarily imply he wishes that men had that privilege also. It could be that he simply wants the women’s privilege removed. [Although he seems to disregard the fact that women constitute the overwhelming majority of domestic violence victims already.]
I think he’s making the distinction between how he views inequality [the first half of the sentence] and how feminism views equality [the second half]. He prefers the first definition and rejects the second one.
Like I said, I’m completely in the “Nick is an asshole” party, but I’m just trying to eliminate anything that could possibly be used against us in a counterargument.
And I concede the possibility that I might be incorrect here, also. But that’s always a given.
So, speaking of music, I’ve actually managed to find a country song I like.
I’ve never really been a fan of country music, but imagine my giddy surprise when I heard this on the radio in my grandma’s car (and the music video had me in absolute stitches):
Also, guess who’s upset about the song?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/12/10/girl-in-a-country-song-hits-no-1-by-mocking-bro-country-the-bros-arent-laughing/
Male country singers who think it’s totally okay to objectify women and don’t like it when women call them out on it in a catchy song!
Good thing I’ve never heard of him.
To throw away your entire reputation after garnering praises of artistic genius from millions [including myself], all likely in a spontaneous rage from one disagreeable episode with a female, is appalling.
Also, if you feel the need to disable ratings and comments on your entire YouTube channel… that might be a sign that you know what you’re doing is a bad idea.
https://www.youtube.com/user/NickBertke
On the “envy” thing, I think he really does envy women this (imagined) privilege; for one thing, there’s all his talk about how women need “discipline” at the hands of me. Also, that list of his is in a post with the title “Why We Should Envy Women”
Huh, looking at his channel again I see he’s taken down the video I linked to. But he also just uploaded another antifeminist one, and there’s still another one up from earlier in the day.
It does indeed look like he uses each of those statements within the context of envy, per the post’s title. Overall, the tone is very bitter, the wording reckless and impulsive, and I’m not easily willing to give him the benefit of the doubt anymore.
I did catch the first antifeminism video before he took it down, and it had an especially vitriolic and condescending quality, in comparison to the one he posted later. Apparently he did recognize some vague boundary of harshness that he didn’t mean to cross, but the wording was taken directly from his previous blog posts, and besides, there’s not much he can do at this point to save himself from embarrassment.
All of the music artists that he directly inspired… He’s been so important to the musical world in general. They could doubtlessly feel the same ethereal and magical quality of his melodic ambiance that I did. And I thought that those qualities must surely reflect a beautiful soul, that feels and appreciates the same emotions that he evokes in his listeners.
Now I have no idea where his inspiration came from.
Ugh. This is why I don’t want to meet artists behind my favorite stuff.
He gets away with douchebaggery with one or some women and then blames all women for him being a jerk? Fuck off.
OH MY GOD, ITS LIKE HE REALLY IS TRYING TO DESTROY HIS REPUTATION
He couldn’t even wait a day before posting another one?!? Is he just going to make a video based on every whiny blog post he’s ever done?
And why the hell take down the first one if only to immediately replace it with another? Is he just hell bent on letting those pesky feminists know what he thinks? Does he think if he just tones it down it bit, he can be a sexist AND keep all his fans who are no doubt unsubscribing in a mass exodus right now?
Guess what: You can’t have both, and most important, you can’t push rewind on what you’ve said. Especially on the internet.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article140691421
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I guess I’m vindicated for thinking this guy’s stuff is annoying.
Seriously, though, the military argument is absurd and really bothers me. Less than .04% of the population of the US served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Period. Man woman whatever. Maybe this guy served and I’m unaware of his background, but unless he has it’s just unbelievably irritating that he would complain about something which has had zero impact on his life personally just to stick it to woman.
And even if he had served, you think he would have noticed that there are also woman in our ALL VOLUNTEER military.
Also, not to tmi, but his version of parenthood sounds a lot like my father’s. He has a great relationship with my brothers, none of whom resent him in the least. [/sarcasm]
Hope he wises up a little before he has kids. Rather he just didn’t
A good father is indifferent?