Not that long ago, We Hunted the Mammoth reached a milestone of sorts. Someone here posted the 500,000th comment to this blog.
That’s a lot of comments. Even more amazing than the quantity of the comments is their quality — excepting, of course, those little turds dropped by passing trolls. I’m amazed and humbled by the awesome community that has grown up around this blog.
I couldn’t do this blog without the support of the commenters here, and the support of all of those who’ve stepped up to help this blog, with their time, their creativity, and, yes, with their donations.
Today marks the beginning of the First Quarter 2015 We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive! Which is another way of saying “several days in which I beg you all for money.”
To repeat my simple pitch from my previous pledge drives: If you enjoy this blog, and can afford it, please click on the “donate” button below and send a few bucks my way. Or, if you’d prefer, a lot of bucks. You don’t need a PayPal account; credit cards are accepted, and there are other options as well. If you’re outside the US, PayPal will automatically convert your weird non-American money into American bucks.
Oh, and the PayPal page will say you’re donating to Man Boobz; don’t panic! That’s just the old name of the blog.
As always, your donations are all greatly appreciated, whatever size they are. They keep the cats in cat food, and enable me to keep this blog going, helping to compensate me for the considerable time and energy I put into it. And thanks to all of those who donate between pledge drives as well! Some of you are really going above and beyond, and it means a lot to me.
I also, it goes without saying, greatly appreciate all the non-monetary things you all do to support the blog, from contributing smart and funny comments, designing graphics, sending me tips on stuff to write about, sharing posts on Twitter and Facebook, moderating comments, and so on.
We Hunted the Mammoth has dramatically expanded its audience and influence over the past year, and I’m hoping this year can be even bigger. If current trends continue, this blog will rack up more than 10 million page views this year; I’d like to make that 15 million.
Right now I post (almost) every day, sometimes more than once in a day; I would like to post a consistent two posts a day, or more, this year.
I have plans for other initiatives this year, which I will spell out if and when I get closer to launching them.
I can’t do any of this without your help.
Thanks!
The cats, I’m sure, would thank you too, if they weren’t cats.
Can one donate at the beginning of next month, when my cash comes in?
Done. I would totally pay a subscription fee for this blog! Thanks, David for all you do.
Two posts a day is a great goal, but please take those mental health days whenever you need to.
But are you going to use the donations to sit around and complain about everything in a very convoluted way and not actually do anything at all?
Because reasons.
[Sits back and waits for someone to come barging in and bark their heads off about David asking so very kindly for donations]
Asking for donations is pretty ruff. You have to bow, wow, beg, and whine.
Oh? Not that kind of barking?
Done! You do a good thing, and I definitely wouldn’t have the strength to sift through the kind of hellish material you post about here.
Thanks, Hambeast and Amy and everyone else who’s donated so far!
Samantha, sure, donate whenever you can! I probably should have scheduled this for earlier in the month.
I might be able to drop a little into the treasury once I get paid and see how many sales I do tomorrow. If I hit my week goals sure have a few bob from me. ^.^
Yeah, I can throw a few bucks here. I like being able to support the things I like.
Finally de-lurking to say I donated. Keep up the good work.
Respected Sir (Mr David Futrelle),
I am an ordinary guy who has been researching on gender issues for the past few years, on the media & the internet. I read a lot of newspapers, magazines and books; & also watch TV shows & movies. I have browsed through several misogynist & misandric websites on the internet. I, personally, consider myself to be an ”Egalitarian” or ”Equalist”, and I genuinely understand that there are both good & bad things in modern feminism & MRM movements.
Sir, with all due respect, I understand the genuine difficulties that women & girls have faced throughout history. I also understand some of the genuine difficulties that even men & boys have faced throughout history. I don’t want to sound myself like a conspiracy theorist, but it is true that our modern world has been under the oppressive control of powerful people, global elites, governments, corporations, etc, since a few hundred years ago, and it still continues to happen. Yes, although mostly men have been (& somewhat continue to be) in powerful political positions (with some exceptions & uncertain futures), most modern men & boys of this world (particularly those from the middle-class, working-class & poor categories) are NOT in positions of privilege, power, economic richness, leaderships, & so on.
Of course, women & girls DESERVE to be properly empowered, helped, funded, resourced & so on, but NOT at the cost of innocent men & boys of this world! Both discriminations AND reverse-discriminations are bad. Yes, there are cases where men are misusing the MRM movements in order to carry out misogyny & seek privileges. Yes, even I HATE terms like ”PUAs” (Pick Up Artists), ”Getting Laid”, ”Banging Women”, & so on, as they are extremely discriminatory towards genuine women & girls. I also sincerely hope (& the governments & societies are doing their best also) to empower women & girls in all spheres of life & works, including STEM, Sports, Businesses, Politics, Entrepreneurships, Medicine, Healthcare, & so on. Moreover, women & girls should also be protected from sexual issues & violence.
However, there is a need to understand that not all men & boys are privileged. Human males are still considered to be disposable, by society & governments, because they don’t have wombs, and hence, can’t give birth to continue the species. Also, there are SEVERAL fields of highly-paying professions, works & industries, that are heavily female-dominated; where men & boys are drastically under-represented & under-paid. Some of them are as follows: Fashion, Modelling, Arts, Culture, Dancing, Glamour, Media, Cosmetics, Anime, Gymnastics, Yoga, Travel, Living, Lifestyles, Advertisements, Commercials, Television Shows, Soap Operas, Pornography, Social Media, Theater, Performing Arts, & so on!
Moreover, MOST of the visual & vocal media fields are dominated by women & girls; proofs of which are in the newspapers, TV channels, magazines, ads, commercials, social media websites, internet, etc, wherein MOST of the videos, photos, images, etc, are of MOSTLY women & girls. Also, women & girls are viewed, liked, followed, tagged, etc, much, much more than men & boys, which results in MUCH more ads & revenues for female bloggers, writers, authors, uploaders, models, actresses, content producers, & so on.
On top of these things, we have SO MANY women-only & girls-only schools, colleges, scholarships, funding, social programs, NGOs, NPOs, Government facilities, gyms, clubs, bars, sports clubs, special loans, special entrepreneurship grants, financial facilities, taxis, kiosks, rooms, toilets, hotels, travelling & tourism facilities, education programs, fashion shows, modelling ventures, dancing schools, gymnastics schools, yoga centers, & so on. Just by doing a simple search on Google, we can see a HUGE NUMBER of search results for female-only facilities, while little or nothing for male-only facilities.
Also, a LOT of feminist people & groups HEAVILY support genocides against human males, male population reductions, castrations, emasculations, abortions of only male fetuses, violence only against men & boys, & so on. I don’t want to unnecessarily take names of those people or groups, but they are there. Things like males should be 10% of the human population, to International Castration Day, to #killallmen campaigns on Twitter, Femitheist Divine groups, & so on, are planning doing EXACTLY what radical groups throughout history (like Nazis, fascists, etc), have done.
Then you have things like radical feminism, lesbian separatism, etc, that focus ONLY on destroying the lives of men & boys. Moreover, you have almost ALL forms of media, news, books, magazines, newspapers, internet, etc, including SEVERAL internet websites, like The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Salon, Slate, Mother Jones, Business Insider, BBC, CNN, The Independent, NY times, NY Daily News, Yahoo!, TIME, etc, that preach, nearly EVERY SINGLE DAY, the following kinds of things:-
The End Of Men; Are Fathers Necessary; Are Men Necessary; Are all men rapists after all; The New World Order; Imagine Matriarchy; Girls Outperform boys in schools, colleges & education systems; Women are better leaders; Women are stronger; Women are better CEOs; Women can do everything, but men can’t do anything; Women are more natural; Women are the fairer sex; Women are better at multitasking; Women have more efficient brains; Women are the superior sex; Women are more peaceful; Women can’t do anything wrong; I bathe in male tears; Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them; Men are the new ball & chain; Women earning more money than men is FAIR; women are better listeners; women can do everything, while men can’t do anything; etc, etc, etc, & SO ON.
How modern men & boys going to even SURVIVE are based on these kinds of depressing, shameful, derogative & illogical forms of media & social propaganda?
Now, you will call me a misogynist for pointing these out. But, to be honest, I have nothing against women & girls achieving their dreams; earning lots of wealth & resources; getting credited & recognized for their achievements, becoming leaders, & so on. My only concern, is that, we should be empowering ALL people, irrespective of their gender or sociological & economic backgrounds, by moving on from the bad things that have happened in the past, rather than unnecessarily carrying out REVERSE-DISCRIMINATION against innocent men & boys of this world.
Thank you sir, for reading this comment.
Respected Sir (Mr. David Futrelle)
Sorry for any inconvenience. I just wanted to correct a grammatical mistake made on the previous comment that I had just posted. The corrected sentence is as follows:-
”How are modern men & boys, going to even SURVIVE, based on these kinds of depressing, shameful, derogative & illogical forms of media & social propaganda?”
Once again, sir, I appreciate your genuine concern for pointing out the rampant misogyny in several MRA & MRM movements & websites. But sir, I kindly urge you to PLEASE understand, that not all men & boys in this world are in privileged positions.
Anyways, can a person donate to your website, even if he/she is not from the North American continent? Sir, are your payment web links secure for online payments?
Thanks once again, sir.
Donated. 🙂 Thanks, David.
Love this blog and the community of commenters!
I am also so very, very appreciative of your work. I can only read these MRA junk ideas through the filter of snark, and I don’t want to give them any clicks either.
Donated! Thanks for all your hard work over the years, David. And thanks to the feline overlords for graciously allowing you to do it. 🙂
Donated! ^_^ I do love this blog and the community.
Cats never thank anybody for anything. It’s against the Cat Code.
My donation is in, dave old boy.
It’s not much but I hope it helps.
Lots of to you and all of the resident mammotheers 🙂
This blog has grown quite addictive to me. And we all owe you big time for the high emotional cost on your part, David. It can’t be easy trekking through the poison sludge of the manosphere to dredge up those special bits of hilarity for us. I hope my donation pleases your furry overlords.
This is a Beautiful blog. 🙂 Keep it up!
WOAH that teal deer wasn’t here when I last commented! And it’s the tealiest deer I’ve ever seen. O_O
Wow, big teal deer. I skimmed and saw the words “genocides against human males”, so I feel secure in knowing that nothing of value will be lost by my not reading it.
Thanks, everyone! (Well, maybe not QNgm305.) It really means a lot to me; I appreciate every donation, and everything else you folks do that contributes to this blog and this community.
I saw “I consider myself an “equalist”” and I skimmed, then I saw [paraphrased] “Women and girls should be empowered, but not at the cost of boys and men!” and I stopped. It’s not worth tearing it down right now. Anyone else care to try? It’s a rather easy target.
Urgent: How does one tell if one is a genuine woman or girl? Is it a government grade, like the U.S.D.A. meat guidelines? Or does a private organization give you a seal of approval after you pay for an inspection?
If it’s one of those situations where you just pay a fee and can subsequently slap a seal of approval on your shirt, forget it. I’ll go unverified before I support yet another a corrupt, meaningless label.
What an enormous Teal Deer…Whelp.
Okay, I’m going to try to put aside the nasty taste that “Egalitarian” leaves in my mouth for the moment, and I’m going to say that I’m glad you’re researching gender issues, and I’m glad you recognize that there are good and bad things in feminism.
However, I’m a little leery (or biased) as to the “good” you might have found in the MRM. I’ve yet to see a damn thing.
Also, I wonder how much “research” you can do into gender issues by simply indulging in media, rather than, y’know, analyzing it and talking about it.
With all due respect to you, as a dude (and I’m assuming here that you are a cisgendered dude, feel free to call me out if this isn’t correct), you don’t know shit about being a woman. You may see the “genuine difficulties”, but you don’t know what it’s like, and you never will. Just like I (a cisgendered woman) won’t ever know what it’s like to be male.
Let’s just get that out of the way now.
I don’t think you understand: Most men are in a position of privilege simply by being male. Now, they could belong to other oppressed groups (Queer people, People of Color, Transgendered people, ect) And yes, a majority of men are not in positions of power (especially if you go by race or wealth).
I would, however, like to point out a few things:
Most of Congress, the Senate, and the House of Representatives are male. Congress is 17% female. The Senate is 17% female. The House of Representatives is 19.3% female.
So, even though “most modern men & boys of this world […] are NOT in positions of privilege, power, […]”, in the US at least, they’re still making most of the decisions, and have most of the power to influence laws.
Most Fortune 500 Companies are owned by men.
White women (in the United States), make less than a white man does on average (and women and men of color make even less).
While “most men” don’t hold positions of power, it’s not hard to see that men are still in charge of everything. Men in the US have the most standing power when it comes to lawmaking, and they do try to make laws concerning women, who have less than 20% representation in three major groups of government. (And lots of those crusty old white dudes don’t have any damn idea how a vagina works.)
I’m going to stop you there. Women being empowered or being given the proper resources and respect they deserve is not somehow going to damage men. I think you’re referring to Ye Olde Straw Feminist here. Feminists don’t hate men, we don’t want them to suffer, and we don’t want to “take anything” from them (beyond their ‘rights’ to hurt women or anyone else for that matter).
Empowerment, help, and respect are not finite resources. One group getting some of that doesn’t mean another loses out on it.
Also, “reverse discrimination” is not a thing. You can discriminate against those with privilege, but you cannot commit sexism, racism, or any other kind of “-ism” against them, as all of those are systematic structures meant to keep a group of people down, not just a casual, back-handed remark, violence, discrimination, ect to someone in an oppressed position.
I find it hard to believe that someone who has studied gender issues for so long doesn’t know this. Or, at the very least, I believe you haven’t looked that far.
What the frick-frack is the difference between “genuine women & girls” and “women and girls”? Is this some sort of transphobic bullshit, or are you sincerely trying to say that “some of them deserve it because they’re not good enough”?
You might want to think about re-wording that statement.
Also, pro tip: No one cares if you say you love women. So many people have walked in here and done the same song and dance, but in the end, their actions always said otherwise.
So…men go off to fight in wars, while women’s only worth is in having babies? What is this fuckery?
Men aren’t fucking “disposable” in anyone’s eyes. No one thinks you’re disposable when you run most of the governments, hold most of the wealth, and are more likely to be hired for work.
[Citation Needed]
If you’re going to start pontificating on how these industries are “female dominated”, I would like to see some sources.
Why is that, do you think? Do you think it’s because women have somehow not earned those facilities? Or do you think it’s because maybe men haven’t gotten around to getting those facilities sorted for themselves?
Lemme help you out with some of these:
Schools: Most women weren’t even allowed to go to school for the longest time, and we still live in a culture where it’s believed that a man’s/boy’s education is more important than a woman’s/girl’s. On top of this, girls are believed to be “distracting” to boys when we “dress provocatively”. So, we put girls in their own school.
Gyms/clubs/bars/sports clubs/taxis/kiosks/rooms/toilets/hotels/tourism facilities/yoga centers/gymnastics schools: Some women don’t feel comfortable hanging around men when they’re in a public place where they have to get undressed, shower, do their business, or drink. I’m sorry our want for safety is hurting your little fee-fees.
If you want to start a men-only one of these, go right ahead. No one’s stopping you. Or, better yet, if you want these to be co-ed, maybe get on your shit and start a campaign to stop men from being violent and wanting to rape women, hmm?
Scholarships and money: You don’t just get a scholarship for being a woman. There’s a fuckton of other qualifications you have to meet. (Race, grades, entry essays, ect.)
As for the other money things, I’ve never heard of female only any of those. Could you provide some sources?
THERE’S the Nazi comparison. I was waiting for that.
First of all, #killallmen was a 4Chan trolling attempt. Let’s not get it twisted.
Secondly, feminism is a huge and diverse group. We don’t have a single leader, nor do we have any sort of structure, as far as I know. There’s usually groups of feminists who don’t hang out with other groups, and there are groups that are quite loud, but are in actuality, minority extremists.
You wouldn’t say that the Tea Party represents all of Republicans, would you?
Here you go again, assuming that men are the center of the universe, and assuming that these groups speak for all of feminism.
As for your articles: someone sounds upset that they’re not the center of attention anymore.
But, all joking aside, why should it be news that men are good at things when we already assume that they are? News is for reporting things we didn’t know, not for things society already assumes anyways.
By turning women into sex objects and telling us that our only worth is in how pretty we look at any given time, how good our sammiches are, how well we can pleasure our man’s peen, how many babies can we have, and how well we can take care of those babies?
Or by turning all of their anger and negativity inwards and bottling it up, because they’re told that they can’t cry or show any weakness, until it explodes on the nearest person who ticks them off even the slightest?
No, I’m calling you a misgynist because you’re spouting a lot of tired MRM talking points and “WHAT ABOUT THE MENZ?!” rhetoric.
No one cares if you say you love women and want them to have the best if you’re spouting off “BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MEN” right after that. You’re literally trying to say “Shut up and sit down ladies, because men need help too!”
No one’s denying this. No one here would dare say that men don’t need assistance with some issues. However, you’re trying to make it out like men have the exact same issues as women, or that somehow, our cries for equality are at your expense, when they’re not.
Equality shouldn’t be “Everybody gets everything equal all the time!” Equality should be “Everyone gets what they need when they need it.”
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oKnRwgCavKA/UdyYV-DeeiI/AAAAAAAAAkM/ms9g-JjLUcE/s320/fair+isn't+equal.jpg
The image on the left is “what’s fair”. The image on the left is “equality”.
“Reverse discrimination” is not a thing.
AND FINALLY:
Feminism should NOT be judged on its usefulness to men. Feminism is NOT about men. It’s about women. Feminism can help men, and it does try, but it’s NOT about men. You’re literally reaping the benefits of the side effects.