Are tattooed women a threat to Men’s Rights? Last week, the editors of A Voice for Men decided to promote “compassion for men and boys,” as the site’s old motto had it, by publishing a long and exceedingly creepy jeremiad against young women who taint their “radiant” young skin with icky tattoos, thereby ruining things for the men of the world.
In a post titled “Tattoos, good judgement and women,” Doug Mortimer, a self-described Man Going His Own Way of long standing, reminisces at length about the good old days, when the dancers at his favorite “topless bar” were as free of tattoos as they were of tops.
I used to occasionally pay a visit to one of the many local topless bars – pardon me, gentleman’s clubs – so I could wallow in a state of beer-buzzed, middle-aged, semi-arousal.
Sorry to put that image in your head so early in the day. (Or, whenever you happen to be reading this.)
By the late 1990s, tattoos were all the rage. It was almost impossible to see a dancer without a tramp stamp or some other symbol or picture, meaningful or meaningless (to me if not to her). I simply could not fathom why a young woman, with her skin at its peak of radiance and health, would do anything to detract from it.
Readers with sensitive stomachs may want to skip the next bit here.
Flat-chested or full figure; statuesque or petite; blond, brunette, or redhead, healthy skin tone is a key component of neoteny and nubility.
I’m not sure I really needed to hear a dude who was already middle-aged two decades ago wax poetic about the “neoteny and nubility” of women young enough to be his granddaughters.
In 1998, Mortimer tells us, he grew so frustrated by the tattoos adorning the “female flesh” he was paying to ogle that he quit going to “gentlemen’s clubs” altogether.
Despite Mortimer’s bold and principled stand, the young women of America continued to get tattoos. Today, Mortimer reports with horror, one survey found that “25% of all men under 25 have at least one tattoo; for women in that age group, the number is 47%.”
He warns young men to think twice about getting into relationships with these terrible tattooed women.
After all, you’re going to be looking at them every day, possibly till death do you part. Do you really want to cuddle up long-term with a dickless Queequeg?
Mortimer goes on to suggest that the popularity of tattoos amongst young women suggests that maybe they really don’t deserve freedom after all.
Ultimately, you have to seriously question the judgment of a young woman who would make a permanent commitment to something as trivial as body art. Of course, good judgment is only rarely associated with young women, which is why young women are kept on a short leash in traditional societies. When young women are given freedom, they often fuck it up.
Mortimer doesn’t address this directly, but presumably he believes that young men handle their freedom far more wisely, despite considerable video evidence to the contrary.
Mortimer is quick to assure his readers that he is well aware that young women without tattoos can also be terrible freedom-abusers who should probably be kept on a “short leash” as well.
That doesn’t mean a tattoo-free woman can’t be fucked up, but one who is tattooed…well, no matter what the design, it might as well be a big red warning flag.
Well, no. But, given the disgust that Mortimer and many other denizens of the manosphere feel towards tattooed women, tattoos could perhaps be better described as magical talismans offering protection from a certain kind of creepy woman-hating shitbag.
In any case, it’s pretty hard to imagine Mortimer’s post convincing any self-respecting woman, young or old, to cancel an appointment at the local tattoo parlor; I suspect that, if anything, it could have an opposite effect.
I will probably never get a tattoo because I’m afraid of needles and hate pain, but I have seen some beautiful cross-stitch inspired tattoos that make me wish I weren’t (like these: http://blog.tattoodo.com/2014/07/10-beautiful-cross-stitch-tattoos/). Quick, someone invent a way to cuddle tattoos onto people.
https://goo.gl/photos/vgr3E2ksHVn6BpxFA
Not sure this will work but wanted to share my tattoo.
We’ll see.
Silence and a long stare works as a comeback for most asshattery. Captain Awkward recommends saying “Wow.” and leaving it at that. Alternately: “Did you really just say that?” + walk away.
I never got the hate for tattoos. I’ve always wanted one myself but couldn’t afford it. I’ve wanted a heart with bat wings since I was 12, a plain little bat since I was 17, and a little atom symbol since I was 20.
Buuut, you know, I think I’ll save up the money now. All I need to do is find a good tattoo artist. I know of two-three places off the bat.
Did I really just read someone criticising strippers for being insufficiently focussed on pleasing his boner?
I am so thankful my old-er age, short-er hair, glasses, and now tattoos (all of which I adore and do for me… even the old age, because–not ready for the alternative yet) are also doing a great job of keeping MRAs away by making me unattractive to them. That is handy!
@ Viscaria
Those cross stitch tattoos are lovely! I’ve got a bit of an affinity for watercolor tattoos right now myself. I might get one of those next, but I’m having so much trouble narrowing down what I want!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lj3313/28-incredible-watercolor-tattoos-and-where-to-get-b2ju#.ycMZZNoD0Z
So, is Floyd Mayweather an MRA hero? Or no, because he’s black? Because he sure sounds like one.
http://gawker.com/floyd-mayweathers-nasty-texts-to-his-ex-now-you-back-1708187371
Sorry for the OT
Oh, that’s a good question WWTH. Is he going to be a hero for “putting women in their places,” or is he going to be an example of how it’s actually black men who are doing all the harm to women? I’m guessing that he’ll be one to some manospherians and the other to other manospherians.
@fromafar, those are amazing O_O
Also, I thought that neoteny was a bad thing because it helped women evade responsibility for their actions and fool men into thinking that they were cute when they were actually evil? In that case, aren’t the tattooed women doing men and society in general a huge service?
I can’t understand and won’t even try, and since I don’t find tattoos attractive, no woman should ever get one and no man should ever find one attractive.
MGTOW: for when you can’t get what you want so you pretend you don’t want it but you still want to have a tantrum about it on the internet.
FWIW, I am indifferent to tattoos. Some are nice; some I find distracting; some are hideous. But I figure other people are different. I’ve never gotten one mainly because I’ve never been able to figure out something I would want my whole life.
So this year I’m working on my full sleeve. There won’t be an inch of my right arm un-inked. I book out 9 hour sessions at the tattooists to work on it, it’s going to take 4 lots of 9 hour sessions and I’ve had 2 of those sessions already.
When it gets to the 7 or 8 hour mark and I’m starting to wish my arm were detachable, I will think of this article and be filled with joy.
Not only will be arm be an epic scene of the characters from “Adventure Time” battling The Powerpuff Girls, but now I will ward off assholes with my magnificent arm. As if my rainbow hair didn’t already repel assholes enough.
Even with the sleeve in its half finished state I’ve already had random people come up to me to tell me they hate sleeves on women. And I’m all like
http://mrwgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/I-Dont-Care-Song-By-Judy-Garland.gif
Alaisvex
That is a good question. But it seems to be that everything a woman does is misandry. Beautiful, skinny, no tattoos, no piercings and long hair you are just tempting men and boys and it will be your fault if they do something to you. Ugly, fat, tattoos, dyed short hair, piercings how dare you not please my boner!? You’re supposed to look good at all times!
And they say we are the ones that are hard to please and emotional.
Sadly, age doesn’t get rid of all of them. On the internet I have been mostly free since I turned 18 in the late ’90s. In real life, though, there’s never a shortage of creeps expecting me to be grateful for their unwanted attention. A “shoe-in”, I guess. They get older and older, that’s all. I don’t want to change who I am to avoid them any more. I tried to hide my body under baggy clothes as an adolescent. I got breasts at ten and damn the level of entitlement. I fantasized about mutilating my breasts just to end the harassment.
Hey, let’s show off our tatts! Here’s mine!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/Sephirajo/20130731_132707_zpsqx3d4xq0.jpg
When it was still fresh and shiny.
Mortimer’s argument is just more proof that what really has MRA’s and PUA’s pissed off is that it’s illegal for them to “date” 12 year old girls.
Heh. I remember seeing a simple but very definitely individual tattoo once; I was standing in line, and there was a woman standing a ways in front of me wearing shorts. Tattooed all the way up her left leg, in a fraktur typeface, was ‘Aren’t you a little short to be a stormtrooper?’
Hey, Queequeg was pretty damn cool. He was incredibly skilled, brave, and a good friend. Also a good cuddler.
Nothing wrong with being compared to Queequeg.
He simply cannot fathom that young women don’t see themselves as he sees them: eye candy and boner pleasers!
I sort of love the bafflement of asshats like this. They missed a memo and have been wandering about in a fog ever since.
.
“Tattoos on women squick me, therefore young women can’t handle freedom,” is totally a rational argument. Throw in some evopsychobabble, and it is an entirely appropriate subject for a blog about “men’s human rights.” /s
(He’s an MGTOW? Who woulda guessed!?)
I maintain that you could just as well argue that men are neotonous due to their lack of breasts and their rather prepubescent narrow hips.
Or we could, you know, say that adults are adults.
These men can’t handle not controlling feeeemales and feeeemales are able to do what they want without men. It looks like these men need a short leash if they are raging at everything a feeeemale does.
My fake tattoo looks like this one:
http://www.tattooforaweek.com/images/classic-girls-butterfly-temporary-tattoo.jpg
@ Johanna Roberts
That’s very pretty! It reminds me of the flower my mom has on her wrist/hand. Her’s has tiny ladybugs crawling and flying all over. It took 4 hours just for the ladybugs! Coloring is rough going sometimes.
Mine isn’t especially pretty, but it’s meaningful for me. It’s ‘vegetarian’ in kanji (saishoku shugisha in japanese) vertically over my heart in just plain black. One time a waiter at a japanese restaurant started randomly helpfully pointing out all of the things on the menu that were/could be vegetarian without me asking. I was so confused how he knew until he pointed at my tattoo (only the first two kanji were visible, but it was enough) and I was so embarrassed! It never crossed my mind that of course he had read my tattoo! LOL
I’m starting to be bothered by the fact that I notice, in myself, preferences in women for things shared in MRA-y types (e.g. longer hair and non-tattooed) but that said… FFS. I’ve never felt the need to rage about it in lengthy screeds online. Women, like everyone else, should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, and nothing so minor as personal choices in body modification would ever make me think “Nope, I don’t want to acquaint myself with this person.”
@NicolaLuna
This makes me feel I should complement people on their tattoos more, especially women.