Even though I run a blog with the deliberately ironic title “We Hunted the Mammoth,” I’m still regularly amazed by how eager men who’ve accomplished nothing of value in their entire lives are to claim a kind of vicarious credit, by virtue of being men, for everything good that we humans have accomplished here on planet earth.
Consider this astoundingly un-self-aware bit of almost literal we-hunted-the-mammothing from a recent A Voice for Men post, written (very, very badly) by Peter Wright and Paul Elam:
Harnessing men’s utility can be witnessed from the erection of Stonehenge to the Roman Empire to the moon landings. Cures for diseases and vaccines to prevent them happened from the intensely intelligent actions of the human male. Exploring new territories and engineering the transport to send people to new places has changed the world, almost all of it through risk and hardship borne by men. Men have driven civilization forward since we first walked away from the African savannah. Men’s blood, sweat, tears and sacrifices are the fuel rods that have always driven the big machine of our society.
So much passive voice! So many mixed metaphors! Can anyone explain to me how blood, sweat and tears (liquids) can be fuel rods (solids, specifically “long, slender, zirconium metal tube[s] containing pellets of fissionable material”)? Or how “sacrifices” (an abstract concept) fit into the mix?
I will give an official We Hunted the Mammoth Award of Artistry to anyone who can draw me a picture — or make a diagram — of Wright and Elam’s terrible paragraph.
Oh, in case anyone is wondering, the ultimate point of that Wright and Elam post is to try to convince troubled men not to go to therapists unless the therapists are wise to the alleged evils of “gynocentrism.” You know, the evil force that made men do all that hard work for the lazy women of the world, who apparently spent all of human history watching soap operas and complaining about the men who were doing all that exploring and engineering and utility-ing and intensely intelligent actioning for them.
If you are searching for a therapist make sure and ask one question: “Have you heard of gynocentrism?” If they haven’t walk away and don’t hire them. In fact be prepared to do so much walking away that your steps will number enough to walk around the entire planet three times.
Well, that last bit, however cringeworthy the prose, is probably true. Because blaming men’s problems on “gynocentrism” is not just psychological quackery, it’s a highly obscure form of psychological quackery.
What a strange way the folks at AVFM have of demonstrating “compassion for men and boys,” as their old slogan had it.
Also, I’m pretty sure that at some point in the development of human civilization, and possibly even before it, women did some things too.
Wait. Isn’t Tara Palmtier the MRA therapist of choice? Now they’re saying no feeemale therapists? Huh.
Exactly. The Wild West is another good example, and there are many more in the book, Unnatural Selection.
Every time I learn about a woman who made some important discovery or invention, I get angry. Because I’m only just now finding out, but I’ve known about all the dudely dude discoverers since early childhood. They made damn sure to tell us that Copernicus figured out heliocentrism, but when it came to the composition of the stars, it was just “Stars are made mostly of hydrogen” and not a peep about who found that out.
A big MRA talking point is that men are less likely to seek or get help for mental health problems than women are, and more likely to commit suicide. It sure would suck if AVfM were preventing men from getting the help they need with this bullshit.
Here’s more:
http://www.femlogic.com/history.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/16/things-invented-by-women_n_3744401.html
https://webfiles.uci.edu/mcbrown/display/women_inventors.html
http://www.women-inventors.com
http://www.historynet.com/famous-women-in-history
Thanks, Paul Elam and Peter Wright! If anyone needs a great example of the historic systemic subjugation of women and denial of women’s achievements in spite of such, you’ve created one!
Gosh, thanks for building Stonehenge, you heroic men! Clearly standing some useless rocks upright in service to hocus pocus is something men worldwide should be thanked for. Likewise, I am so thankful for the Roman Empire, that shining beacon of warmongering, mass slavery, and subjugation of woman and child to male ownership. Thanks so much for the genocide of the first Americans and Australians and the destruction of THEIR civilizations, obviously you get worshipful credit for being ‘civilization builders’ despite the many more civilizations you *destroyed*, thats just logic. Thanks for the moon trip! Totally great that yall are cool with spending billions of dollars to be first to plant a swinging sheet on a rock, when on the planet you’re currently destroying people are dying on the streets, drinking polluted water, slaving in sweatshops, and bankrupting over health care. The only actual good thing on that list is the vaccines, and i hate needles so even that is iffy imo.
Oh wow I think I’m going to bust a gut here.
Elam and Wright are essentially making it impossible for men who are seeking therapy to find a therapist. How many people outside of the manosphere have ever heard of “gynocentrism?”
Discouraging men who need help from getting help. How very mens-rightsy of them.
When I read “the erection of Stonehenge” my mind jumped to the scene in the cheesy film Kate and Leopold where “erection” is a running joke, due to time travel.
From IMDB: “Leopold: [of the Brooklyn Bridge] Good Lord, it still stands. The world has changed all around it, but Roebling’s erection still stands! Ha, ha!”
Our friend Paul seems to have gotten the two confused. Last I heard, you don’t need a penis to be a builder or architect.
And how does he know that only men built Stonehenge, anyway?
I wonder if any manosperian reads any article about women in history and goes “feminism is rewriting history! Women are using their evil boobs, vaginas, sweet talk and butts to make men do all the work and take credit!”
Wimmin iz evil I tell ya! Evil!
http://youtu.be/a6ucZsJQxbQ
Because he’s a MAYUN with a PENIS and that means he knows everything about everything, and if he says that MAYUN built Stonehenge, then he must be right because PENIS? [/attempt at ElamLojik]
Dear lord, we better not let this guy in front of a computer, he’d cause it to explode from the paradoxes and his contortionist acts of “logic”.
I know that the doting packs of AVFMers will part with their money far too easily (I believe there is an applicable proverb that involves the word “fools”) but now that Elam is quite literally telling them “you may only visit therapists that I approve of” the realisation that he has a disturbing amount of influence over these guys (and he knows it) is, well, disturbing. They eat up anything and everything he has to say without thinking, too.
I wanna go back in time and show this to the ancient Norse women. They’d have a good, hearty laugh about it.
And re: men built the Roman Empire — yeah, I think Queen Boudicca would like a word about that.
If they’re supposed run away until they’ve ran around the earth 3 times, does that mean they’re supposed to run away initially but then come back to that therapist once they’ve gotten it out of their system?
We’re talking about the massive erections in England, and nobody mentioned Cerne Abbas giant yet? Well, I’m here to remedy that.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/02/Cerne-abbas-giant-2001-cropped.jpg
Hm. I guess most therapists would be able to figure out that “gynocentrism” = women supposedly rule the world (now I’ve got a Beyonce song stuck in my head, ah well) but without necessarily agreeing with it and probably not giving it the same web of associations MRAs do.
Topic switch: I’m glad someone mentioned Clara Schumann! When I was young I wondered why I never heard of any classical composers who were women (I thought I found two in Bela Bartok and Camille Saint-Saens, but nope – men with non-English names.) Now I know a few, at least – Fanny Mendelssohn comes to mind.
And what about Hildegard von Bingen, the medieval German nun who wrote music that was way more melodically interesting than your average medieval chant? She also penned scientific and medical texts, religious works, and (Wikipedia tells me) invented her own alphabet while she was at it.
Or better still, you could just do this:
http://cdn.someecards.com/someecards/usercards/1339426725154_9146065.png
And here’s a piano piece by Alexina Louie, a modern composer, called “Fastforward,” which I personally think is awesome (around 0:38 is when the fast part starts). The performer’s no slouch, either.
Behold his mighty staff!
In other confusing AVFM drama, Sage Gerard apparently tried to get a Gamergate meetup at a gaming-themed brewpub, but the manager backed out, and he’s pissed.
He also claims that Gamergate supporters are apolitical, and that the brewpub is apolitical, and that’s why he wanted to host it there.
http://www.donotlink.com/framed?718321
I didn’t quite get what was going on, but nobody who writes for AVFM will ever get an award for coherent writing.
Does Elam still offer “life coaching” sessions to AVfMers who pay for the dubious honor? This is starting to give off “don’t seek help from anyone outside the epistemic bubble when you could turn to me Me ME!” vibes.
Wordsp1nner
I don’t get it either. All I got was the first paragraph. I guess it’s just my lady brain.
Off-off-off topic, for me gaming siblings, have you guys seen this?
http://fallout.bethsoft.com/
It is a countdown timer.
A countdown timer on the official Fallout website.
It’s a countdown timer 11 hours left.
It has a rating pending ESRB sticker in the corner.
It’s a countdown timer with 11 hours left on the official Fallout website with a rating pending ESRB sticker in the corner.
It’s a countdown timer with 11 hours left on the official Fallout website with a rating pending ESRB sticker in the corner. And Bethesda is doing their first ever E3 appearance this year.
I know what this means.
You know what this means.
We all know what this means.
*zips up vault jumpsuit*
It’s gametime.