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.
cupisnique-So true!
I loved the subtle racism here: “ Men have driven civilization forward since we first walked away from the African savannah.
Pandapool-Beerbrella?! A cat exercising device?! Linear putter?!! Rubber Stick?! LOL! Yeah, such genius!
You know, this sort of shit makes me so very thankful that Paradox made their (free) DLC for Europa Universalis 4 about the great women in history. Seriously, I’ve learned a lot about some pretty dang awesome ladies of the Renaissance era that way. Indeed, in my current game as the Ottoman Empire I’ve managed to get an awesome Admiral and a stateswoman for my court through events about the various Ottoman Sultanas (female Sultans) that the DLC gives access to. Also, there are events that can spawn you female Explorers (the only leader type who can, well, explore terra incognita). God, I just love those lovely Swedish game developers. 🙂
misseb47:
But then the women must’ve also had cloning with their own technology. And they must’ve survived pretty well by filling the “cowering in the wilderness” niche without any need for men. This Robert guy needs to prove the woman species needed pity when the men found them and forced them out of their natural habitat. Honestly, I don’t think Robert’s hypothesis holds any water.
@Tessa
Women evolved from New Mexico whiptail lizards.
Tessa-Hhhmmmmmm…….And the men survived pretty well by filling the ‘being macho manly men on the Savannah’ niche. How did the two species even meet? Climbing trees is not macho, what were these macho men doing climbing trees in the jungle in the first place? Cowering Women(tm) and Macho Manly Men(tm) lived in completely different habitats!! You’re right, Robert’s hypothesis does not hold any water.
It’s a difficult situation, given that the Peen is a stand-up member of our community. But, the Peen is also a TERRIBLE FORCE OF DESTRUCTION! A PUNISHMENT FOR WEAK HUMANS! A CELEBRATION OF UNBRIDALED MADNESS AND PAIN AND FEAR AND PAIN AND PAIN AND PAIN! ALL HAIL THE PEEN!
And now dear listeners, the weather.
The funniest thing from that Sage Gerard anger rant: he was charging people $90 a head for the GG meet up, this included two drinks and a buffet. He was asking the bar owner if he could limit the buffet options or reduce it to only one drink to lower the cost. The bar owner was like, “No, dude. We charge $60 and that’s what it includes. If you’re concerned about cost, maybe you could not have a 30% markup on what it actually costs in order to cover ‘marketing’ costs.”
Pandapool-Ah ha! That at least tells us how us women cloned ourselves! Now there is the problem of how the Macho Men of the Savannah(tm) found us in the jungle even though macho men did not climb trees and lived in an entirely different habitat.Hhhhhmmmmm……..
Anyway, ALL HAIL THE PEEN! XD
Falconer-I thought it was an artichoke? I guess I was wrong!
That would be a 50% markup, not 30%. Just pointing that out because it highlights the ridiculousness.
Human women didn’t live in trees. Our ancestors went out of the trees and became upright to see over the tall grasses in the savannah a long time before we evolved into modern humans. I don’t even know that much about anthropology and evolutionary biology and I knew that.
@moocow it’s really hard for me to say exactly how accurate that video is, but I’m sure it has a lot of truth. Thinking back to my own childhood, my parents always emphasised math (more than science) but not in a terribly constructive way. But my parents were probably not particularly typical. I don’t think I was ever actively encouraged to go into science despite the fact that my grandfather was a pretty well-known scientist (within his niche). I know my own personal leanings were always toward professions where I could just swan around and write stuff up – the lab just didn’t appeal to me much.
The only person who actively encouraged me into science was my high school math, physics and chem teacher (I went to a rural school) who was an honest-to-goodness old-fashioned MGTOW but without the pouting and posing – just yer old bachelor farmer. But he didn’t so much encourage but ask me which science I was going to major in in a very matter of fact way. He was SHOCKED when I said I had no intention of studying science. He was too socially awkward to have a sit down with me to think through a career in science.
I ended up studying geology where there’s a fair bit of swanning around. But I’m a prime example of the leaky STEM pipeline. I never worked in it. I do now have a job where I swan around and write stuff up.
@WWTH
But when did we lose our tail and out scaly skin to imitate the man species? And did we do it so they’d protect our brood eggs?
*flickers tongue*
If men did all the great things, wouldn’t they also be responsible for all the Stalins and Hitlers?
@LordCrowstaff
Stalin and Hitler were men, so…
No. Hitler was a conspiracy between Anita Sarkeesian and the Jews.
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view2/2064991/alex-jones-flips-o.gif
I thought Hitler’s mom was at fault for the holocaust because she was single? That’s what I heard from them on their Facebook page.
Hitler’s mom was overbearing and doting, while Stalin’s mom always insisted he share his toys.
So, the MRA’s basic position is that men built society and women are destroying it??
What idiots!
“Men have driven civilization forward since we first walked away from the African savannah.”
So are they saying that the credit for the most important discoveries in hominid prehistory – the knowledge and skills to use fire and make tools – goes exclusively to females? That some quite gynocentric assumption right there.
Oh, and this is my first time posting, I’m new here. But David, I’d like to say I love the great, important work your doing. I’m a single dad to a wonderful 7-year-old little girl, and it scares me that there are people this deluded in the world that she may one day meet or, God forbid, end up in a relationship with.
weirwoodtreehugger:
Pffft! You anti-Robertists will believe anything the mainstream gynocentric scientists tell you. Males never lived in trees! Even when the female species were barely learning how to properly cower in the trees, males were hunting wooly mammoths in the African plains.