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.
Now let’s see them come full circle back to gynocentrism and explain how it was the oppressive power of women’s butts that made them erect that henge…any minute now…
New theory based on MRAlojik: Women’s butts are behind all advances made by men throughout human history/prehistory. Men obviously would have been content to do their own thing being all alpha (do you even lift mammoth bones?), but those dastardly oppressive women’s butts came along and forced them to develope tools and language and science, etc. Women’s butts are the monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
I lived in Cape Cod for several decades. It has spectacular views of the ocean and tide marshes. Routinely, some man would be sweeping his hand across the view, while the little lady standing by his side, was required to thank him for creating it. Obnoxious.
If intelligence in women is largely irrelevant to reproductive success, civilization, fuel rods etc … how do they explain the fact that men and women’s IQs are roughly equal?
From what I’ve read, women score an average 2 IQ points higher than men, with a slightly narrower standard deviation.
@Bryce
IQ tests aren’t the best proof for shit, though, for reasons other people will probably explain better than I would.
^indeed
Basically IQ tests only one aspect of intelligence; your ability for logic. Other aspects include Emotional Intelligence, Creativity and possibly Social Intelligence if that’s a thing, I forget.
*should be “IQ tests only test one aspect”. Oops.
@Moocow
Ah, but does that mean women are actual more logical than the logikal menz?
Your comment gave me an idea, while I was wondering how the heck any therapist could begin to tackle the average Manospherian.
Get them to outline everything in their “philosophy”. Break it down into Boolean logic, make them sit down and examine all the contradictions. If they can’t see anything wrong with it, crunch it through a computer and watch it throw up an error.
Manly-Man can’t disagree with a machine that only operates on logic, so is forced to concede that everything he believes is a fucking mess.
Finally, he can begin to work with his therapist to be less of a tangled knot of conspiracy theory and rage.
Now, where can we get this new form of therapy patented?
@AltoFronto
Any patent office. You can patent anything.
@weirwoodtreehugger:
Are we playing Cards Against Humanity? If so, nicely played; I think you win that hand.
@pandapool:
http://m.imgur.com/cV0oLai
At last a reason to get an XB1!
The new generation Kinect is apparently much better than whatever Playstation’s calling theirs. Plus, we have our PS4 in our bedroom so the filthy, filthy Hobbitses can’t touch it (they have a PS3). It’s not terribly large and I’m not sure I could pull off sick, post-apocalyptic, throw-back moves on my bed.
*squints*
Maybe I can.
@proxieme
I am actually very tempted to say up the next 4 some odd hours until the count down is finished, but I probably should go to bed. :/
http://i.imgur.com/lMgs4ig.gif
(I am so, so sorry.)
@SFHC
Apology acc–
Wait a second.
You’re not sorry…you’re not sorry at all, are you?!
@Altofronto
But then they would just complain it’s a computer made by the evil feeemaalees, like Skynet but for oppressing men. Then again, women can not build anything like a computer according to these guys soo….
@David: What’s the Manosphere been saying about Elonis v. US?
I can only imagine that they’re thrilled, but I’m not inclined to go searching because of The Awful.
@Altofronto I really want to give that a go now. I could probably write the code for the logic, but then I need the outline.
Very accurate. Unless a girl is a “tomboy” (and think a little bit about the implications of that word and how we use it) and allowed to be one, there is a ton of “don’t get dirty, you must be dainty and polite and pretty and that’s all that’s important about you.”
It doesn’t even have to be as explicit as telling girls to put down the dirty sea creatures and not be curious about them. It can be as subtle as praising girls for being pretty and dainty, and withholding praise when they aren’t. Children are extremely sensitive to parental approval and will pick up on things that parents aren’t even necessarily conscious of doing.
Well, the Cerne Abbas giant is obviously a dick pic, and you know dick pics are women’s fault, somehow.
@SFHC:
http://i.imgur.com/lMgs4ig.gif
And the kettle drums go bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bummmmm!
@Falconer I presume you are already aware that a sequel to XCOM is due on PC this November ?
http://xcom.com/
asdfjkl SNAKE MEN!!
Well, poo. All the Bethesda site is doing is sitting there saying “Please stand by.”
I was actually very lucky growing up. My mom is an elementary school teacher and she really pushed science and math for both my sister and me. Clearly, it worked because I’m a scientist. I was in Young Astronauts when I was in elementary school and I had some very good teachers who promoted science early in my education and that definitely helped.
I do remember being sad sometimes when I was young that no one called me “pretty.” I got all sorts of compliments about being smart and getting good grades, but I did feel left out because I wasn’t pretty (or at least no one told me that I was). Thankfully, I grew out of that and realized that there are better things to be than pretty, but it does go to show how much pressure there is for young girls. Our society says that (for women and girls) pretty is the only thing worth being and it can be painful when we don’t feel like we fit into that box.