So over on the MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way) subreddit, the regulars are discussing the various ways they’re oppressed by a Nike-sponsored women-only nighttime 10k run called “We Own the Night.” Basically, it’s Take Back the Night with running, and Nike.
Well, a guy who calls himself “DegradedSerf” is having none of it. Because lesbianism? And a lack of women in the stage-construction business?
The two things I wanted to point out are the obvious lesbian connotations, there are DJs and dancing and what not until late, women only on a massive scale, and the fact that although the theme is claiming public spaces at night for females, I worked on assembling and deassembling all the stages, lighting, etc. etc. and there were no women working on the whole site.
You know, I hate to tell you this, fella, but there are places where there is lesbian dancing and “what not until late” every single night of the week. Also karaoke, sometimes. Google “lesbian bars.”
So anyway, “We Own the Night” is a sign of the End Times for normal manly men.
If you combine it with the slutwalk phenomenon now women have more rights and privileges than ever before and now a feature of the political and cultural landscape is these mass, semi-sexual, female only (eunuchs sometimes tolerated) demonstrations that public space, (physical and psychological) belongs to women and they intend to make it inimical to males and no expression of masculinity will be tolerated.
DegradedSerf’s lament about the slut walks inspired this little exchange:
![Nicholas_ 5 points 1 day ago Knowing the fact that slut walks exist make me wish I didn't live on this planet anymore. permalinkembedsavereportgive goldreply [–]RecQuery 1 point 5 hours ago I sometimes wish we could go live in a colony somewhere just to show the world what things would be like without us. Even if you don't engage you're still supporting society by being there.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/slutwalkconvo.png?resize=471%2C244&ssl=1)
Huh. I’ll admit, there are a number of things that sometimes cause me to think I don’t want to live on this planet any more. You know, like genocide, rape as a weapon of war, the millions of people on earth who are living in extreme poverty, that sort of thing.
This guy is driven to existential despair by … women protesting rape.
@apeculiarpersonage
If it’s any small consolation, I saw this article widely circulated among my Facebook contacts (mostly Christian, from several different political backgrounds), and it was met with solidly unified horror. Of course, that doesn’t erase the deplorable fact that it exists and that there are more than zero people who agree with it.
@katz
[theologynerdery] I have a theory that Calvinism is actually the only theological system that can support that kind of strict gender hierarchy. Of course, plenty of non-Calvinists believe it anyway, but Calvinism has that undergirding of, “You cannot question this, because reasons” that pervades all of its theology. From what I can tell, under more Arminian systems, that gender hierarchy will utterly fall apart when pushed hard enough. [/theologynerdery]
In 1867, Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton decided to try to push for women’s suffrage in Kansas, as a test case. They managed to convince a man named George Francis Train to come over to their side and speak for them. Train was a horrific racist, who leveraged the support of white female suffragists in service to his racism. He hated and railed against black people and the Republicans who supported them.
Anthony and Stanton went along with this, seemingly because they felt that Train’s support of women’s suffrage was more important than his virulent racism. Their newsletter, the Revolution, began by advocating universal suffrage, but soon began to use racist rhetoric. Stanton wrote articles suggesting that white women needed to be protected from lower-class black men, and also from, interestingly, Chinese, Germans and Irish (who weren’t considered “white” at the time).
This caused an irreversible rift between them and Sojourner Truth, although they had previously been close friends. Anthony and Stanton never went back to not using racist rhetoric after that point.
One of the interesting things about the abolitionist movement was that so many of its strongest and most strident champions were unabashedly racist. They saw the evils of slavery and wanted to do away with it, but they didn’t think black people were anything like the equals of white people, and didn’t want to integrate blacks into white society after abolition was achieved. Someone being an abolitionist is not proof that that person wasn’t racist.
I’m gonna come in here and drop some happy:
A 4-year-old girl named Ellie wanted to be Spider Man, and was told by some boys at her school that she couldn’t be Spider Man because she was a girl.
Her mom tried introducing her to Spider Woman, and Ellie thought it was cool, but still wanted to be Spider Man.
Mom talks to other neighborhood parents and they organize a superhero cosplay parade with this awesome poster:
http://static02.mediaite.com/themarysue/uploads/2015/06/Screenshot-2015-06-04-at-11.26.28-AM.png
I didn’t even know I needed some warm fuzzies in my heart this morning, but I have them now.
@Paradoxical
I wanted to be Spider-Man as a kid, too. Spider-Man is awesome.
…
Okay, I lied. I still want to be Spider-Man. Or Wolverine. Or Kitty Pride. Or Nightcrawler. Or Mystique. Or Storm. Or Dr. Strange. Or Batman. Or all of the above.
@kirbywarp – absolutely things like Slutwalk are exercising a right. Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, for two. And it’s ok that these are rights and that we in the West are by and large privileged to enjoy those rights. It makes it even more disgusting that they get upset by women exercising their very basic citizenship rights. But, many of the MRA seem to still be trying to fight the lost battle against universal suffrage, so I guess it’s no surprise they get upset about women enjoying other basic freedoms.
Bryce,
I’d also like you to go away. You can make everything about you someplace else. You don’t need to be here.
Or Poison Ivy. Like a combination of all of them but mostly Poison Ivy.
I know I shouldn’t but most of your posts make me laugh way too loudly. I cannot believe there are men out there who are so silly. These men must do a good job of masking their contempt for women in public. Otherwise I don’t see how they could thrive in western countries where women’s rights are a given. They sound like rejects from the 50s.
Love this blog, by the way!!
@rugbyyogi:
Ah, fair enough. Bad wording. Being allowed to create and attend events in general at all is definitely a right, one that every single person regardless of gender in the US has. What I meant was more like “the ability to attend this particular even who’s organizers have placed limits on who they will let in” is not a “right” in the political sense.
@pkayden Sadly, I don’t think these guys have to hide as much as you think. I have always found that MRAs hold rather traditional gender roles. Simultaneously they are upset at women who follow these roles while also being upset at women who don’t follow traditional roles.
Mostly, they get their ideas about nontraditional women reinforced by the larger culture while the expected amount of grumbling people make about their troubles can be seen by MRAs as support for their views on traditional women. The problem is that MRAs are so hateful and bitter that when traditionally-minded people see MRA rants they are rightfully turned off. Traditionally-minded people still love their mothers, sisters, daughters, and other women in their life. So even potential allies who share views can’t stand to be associated with them.
(I used traditional as a way to refer to status quo gender norms. Probably sloppily. Please let me know if I messed that up)
On the intersectionality discussion, it is definitely still a problem. Patricia Arquette really pissed me off with her bit.
First time poster – long time lurker.
Hi 🙂
Though I’m sure the allusion to “Atlas Shrugged” in RecQuery’s reply is unintentional because it was written by a (gasp!) woman, it gave me the perfect synopsis of what I think of MGTOW:
“Atlas Sulked”
I want to be a combination of Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Like with Harley’s sense of humor and Ivy’s dedication to the environment.
Shipping? What’s that?“A 4-year-old girl named Ellie wanted to be Spider Man, and was told by some boys at her school that she couldn’t be Spider Man because she was a girl.”
Would the father who encourages his daughter to be Spider Man or Spider Girl or Spider Woman and leave that choice to her also encourage his son to be Tinker Bell, or Princess Anna or Wonder Woman?
Because as a father of both a boy and a girl I am not sure how I would handle the latter case.
@PI:
Like some kind of larcenous Gem fusion!
Oh god, I just got the pun behind “Splatoon.”
It’s a squad based shooter, right? A “platoon” ??
Today, in OT …
Aw, you said “Gem”, and now we gotta get Catwoman in on this (Meow) mix.
@Paradoxical
We all ship it, dear. We all ship it. Even the people who say they’ve never even heard of shipping ship it.
@Falconer
I thought it was because paint goes “splat” and stuff?
@Policy of Madness
Anthony, the first one listed in the shitty Toast article, did advocate that African Americans be given full rights and fully integrated into society. I don’t think Stanton and Anthony, particularly Anthony, should be unthinkingly tossed on the “white supremacist” pile. I dislike people pissing on a woman who died in 1906 and smugly thinking they’re more advanced than her. It’s a pet peeve.
Here’s a essay from The Atlantic by the Ta-Nehisi Coates that puts “The Great Schism” in both a historical and personal context.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/10/the-great-schism/246640/
@Pandapool: Yeah, I thought it was a portmanteau of “splat” and “cartoon” at first, too.
I suppose it’s one of those subjective things.
And really, all the DC ladies ought to go form their own little community and leave the muscle-bound testosterone-addled men to punch themselves into a stupor.
And I say that, and I *like* what Superman can be when he’s well written.
@Flaconer
No, I definitely thought of platoon first because it involves guns. Splatoon is just platoon with an s in front.
Insidious sock,
Why? What’s wrong with a boy wanting to dress as a female character? I understand that cultural norms are against it, so there may be social consequences. But if you’re good with a girl dressing as a male character and not the other way around, you’re saying men and boy are superior to women and girls and so there’s something wrong with a boy wanting to portray a female character.
@Falconer
http://i.imgur.com/uXUozuw.jpg
And that turned out a lot larger than I was expecting. Bloody WordPress, sorry.
@insidious sock, the more people treat gender roles as fluid, the more society will accept them as such. 🙂