On Fathers Day, somewhere on the internet, the following meme was posted:
The Men’s Rights subreddit reacted, as it so often does, with manly indignation: how dare these women take our Fathers Day from us! Even by normal Men’s Rights standards for empty outrage this seems a bit much. After all, it’s not exactly news that a lot of women raise their kids by themselves, when the fathers of their children, refuse to act as, well, fathers to their children. Indeed, “financial abortions” — that is, consequence-free child abandonment for men — is one of the central demands of the Men’s Rights movement.
But to one anonymous commenter on the Men’s Rights subreddit, this meme could well be the final insult that transforms the men of the world into angry panda impersonators destroying everything within reach.
According to this anonymous observer,
this really scares me, enough that I wake up at night thinking about it.
Wait. You wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat thinking about … a meme?
No one could deny that there is open warfare on men all throughout western society. Whether or not it is deserved is somewhat irrelevant (you’ll see why in a second). There’s a minority of men who are alarmed but the vast majority just doesn’t have this on their radar…yet. This is mostly because it doesn’t affect them directly.
How can there be “open warfare” on men if most men haven’t even noticed it? Has there ever been a war in which the majority of those ostensibly affected by it don’t even know that it exists?
But never mind, because “[t]hat’s all going to change soon.”
Mixing his metaphors with wild abandon, this anonymous Men’s Rights Nostradamus predicts that
It won’t be long until the inroads that feminism has blazed start to butt up against the everyday Joe that’s just living his life.
Ah, the ever-reliable “everyday Joe,” beloved icon of reactionary grumblers since pretty much forever. In 2008, he took the form of a plumber (well, sort of). In 1970, they made a movie about him.
It appears that feminism doesn’t know when to quit and I clearly see the movement doing something that causes ‘Joe’ to not only look up from his newspaper but also impact him in a negative way.
You wouldn’t like me when I look up from my newspaper!
This lights the fuse.
Throughout history the one thing men are good at is responding to threats, whether they are real or not. I’m reminded of a video of a robbery at a convenience store I saw. The robber had a knife pointed at the clerk, demanding the contents of the register. Two random men were behind him, watching it all go down. One guy looked at the other and did the “upward head nod”. The other guy responded with the same discreet movement and they launched at the robber, taking him down. These two guys didn’t know each other at all but they, like most all men, are given to cohesive bonding when a threat is present.
Men also make up the vast majority of those robbing convenience stores, but never mind.
Feminism gives a perfect storm for this response and it’s going to be really ugly. When men get pissed, especially when they feel disenfranchised or morally wronged, they start breaking things.
Are you sure you haven’t confused men with toddlers having tantrums?
If this starts to steamroll it will make Ferguson look like a dress rehearsal.
That escalated quickly. Good old everyday Joe was just sitting there reading his newspaper, when all of a sudden he caught sight of a feminist meme on the internet. Next stop, literal rioting in the streets.
Those cops that will be asked to stop it? Those are overwhelmingly men too. Many will be sympathetic and I see lines being crossed.
A Man/Cop Alliance of Rioting Manbabies?
Yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me if this doesn’t get dealt with that it could be something on par with a major social upheaval. It’s going to be expensive, bloody, and it’s going to change everything for several generations. Once men start hammering, it ALL looks like a nail.
Yeah this bothers me a lot. I hope I’m badly wrong.
No you don’t. MRAs and other reactionary misogynists are forever airing these kinds of apocalyptic fantasies, in which the evil feminists “push men too far” and the men “finally explode” like some kind of “male bomb.” Civilization crumbles, and those evil complainy women get their final comeuppance.
Some of the men profess their deep “concern” that the women they want to shut up won’t shut up until it’s “too late.” Others can barely conceal their glee at the prospect of a bloody Manpocalypse that will put women back in their place.
Because this isn’t a warning. It’s a threat. It’s what every wife-batterer does when he “reminds” his wife that she won’t like him when he’s angry. It’s a way to control women through fear. Or at least an attempt to.
The only difference now is that the dude doing the “reminding” isn’t threatening his wife at home; he’s playing to the crowd in the Men’s Rights subreddit, and getting upvotes for it.
All over a meme.
So which gender is supposed to be the emotional one again?
H/T — r/againstmensrights
@Jackie:
A catsplosion is an incident in which your fortress has too many cats in it. The game runs slower as the total number of living things on the map increases because it needs to do pathfinding calculations for them all. Cats are extremely fast-breeding and so can quickly build up to population levels where they bring your CPU to its knees and make the game pretty much unplayable. Theoretically this can happen for any type of animal, but cats are uniquely problematic because instead of dwarves adopting them as pets like with other animals, they decide to adopt dwarves as owners.
(The game’s programmer, Tarn Adams, has a cat. You can tell.)
Once an animal is a pet it can’t be killed, and therefore there’s no way to eliminate the breeding population. With any other animal you can manage it simply by not allowing dwarves to adopt them as pets, but since cats do the adopting this isn’t possible with them. Result: runaway exponentially growing cat population. A catsplosion, if you will.
In the old days people would deal with it in… various ways. Tarn Adams was distressed by this, so he added animal gelding into the code.
@EJ
Okay. I think I’ve had maybe six cats, and only two which were both…female, I think, in the same game, so I wouldn’t have known.
I share that distress.
@Pandapool
I’ve seen the 1st episode of that show! It was pretty aweful, as you’d expect.
I heard they shot another episode or 2, but those are missing.
I swear it felt like they were going to turn “You’re a very naughty little Hitler!” into a catchphrase on the show. Truly baffling how it was ever approved to get made.
@Spindrift
I feel it would have actually been a good show if they didn’t just switch Ricky and Lucy with Adolf and Eva, ya know? If they just let the kind of jokes that would piss white supremacists off so fucking much fly, make every minute filled with anti-Nazi jokes, it could have been something decent. But, no, they took someone’s fan fiction of the Honeymooners and switched out the names. XP
Speaking of memes…David, have you seen this?
https://www.facebook.com/awareIWSD/posts/391439594394003
There are some comments about whether the actors know and consented to the use of their photos. I’m guessing no.
I did a quick Google search for the hashtag mentioned in the meme and this Facbook post was the only thing that came up, so it clearly hasn’t gotten very far yet.
Damn. I did not expect that to embed. Sorry for the giant photos!
@Pandapool
Maybe. I think it would have worked better as a comedy sketch, or series of sketches.
I agree that good satire could have done something worthwhile with the concept. Pity that’s not what they ended up making.
@ej
Lol at “ugly men don’t have makeup” while using pictures of actors. Last I heard, male actors use makeup too.
@Spindrift
There were people in the comment sections of both videos talking about how it would make a good web series. 10-15 minutes of Nazi bashing a week would be pretty sweet.
@Pandapool
I could see that working.
@ej
Stupid men can’t be “blonde”. They can be “blond”, since that’s the proper French/English noun/adjective for men but “blonde” is for women.
Re eating cheap when poor: Agree completely that living on low costs for a week is easy-peasy, since you won’t have any big costs coming up during that time that can’t be postponed to when your week is over.
Advice on how to eat cheap and save money in other ways can be really helpful, but they should come from someone with actual experience of being poor. I used to read this feminist blog, written by a woman who used to be pretty poor but nowadays has more money. She once asked people with actual experience of poverty to fill the comment section with money-saving advice, and that’s a good and helpful idea. Not so much when middle class people theorize about how to save money.
Plus, poverty doesn’t always look alike. Me and Husband were pretty poor for a few years about fifteen years ago. We had about 7-8 000 SKr between the two of us for rent, food, transportation and everything. We didn’t have much work, though, so we had plenty of time on our hands. That’s a very different situation from someone who works all day long for a super shitty salary, for instance.
@ej
Pfffffft. They just don’t get it XD. Oh MRAs, nobody is saying you should do those things. Except, of course, the patriarchy which you are committed to denying.
As a mother pulling double duty and someone who knows quite a few other women doing the same, it makes me laugh that these douche-nozzles are throwing tantrums about this. I didn’t ask for this meme or all the people who express their appreciation for single moms. These are being made by people who see the struggle and are trying to lift us up! You know the majority of people with actual human empathy. Smh
At least these look somewhat decent, design-wise. The grammar’s a little “eh”, but other than that, it’s not too bad.
Though, I am going to agree that the photos were most likely lifted from elsewhere without the model’s knowledge. Because activism.
I think it’s rather silly that they think these things are big deals. I hold the door open for people. I’d hold someone’s bag if they needed a hand freed up. I’d give my seat to pregnant women and the elderly.
It’s not “mancrimation” (because everything needs to be parsed through MAYUN language apparently), it’s doing nice things to make the world a little less shitty for everyone else who lives in it.
It’s not things men specifically are expected to do, but rather things that a good person is expected to do, which says a LOT about who these people are, if I’m being honest.
Well, one cannot technically discriminate against a pair of boobs, considering that boobs are not people. It’s the person attached to them you’re discriminating against. And your grammar here implies that women are somehow discriminating against boobs, and that made me giggle.
However, and this is the sobering thought, the reason that there are “women only” trains/buses/queues is due to women not feeling safe from men sexually harassing them. It’s not because we want “special” stuff, it’s because we don’t feel safe around you all the time.
Perhaps you could open up your own MAYUN trains/MAYUN buses/MAYUN queues. I certainly wouldn’t argue against it if you feel the need to have them.
Though, I have a sinking feeling that it’s less about “Women have special places and we want them too!” and more about “Women are separating themselves from us! Misandry! We want to harass them more!”
Yup. And women’s products are far more expensive. This phenemon is so wide-spread, it has it’s own name, the “Pink Tax”.
And high heels were originally invented by men for men.
And men can and do wear makeup. (Seriously, if you want to try it, there’s tons of great tutorials on YouTube. Feel free to try it. You might make makeup cheaper if you get more men interested in it. I’m tired of paying 7 bucks for a tube of mascara.)
And no, stupid men can’t be “blonde”, partially because of what Jackie said, and partially because it’s a stereotype against women, thus it’s sexist. If a man’s stupid, then that’s fine, there’s always something he’s better at. If a woman’s stupid, then well, she’s a target for mockery and she can’t do anything right.
Hey, if you want to get in on this shit, feel free. No one here’s stopping you.
A lot of the time, when women get free drinks, they didn’t even want them or ask for them. A lot of times, it’s just a guy trying to get a woman drunk enough to sexually assault her or waiting for a moment to slip a date rape drug into her drink.
Women sometimes get free entry because it’s marketing. Lure girls in with free drinks or free entry, and men are more likely to follow because that’s where the women are going. If you don’t like it, don’t go to bars on “Girls’ Night”. Eventually, bars will get the hint and stop doing it.
It’s not “sexism”, at least, not for men. It’s using women as bait to wring more money out of drunk, horny men’s pockets.
However, if you’re not good looking enough as a woman, chances are you’ll be turned away at the door, “Girls’ Night” or no. So, there’s that.
Men do get sympathy. Single fathers are pitied while single mothers are stigmatized. You get rejected by a woman, you get sympathy, she gets run out of town by those who sympathize with you.
Yes, there are lots of places where men don’t get the sympathy they deserve, but that’s due to some hyper-masculine bullshit that says men have to shoulder their emotional burdens themselves. (Which, bee-tee-dubs, other men did to you. You should thank them.)
No, if you want sex, you want sex. However, it’s how you act while trying to obtain it that makes you “desperate”. Going to every profile that looks vaguely female and asking for a blowjob is desperate. Asking your partner for sex is just asking your partner for sex.
Yes, I am sexually liberated. Yes, I ask for sex. You are free to say “no”, however.
If “we” want sex, then yes, my terms have to be met. It takes two to fuck, buddy. If I say “We’re not doing [insert sex act here]”, and you proceed to do [aforementioned sex act] anyway, I have every right to stop having sex with you, and vice versa. If you don’t want to do [Other sex act], and I try to initiate it anyway, you have every right to tell me to stop, and stop having sex. BOOM. Not hard.
Consent is a two-way street, but it’s the sexiest street I’ve ever seen.
__________________________________________________________
Bad memes are bad. Bad grammar is bad.
@EJ (The Other One):
I share your concern. I know that in my late teens/beginning 20s I did exactly what you describe. I knew that my sexual partners were watching porn and therefore thought that they would expect various acts I was not comfortable with but felt like I had to do and encourage anyway because I thought (and was right about it) that they were expected. I wasn’t happy about it at all and felt ashamed but it seemed to me that there was something wrong with me because I didn’t want it and that I had to hide that.
I was so relieved when I met my current partner and he expressed that he didn’t have any expectations about rough sex/anal sex etc. and that he would never take oral for granted.
So I know from experience that being insecure in your own sexuality (because of youth and inexperience) and knowing about the expectations guys (may) have from watching what is now mainstream pornography is a highly problematic mixture.
I made a card for my mom thanking her for pulling double duty and calling her a hero. Yay! Double misandry!
I’m still smiling at those memes. Especially the “it’s a man’s world bull****” one. Forget the men in history and now who were presidents, prime ministers, Kings, etc that made all the laws and rule the majority of the world for centuries actually the ones who rule the world are women for getting free drinks..sometimes. And I don’t know what “free entry” is. Is it women shelters? Places like that?
Ninja’d by everyone.
Break out the bonbons!
Nope. Men only started wars and had positions of power to impress women. So, all wars are wimmen’s fault. [/MRA mockery]
I think it’s free entry into bars. Which, I did address in my post, is more for marketing than it is solely because bewbs get free drinks.
And of course, you have to be at least an HB6 to get it. Depending on the club/bar. Some clubs/bars only allow HB8+. Not that any man would dare go into a seedy bar that allowed just any old woman in. Gross. If I don’t want to put my penis in her, why is she there?! [/PUA mockery]
Speaking of bewbs, I’m still giggly over the idea that women are somehow discriminating against disembodied tits.
@Paradoxical
I think one of the silliest parts is that they want blond men to be stupid for some reason? Like, do they want blond guys to be classified as “ditzy” like blonde women?
I’m also pretty sure there’s “dumb blond guys”. Owen Wilson’s character from Zoolander was both dumb and blond…that’s admittedly the only guy I can think of that’s a dumb blond.
Or are they saying that blond guys CAN’T be dumb because being the “dumb blond” is such a stigma? They DO realize that there AREN’T a lot of dumb blond GUYS because been a guy and blond isn’t as stigmatized as a woman being blonde?
…
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/nicki-minaj.gif
Paradoxical
“Break out the bonbons!”
And the champagne! Well I’m too young for achohol so pretend it’s sparkling juice.
http://media.giphy.com/media/BJH2ALum77Vni/giphy.gif
@Fruitloopsie:
British law holds that a website exists in whichever jurisdiction the browser is in. This means that if a single British commenter is viewing the page, it’s legally within the United Kingdom and British drinking laws apply.
Enjoy your champagne. God save the Queen.
Hey, MRAs, you know what? That’s true and it’s definitely a problem for both men (“Haha ur gay, man up u homo, lelz”) and women (much higher prices)! But the answer is feminism, not more patriarchy. More patriarchy would just make it worse.
… You know, like with every other issue you’re stopped clocks about.
… HAHAHA:
https://twitter.com/Spacekatgal/status/614133943147855872/photo/1
Okay, even the AAA games #GamerGate has sworn to protect are making fun of them now, and that is awesome.