I sometimes make fun of Men’s Rights activists for their assorted misunderstandings of feminism. But this guy gets it! I’ve never seen the essence of feminism distilled into a comic as ably as this.
It brings back memories of the first time I read Andrea Dworkin’s classic “Intercourse: You’re Not Getting Any Unless You Pay for My Dinner.”
Found on the Men’s Rights subreddit, with 100 upvotes.
H/T — r/againstmensrights
NOTE: POST CONTAINS SARCASM
And apparently she had two plates, too. How subtle.
@davidknewton,
I took a look at the artists’ website – have seen it before, and he’s not bad. There are some minor things in there to be concerned about, but he’s got some good stuff – his cartoon on Grace Hopper is actually really good (how could it not be, it’s Grace Hopper).
This comic? Nowhere to be found on his site, at least not in the top several pages. Maybe he saw an influx of hits to his site from the edited picture and is out chasin’ that MRA money. You know, keepin’ it classy. Bleh.
The top comment thread on that reddit link is *gold*. Someone mentions that they should be ignoring feminism and focusing on, y’know, men’s rights (and it’s upvoted 31 times!).
But feminism is incompatible with liberty!
And they control the legislature and judiciary!
*Men need to get some people to represent them in higher office!*
But that won’t work, because women will mind-control-fuck them to do what they want! We have to destroy the system!
I’m glad that there are people arguing that MRA’s should be all about, y’know, men’s rights. But jees, guys, get out of that pool, it’s stinky and gross. Get a new name and get away from those horrible people. You could try “feminist” or “feminist ally” perhaps!
I like how he’s conflating up feminism with misogynistic stereotypes. How original /s
I know some men who expect to pay for dinner because they’re the one who asked a woman out. There’s something to be said for that, since it seems terribly rude to say “I want to go out with you, and we’re going to X restaurant, hope you can afford it”. When I’m going out with a friend I usually expect input on picking the restaurant, otherwise if I’m insistent on a place I also insist on paying.
@ Jupitar
Yeah, I thought the same thing! I know the intent of the art is to make me feel sorry for the guy, but he a) went out to eat with an empty wallet and b) ordered food with an empty wallet, so I don’t exactly feel sorry for him. Even in my own relationship, which is mostly just both of us offering to pay as we’re able, I don’t go out to eat if I don’t have enough money to pay for dinner if she can’t or doesn’t want to pay. To do otherwise is shitty, just like this comic is.
Panel #1: John is the CEO’s son. He’s a major slacker and screw-up who keeps taking credit for Red’s work. Executive Dude is getting tired of having to cover up for John. Just look at the bags under his eyes from all the late nights going over the quarterly results and correcting John’s shoddy work (not to mention $200,000 that’s mysteriously gone missing). He wishes more than anything that he could promote Red, but the boss would have his head. All he can offer her is boilerplate explanation.
Eventually, a competitor company that takes talent development seriously will snap her up and run Sexism Inc. into the ground.
Panel #2: Dude catcalled her, got pushback. “Wait, whaaaa? I thought you chicks liked that sort of thing!”
Panel #3: Moths flying out of his wallet: the universal cartoon shorthand for tightwad. They’ve been dating for awhile, and she finally got fed up with his parsimony. He keeps inviting her out to these fancy restaurants. Lo and behold, when the bill arrives he always discovers he’s “forgotten” his credit cards and cash, and she has to pony up for dinner plus cab fare, which is hard when you’re barely getting paid enough to cover rent, food, and utilities. He’s an even worse boyfriend than John, if such a thing is possible.
On the ride home, Red finds herself staring into space and wondering if she can get a transfer into a “Cathy” strip.
Saw this yesterday. Just as facepalmy then as it is now.
@mistressoflarry: I love that comic! It was that comic that helped me realise I was a feminist all along! I’ve wanted to live on the moon and blow up the Earth since forever!
Wait, that’s what a feminist is, right?
That was amazing Buttercup. Seriously awesome. 🙂
My alt take on your panel #1:
Panel #1: Red has had enough at Sexim Inc. For the third year in a row she and all women at the company have been passed up for promotion to a leadership role due to cronyism and nepotism. Many times these position changes would be held in secret with no chance for an inside applicant to even know the position was open before it was filled. Her boss kept on giving pitiful excuses like length of time in position or nebulous “lack of qualifications”. She knows the real reason is her boss is a sexist a-hole who only thinks women are good for secretarial work and wants to surround himself with his male buddies.
Just the other day her boss promoted John from another division of the company to a position she was applying for. Through a HR informant she found out that John has had annual raises, even with poor to middling annual reviews. Red has not had a raise in more than five years. When asked she was always told that the company was on hard times and everyone was cinching their belts.
Eventually a headhunter from a competitor company that takes talent development approached her with a senior leadership position. She took it and laughed as John and her former boss ran Sexism Inc. into the ground.
I’ve been on lots of dates where I tried to pay but then got essentially shamed out of it by my dates themselves!! Seriously, one time I tried to hand the waiter my card and my date took it away and gave it back me, saying “so you think I’m not man enough to pay, huh?”
We didn’t go out again.
Of course, if Red McStraWoman did exist, and her boss was telling the truth and not just spewing company by-lines in order to get around the equal pay law, she’d be a shitty person for trying to use her feminist learnings to get a job she might not actually deserve, and pay she might not actually deserve.
However, that would require her to exist first, and it would require her boss not to be a shithead who spews those lines to cover his own sexist actions second.
WIN! But then she’d be rolling her eyes half the time at that putz, Irving, or that downright boor, Mr. Pinkley.
I’ve paid for another guy’s dinner before. It’s just polite to pay if someone agreed to go get a meal with you,
But I suppose it’s “game” to angrily tell a woman you will never pay for her food so she feels simultaneously repulsed and challenged, which allegedly makes her more likely to have sex with you.
@history Nerd:
Yup. I usually go by the rule of the host pays for the guest. If I invite someone out, I do so expecting to pay for that person. To me is was just being polite. Nothing about the gender dynamic or anything. If the person wanted to pay for themselves or pay the entire thing that was fine with me.
I’m confused… Is this a blog FOR or AGAINST feminism and SJWs?
Weird how paying for dinner is one of the weird hang ups people have about feminism, but it’s not even consistent about it. When I was growing up, men were confused and angry about women refusing to let them pay for dinner, and complaining how they were just trying to be nice and how they were being emasculated. Now it’s alleged by the same antifeminist types that women are forcing men to pay for dinner even though men are now so poor because women keep taking their hard-earned pay raises at work.
Whatever happened to “OK, on the count of three, run for the door. Ready?”
There’s no romance anymore.
Here is an interesting article on the topic:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2562054/Chivalry-not-dead-Most-men-pay-date-women-secretly-happy-do.html
The dine and dash was scuppered when Red McStraw paused at the door to chastise her hapless partner for presuming to allow her to go first.
@ Jo
Now *that* would make a good cartoon.
Eh, I dated a woman who turned out to be super conservative and anti-feminist in surprising ways and she made a big deal out of me not paying for the second date. See, I’d missed the warning signs going in cause I was taught that when you invite people places, period, it should be with the understanding that you could cover them if need be, so the impolite topic of a disparity in your finances doesn’t have to factor into a social invitation.
So when the second date rolled around and I actually *asked* how we should handle the bill, she freakin lost it.
But somehow, the lesson I learned from that experience was “hey maybe I should try and date more feminist women” not “ARRRGHLEBLARG WHORES”.
I don’t know what to say about the raise part but dont stare at people who show skin for long periods of time and making the person really uncomfortable that’s so creepy. Keep your eyes to yourself and if someone is not staring don’t yell at them. Why is this so hard to understand?
And the last panel, I don’t see the problem with paying for dinner just do whatever makes you and your partner feel comfortable. And don’t show up without money.
Has any mra met a feminist in person and not the people on sitcoms?
I would like to see more comics and memes they are usually so fun to mock.
Binjabreel
I don’t care what a woman said or did it’s never ever ok to call them a misognist slur like “wh*res”
So I noticed that the woman in the comic changes the volume of her hair and the shape of her breasts in each panel. Is that also an evil trick to perplex the men?