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Memeday: Least convincing arguments against feminism

Unconvinced cat is unconvinced
Unconvinced cat is unconvinced

In today’s episode of Memeday, we look at some antifeminist memes that, well, just aren’t very convincing. Is this really the best you guys can offer?

All the memes here, except for the first one, come from a Facebook page called Math 3 Feminists.

I’m sorry, Math 4 Feminists. What can I say? I’m a feminist; numbers confuse me.

So let’s look at some of these unconvincing arguments, shall we?

Feminism is bad because … Lena Dunham is ugly and has no skills:

lena

We’re off to a bad start here. Say what you will about Lena Dunham, and people have said all sorts of things, some fair, some not so much, but … really? Shes got “no discernible skills?”

Dunham wrote, directed and starred in an award-winning feature film by the time she was 24. She created (and produces and writes and stars in) an HBO series that just finished its fifth season. She’s a bestselling author.

Meanwhile, MRAs stick captions on pictures they find on the internet and call it activism.

Feminism is bad because … sometimes young women get really drunk;

drunkw

Uh, dudes, I see your “young woman in rainbow stockings passing out drunk in the street” and raise you one “drunk dude in cape leaping through a window.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VKNBrQdoQo

… and one “drunk dancing dude jumping off a boat.”

Feminism is bad because … if being a woman is so terrible why is there Caitlyn Jenner?

jenner

Yeah, that’s not how any of this works, you transphobic asshats.

Feminism is bad because … feminists hate stay-at-home mothers:

stayat

Weird, Math 4 Feminists dudes, because the only people I see attacking stay-at-home mothers on a regular basis are, well, MRAs and MGTOWs and assorted other internet misogynists. Like in the meme below, which I found … drum roll .. on the Math 4 Feminists Facebook page.

kerm

Feminism is bad because … women didn’t serve in the military equally in a war that ended two decades before feminism as we know it began:

tomhanks

Also, fellas, just FYI, Tom Hanks didn’t actually serve in the army in World War II. He was in a movie about it.

Feminism is bad because … Detroit:

detroit

Er, what? Are you just putting up pictures of random things and blaming feminists for them?

All I can say to that is … THANKS OBAMA!

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sevenofmine
8 years ago

I especially love the last one because apparently the best thing they can say for themselves is that they haven’t quite destroyed the entire world yet.

Film Runner
Film Runner
8 years ago

Why is Kermit the Frog in here?

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
8 years ago

I thought Detroit went to pot because the ED-209s couldn’t do stairs.

Something like that anyway.

Imaginary Petal
Imaginary Petal
8 years ago

So… when does the math start?

Rabukurafuto
Rabukurafuto
8 years ago

Alan Robertshaw
May 20, 2016 at 9:25 am
I thought Detroit went to pot because the ED-209s couldn’t do stairs.

Something like that anyway.

Heh.

Film Runner
May 20, 2016 at 9:23 am
Why is Kermit the Frog in here?

I’ve only seen this meme a few times, but each time it’s been for something noxious; the last one was pure transphobia.

Name Is Futile
Name Is Futile
8 years ago

So… when does the math start?

probably at the same time this people learn what logical thinking is

Kat
Kat
8 years ago

That particular picture of Detroit looks a lot like MRAs’ apartments: trashed.

I’m sure a woman is somehow to blame. But how?

MRAs, you’ve got to enlighten us. Make more memes!

Falconer
8 years ago

The Kermit meme is But That’s None of My Business, in which Kermit judges so hard. It’s similar to Why You Always Lyin’, but like Rabukurafoto says, it’s often something noxious.

The image comes from a tea commercial in which Kermit ignores a fracas in the street outside his window, therefore “that’s none of my business.”

Kat
Kat
8 years ago

So… when does the math start?

probably at the same time this people learn what logical thinking is

So . . . never.

Kat
Kat
8 years ago

Feminism . . . because young women shouldn’t have to behave responsibly . . .

. . . when some asshat roofies them.

Dal
Dal
8 years ago

Really? Detroit? I was thinking more of Stockholm.

Bina
8 years ago

So much stooooooopid…my poor widdle math-challenged ladybrain doesn’t even know where to start with it. But here goes…

“Unattractive women with no discernible skills” = average-looking women with plenty of skills that men simply don’t want to recognize because they prefer bizarrely constructed women (whom they call “attractive” because that’s what they’ve been boner-conditioned to prefer) with no discernible skills…beyond posing in heels and a bikini beside, say, a new car.

“Because young women shouldn’t have to behave responsibly”…this from the same bunch of bozos who lament that boys aren’t allowed to “be boys” anymore. And what does “being boys” consist of? Raping their way through everything that wears a skirt, and never behaving responsibly as long as alcohol and/or their dick is in the way! (Irish flag cape optional, but St. Paddy’s Day always makes a primo excuse.)

Caitlyn Jenner: Not exactly a representative example of your typical trans woman. And if you’re wondering why she wanted to “become a woman”, why not ask her yourself, dude?

SAHMs…oh right, because the one role that’s approved for us is still one that they kvetch about incessantly when anyone does choose it. Because it involves a man having to foot all the bills, and that’s MISANDRY! (And if she’s a SINGLE stay-home mom…then they whine because Big Daddy Gummint and bitches don’t want to pick up after their menz no more and blah blah blah.)

Where were all the feminists in WWII? Working in the factories, making sure these guys had planes to fly and jeeps and boats to ride to war in, and munitions to dump all over Germany and Japan. And oh yeah, growing all the food and fixing those MREs, too. And they were nursing in the hospitals, and delivering supplies, and rolling bandages. Where the fuck else? They weren’t allowed into active combat because the generals thought “ladies” and their hormones weren’t strong enough to handle the stress. Never mind that men and THEIR hormones aren’t, either. No one is. That’s why THIS feminist opposes all wars. No one should have to go!

Detroit: Wait, you’re blaming feminism…for CAPITALISM? Dude, you can’t do math. Leave it to the ladies, wouldja?

RosaDeLava
RosaDeLava
8 years ago

@Bina
They blame women for the worst parts of capitalism a LOOOOOOOOOOOOT.

“A homeless man?! GODDAMMIT YOU EVIL HARPIES!!!”

Bacon
Bacon
8 years ago

They do realize that a whole lot of stay at home mothers are feminists, right? Because even if you weren’t a feminist before you had kids, there’s nothing like discovering your wages won’t even cover childcare to make you all militant about the wage gap…

Buttercup Q. Skullpants
Buttercup Q. Skullpants
8 years ago

That Detroit one….I just can’t with the stupidity, and the ham-fisted attempts at a gender protection racket.

Detroit went into decline because of white flight (which ravaged the tax and investment base), a heroin epidemic, and a single-industry economy that decentralized rapidly after WWII. I’m oversimplifying, but globalization and racism, not women, were major factors. They’re using a photo of Detroit after decades of an economic catastrophe that women had very little to do with, to make the point that there’s more where this came from if feminism continues to succeed.

Apparently we’re supposed to be lavishing the meme makers with cookies and continued oppression of women as a reward for not torching the rest of the entire world.

Ouraboros13
8 years ago

Detroit: Wait, you’re blaming feminism…for CAPITALISM? Dude, you can’t do math. Leave it to the ladies, wouldja?

It’s typical scapegoating, very common in the right wing. Rather than seeing the true sources of our problems and working towards fixing them, the right wing blames vulnerable people (women, nonwhites, the poor etc.) for all our problems. They can’t actually critique the institution because they support it.

Scildfreja
Scildfreja
8 years ago

@IP

So… when does the math start?

@Name Is Futile

probably at the same time this people learn what logical thinking is

😀

@Name Is Futile, if you’d like to point out an instance of illogical thinking in Davids’ post, or somewhere else? I’m sure we would be happy to explain the logic behind it.

(P.S. you need more than logic to come to correct answers. You also need well-calibrated value judgements, empathy, and self-awareness. Logic is not enough!)

@IP, I loves me some maths. We should start a maths discussion. What kinds of maths?

MexicanHotChocolate
MexicanHotChocolate
8 years ago

The WW II meme once again demonstrates that you could write a whole history book about what the denizens of the manosphere don’t know about history. During World War II, women served in all of the reserve branches of the Armed Services and were stationed stateside to free up men for combat duty.

For example WAVES served at Naval bases as engineers, doctors, attorneys, control tower operators, machinists, parachute riggers, mathematicians, radio operators, and chaplains. One WAVE mathematician was stationed at Harvard working on the computation project with the Mark I computer.

WASPS were female civilian pilots who freed up men for combat missions by flying stateside support missions, including towing targets for aerial combat training, transporting cargo, and testing both jet and rocket-propelled planes.

WACS served the army in a variety of support roles including stenographers, clerk-typists, mechanics, armorers, drivers, postal clerks, switchboard operators.

Scildfreja
Scildfreja
8 years ago

That Detroit one is super ridiculous. Mostly because the “Detroit is what happens when you let ______ run the show!” line is used interchangeably for any less-than-ultra-right-wing policy you like. Socialism is the one I usually here; Detroit’s what you get when you tax people!

They really do think that feminism, socialism, progressivism, and liberalism are all the same thing, don’t they? All part of the Jewish plot of world domination I guess. Ugh, it’s all so tiring.

Imaginary Petal
Imaginary Petal
8 years ago

@Scildfreja

I think Name Is Futile was questioning the logic of the meme makers, not David or the commenters here. I’m pretty sure NIF is a regular or semi regular commenter.

I actually can’t math at all. You’d be better off discussing math with a 5th grader, to be honest. I know basic arithmetics, and everything else is gobbledygook to me. :p

(Surprisingly enough, the genitalia I was born with have not granted me the superior STEM powers I was promised.)

Judas Peckerwood
8 years ago

Clearly, Detroit went all to hell because of the city’s unbroken string of women mayors. Oh, wait… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Detroit

Axecalibur
Axecalibur
8 years ago

First off, Detroit isn’t a gotcha. It’s an actually city with actual people. Millions of people do millions of things there everyday. Detroit is not a synonym for municipal bankruptcy, and even if it were, the low key racist dogwhistling ain’t exactly subtle
Second, there’s a pretty good rule of thumb for regressive ideas. How far back in time do you need to go to make your point. If the answer is D Day, you’re likely a reactionary asshat. But do head back in your time machines to June ’44. We won’t have to deal with you, and I hear the polio was lovely that time of year

Oh, and “Thanks, Obama” will never get old… unless maybe ‘Thanks, Hillary’ replaces it… Nah, can’t beat the classic

Scildfreja
Scildfreja
8 years ago

Oh! Whoops. Mea culpa :s

Weatherwax
Weatherwax
8 years ago

Also, I think that’s a particularly lovely picture of Lena Dunham, so I’m a little confused about the point being made. Maybe I have no discernible skills either.

weirwoodtreehugger: communist bonobo
weirwoodtreehugger: communist bonobo
8 years ago

There’s so much irony in an MRA asking “shouldn’t women be free to choose what they do with their own lives” that it broke my brain.

A by no means comprehensive list of things MRAs don’t think we should be allowed to do

Say yes to sex
Say no to sex
Take birth control
Get an abortion
Have a baby
Be sexy
Be ugly
Be fat
Wear glasses
Wear short hair
Have tattoos
Have a job
Be a housewife
Be on welfare
Let a man hold the door open
Not let a man hold the door open
Let a man pay for dinner
Emasculate men by paying for our own dinner
Date a black man
Date a Muslim
Date a jock
Play video games
Start in movies that are in a male coded genre
Wear makeup
Wear no makeup
Do anal
Refuse to do analysis
Object to street harassment
Talk to strange men
Refuse to talk to talk to strange men
Have pets
Be an atheist
Be religious

And on and on it goes. But feminists are the ones trying to control women’s lives. Sure, hon.

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