Another HUGE VICTORY for Men’s Rights! Some guy on the internet told a woman that the term “mansplaining” is mean to men! And then he used the “c-word” a couple of times!
At first glance, this might not be seen as the HUGE VICTORY that it truly is, men’s rights-wise, but get this! The guy in question is the guy who made Minecraft! A VIDEO GAME that LOTS OF PEOPLE LIKE. Which makes his opinion on this subject really really super important, for some reason.
Naturally, the fellas who hang out in the Men’s Rights subreddit understand what a TRIUMPH this is for men’s rights. There are currently three posts on this WORLD HISTORIC EVENT in the subreddit’s top ten.
Over in KotakuInAction,the main GamerGate hangout on Reddit, the regulars are if anything even more AWAKE to this monumental achievement for all mankind. They’ve got FOUR posts on it in their top ten.
So let’s check out the Minecraft dude’s carefully reasoned argument, which he Tweeted out yesterday.
You can tell he’s totally right about this, and also quite BRAVE, because he got 3700 likes and retweets for it.
Persson went on to explain his PERFECT MANLOGIC in more detail.
Ha ha! Because this explainy thing that men do to women constantly but that women do to men pretty rarely is equivalent to calling car crashes “womendriving” because, ha ha, women can’t drive and are responsible for 90% of all car crashes no wait, that’s not even remotely true; the demographic group that is responsible for far more than their share of accidents is teenagers.
When one Twitterer suggested it might perhaps behoove him to listen to women on this issue, Persson quickly saw through this MISANDRIST OPPRESSION of men who want to talk pretty much constantly.
Actually, Mr. Persson, as I have learned from years of doing this blog, there is no possible way to shut up men who want to inform you at great length of their opinions about feminism and what women are doing wrong. You can ban them from your comments, sure, but some of them will keep trying to post comments for months if not years afterwards.
And certainly Mr. Persson felt no need to shut up. Instead, he kicked his MANLOGICAL STEM LOGIC up a notch by unleashing the ultimate tool in the MANLOGICAL STEM LOGICKING toolkit. I refer, of course, to the c-word.
Here he applied the MANLOGIC STEM LOGICKING directly:
But don’t worry, gals! He’s totally got your back! He’s an EQUALITYIST who’s all for equality between the genders and not for sexism at all!
Huh. Apparently being into “equal rights and against sexism” requires one to go around calling women the c-word, which is TOTALLY NOT SEXIST because sometimes men get called “dick” which is TOTALLY the equivalent of the c-word., I mean it’s not like the c-word is widely considered the worst possible insult in the English language or anything.
Luckily, we have a KotakiInAction commenter called DaedLizrad to Gatersplain to us why it’s totally ok to refer to women with that special word.
Why is calling a man dick acceptable but dropping the c-bomb(seriously your too cowardly to use the word outside a quote?) is so reprehensible?
Its likely to be because of gynocentrism, even if you feminists refuse to accept(or even entertain the possibility) that society cares more about women than men you cannot convince me that feminists, both female and male, don’t clearly value women more than men, that is why treatment of a woman in the same exact way as a man is considered more abusive, because you don’t care about men as much as women.
You sit there and defend a sexist word designed to shame men for speaking to women about any topic, it is only used to tell men to shut up, like it was being used to there against Notch.
You sit there using and excusing gendered slurs against men while clutching your pearls screaming “think of the women” to the same treatment aimed at women, you feminists are all gynocentric and you c*nts can f*ck right off with your double standards.
Meanwhile, fellow KiAer Saddex took a moment of his time to let us in on what “mainsplaining” ACTUALLY is:
The thing with mansplaining is that, just with religion, it’s an unfalsefiable hypothesis. There is really no way to prove that it’s actually a real thing. Sure, might be a couple of assholes out there, but isn’t that same with women as well? Are you sure that if a man, or woman talks condescending to you, that it must be because of your gender? What about your personality, or the actual context? Did you say something just before that would be considered stupid by other people?…
I am going to treat people who tries to convince me that mansplaining actually is real thing like I treat people who try to convince me that god is real. You can believe if you wish but I rely on proof, and the burden of proof lies on the believer. It’s so satisfying to know that these people act just like religious extremists, should be compared to those and that you can use very similar argumentation to debunk what they’re saying.
Yes, what better way to debunk those ladies who get mansplained constantly than telling them they’re irrational fanatics who are seeing things that aren’t there, and that they probably brought this totally imaginary thing on themselves anyway by being such, well, the c-word thing.
All in all, an outstanding victory for the forces of Men’s Rightness and Ethics in Guys Who Make Video Games Calling Women the C-word.
OK, wasting a bit more time: Meh, I don’t mind reviews and even (gasp) read IGN and listen to / watch some of their stuff. Jared Petty is adorable heading up The Vault – I want to give him a completely platonic hug – and I’ve leaned on ragga_fragga’s (forgot his real name) FO4 map when I just haven’t had the time or inclination to retry a speech check umpteen times. And I’ve watched way too much on No Man’s Sky*.
I mean, I game on consoles (my lappie kerchunks w/ the limited graphics and video stuff I can do + consoles are just easier with kids / a family – we’re definitely not getting gaming rigs for everyone and I can lock down permissions on both our XB1 and WiiU…the PS4’s in our room), so no steam reviews here. I’ll take reviews with a grain of salt (on IGN: they had a guy who “doesn’t really like the settlement building aspect” of FO4 review the settlement-centric DLC…ohhhkay), look at the breakdown rather than the score (because 7 IS the new “meh…”) to see what the reasoning is, and weigh some comments if I have time.
I just don’t get these people that are butt hurt about people not reviewing as they’d like or the games they’d like**.
Play games. Learn what you like. Learn to filter bias.
It’s f’ing everywhere. Consider bias-filtering a life skill and move on.
*I’m so done with this political cycle and’ve switched from constantly listening to NPR to streaming all of the safe-for-kids-walking-into-the-room gaming podcasts I can manage until, like, next January.
**This doesn’t include pay-for-review. That sucks, but…guys…I’ve been gaming for my whole life…and I’m *stares off into the distance, pushes back existential dread*…closer to 40 than 30. That’s literally the way it’s always been. If anything, it was more pronounced when the primary source for reviews was mags (high $$ entry point) rather than online (potentially high cost, but almost anyone can throw up a site).
How is the word ‘cunt’ in any way like using the word ‘man’? Most people are going to be offended by being called a cunt, somehow I think calling a man a man is not at all the same thing.
Mansplain MAY be a sexist term, but seeing as how the person doing the mansplaining is the one with the authority (according to his own perception) and power to talk down to someone I reject the notion – it has been created to describe a sexist act, which some women and girls are on the receiving end of every single day. ‘Being presumed to be less knowledgable or informed purely on the basis of female gender and being told something she already knows, or knows more about’ is not quite as easy to say as ‘mansplain’.
I can’t say I love the word, but it is very appropriate for something that is a ubiquitous feature of a sexist society.
pitshade, makroth and Paradoxy – Much thanks for the explains! World building doesn’t interest me very much, but the possibility of having my own Imperial Walker is tempting!
Handsome Jack – I’m a Rat in the Rafters Gemini with mostly air and fire and no earth to speak of. But I’m a lot more mellow than that suggests; it’s almost as if it’s all a bunch of hooey!
chiomara – So glad to hear things are starting to get better!
Axecalibur said
I know, right? And they’re everywhere!
I’m cleaning out my dad’s house (still) and trying to spread the love around donation-wise. I’m only there six or so days a month, so scheduling pick-ups is a bit difficult and drop off locations are mainly SA and Goodwill. I’m hoping DAV is able to pick up in that area, so that they’ll get the big household items once I’m nearly done.
@BadPanzer,
See the sub-heading of the page. This site tracks and mocks misogyny. So don’t expect every conversation to be about a sober, thoughtful examination of someones’ terrible behaviour (Though that is something we do at times!). Sometimes we just point and laugh. Misogynistic bullshit is exhausting and sometimes we can’t put the effort into being in srs mode.
As Mr. Notch just learned, there’s no way to shut up a cabal of “feminists” when you’ve just disagreed with one of them in a public setting. So, you’re both feeling some common ground there, no?
I found this twitter exchange hilarious like some of you, but mostly because there isn’t anything the perpetually outraged can do but post myopic reaction pieces like this (which will sit nicely on the shelf beside the Destructoid one).
PS Notch later commented that he didn’t realize the c word is a bigger deal in the US. He’s from Sweden, so try not being ethnocentric.
What we need is a good equivocation troll. It’s been awhile.
I always love it when trolls invoke Sweden. *lights the Dhag signal*
No.
@Perd Hapley
The choice of the word “cabal” is a fascinating one! Really ties it back to the witch hunts in medieval and early enlightenment times. Women who refuse to (or are unable to) conform to society’s expectations being harassed and pilloried until they disappear. Neat, how it all ties together like that! Language is wonderful 🙂
Well, yes, all we can really do about misogyny is talk about it. We can’t, and wouldn’t want, stronger punishments! I know that there are a lot of manosphere types who think that feminists want to oppress speech, but we don’t, honest.
We prefer to use speech as social pressure to create positive change. And it’s working! It was effective when women were fighting for the vote, it was effective amongst the LGBTQ communitieis in fighting for equal rights and the right to marry, and it’ll work for transgender rights, as it already is now in the pushback against the “bathroom bills”. We don’t want to stop speech, we want to use it! Speech is power!
You can call it outrage, if you want to. But you can’t call it ineffectual. A glance at history will demonstrate otherwise.
Are you an ethical relativist? I.e. there’s no such thing as something being good or bad on its own? Good and evil don’t exist, and torture is only bad because our society says it’s bad?
Because that’s the position you’re taking there. We can criticize a thing in a culture without it being a criticism of the entire culture.
We can all be better. Let’s let Kid President and Schmoyoho show the way.
I can almost buy the “cunt isn’t a big deal in my country” excuse when it’s someone who just refers to everyone that way, almost in the way some Americans use the word dude. But when a man directs it at a woman as an insult because he’s angry that she’s had the gall to stand up against sexism, than the “gee whiz, I didn’t know that was a bad word” schtick does not work. Men know exactly what they’re doing when they call us cunts.
Also Perd, if you’re going to pretend to be the neutral only adult in the room type, you might want to not refer to feminism as a cabal. It kind of gives you away.
Feminist cabal, aka group of uppity women aggressively womaning wrong.
Edit: Also is it just me, or is it kind of odd to call someone’s post on their own blog an “opinion piece”?
@Perd
Holy shit, yo! That was fucking savage. I’ve never seen anyone get roasted like you got us
http://www.bravotv.com/sites/nbcubravotv/files/legacy/u372965/i-dream-of-nene-season-1-wildest-moments-03.gif
I mean, Ida never guessed that MARKUS PERSSON (with a double S) was from Scandinavia. And you said ethnocentric. That’s a pretty big word, yo. And like, I’ve said that word before, so then you turned that shit back… Perd out here breaking ankles
http://www.gifpage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/tumblr_nhzwk0a0VL1tlb56zo1_500.gif
WHTM is over, people. Shut it down. We can’t come back from burns that severe, yo. The antifeminists won, everybody, go home
http://i.imgur.com/JoEWh.gif
PS: I like gifs 🙂
@Scildfreja
No, I’m not committing to moral relativism, I’m stating that words have meaning relative to culture and not inherit meaning. The C word doesn’t mean the same thing to Notch as it does to Americans. Even if you think Notch should be bound to our customs and shouldn’t use the word, it’s disingenuous to imply his usage of the word is rooted in misogyny and not cultural differences.
And I don’t believe all feminists are some SJW boogeyman out to take away my precious free speech. The reason I refer to this article as “outrage” is because its entire purpose seems to be to convince me that Notch is a sexist dudebro by refusing to look deeper at the issue. On the flip side, there’s plenty of outrage on the internet that tries to convince me that so-and-so is a feminazi SJW by tactics similar to this article.
But I guess that’s what I should expect to get from coming to this blog at all, it’s rooted in comedy that clearly isn’t for me. I enjoyed your response, btw, no sarcasm behind that. It was kneejerk of me to imply that people here actually wanted to go for Notch’s job/livelihood. I’m glad to hear you think that’s wrong.
I was going to sass you some more, but I was happy to read this. It’s rare to see someone realize maybe something isn’t working for them in part because it’s not really directed at them.
With that in mind, you also said this:
I can’t speak for David, but FWIW I don’t think he’s actually trying to convince you of anything. Anyone who reads Notch’s own words above and doesn’t see any misogyny in them at all is probably not going to be convinced by anything written here.
@Perd Hapley
Fun fact. I live in France. We have an exact equivalent to the c-word. It’s slang for the same part of the female anatomy. Sounds relatively close too. We use it every day. I use it every day. It’s so rooted in our language that no one, absolutely no one, pays attention to it. Not even feminists. The meaning we give it is basically “idiot”. Sidenote : anyone familiar with French will find it funny that this word is masculine in our weird grammar that attributes gender to any and all things. Another funny sidenote : Notch’s wordplay with that word simply couldn’t function in French because the spelling wouldn’t change.
Long story short, forget about ethnocentrism. I’m from a country that has absolutely zero problem with that word and, guess what ? I was still shocked by “c*ntfusing*, not because of the c-word, but how it was used. I’m sorry, but having a problem with “c*ntfusing” is definitely not ethnocentrism. I do however appreciate the irony of Notch “debunking” mansplaining with that word and then pretending to be a victim of sexism. Now I read your last comment and am willing to believe you didn’t actually just go all concern-troll on this blog’s ass, but what you said was still wrong on many levels.
he got feminazied, move along people, or you’ll get bit too. D:
What issue is it that David or any of the rest of us are supposed to be looking at in depth? A public figure had a twitter tantrum over the term mansplaining. What response is that supposed to warrant other than mockery?
C-word aside, why should I take seriously a man who gets upset by women finding a term for the way men routinely talk down to women?
http://cdn.digitaloperative.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/koolaid.jpg
I heard someone was trying to use my country as an excuse for being a raging misogynist again?
Absolute bullshit. Notch is fluent in English, which for a Swede of his age almost always means American English. He’s been on the internet his whole life. He lives in California, ffs. Living in Sweden isn’t like living in a different galaxy. We watch movies and TV from the US all the time. We know that calling someone a c*nt isn’t cool.
Also, what WWTH said is 100% true:
Yup. Notch isn’t some rando who just stumbled upon Twitter five minutes ago, trying to practice his English communication skills. The “oops, I didn’t know I did a bad thing” excuse won’t work here.
It’s rare to hear women being called ‘dick’, and being ubiquitous its use implies that asinine behaviour is essentially male in character or more common in men. So you might say that’s a relatively mild, gendered insult.
Whereas the c-bomb is meant to express disgust. And, sometimes, the intentional breaking of social taboos by the user in order to appear daring, alpha or whatever. It’s almost never used in a light-hearted joshing way and there’s no mistaking the contempt behind it.
He bought a house in California. Which I assume he lives in sometimes. Does he just scuttle in and settle in its darkness, not communicating to any USian like a cockroach before flying back to Sweden or something?
guyse, guyse
we do not a gree with most sensible man posting rational statement which is not of feelings or emotional but is only of logic. we are bias from the logic feelings because of emotional.
Sweeden is other country!! so it is must that the word is diferent there and not bad, but good. Now it is said for us by most sensible man, so if we do not a gree then we are bias.
blog over! he was rite.
As I said before, Notch argued in 2012 that the default Minecraft player character, which has visible stubble on its chin, is not male but a non-gendered general human being that stands in for everyone.
Notch literally argued that the default human is one that has male signifiers. That men are human and women are variant.
He has never walked that back as far as I’ve seen, and so you have a long row to hoe with me if you want to take the position that Notch is just a poor misunderstood dear who doesn’t English good, and not a raging fucking misogynist when he calls women c-nts.
Fy fan, did someone really show up and try to use Sweden as their shield? 😀
@Perd Hapley, above snark aside (sorry, couldn’t help myself!), you said some things that deserve a proper reply!
It’s true that a word in one culture isn’t always used in the same way in another culture. There are some great rebukes of your point above, though – Imaginary Petal said it best, I think. He was communicating in English, and has been swimming in English-language culture for a long time now.
That sort of opens up a broader discussion about it, though, which is an important discussion! Some people from, say, Australia, will say that they use the c-word all the time and it isn’t as bad. Cultural differences, not misogyny!
Thing is, in this culture, where the word is bad, people say similar things. There’s always an excuse for using it. Those excuses end up being the same all over – “You’re being too uptight”, “chill out, it’s just a word”, “it’s not sexist, it’s just a word.”
I get to evaluate a word based on how it’s used in a culture. If a word is used in a way that minimizes women, then it’s misogynistic by definition. Regardless of how prevalent the words’ use is, or what culture it’s in.
You’re right – shallow mockery of sexist displays in public isn’t a constructive dialog. There are places for that, but it’s not here. You can get that in the comments here – lots of the commenters will go out of their way to educate people who are interested in learning – but we’re here to relieve stress by sharing a disbelieving laugh.
Because this shit is crushing, Perd.
It’s crushing to men and to women, and to people who fit in between those two points on the spectrum. Patriarchy – I’ll use the more general term Society, actually – hollows out the souls of children and spits them, bleak-eyed, into an uncaring world. Men who aren’t allowed to love or worry or care; women who aren’t allowed to think or act or do. It’s crushing, and we’re all trying to reconnect with that bit of us that was pitted out of us back when we were children, trying to figure the world out.
Less poetically, we take it seriously and we’re called perpetually outraged – like you called us just now. We laugh at it instead and we get called shallow. Seems like the only way we’re allowed to engage is by not engaging at all. So, we’re going to do what we want to do and need to do, and you can deal with it.
I’m glad you enjoyed my response – I try to be friendly even in confrontation! I’m glad it worked at least somewhat.
This site is about humour and mockery and fun, but it’s not a comedy site – not really. This is The Daily Show, With David Futrelle. He rounds up the news regarding online misogyny and presents it in a funny way, because that’s the best way to communicate these often heart-breaking topics in a way that doesn’t just kill your heart. So, comedy is certainly involved, but it’s got a serious side to it as well. It’s an excellent communication channel and place to learn.
Please, feel free to stick around! We don’t mind people coming in and talking, even from opposing viewpoints, provided they’re not jerks. Or at least provided that they’re entertaining jerks! 😉