With a self-professed “pussy grabber” now living in the White House, you’d think the reactionary douchebags at reactionary douchebag central, Return of Kings, would be feeling pretty chuffed.
Not so much. While Trump signs anti-abortion executive orders and talks about gutting the Violence Against Women Act, the fellas at RoK are worried that feminists are coming for their balls. Chemically speaking, that is.
In a recent post, regular RoK contributor Corey Savage takes a wildly paranoid look at what he calls “10 Feminist Fantasies That Could Become A Reality In The Near Future.”
Ignoring standard feminist fantasies like, let’s say, “getting through a day without some dude on the internet threatening to rape you because you won’t agree that rape culture is a myth” or “setting aside a weekend to binge-watch the 4th season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the third time,” Savage decides to treat us to what seems to be a trip through his weirdest fears, some of which might actually be repressed desires.
So what is Savage worried about? Everything from polyandry to “consent forms” for sex. And did I mention chemical castration?
Here are some of the highlights from his list.
Helping women will become a hate crime:
After complaining about a UK law that supposedly bans men from trying to pick up women in public (it doesn’t, actually), Savage warns his readers, based on absolutely nothing, that such laws
might spread to the rest of the West and expand to include other misogynist offenses including: looking at a woman (what feminists call “stare rape”), calling a trans-woman a he (there’s already a similar law in New York), arguing with women online, manspreading, mansplaining, helping a woman, and so on.
Government-Sponsored Feminist Tribunals
It might be a little tough to convict men of such offenses as manspreading or aggravated woman-helping in a regular court. Savage concludes that the government will therefore set up a whole new court system just to screw over men, a system of feminist “tribunals similar to the kangaroo courts in universities and HR departments at workplaces, all in the name of creating a harmonious society free of hate.”
Non-contact Sex
Consider that we already live in a world where walking past some deranged woman will get you accused of sexual assault. In the future, all physical contact with women may become sternly discouraged or even forbidden that more men will retreat to porn and sexbots as alternatives.
I’m pretty sure that quite a few men (and plenty of non-men as well) already use porn and a wide assortment of sex toys. Also phone sex, sexting, their own vivid imaginations, and so on and so on. “Non-contact sex” has been around as long as “contact sex.”
Bachelor taxes:
An old Men’s Rights favorite boogeyman!
With the drop in number of men who are [marrying] that coincides with the rising number of single mothers who need to leech the welfare state, it’s not too unreasonable to expect a push for bachelor tax that will penalize men who refuse to put a ring on an aging, post-slut sow.
Castration:
Well, “castration” of a chemical kind.
[D]ocile and compliant dogs are the ideal that feminists aim for in their efforts to domesticate men.… If all men are violent hooligans and rapists as some feminists claim, then the next logical step is to let the government control men’s testosterone levels to an “acceptable” level.
And then we come to the camps, and not the fun kind.
Feminist Re-Education Camps:
[I]t won’t be long before men who have been found guilty of misogynist hate crimes to end up in re-education camps. We already have sensitivity training in jobs while colleges are adding courses on toxic masculinity to re-define what it is to be a man on feminist terms. It probably won’t be long before “toxic masculinity” is added to DSM as a mental disorder (in place of homosexuality) and treated like a disease in mental health institutions.
I have to admit that I’m pretty impressed with the way he slipped a little gratuitous homophobia into that last sentence.
Now, if men resist all these evil feminist initiatives, Savage warns, they may well find themselves in even worse kinds of camps. Namely, concentration Camps
No man, no problem! If you’re wondering how feminists could even achieve this, know that there is already an army of goons called the police who will gladly do as they’re told to maintain the gynocentric order.
It’s hard not to wonder if Savage and his Manospherean pals actually live in the same reality as the rest of us.
Here for example, is a piciture of Donald Trump signing an executive order imposing a “global gag rule” that will cut off funding to international organizations that evenso much as mention abortion.
I’m having a little trouble finding the “gynocentric order” in this picture.
Didn’t they already take “homosexuality” out of the DSM?
Also, I’m surprised he didn’t straight-up whine about it somehow becoming illegal for men to hold doors open for women. (That’s one I see come up all that time that baffles me. There’s such a fixation on it.)
@NickNameNick
Abso-effin’-lutely.
They want power and their desire for it is bottomless. No amount of power can ever be enough. Of course, at the end of their lives they’ll die. And whatever they had they will not be taking with them. Sad!
@occasional reader
She’s very well known in the USA because she starred in two hit TV shows here, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
The news outlets are talking a lot about feminism, but I don’t know that she herself was a feminist. I think perhaps that The Mary Tyler Moore Show captured the spirit of the times — women were agitating for rights and independence — in a charming way.
I do know that she was an animal rights advocate.
RIP, MTM.
Lea said:
Totally right. We need to look more critically at the MRA radicalisation of men, mostly white men, with the same beady eye that we look at the radicalisation of (mostly) brown men to radical Islamist ideologies. There’s a stunning (and reinforcing?) cross-over in the way they view women.
@ rugbyyogi
I’ve got to write an essay on exactly that point. Specifically the title is “Is ‘Incel’ a terrorist threat?” My thesis is that the techniques used by the MRA ‘movement’ are identical to those used for radicalisation generally.
So if there was to be a discussion about this, or anybody has any specific thoughts, I’d love to see them. The essay doesn’t have to be in until May, so no rush.
They really are that afraid, aren’t they? Women must be so threatening to them.
Last time I heard about a bachelor tax was that I think one was instituted by that noted feminazi, Augustus Caesar, to encourage higher birthrates in Rome after the civil war.
@NickNameNick: Don’t ever feel that you should apologise for these people’s behaviour. You are far better than they are.
I think there’s an important and not-very-subtle difference between Middle Eastern men and American white men. No points for guessing it.
Why does it have to be done by May? Is this for a conference or something?
@ POM
It’s for a Masters. I have to get it either published in a suitable journal or presented at a conference. Luckily some very nice Mamotheers have been helping me with that.
I’ve been comparing the tactics of terrorist groups generally. My argument is that one commonalty of approach in that they reach out to disaffected men with a nebulous feeling of discontent and failure and say “Here’s a group that you can blame for all your problems” and then cash in on that.
@Alan Robertshaw
Forgive my presumptuousness, but wouldn’t any such essay be, in essence, a recap of Umberto Eco’s list of Ur-Fascist traits?
@PoM
Not to sound too flippant about it, but there are striking commonalities between the brown man in the Middle East and the white man in the US that turn to radicalism.
Both were probably raised in a patriarchal society distrustful of strangers, with a strong culture of honor tied in with masculinity.
They were taught that their respective societies were once the apex of civilization, but are now laid low by the machinations of the dreaded Other People.
They are also holders of privilege in their own societies that feel that their privilege is threatened by that same Other.
And there is Only One Way that they can Fix This. And the Only Person Who Can Fix This is them.
It is only in the particulars that they differ (but that’s where the devil lies, doesn’t it?)
Anyway, I’m venturing into ‘splainy territory, so I’ll stop digging.
@ ariblester
It’s less about whether Incel meets any of the legal definitions of terrorism (although that will be covered) and more about whether it amounts to a practical threat. That is to say, can we expect to see a lot more Elliot Rodgers and Andreas Lubitz.
To over simplify: is Incel something the security services should be concerned about?
(/s)
No, no, NO NOOO!!! WE are the ones living in the alternate reality!! In the REAL reality, we never went to the moon, “9/11” was a guvermint conspiracy, the Sandy hook shooting (and, I suppose, all the other mass shootings) was a fabrication, the earth is flat and Antarctica is an ice wall surrounding the disc, there were millions of people at the dumpster’s inauguration, millions of illegal votes against the dumpster, and the dumpster is gonna “Make Amurrica Grate Agin”….
And, of course, the MRAs have a CLUE about how human relationships actually function.
@Alan Robertshaw
So if I understand you correctly, the discussion of the tactics by which they are radicalized is a stepping stone in your chain of reasoning (mixed metaphors, sorry), by which you aim to assess the practical threat posed by radicalized Incels, by drawing parallels to terrorist groups?
One mild objection, if I may, is that so far, the Incel attackers were more ‘lone wolf’ than a ‘terrorist group’ per se (the ‘beta uprising’ has not happened yet, thank goodness). That could frustrate attempts to draw direct parallels.
Again, I’m running off my mouth, and well out of my depth here, so.
@ ariblester
The ‘lone wolf’ model isn’t unique to Incel of course; lots of ‘mainstream’ terrorist groups work by ‘inspiring’ people as much as through direct contact (AQ’s in-house magazine is actually called ‘Inspire’). There’s nothing new in this. As Conrad’s ‘The Secret Agent’ shows, the technology might change but the underlying methodology doesn’t.
One of my themes is that there’s a standard template that terrorist/hate groups (if there’s actually a distinction there) use to radicalise, and we’re seeing that, either by accident or design, with Incel.
The Beta Uprising might be as hypothetical as the proletarian revolution, but that didn’t stop the 1970s groups like RAF working towards it. One of my theses is that achieving some ultimate goal may be irrelevant to the foot soldiers. They might not even really understand it or the ideology behind it. It’s what they gain personally that matters. Someone who purports to understand them, a surrogate sense of belonging, and an illusion of power where previously they felt powerless (whether that’s from kidnapping a banker or abusing a woman). Arguably they’re just useful idiots being exploited for someone else’s agenda. That doesn’t make them any less dangerous of course.
Your comments are helping me garner my thoughts though, so feel free to continue (if this isn’t too much of a derail?)
Obviously there are more important things happening right now, like the fascism, but anyone else wondering whether that panel of Betty is going into a plot arc in the new Riverdale TV series?
Archie Comics’ dark undercurrents surfacing just in time for Trumpageddon.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/24/journalists-charged-felonies-trump-inauguration-unrest
The answer of a strained friend : “but it’s not Trump, it’s the police who arrested them ?”
I am thoroughly ashamed of him.
Alan, a family member headed an intervention team aimed at deradicalization until a couple weeks ago. The two of you might have something to chat about. Let me know if you want an intro.
How’s this for a movie idea:
A bigoted, sexist pickup artist named Rajah travels to Berlin to work on his latest book, “Hump Germany”.
While there he seduces and assaults a woman, but her father (a 70-year-old mad doctor played by Dieter Laser) catches him and uses him as the test subject for his greatest experiment: the first male pregnancy.
Rajah later attempts to visit an abortion clinic but is blocked by protesters, including a bunch of female street preachers.
In Sweden, trans people were forcibly sterilized/castrated by law between 1972 and 2013. The law applied both to trans women and trans men, i.e. even Rooshites would agree that some of these people were men.
But, needless to say, since this was a thing that actually happened in reality, MRAs won’t ever give a fuck.
I’d be very interested in reading that essay.
There’s an idea which I’ve been playing around with for some time now which may be relevant here, and which I’d like your opinion on.
The idea is that the MRA movement should be understood not as a trope in and of itself, but as a corollary of other tropes in our society; and as long as those other tropes are seen as too essential to our society to readily oppose, it will be difficult to act against the MRA movement.
For example, one of the defining tropes of our society is the notion that men should compete to own the most things; a second trope is that women are owned by their partners; and a third trope that the lives of those who own nothing are worth nothing. When these two tropes come together, we end up with men feeling that they should compete to have the most glamorous partners, and men who do not have partners feeling worthless. This is one of the defining tropes of the MRA movement. However, the tropes that it comes from are important cornerstones in capitalism (first and third) and patriarchy (second.) Many people may not buy into MRAness, but do buy into capitalism and patriarchy, and will be unwilling to reexamine or disassemble those institutions, and therefore won’t be comfortable with opposing the MRA movement in an effective manner.
For another example, the trope of the “lone wolf” incel shooter is fuelled by the “violent revenge is admirable” trope, the “heroes act alone and don’t seek the permission of others” trope and the “visionaries disrupt social norms and breach taboos” trope. Opposing these tropes is difficult because they’re also cornerstones of important institutions in Western society. Our criminal justice system (and an uncomfortably large part of our concept of a just war) is built on the notion of violent revenge. Many of our favourite stories are built on the notion of the lone hero. The notion of the disruptive visionary is an important part of the tech startup scene (as well as some religions.) As such, the incel shooter can be said to be the unwanted consequence some of our more popular social institutions, and difficult to oppose without also damaging those institutions.
@ numerobis
Ooh, that would be very interesting. Yes please. I’m pretty easy to find on Facebook (stone circles & suffragettes) or if you’d prefer email I’m sure David would be kind enough to act as our ‘cutout’. 🙂
@EJ
I’d throw in one other especially persistent trope (and I’m using the term loosely to describe trope-like ideas even outside of fiction): the idea that every single interaction in society is underwritten by the credible threat of violence or harm.
I mean, this model kinda works when you’re dealing with sovereign nations within the framework of international relations, but MRA types take it to a whole ‘nother level.
Why else, for example, would they take their idea of male hierarchy from (the mistaken idea of) a wolf pack, of all things, where the ‘alpha’ is the most physically imposing and aggressive?
So to them, everything is a demand tempered with a threat. You work because otherwise your boss will fire you. You tip your waiter because otherwise they’ll spit in your food. You stay with your partner because otherwise they’ll emotionally blackmail you (if they’re female), or beat you (if they’re male). And so on and so on. Compassion and empathy are feints, cooperation is a tense standoff. And this feeds into all your above tropes, and makes them even more toxic.
I’ve seen it literally stated in all seriousness, by an MRA type, that ‘progressives’ are trying to remove violence and coercion from society (by touting gun control, strengthened protections against sexual assault, ‘politically correct’ speech, etc.), just so they can hoard it for their own use (an odd side-branch of the “THEY’RE COMING TO TAKE OUR GUNS!” strain of thought).
Heaven forbid that the progressives see violence and coercion as a Bad Thing!
@ EJ
Actually when I start getting it into shape I’d be very grateful if you could cast your eye over it; I’d appreciate the feedback.
As to your other points: I’ve obviously had to spend a bit of time in the swamp that is Incel and related. One thing I’ve noticed is that even with the guys who purport to ‘want’ a woman, even if it’s just for sex, it’s never because sex can be fun and enjoyable. It’s sex as validation. Either to boost their own self worth or more often to signal status to others. Hence all the HB10 stuff. They talk about women in the same way someone might talk about owning a flash sports car. It’s not for the pleasure of driving it, it’s to show off. Maybe that ties in with your capitalism thesis.
As to your bit about people adopting tropes in real life, that’s something that Varalys knows a lot about. She’s made some really great points in the comments to her blog pieces. Stuff like how we’ll cheer on designated heroes in fiction for actions that we’d decry in real life.
@Ariblester
Just another depressing instance of the regressive right’s inability to imagine that their opponents might think differently. They assume everyone is like them, and would also act like colossal despotic assholes given the chance.
@Ariblester
That’s overly reductionist IMHO. At the root of the radicalization of Middle Eastern men is a toxic combination of nationalism and religion. AQ for instance was founded because OBL was personally offended by an American presence in Islamic holy cities, and he found enough people to agree with him to form a real movement.
Both nationalism and religion are group-forming memes. There is no equivalent force behind incel “groups” which is why they don’t really form groups. They’re a bunch of individuals behind computer screens. They don’t feel strongly enough about the supposed crimes against them to get together in any meaningful way.
Now, white nationalists have the same kind of toxic nationalism as AQ, with some religion included although it is not as powerful a motivator. This is why you do see them getting together in numbers reliably. But there is a fundamental difference between them and AQ: they are nostalgia-based. This is more than a detail; nostalgia is a less urgent motivator.
I will tell you there is hardly a day when I am not harrased by gyno-centric radfem police. Is there no institution in this once great nation that is more hostile to the very concept of masculinity than the police……… I’m constantly amazed that there exists people that apparently believe this it’s enough to make me wonder if there is some weird multidimensional crap happening and we are half inhabiting two separate universes and in theirs they really are fleeing from the oppressive gyno-sentinels cause that would at least make some sorta sense.