It’s not news to anyone that some of the most popular antifeminist “arguments” are in fact logical fallacies.
For example, here’s the fallacy of relative privation, suggesting that women in first world countries aren’t allowed to complain about sexism so long as anyone in the world is worse off than them.
And here’s the good old straw man, in the form of a meme accusing feminists of believing all sorts of things they don’t believe (as well as a few things they do believe, but for perfectly good reasons).
MRAs: in case you’re wondering which of these statements are straw men and why, I’ve attached a helpful footnote below.
So, yeah, those are some logical fallacies on display. But looking through the memes on display on the Male Lives Matter Facebook page today — which is where the memes above came from — I began to realize that MRAs have invented a whole bunch of brand-new logical fallacies of their own.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
Argumentum ad Picard Facepalm
This “argument” might make a little more sense were it not for the fact that Patrick Stewart — you know, the dude who played Picard — weren’t in fact an outspoken feminist who has literally worn a “this is what a feminist looks like” shirt in public.
I should note that using a Picard facepalm pic isn’t always a fallacy For example, if you are Ian McKellen, a personal friend of Stewart who famously carried a Picard facepalm sign at the London Women’s March this January.
Argumentum ad Ha Ha You’ll Never Get Laid
Granted, “white knighting” is not the same as feminism; it’s a rather patronizing form of “chivalry.” And that last post on the right up there is a little cringey.
But this meme is aimed at male feminists. And while there are some ostentatiously “feminist” dudes who profess a shallow facsimile of feminism in hopes of scoring with the ladies, genuinely feminist dudes are feminists because, you know, they actually believe in equality and shit. As much as this might shock MRAs and others obsessed with classifying men according to simplistic schemes using Greek letters, feminism doesn’t actually render men unfuckable.
Hell, I have actual photographic proof that one of the guys in this very meme has had sex with at least one woman at least once. Here’s the guy in the middle up there — Nev Schulman of the show Catfish — posing recently with his very pregnant wife.
IN YOUR FACE MRAS!!!11!
In case you’re wondering, she has since given birth to a baby girl.
Argumentum ad WTF-um
Wat
Argumentum ad You’re Not a Fireman
Apparently if you’re a female feminist you’re not entitled to emergency services? Even if you pay taxes just like everybody else? Does that apply to male feminists too? I need to know before I light my apartment on fire.
It’s true that there are not a lot of female firefighters. It’s also true that women have been largely kept out of the profession. But not by feminists — the only people I ever see arguing against women firefighters are MRAs and other antifeminists.
Argumentum ad You’re Not a Coal Miner
A kind of mash-up of the Fallacy of Relative Privation and Argumentum ad You’re Not a Fireman. It’s worth pointing out that none of the MRAs I’ve ever seen making this “argument” has themselves been a coal miner.
Argumentum ad Women Sometimes Get Drunk
It’s true that women sometimes get really, really drunk. I’m not quite sure how exactly this is a rebuttal of feminism.
Or is this about the hats? Are you suggesting that women need to start wearing 1956-style hats again?
It’s all very confusing. I think I need a drink.
FOOTNOTE:
Here are the straw men in that straw man meme above:
On drunk women: feminists DO believe drunk women should be responsible for their behavior. Just not the behavior of others. If a woman drives drunk, feminists have no problem with her charged with drunk driving. If a woman is raped while she is drunk, by contrast, feminists don’t think she should be charged with “drunk being raped.”
On alimony, etc: Women do pay alimony and child support when a court rules that it’s appropriate, and no feminist I’ve ever seen has argued that they shouldn’t.
On the draft: Feminists have long argued that women should be allowed to serve in combat and the National Organization for Women has in fact taken legal action to try to extend selective service registration to women,
As for the other ones? I’m not quite sure how exactly the “false accusers should be charged” crowd defines a “false accuser,” but, yes, it’s true feminists don’t want rape accusers charged if they lose a rape case any more than they want murder accusers to be prosecuted for losing a murder case. Accusers of all sorts can be prosecuted for filing a false police report, but this is relatively rare.
Meanwhile, 50-50 custody can be crappy for kids, so it makes little sense to make it the default setting. As for the one about “unwed fathers,” is that really saying what it looks like it’s saying? If so, no, feminists don’t think fathers should be allowed to force women to get an abortion (or to not get an abortion).
EDIT: I reworked the paragraph on feminist dudes and sex to make myself clearer.
Since most manurespherians like Hitler, calling us “worse than Hitler” is a pretty mild insult from their perspective.
If Miggs calls us “worse than Valerie Solanas” then we’ll know he’s really het up.
I think it’s time we start a GoFundMe campaign to send all these manly manly men on a little holiday to Camp CoalmineArmyFirestation, so they can finally experience their natural/dream environment.
@Rapidly Revolving Male Miscreant of the day
Darlin’….darlin’. As others have said, paternity tests are readily available; and your argumentum ad Hitlerum is wearing rather thin. (It usually does.)
Maybe you should catch a nap. Take a walk. Have a cup of tea.
@Moggie:
I hope there’s another photo of McKellen holding that photo of Stewart holding…
If we could achieve sufficient levels of McKellen/Stewart recursion we could very possibly fix every problem anyone ever had. You’ve just got to get the density high enough.
@Alan
In our case, we would almost certainly seek public funding through 2-3 different umbrella departments of government. We’re trying to do something very non-cynical and help our immediate community, so at this point I don’t think we’re considering being funded by private donors at all. We’ve identified the departments that are most closely related to our idea.
I’d be happy for you to send me whatever you think might help. My email is my screen name minus the blank space at gmail, BUT I’ve avoided checking that inbox for I don’t know how many months. There’s some kind of irrational panic associated with email checking right now. Let me know if you send me anything, and I’ll try to force myself to sign in.
(This might be a good opportunity to those who have sent me messages a long time ago and never got a reply. I’m sorry. I’m not doing great at the moment.)
@numerobis
Oh god, I spaced out a million times while reading that. I will have to get my Otter to read it and decipher it for me. My attention span is non-existent. I am very grateful for any help, and I will almost certainly take you up on the offer to ask questions. I just need to figure out what the questions are first! I’ll bookmark this thread so that I won’t forget it.
It’s simply common knowledge that when there’s work to be done
You do every task one at a time
You wipe the tables, sweep the floor, check for bugs on the glass door
And rid the floors of the more stubborn grime
But if someone just barged in and forced onto you a duster
And started rantin’ ’bout the state of their antiques
One might be tempted to interrupt just to stop up all the bluster
Or alternately slap ’em for their cheek
Forgive me if my reasoning’s thin
But there’s quite a bit of shit we’re in
And there’s no flowin’ river we can reroute at this time
You have your concerns and I have mine
Don’t throw the duster at me while I’m trying to complete
The task of tending to the place where we motherfuckin’ eat
Help me if you wanna, but I’m not forcing you
Just don’t think it won’t apply to me, too
@everyone
I also have another question. As I’ve mentioned in the past, our socialized health care is amazing and I would never want any other system ever. Waiting times are not long.
Sadly, mental health issues aren’t treated with the same urgency. Like, at all. I went to a psychologist almost a year ago, and since then I’ve been waiting for their board to determine whether I can be diagnosed with AD(H)D and get medication. I recently called them and they said it will be at least another 6 months. Even then, they might come to the conclusion that I don’t have ADD.
My life is basically at a stand-still until I can access these meds and at least see if they do anything for me. I can’t focus on anything and I have frequent anxiety attacks over all the things I should be doing but can’t do because I can’t focus or plan ahead or organize anything or remember anything for longer than 2 minutes.
Question: How can I access this kind of medication without a prescription? I’m kinda desperate and not very worried about the legal aspects at the moment…
There are no beta men. There are no alpha men. That is not how humans or wolves work. Learn to science, bro.
If you are blaming your unhappiness on being a “beta”, you need to find a different excuse.
If you blame your cruelty and lack of respect for others on being an “alpha”, you need to find a new excuse.
Those aren’t real things, just like misandry.
@IP
I don’t know how ADHD meds are booked in your country (Adderall, my scrip, is Class II [really, really tightly controlled] here in the US, and borderline illegal in Canada), but if you’re in desperate need, A. there’s the Internet and the Dark Web–though I cannot guarantee that you will get your money’s worth. B., check around universities. There’s always a high demand for “study buddies” (read: ADHD medication), and where there’s demand, there’s supply–even if it’s someone who doesn’t take their pills on the weekend and hence has a few extra lying around.
However, if it is possible, attempt to try all the different brands and see what works best for you. Adderall, Vivance, Concerta, and Allegra (if memory serves) come to mind. Some people react badly to one but not to another. (I tried Vivance at one point, but either that or the antibiotic I was taking at the time made my tongue be lit ablaze with pain if it touched anything acidic. I mean, it did its job, but that was Bad.)
This has been advice on getting the medication you need in less than legal ways from a minor. (Who has neither purchased additional medication from someone else nor sold any of her own.)
@Troubelle
Your latest lyric has touched me deeply. I may have more thoughts later, but this one has a lot of relevance for the problems I have been facing lately.
Heartfelt thanks. I hope it’s ok that I copied it down for myself.
@IP
Being organized is a skill that you can learn, not an aspect of your personality. Learning new skills is difficult and humbling, true. I wish you all the best.
@IP: I don’t have any suggestions about how to acquire stimulants used to treat ADHD, but you could give adrafinil a try. It’s one of those “smart drugs”, and I know it’s used as a study aid. I don’t think it’s controlled in western Europe.
You forget what website you were on for a second there, EJ?’
Probably still wouldn’t be cool to coop BLM’s schtick anyway.
(Also Patrick and Ian are friendship goals.)
@eli
I’m glad you could apply it to your situation! (And it’s totally cool if you copied it down–just don’t claim you wrote it!)
I based it off of two things:
1. The notion that deflecting “Black Lives Matter” with “All Lives Matter” introduces issues that are not directly related to, in this case, black people; and at the same time exhorting them to also put effort into all this unrelated shit while they’re still under sub-optimal conditions. (A similar dynamic is being implied in this article, albeit with a hypothetical “Female Lives Matter” vs. “Male Lives Matter”.)
2. My mother telling me to do [some other chore] while I’m doing [chore]. A constant source of stress and upset for me as a child.
@Troubelle
Yes, that substitute my priority for your own is so insidious and applies to so many situations.
We could lift each other up, but if you choose to tear me down, I’m just going to resist and then everybody just feels bad and nothing gets done. 🙁
@eli
I intended for the implication to be a little more generous: “Dude, I know your antiques are important to you, but I’m cleaning the kitchen right now. Which is where we make food. And it’s a good idea to have your food area clean so you don’t get shit–literal or metaphorical–in your food. Now, if you help me with this now, I might help you with your thing. But you don’t have to, and neither do I. Plus, I know you can do it yourself just fine.”
Or something like that.
@IP
I had to go (and stay) off ADHD meds for the Navy then make it through the Nuclear Power Program. I coped with tons of caffeine (400-800mg a day), sunflower seeds to give me something to fidget with while in class or studying and lots of water to prevent all that caffeine and salt from dehydrating me.
ETA: and writing things down, lots of things. I stopped trusting myself to remember anything that I didn’t put on paper. Took so many notes that I knew I’d never read.
@IP
You probably already know this, but reliable volunteers are worth their weight in gold.
@Ellesar
The morals part being principally because people down the mines often worked in the nude, on account of the heat caused by a bunch of people doing hard manual labour in a poorly ventilated space.
@Troubelle
You authors think you know everything! 😛
I kid, I kid.
Your words spoke to me nonetheless. I didn’t mean to suggest you didn’t have generous intentions.
@ip; i’ve had some success self medicating with those 5-hour energy shots. the main problem is my body tends to get used to the higher level of caffeine relatively quickly. my dad swears by them though. it might work for some short term help
“Argumentum ad You’re Not a Fireman” always bothers me because i am a woman firefighter, i know several others, and also do mras like……not realize that female emts, paramedics, emergency docs, firefighters, etc……….exist?
@eli
I meant “generous” as in “I might help with that smaller issue later, but I need to do this right now, so would you kindly fuck off” vs. “I will not help you; fuck off”.
@eli
hmmm. That was exactly what I meant too and you misunderstood me and I’m being misunderstood right now at home in the exact same way.
I’m going to have to review things and do some thinking, thanks.
IP:
Recipe form of my suggestion, filling in for a hypothetical women’s shelter:
1. Google “business model canvas”, find the wikipedia page, print out their figure.
2. Get out a blue pen and a red pen. (or green and purple if you prefer; whatever).
3. Find the “customer segments” box on your printout. In blue, write “abused women e.g. Maria”; in red write “funding agencies e.g. Ministry on Status of Women”.
3. Now look for the “value proposition” box. In blue, “Maria has a safe place to sleep.” In red: “Ministry gets measurable results of its funding.”
4. Now look for the “revenue” box. In blue: “Maria checks in, so we can prove we’re helping people”. In red: “Ministry gives us $$$ under the XYZ Grant program.”
5. Etc with the other boxes.
Print off lots of copies, fill them out in different ways. Brainstorm.
A business plan can easily be a giant waste of time; the BMC is something you can fill out in 15 minutes. Fill at least one out every day during the planning stages.
My current sweetie actually does pay child support to the father of her child. Victory for men’s rights, I guess?
@IP You might also want to try yoga or Tai Chi as a way to help you learn focus.