The Summer 2017 WHTM pledge drive is on! Do your bit for civilization by sending along some much-needed cash! Thanks!
By David Futrelle
So over in the Men Going Their Own Way subreddit, some dude who doesn’t understand the basics of history or much else has declared, in all caps, that “WOMEN WERE NEVER OPPRESSED!”
He gives a slew of unoriginal alleged reasons for this conclusion that will be familiar to most long-time misogynist-watchers. I especially enjoyed this one:
There’s a lot that’s wrong here, but I thought I’d highlight one thing in particular, which is that MEN TODAY DID NOT CREATE CIVILIZATION; THEY INHERITED IT from the men (and women) of the past.
And I feel fairly certain that the sort of dude who posts crap like this on Reddit isn’t going to end up contributing much if anything to civilization over the course of his lifetime, unless Cheeto stains in the carpet count as a civilization-building achievement.
I suppose it could be accurate if you replace “created” with “control” though then it becomes an awfully amoral argument.
What do these guys imagine when they say “Men created civilization” Do they imagine guys in hard hats creating the buildings around them? Are they aware of how many different jobs there are, that some employ women, that working men with stay at home wives usually depend on those stay at home wives?
Maybe they think of the various men they learned about in high school history class… However, if they are thinking of historical leaders then what about the day to day work men and women do? Are they even able to visualize the day to day work that keeps civilization so civilized?
“Mo-o-o-o-m, I need more tendies and Dew!”
“Mommy’s very busy, poopykins. Can’t you get them yourself?”
“But mo-o-o-o-m, I have to write my essay about how women have never done anything for men!”
There is everything wrong with this, starting with the tortured prose.
Real men create their own brand new civilizations at the time of their birth.
He didn’t say today’s men created civilization. You put that word in his mouth so you could write a bitch article about how dumb he is. Great job!
@QuantumInc
No. They have no concept of what civilization is, let alone how it works. And if they did, they wouldn’t like it.
The ones who would have gone over to Europe to protest the G20 summit, but couldn’t afford it because the women in their lives wouldn’t help pay for the plane ticket.
Personally, I’m hoping that civilization 2.0 will be implemented soon, I hear it fixes all the balance issues and has tones of bug fixes. I just hope I’m around to enjoy it.
@EJ
I think I’ve given about half of my life to Civ (1,2,3 and Alpha Centauri)! I was always hoping for a proper Alpha Centauri 2 though.
This isn’t really on-topic, but when I first saw the gif of the bowl falling on the floor and spilling, it looked like giant worms, or maggots, to me.
Also…all this talk of beer, has got to stop?. It’s making me thirsty for some, and the nearest beer store that’s open on Sundays, is a 45 minute drive away.
By and large, women created all men.
So, by his logic we get to decide their fates for them.
@guest
, On Darwin and the Making of Sexual Selection by Evelleen Richards appears to be what you’re looking for.
@lea
I don’t think they have any problem with that, they like to see women as human grow bags. If women were all non sentient birthing pods like something out of The Bodysnatchers, they would be pretty thrilled. It’s when they do stuff that menz do that they get threatened. Heck, they even get threatened by anthropomorphic yellow automobiles. It’s a case of double standards and confusion driving this, on the one hand they say all wiminz are dumb and fat and consumer driven whore bags, and why can’t they be more like menz, but then, when they are, even if they’re a world class sports star like Serena Williams, they get jelly and have to put her down. So if a woman is independent, brainy and muscular, she has to automatically be a “dyke” especially if the has short hair and tattoos, even if she is straight.
Objectively speaking, women haven’t contributed much to the advancement of civilization. However, there’d also be no men without women so I guess they’re a necessary evil 😉
@Megalibrarygirl
Down with this sort of thing!
Well, women invented the internet, so by your logic OP, we get to decide how you use it.
How very gracious of us to let you use it to soapbox about how awful we are.
You could argue that civilization began when women learned how to domesticate men and got them to contribute to the resources of the group rather than simply running around trying to spread their genes as widely as possible.
Even if we accept the ridiculous assertion that women contributed nothing to human society (Impossible, women interact with society, and therefore contribute to it) every single human being alive today is alive because a person with a uterus gave birth to them.
Nearly all people with uteruses are women. The reason any of us have life is because of sacrifices made for us.
@Jesalin:
Have you seen Errant Signal’s youtube video on Alpha Centauri and its attempted sequels? He points out that part of Reynolds’ genius was to make a game in which not exploiting all the resources to the absolute max was a valid path to victory; and since none of his imitators have had the courage to depart from the Civ formula in this regard, none of Alpha Centauri‘s attempted successors have been able to match either the cynicism or idealism of the original.
I need to play it again, now.
You know what happened around the same time as the development of agriculture? The domestication of humans by cats (commonly and erroneously referred to the other way around). So, you could argue that cats created civilisation, possibly in order that we could develop string and laser pointers.
Cats also needed us to develop the fishing industry so they could get tuna.
My mr tells the story of cat.
Long ago man and cat walked into the desert to hammer out a deal.
Man: We have grain and we need to to keep the vermin out of it.
Cat: We will eat your tasty meats, man (aside: which we were going to do any way) but in exchange you must clean our poop, provide additional food, and let us sleep on your best furniture. If you please us we will also give you permission to pet us.
Man: . . .so soft, huh, oh yeah seems fair.
and the language of the pact was the purr.
@Jack Hamilton
Are you really speaking objectively? Can you list their exact achievements? Do you even know any?
Purring is the sound of a cat generating cuteness.
@Jack Hamilton
So, uh, is this a case of “lol, women are useless, isn’t that a funny thing to say”? or is this a case of “lol, women are actually useless but I’ll add a wink to be sarcastic”?
I mean, it’s not like there’s a huge amount of difference between the two, but I’m just wondering what’s going on in your head.
Ah, JEDP, the four-source theory. It is interesting. I like the idea of the (hypothetical) Yahwist author as Bloom imagines her. The four-source theory has fallen out of favor, leaving only D (the Deuteronomist) and P (the Priestly source).