By David Futrelle
Pretty much any time a dude says anything vaguely positive about feminism, or women, or a particular woman online, some idiot will pop up to accuse him of being a “white knight” who’s only pretending to be feminist in order to get laid.
And while, yes, there is a certain subset of skeezy dudes who do pull this crap (Lush’s Ladykillers video skewers them expertly) this accusation is mostly just a way for antifeminists to put feminist dudes on the defensive — and to keep from acknowledging that, yes, lots of people, including men, actually support feminism on its merits.
This early 20th century anti-Suffrage postcard reminds us again just how hackneyed the cries of “white knight” really are.
To put this postcard in a little context, here are some other anti-suffrage postcards from around the same time. You may notice that some of their “arguments” are similar to those of 21st century antifeminists as well.
What’s with the “56 lbs” on that weight in the one with the woman tied to the chair? That seems awfully specific and my Google-Fu is weak here.
@barkeeperin
I am so happy you asked about that! Obv it could have been just a random weight (I think it was fairly standard size?), BUT there’s a cool connection.
Muriel Matters (best name ever) was an Australian suffrage campaigner who once dropped 56 lbs of pro-suffrage leaflets from an airship over London. She was hoping to shower the King, but the wind interfered. Still made quite a statement!
The cartoon here may not be actually referencing Matters, but it’s still a great story 🙂
From the MRA/MGTOWs, a culture which holds that EVERYTHING men do should be done to get their end wet… this attitude comes as little surprise.
@ mish;
I dunno, the 56 pounds and the chain seem a little TOO coincidental
Mish, GMTA! I was just going to post that information! ?
@barkeeperin
I was wondering the same. A Google search brought me to a reddit post with this possible explanation: https://murielmatterssociety.com.au/home-page/who-was-muriel-matters/
Other than that, 56 lbs = 4 stone, maybe that’s significant in some way?
Edit: ninja’d by Mish!
@PeeVee,
Ha! Well, we are kindred spirits, I think xxx
I’m amazed that both of us got there first – I was expecting Alan Robertshaw to come flying in, armed with his encyclopedic knowledge of suffragettes 😀
@Weird Eddie,
Well, Matters dropped her leaflets in 1909, so if we could date the cartoon …?
I really love this tidbit from the site I just linked to:
Alan’s distracted a bit by the stupid trolls over in the Cassie Jay letter thread.
I love how low-aware the darning socks one is. Like they recognize that women were treated like crap and thus to work like one would be awful… but then just keep going about their days all “gee I wonder why women are so upset?” Like, I’d legit be laughing if I weren’t sick atm.
Thanks very much for the answers. I really thought that 56 was too specific to be some random.
@JS,
Yep – was talking to him about that this morning. That thread is unbelievable.
Was I the only one who was distracted by the first letters of the words being a different color on the first postcard?
I expected them to spell out something, but it just says “irkhthht” and that’s not a word. So I was left wondering why they’d even bother doing it when it just makes it slightly harder to read.
I guess anti-feminists have never been good at formatting choices.
If I remember my “old pigment fading data” right, that red on the first post card would have been much brighter when first printed.
It was difficult to get a cheap red that wasn’t fugitive in those days… I think?
(and yes, the Cassie Jaye thread just came back around to trolling us about the quillette.com “rebuttal” of “Google Idiot Guy”. It’s extremely repetitive, by which I mean it repeats, again and again, and then goes over the repeated “point” repeatedly. Sit still, and you’ll score points just from the goalposts moving.)
And still, to this day, I will never understand why men are scared of strong women for.
I don’t recall my savage, baby-eating ancestors of the North ever having a problem with strong women, but then again, who what the Nordic people were actually doing back then.
Also, why must all guys assume that every man wants to have sex with someone? Are platonic relationships not a thing?
Maybe I really am not human after all, and happen to be some other creature in a human flesh suit.
@Mish
it appears in a collection of images ftom between 1910 and 1914, haven’t found a specific year for that one.
I read a series of tweets recently about how the stuff we hear from men is so generic you could swap the men out after every sentence and it would be completely seamless.
I remember that now as I look at this shit, and compare it to the things I notice men saying today.
Something that’s always bothered me is how they go “She hates men because she’s a lesbian” and “She hates men because none of them want to marry her” about the same woman less than two minutes apart. Dude brains strike again, I guess.
I love in that first one how the boy isn’t staring at the rolling pin, but the girl’s fist. “She’s talking loudly and brandishing a cooking tool, and…wait, is she going to punch me?! But that’s a boy thing!”
Also, I’m confused…”down with men, but also we want husbands?” Sheesh, it’s not just the white knight accusation, but literally everything in the MRA playbook down to rhetorical doublethink is old as dirt.
I unironically love this one. There’s no exaggerated features or distorted sexist imagery, so it works well as a perfectly straight message of hope.
…okay, I guess there’s the hat, but that just makes me think when she runs for leader, her campaign theme is going to be either “Kagematsuri” or “Walpurgisnacht.”
LOL, I love it.
Men were crying back then just as much at the thought of being pushed into a woman’s role.
It’s too much.
History repeats itself and anti feminists are merely echos of the tripe from the past.
I’m up to pg.18 of that Cassie Jay letter thread now (I started from the beginning because I somehow missed reading for than the first page of it when it was first posted). From that I’ve finally figured the whys of certain discussions in other threads, like the whole Andrew/Yor business, and where the chief manatee and toxic hag came from. Though I fear what the next several pages of that may bring…. D:
Does anyone think we might need the intercession of St. Isidore of Seville, official Patron Saint of the Internet*, to finally end that thread?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidore_of_Seville
*He got this honor because he put together several encyclopedias gathering “the sum of human knowledge” together in one place. In other words, one of the first known databases created by humans.
ETA: image fixes.
Everyone should start wearing sashes stating their political opinion, like in the old-time cartoons.
I feel like killing myself. I don’t understand why women are so despised and abused in society and I feel so tired. I’m so tired of trying to feel good about myself when there seems to be no reinforcement that I’m worthy of anything. I am so hurt by shows like family guy (and yea the cartoons above are another example) that casually make a joke out of women for the world to laugh at. I feel like all I am is a joke for the world and that the abuse I have suffered in my life is only a joke to be laughed at. I’m so disturbed by the cruelty so widely expressed against women, as if we don’t deserve any compassion for our suffering. The ways we are made into objects of cruelty and humiliation feel endless. I can’t take it. I keep thinking about getting a hose and asphyxiating myself in my car just so I don’t have to wake up another day in a world that does this to me. I think maybe it would be a good idea to do that. I’m so hurt.
IgnoreSandra
Some things never change. Waaaay back in the 70s, with special emphasis on 1975, IWY, I and my friends were often accused of being promiscuous-man-hating-commie-anti-marriage-greenie-frigid-lesbian-ugly by all sorts of people, sometimes one person, in a single day (especially on a protest march).
I was always perplexed by the idea of a woman who was frigid and promiscuous and man-hating all at the same time. Part of it was old-fashioned Freudian ideas blurring into common understanding – you might know the sort of thing – a strong independent woman can’t have orgasms (unless she sneezes) because she can’t ‘surrender’ to her sexual partner. (?!!!??)
The idea of mutually desired, mutually exciting, mutually satisfying, mutually active sexual activity was a bit of a novelty way back then. “Proper” sex had a compulsory element of male dominance and female submission.
Amy, please, please don’t. These cartoons represent the thinking of some of the worst people in the world, but not of everyone or even most people.
Depression makes the world look a lot darker than it really is; it distorts feelings and perceptions. You are not worthless. You are not alone. Many of us here, including me, have dealt with depression, some to the point of being suicidal. We know how bad and hopeless it can feel. But it isn’t hopeless. It will get better. Many of us can personally attest to that.
Please let us know you are ok right now and if there is anything we can do for you. Please call a help line; they can put you in touch with local resources or have someone go directly to you right now. Or email me if you want to talk. If you let me know where you are I can contact someone locally who can help you.
amy
I don’t think that. You’ve said things like this before here haven’t you? (I apologise if I’m mixing up your distress with someone else’s comments.)
Hang in there until you can find a friend or a group of friends or a counsellor or therapist who will help you through. Whether the abuse you’ve suffered is family or partner or sexual or other physical abuse (or any of those other misery-making circumstances), there are people who can help you, people who will care about you. Ring a DV or sexual assault hotline or any other confidential service you prefer – maybe a central national advice and counselling service, maybe you would prefer a local service.
If you don’t want to do that, talk things through here while you’re making up your mind about how to get or to live a better life where you are. Getting your head straight can take a while – it took me a good few years after leaving an abusive marriage to get myself on an even keel despite the fact that I had found a truly lovely man and a much easier life. (Even 20 years later, I still cringed when a man physically stood over me.)
Nil bastardum carborundum. Don’t let the bastards grind you down.
Amy, i am very far away from you, but i want to help. David is right, this examples are very worst of all, so many more people will love and help you – so many people already do! Even when things are so dark people will be there to bring light back. When there is life there is hope. ?
56lbs is one half “hundredweight” (1cwt) and was a pretty standard size before we went metric. It became sort of shorthand for a heavy load. You still see it referenced today. For example “If you want to practice horse ownership drop a 56lbs weight on your foot and try asking it to move” etc.
http://www.myvintagegarden.co.uk/images/D/007%20%283%29%20new%20size.jpg