By David Futrelle
FADE IN
INT. DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES
WOMAN WAITING IN LINE TO RENEW DRIVERS LICENSE:
Dude, could you maybe stop blatantly staring at my boobs?
GUY WHO JUST WROTE A 1000-WORD POST FOR RETURN OF KINGS TITLED “THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH STARING AT A WOMAN’S BREASTS”
This boils down to slandering healthy male sexuality as if there’s something abnormal in a man who feels sexual desire towards a beautiful woman and likes boobs and firm butts. The reality, of course, is that nothing could be more normal than this …
But even this mere feeling of desire and sexual interest towards women is slandered and labeled as something questionable these days. …
Why do people propagate this message so eagerly these days? I can only guess, but it seems quite clear to me that these people feel some kind of fear towards male sexuality. The male sexual desire itself is somehow scary or dangerous and should be denigrated and slandered so that men would begin to feel shame about their completely healthy desires.
In a certain way, these people want to castrate men: make men into sheepish “gentlemen” who no longer look women with “greedy eyes” and feel sexual desire towards them, or who at least are ashamed of it and keep it to themselves. This is a form of psychological castration and I can only feel a strong sense of contempt towards people who propagate this bullshit. …
The message is a malicious attempt to slander and denigrate normal male sexuality. “Gentleman” here seems to be a man who doesn’t even feel sexual desire towards women anymore and never looks at women with “greedy eyes.” In other words, an abnormal castrate instead of a healthy man. What a truly despicable agenda!
GUY turns to look at woman. She is gone. Everyone else is gone. He is locked inside the now-closed DMV.
FADE OUT
Submitted for your consideration…
…aaaaand, SCENE.
Hey, Troubelle! *waves*
Sometimes I wonder whether these RoK contributors are basically competing against themselves for who can be the most awful asshole.
I’ve had male coworkers stare at my breasts for minutes on end. It is one of the most uncomfortable experiences I’ve ever had. The complete lack of empathy these men have is just astonishing.
Hey, PeeVee. Been hanging back for most of the hiatus.
I understand completely! Nice to see you. I hope school is going okay for you! ?
So far, it’s going alright! Last semester where I currently am, and then I’m transferring!
There is obviously more than enough reason to ‘fear male sexuality’, ‘cause many times it ends in the abuse and victimization of females, and even other males.
I think it’s about time that males learn to ‘reel it in’ and check themselves, as females have had to do and were expected to do since the beginning of time.
So no, you should NOT feel that it is some sorta right to make females self-conscious, uncomfortable and feel threatened, just so you can ‘uncastrated’. I have no sumpathy for you.
Almost, dude, but it’s not your sexuality that women are afraid of. “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” -Margaret Atwood
Lol, love your tv show version of this! I’m imagining the Twilight Zone theme in the background! Thank you for giving me a smile when I read this rather than just the creeps as it would without your frame!
Well, I see everyone else already has the fear of male desire and gaze covered.
I would also like to point out that finding breasts sexually attractive =/= blatantly staring at someone’s breasts. No one care’s if you like boobs. Lots of people – including lots of woman people – like boobs. You can still control yourself in public spaces and not gawk at strangers.
Seriously. I think staring being rude was one of the first pieces of etiquette I ever learned as a child. It didn’t even have anything to do with sex and sexuality. I was four years old. My friend and I were staring and pointing at a girl who had no arms. Our preschool teacher noticed and explained to us why that was not okay. Saying “don’t stare” is not some conspiracy against poor oppressed man boners. It’s simply basic manners.
@weirwoodtreehugger: chief manatee
Basic….Manners?! You dare to tell people to behave like decent human beings?! /gushing lemon marinated sarcasm
If being told not to stare is castration, what’s refusing to date him – murder?
I made the mistake of reading comments to that article. Some stare to make women uncomfortable but wouldn’t do that in a country where there are ‘good’ women.
Btw, I can only get to We Hunted the Mammoth via email, can’t pull it up from facebook. Not sure if it’s my own facebook problem or broader.
I’m sure staring at a women, or anyone really, makes them feel uncomfortable. It’s basic manners, but as always ” de hypergamy”.
I don’t even expect decency from MGTOWS, much less good manners.
I’m glad you’re feeling better, David.
Don’t want to be called “creepy”, men? Because doing this shit is how you earn that label.
Dear GUY WHO JUST WROTE A 1000-WORD POST FOR RETURN OF KINGS TITLED “THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH STARING AT A WOMAN’S BREASTS”…
Your logical fallacy is (drumroll please)…STRAWMAN!
Feminism does not complain about men experiencing sexual desire for women. It complains about men sexually objectifying women and failing to respect women’s agency and bodily autonomy. It complains about men being creepy fucks who ogle non-consenting women in public.
Keep on finding women sexy, dude. Keep on enjoying looking at breasts. Just remember that those breasts are attached to a living, breathing human being who may not want you slavering at her as she goes about her business.
This is sad. This sounds like someone who has been badly and continuously shamed as a child and now it distorts feels it about everything he doesn’t like- even something as minor as not staring at anyone or any of their body parts at any time.
Sadly also, the way most of us a bit older, we had parents who thought shaming children was a functional teaching method
Kupo- do you think that referring to generational dysfunction is wrong?
I just realized that it’s bordering on referencing pathology, and I don’t know if that is considered to be a mental illness.
The main problems I find with men blatantly staring at women’s boobs are 1) it’s rude and 2) it’s creepy. Men, it’s better not to look at a woman’s boobs unless she wants you to, but if you must, for the love of God, be subtle!
Nikki,
I read somewhere that women check out men as often as men check out women (these studies are always heterocentric) but women are better at hiding it. Like looking out of the corner of the eye instead of blatantly staring.
They do. It’s a constant comment (and sometimes either a brag or a complaint) by soldiers who have returned from combat duty and are on leave – “women are constantly looking at me.”
No. They really aren’t better at hiding it.
What they are is unthreatening, so who gets upset about it, or even bothers to notice it in the course of a normal life? It’s just another example of privilege.
The squaddies notice it for a while after coming back because they’re in the headspace where they’re still noticing everything as a potential threat. Fades after a month or so.
Ranty dude:
Well, a couple of things:
First, you can do more than guess, especially if you’re going to write a whole article about it. The internet isn’t just a place for posting your idiotic opinions, you can actually look stuff up on it, too!
Second, if your conclusion is that people are frightened of male sexuality, you might want to ask yourself why. You might want to ask yourself why your immediate assumption is that there’s something wrong with the people you accuse of fearing male sexuality, rather than something wrong with male sexuality itself as portrayed by you.
Here’s the cool part: you don’t even need the empathy you so obviously lack to grasp that flaw in your logic!
And there’s even more good news: empathy is one of the many things you can look up on the internet! It’s a thing you can learn and be better for it.
@Hippodameia
If refusing to date him is murder, then what is refusing to have sex with him?!
Or — and perhaps this is much, much worse — not acknowledging his sexual needs due to having never met this scholar and gentleman!
I don’t know about the rest of the ladies here, but I feel very ashamed right now.
“How very dare you ask me to consider other people’s autonomy and desire to not be stared at and not my ALMIGHTY PENUS! I’m an ALPHUA MAYUNLY MAYUN, and as such, I should have women lining up for the opportunity to be gawked at by me! It’s all the fault of those feeeemales for having breasts! Clearly, they’re all afraid of my sexuality!”
This, dear commentariat, is a classic case of Headupass Syndrome. Symptoms include huffing your own farts, believing that other people should revolve around you, and long-winded screeds posted to various Trasheap Websites.
Look, I’m one of those queers who likes boobies, and I can tell you that sexual attraction to people with tits is no reason to be so grossly blatant about staring. Glances are fine (and natural), leering like some sort of cartoonish pervert is not.
It’s not endearing, it doesn’t make you more charming, it doesn’t give you more of a shot with the person attached to those boobs. It just makes them uncomfortable, and you look like a jackass.
And don’t get me fucking started on how queer feminine presenting people have to walk on fucking eggshells because we’re viewed as “predators” by some people, and this bullshit from cishet dudes doesn’t fucking help.
I know that Seinfeld isn’t exactly a role model, and his advice to George Costanza about this is literally objectifying, but it might be at this dude’s level: “Looking at cleavage is like looking at the sun. You don’t stare at it, it’s too risky. You get a sense of it and then you look away”.