By David Futrelle
So brain teasers are supposed to keep your brain nimble, right? In that case, after all the years I’ve spent trying to make sense of misogynist nonsense I must be some kind of supergenius by now. I have to say I don’t feel any different, brainwise, but maybe that’s because I was a supergenius all along and I just didn’t realize it?
Anyway,trying to figure out these MGTOW memes may help you all get on my level. Take that first one. As far as my supergenius mind can figure it, the meme maker wanted to say that if guys refuse to get married they can look forward to growing old happily with all their MGTOW buds. But what the meme seems to be saying is that MGTOW is some sort of rapid-aging disease that will turn you into an old codger in, like, a year.
If you have a better explanation, let me know.
Here’s some others that I find equally baffling.
The problem with this one isn’t that it’s in Spanish. I’m pretty good at figuring out Spanish-language memes, at least if they involve someone asking someone else where the library is. This meme is a little more complicated than that, but with a few assists from Google Translate I’ve got the basic idea of what each person in this meme is saying.
The feminists are calling MGTOWs male chauvinists. The PUAs are calling them beta losers. Some dude with his shirt open is calling them, well, a homophobic slur. And the Nazis are saying that MGTOW is a Jewish invention. (I don’t know who exactly that person in blue is supposed to represent, but I suspect you can figure out what they’re saying even if you don’t know Spanish.)
Meanwhile our poor beleaguered MGTOW in the Middle just wants to be free.
So far so good. What I want to know is WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING IN THE MIDDLE? And WHY IS EVERYTHING ON FIRE? WHY ARE THE FEMINISTS JUST A COUPLE OF SEVERED HEADS? WHY ARE SO MANY OF THESE DUDES MISSING THE LOWER HALF OF THEIR BODIES?
I think this is supposed to be an indictment of feminism for causing people to write songs less efficiently, or something? What it really shows is that if you sample another song in your song you have to give the original artist(s) and producer(s) credit and some money.
Also, while Bohemian Rhapsody was basically Freddie Mercury’s baby — and one he’d been working on for more than five years — it’s officially credited to Freddy Mercury/Queen because the other members contributed to it. So that’s four people. The song was a massive group effort that took a month and a half to rehearse and record.
I guess the big question with this one is why the dude in the cartoon is being such a dick.
I must be missing something here because I have no clue what the point is supposed to be. Yes, “manginas” probably talk to women a lot more than MGTOWs do. Of course, MGTOWs spend more time talking and thinking about women than anyone else on earth including gynecologists and the board of directors of the National Organization for Women.
That’s fine and dandy on the Beyonce meme, she’s not a real feminist anyway. Feminism is about the liberation of ALL WOMEN from male supremacy, not some neoliberal individualism, choice, self empowerment garbage.
I’ve always experienced the Bohemian Rhapsody-Meme presented as a dig at modern popmusic, but when presented through a misogynist lense, the choice of modern artist and the supposed lack of personal creativity it tries to hint at does make it worse than I originally thought.
The couple-comic-guy doesn’t usually strike me as that bad either, and usually doesn’t even go for low-hanging, standard-fare stereotyping, so there’s that.
The last two: Standard baffling MGTOW-nonsense, too predicated on the reader sharing in the MGTOW-nonsense worldview.
I have no idea who/what the person in blue in bad meme #2 is supposed to be but my first thought was Relena Peacecraft.
In unrelated news I gave “Zombies, Run!” a go and its a pretty fun fitness app.
@ Moggie
*
oh… yeah!!!
and, on the other end (ish) of 60’s rock, Candles in the Rain/Lay Down, written, produced and sung by Melanie Safka*… 5:31 of absolute hippie magic
*with the Edwin Hawkins Singers
and this, from the early 70’s
… Did anybody else think that the Anonymous/MGTOW hybrid in the Spanish one was a yellow butt heiling for a moment?
@Scented Fucking Hard Chairs
Well it does look like one.
@M:
It does sort of look like a butt. I can also see it as a sort of diagrammatic depiction of an erect penis. However, in a “vase vs two faces” way, I can’t visualise it as both at once.
I suggest that we name this symbol “The Illusory Dickbutt.” Do I have a second?
Illusory DickButtVAjayjay
If you look at it another way , it kind of looks like the fronts of two thighs and a vagina-or neuter genitalia at least.
Also, a butt with a dick going into it??
Not sure what it’s really supposed to look like- a clockface maybe? But why, God, why?
Hexum7:
I think it’s meant to be a road sign, showing a branching road. You know: “you carry on ahead, we’ll just take this other road and go our own way”. I think that other road must be blocked, because they never seem to get anywhere.
@EJ
Women be pissin’, I guess…
You know those crazy women, always doing girly stuff like “having kidneys.”
Others have remarked on the memes being difficult-to-impenetrable to anyone unfamiliar with their warped worldview.
The obvious implication is that these are probably intended for ingroup signaling and approval-seeking, rather than to propagandize the outgroup. It’s either that, or they’re incompetent at propagandizing. 🙂
M, you are the wing beneath my wings.
Iseult The Idle:
I don’t think they’re claiming Bohemian Rhapsody as a particularly manly song: after all, it’s a about a guy who immediately runs to his mama when he’s in trouble! What a beta! No, the point they’re trying to make is “when men make music, it’s a work of singular genius, but when women make music, it’s mediocre and made by committee”. Which is an easy comparison to make, if you’re allowed to cherry pick the songs!
I distinctly remember the first time I heard Bohemian Rhapsody, back in 1975. I listened to it open-mouthed! At the end, I thought three things:
1. This is utterly ridiculous
2. This is utterly brilliant!
3. This will go straight to number one in the charts, and stay there for ten weeks
(I was wrong: it was nine weeks)
But that’s one song, by someone widely regarded as an exceptional talent. Other songs released that year included dross like “Funky Moped” by Jasper Carrott and assorted forgettable formulaic crap from the Bay City Rollers and Status Quo. Like anyone, I have nostalgia for the music of my teen years, but you tend to forget that there was a lot of crap as well.
@Allison
I must have missed the Real Feminist Committee meeting again. Damn.
I think the bathroo one is the most mgtow if you live with a woman you will have to respect her basic needs misandery
MGTOW is such a pathetic group
Pictured above: real, actual virtue signaling?
Either I missed the part where Beyonce wrote a song about how much she loves Ayn Rand and the tax scam bill or you’re an idiot who needs to spend less time reading Red Rose Twitter and more time reading a dictionary. Probably the latter.
Happy Easter Fools, Mammotheers!
@Surplus
I don’t think so. Know they’re walking the edge of being a troll, but Feministguy doesn’t smell like one to me, if you get me?
Know if I were a man “going his own way” I’d be mortified by these arseholes claiming to speak for me, attacking women, and generally being shits and I’d want to publicly put several parsecs between us.
Then again, my trolldar isn’t particularly sensitive.
@Surplus
So as a male, I should keep my mouth shut and not speak out against a movement that brainwashes and is harmful to other young males?
MGTOW is pathetic. Its women-hating bile. Some of them believe that women shouldnt have the power to vote which is insane.
@Feministguy
Yes and no. (It’s always yes and no).
Speak out against these shits, hell yes. Speak to the ones on the periphery and attempt to pull them out of that particular swamp, yes. It’s something that men can and should do.
Also, keep your mouth shut and listen. Listen to women when they talk about these things. Learn from them. That means listening, accepting what is said, AND incorporating it into your worldview. That means being part of the audience, not on stage.
What they tell you isn’t mere ammunition – it’s the parts of the damned rifle. Fundamental.
You might have noticed a little kickback you’ve been getting – it’s down to you not listening, OK?
@Solecism:
The cartoon immediately reminded me of that ask as well. What a douche.
Personally, I’ve been married to a man for 17 years now, without bath room problems of that kind. Amazing!