By David Futrelle
So I thought I would take a look at the Men’s Rights subreddit today, and as usual I learned a lot.
I learned …
... that feminists fighting for women’s rights “on the basis of equality” are against equality.
… that men are oppressed by women wearing leggings to work.
… that men are unfairly being denied credit for inventing high-heel shoes.
… that men who even suggest that “there might be a gynocentrism going on” are unfairly mocked.
… that male feminists are all incels in the making.
… that if you got a disposable Gillette razor for Christmas (!?) you should return it to the store because MISANDRY.
… that Men’s Rights Redditors will happily give more than 180 upvotes to dudes who post incoherent walls of text accusing feminists of, among other things, removing “gentiles” from Greek statues.
Dude, setting aside the whole genitals/gentiles problem here and the fact that what you’re saying about Greek statues isn’t, you know, true, I think you might have a little bit of a statue fetish.
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Ah okay it was always just Walter, never any other name. N/M. I’m terrible at keeping white generic dude names straight.
@Cyborgette
I would have forgotten him but Petal reminded me of him a while back ?
At the risk of being Anglo-centric, this reminds me of a great Les Dawson sketch where the characters of Cissie and Ada come across a rather ‘impressive’ statue in the art gallery.
“Who sculpted that?”
“I don’t know; but he certainly wasn’t short of clay”
O/T:
Occasional commenter and podcast host Alexis Filth’s twitter account has been suspended. Using the Violet Wanderers Twitter she says she doesn’t know why it was suspended.
I know sometimes TERFs will mass report trans* people and allies to get them suspended, so that’s a possibility. Any other ideas?
Alexis, if you’re reading this, I started listening to your podcast and am really enjoying it. Thank you.
@Naglfar
Most likely explanation is a hate brigade of some flavor, whether it’s TERFs or edgelords or alt-right. Looks like she’s got mostly TERFs in her mentions (you can still see them if you search Twitter for her handle).
@kupo
That’s probably it. She fights them tirelessly, and they probably thought this would shut her down. Is there anything we can do now to help her get her account back?
Speaking of manospherians and their weird takes on statues, I know that most Mammotheers have seen this a million times, but it’s absolutely gold: remember when Ivan Throne and Rollo Tomassi were waxing all lyrical about a statue as the epitome of western culture and male artistic genius? And the sculptor was actually a Chinese woman?
Recap here, just in case anyone missed this wonderful episode.
@Naglfar
I don’t know of any way to help someone get their account reinstated. Usually they inform the user which tweet was in violation and if they delete it, they can return, at least from what I’ve heard.
@Mish
That was a great one! Also, hope everything is going well down there and your summer gets milder. ❤
Yeah, like others, I’ve never known feminists to be the ones advocating censorship of nudes. It’s always been evangelicals in my experience. Thinking of two stories in particular.
1) The day a homeschool friend made an angry phone call to my family’s house just to rant about a billboard for a dermatologist in the next town. It was a partially cropped Grande Odalisque (see link below) with the doctor’s info put in the darker section of the painting. But NUDITY! In PUBLIC!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Odalisque
2) The day a different homeschool parent expressed concern about what a CHALLENGE it is for teenage boys to visit art museums, where there are SO MANY naked ladies, without getting aroused. I’ve been in plenty of museums. I must have missed the epidemic of teenage…er…arousal.
@kupo
The tweet on the Violet Wanderers Twitter says that she wasn’t informed. I think all we can do is hope for the best.
@Hester
When I took an AP Art History course in high school, Grande Odalisque was one of the selected works, in addition to a number of other nude paintings. Somehow, despite everyone in the class being between 15 and 18 (I was 15 at the time), we were able to discuss it academically and nobody got visibly aroused.
As a teen, I visited a lot of art museums and never had issues with arousal. I just like seeing artwork and I can appreciate it without getting horny for it.
The real thing that frustrates me about people who try to censor nudity is that censorship is the main reason we find nudity scandalous. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. In societies where nudity is more accepted, people don’t find it so scandalous.
I’m sure that there are a few anti-porn feminists somewhere who would go as far as saying that *all* nudity is porn, but I’ve never met any. Anti-porn is now pretty much entirely the domain of SWERFs, and they’re a minority. Also, some are only questionably feminists.
@Snowberry
I’d say most SWERFs, if not all, are questionably feminist. Pretty much all SWERFs are crypto-TERFs who realize it looks better to be a SWERF. For example, Gail Dines is a TERF/SWERF who makes her money on the SWERF lecture circuit because that’s more publicly acceptable in progressive circles. If anyone would think all nudity is porn, it would be her. She already thinks all porn is rape, regardless of what the women involved say.
@kupo, thank you!
It’s getting pretty disturbing checking the emergency notifications and every time a new region has a “too late to leave” status. If I wasn’t so worried I’d be fascinated – these fires are making their own thunderstorms, and recently one of the monster ones actually climbed a massive rock cliff, gah.
@Naglfar, sorry to hear about Alexis’ Twitter, damn 🙁
Dines’ “all porn is rape” is probably my “favorite” of her many vile claims. What I “love” most about it is the combination of denying others’ agency while claiming to champion it, and of course how quickly it falls apart when you start asking simple questions:
So the man is raping the woman? The man who signed the same kind of contract, and is also being paid by a third party? Their situation is the same, so how do you know she isn’t raping him? Oh, because all men will automatically have sex with any woman, so his consent is even up for debate? How are you not just dressing up patriarchy in feminist guise again?
What about solo scenes?
Solo male scenes?
All-woman scenes? Are they being raped by the director or producer? What if EVERYONE involved is a woman?
All-man scenes? Are they raping each other, or does the lack of women mean that no one is being raped? Is rape categorically only something done by men to women?
Although I’m also a big “fan” of how her assessment of female performers’ acting abilities changes depending on what she wants to be genuine and what she wants to be acting.
They don’t seem to be enjoying themselves? HAS to be genuine, because ALL porn performers are terrible actresses who are only doing porn because they failed at real acting.*
They DO seem to be enjoying themselves? CAN’T be genuine, because these are professionals who are highly skilled at faking pleasure, apparently including controlling their blood flow to simulate signs of physical arousal.**
*Once again, Dines is remarkably contemptuous of the people that she claims to be championing.
**Apparently porn performers get Bene Gesserit training.
Always good to bring this up again.
“Wet T-shirt modeling is the apotheosis of Western culture”
Mish:
It’s been completely unreal. I’m sorry for everyone involved.
Right now, one of the main fire/evacuation scenes (according to the Guardian) is in far eastern Victoria, or East Gippsland region. This is exactly the main location of that fantasy novel I mentioned a short while ago, “The Ice Is Coming” by Patricia Wrightson. Due to my particular geekiness, I have paid a lot of attention to the local geography. And now those same small rural places are suddenly in the news, and on fire.
(from the Guardian)
@Allandrel
SWERFs and TERFs appear to devote most of their effort to astroturfing (or should that be astroTERFing?) the patriarchy. In fact, I know a number of SWERF/TERF groups directly receive funding from religious right groups.
As illustrated in this comic from Life of Bria:
It would appear that SWERFs believe that men cannot be raped. How very feminist.
@Naglfar, @Allandrel
SWERFs are awful, but most I’ve encountered definitely do believe that men can be raped. Some seem to believe that rape is categorically something only done by people with penises though, which yeah, that’s garbage.
The thing about porn and sex work being always transactional rape is… extremely simplistic IMO, but the truth is that the porn industry under global capitalism and patriarchy is pretty horrible. It’s a business that heavily exploits its workers and the work is sexual, it’s not hard to see the toxic directions that goes in.
There’s a lot of other stuff to be said about this, but in short, the liberal/capitalist feminist perspective that Porn Really Is Okay Actually is also dangerously simplistic. More dangerously simplistic, IMO. So, like, I have some sympathy to where these folks come from (even if their solutions are paternalistic and horrible).
@Snowberry – You’re probably right on that count; prudish erotophobia has almost always been a hallmark of conservative, repressive social mores in western society, although we did have Andrea Dworkin once who (in)famously claimed all pornography was akin to rape IIRC (I’m guessing SWERFs must hold her to be their patron saint).
Anyway, that “gentiles” typo/freudian slip is hilarious; given what site this is, my first thought was “wait, is that doofus actually claiming they’re removing non-Jewish elements from Greek statues!? What is this I don’t even”.
As for the tweets:
1- Looks like somebody fails at basic reading comprehension… Not like English is that hard, is it? It’s on the basis of them becoming equal, not on them already being so…
2- Why would leggings bother you that much? as long as you don’t act like a creep/horndog you’ll be able to admire the shapeliness of their legs all day long, and they definitely don’t mind you seeing them! Last bit of warning given the type of dude you are, though: look, but don’t touch! (Oh who am I kidding of course you’re gonna be a creeper and a groper)
3- So what? Who cares? Context, do you speak it motherfucker?
4- CONGRADULATIONS! Your MRA has evolved into MGTOW!
5- Yeah, no, if you’re a male feminist purely for the perceived bennies (i.e. getting laid), you have never been a feminist. It’s less a 180 than a single sidestep.
6- …Huh. Been almost a year IIRC and they’re still assmad at Gillette.
7- Aah, here we are, the meat of the matter. Coherence isn’t his strong suit, that one. Mustn’t have gone to many boy scouts meetings, or museums. I also like how these choads are alternating between saying Crunchyroll is a victim of the feminist agenda and then vilifying it for producing a single series with maybe progressive themes.
@Lumipuna:
Pretty much. I mean, Luo Li Rong is clearly a very good sculptor, but let’s be honest: the only reason those chuds praised that work as the pinnacle of western achievement was bewbz. That episode was cringe on multiple levels.
I totally forgot Gillette was accused of supporting an emasculating agenda. I thought this guy just considers shaving inherently oppressive, or something.
Damn, forgot this: Good luck and stay safe to our Aussie friends having to deal with the massive brushfires.
And that statue story made my day.
@Paireon:
Only in response to people criticizing Jordan Peterson.
Don’t tell Roosh, but other men are getting more attention for being mansplainy.
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2019/12/30/mansplaining-convention-coming-to-orlando-promises-to-make-women-great-again