By David Futrelle
In Taylor Swift’s new music video “The Man,” the pop icon dons male drag (complete with scruffy beard) and struts about like the biggest douchebag on planet earth — manspreading on the subway, throwing a temper tantrum on a tennis court, pissing in public, and, in a scene from “58 years later,” marrying a woman who looks like she could be her/his great-granddaughter. As a riff on male entitlement, it’s not what you’d call especially subtle. But it still manages to be funny in spots.
Naturally, Reddit’s crew of Men Going Their Own Way see it as an attack on men roughly equivalent to Hitler’s attacks on “the jew people.” (Normally, MGTOWs tend to be somewhat friendly to Hitler and his ideas, but in this case the comparison is supposed to mean that Taylor Swift is very very bad.)
“Normalizing hate against men is part of their strategy,” warns one MGTOW called Allanlemos..
This is what the nazi did with the jew people,first they were subtle,then they started being upfront with their hate and made it normal and mainstream.Then when the jews became utterly dehumanized in the eyes of most germans,they took things to the next level.
That’s exactly what is being done to men and they don’t even realize it,the result of this will be men [being] considered and treated like subhumans,then you can guess what is going to happen.If you think that I’m crazy or exaggerating,look up Valerie Solanas,she was one of the few women who were upfront about the true ultimate goal of feminism.
Yes, he’s talking about a Taylor Swift video.
Someone called GemStarCM21 replies with a similarly, er, intense take.
That’s why I keep predicting, no matter how farfetched it may sound, that in the future there might be actual conflict/war between men and women.
What we see today is already signs of a gender cold war; a prime example, this video, all the undercover hate directed towards men, rules for men and none for women, favoritism for women, quotas, etc.
I think the ground work is being lain, for something terrible in the future.
Allanlemos replies:
I don’t think it’s going to be an all-out war between men and women because all the power they have actually comes from men themselves.
What might happen is a war men against men.Feminists will just use the indoctrinated men to destroy the men who don’t go along with their ideology,like MGTOWs and red pills.Their strategy is more elaborated than the one used by the nazis.
The nazis convinced the german people that the enemy(jews) were bad.Feminists convinced women that the enemy(men) are bad,and convinced the enemy(men) that themselves are bad.So this men now think that they have to be more like women,and that they should serve women willingly.
All this because Taylor Swift put on a suit and a fake beard.
Other MGTOWs second the Nazi comparison and throw a few more ideologies into the pot as well.
She’s sexist
She hates all men
She doesn’t have a clue about reality or what men are like
She’s a Feminazi
She’s just another used up Thot that’s up against the wall and soon to hit it hard
She’s another SJW that doesn’t have an original thought in her head and takes the easy route to fit in with the hollywood/feminazi/code pink/liberal/Socialist-Communist/Progressive comrades.
I’m pretty sure that there is no ideological beast that manages to combine Hollywood actors, feminists, liberals, socialists and communists. If you don’t believe me, MGTOW dudes, just go to Twitter and watch as liberals and socialists fight to the death, with both groups ragging on the communists.
Meanwhile, someone called jhooperp rages at the whole idea of drag, comparing it to blackface.
So a white man dressing as a black man is racist.
A woman dressing as a man is ok.
Uh, you are aware of this, right? And this and this and this and this?
MGTOWs are weird.
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@Surplus:
It’s just a respelling of the 1950s Beatnik slang. “Hep” meant cool. “Cat” meant “guy” or “person”. So as a two-word phase, “hep cat” meant “cool guy” (though of course there are multiple ways to be cool because there are multiple simultaneous subcultures, so “hep cat” would only be said of a cool beatnik guy.
As I understand it, beatnik slang has been brought back in certain subcultures from time to time, especially hipster subculture, but possibly others, I don’t know.
So it’s just a guess, but I assume it means pretty much the same as it did in the 1950s – “cool guy who shares my subculture”, but as a single word and with the relevant subculture updated to whatever the cool kids who co-opt beatnik slang are groovin to these days.
…separately…
You know, it wasn’t until just now that I realized that “Big Country” could be interpreted in a manner similar to “Big Pharma”. Like, maybe it had multiple meanings and one of them was a subtle dig at Nashville? (I’m not saying this is true, just amused at an interpretation that had never occurred to me before.)
(sigh) Hypocrisy, thy name is MGTOW.
@Ooglyboggles
Happy birthday!
@Crip Dyke
I originally read it as a genre of music, maybe a cross between country and big band swing akin to western swing. I didn’t know about the band and it was only when I looked it up that I found out it was a band name.
Now I have visions of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rodgers going round places saying “Nice record shop. Be a shame if anything happened to it.” Then asking if they want to buy any records.
As a trans man I can’t fathom having such insecurity about my masculinity that I feel that my entire way of life is being attacked and threatened by some celebrity dressing in drag. Admittedly it might be because I’m not interested in trying to pretend to be a man’s man anyway, but…. wowwww. They’ve got way too much time on their hands and are spending way too much time inside their own heads.
As for how I feel about the video? Well, like any group trans men are not a hivemind, but personally I don’t mind at all (I found out I was trans by becoming a drag king first, myself) and I think it’s funny and right on target because the world treats you VERY differently if you pass as male and look like a regular guy (sorry gals, your suspicions that you’re not being treated fairly are absolutely 100% correct). I think a lot of my other trans male and trans masc friends would agree. And there’s a loooot of misogyny in the drag world, holy cow…..
@ David Futrelle:
A woman dressing as a man is ok.
Uh, you are aware of this, right? And this and this and this and this?
Could I interest you in a man dressed as three women?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KcOs70dZAw
@Ooglyboggles:
Happy birthday; the fact that your birthday coincides with Saint David’s Day in Wales affords an opportunity to share some leek soup recipes.
This one is ancient enough to predate the introduction of the potato:
http://soupsong.com/rcawn.html
Not traditionally Welsh, but vegan (or perhaps Lenten, if you omit the adult beverage?) friendly:
https://liveearthfarm.net/creamy-japanese-leek-soup-with-miso/
@ full metal ox
If you’re secretly working for big leek they owe you a bonus; I’ll be on a sake hunt tomorrow.
And this is sage advice for life generally.
@Alan Robertshaw:
If you’re secretly working for big leek they owe you a bonus…
So would another arm of that insidious cabal be WikiLeeks?
“Rules for men and none for women”? So I have no rules? Goody!
Funny how the existence of a video gently mocking some odious male-coded behaviors is evidence of a war between men and women, but the disproportionate amount of rapes and intimate partner murders that are committed by men against women aren’t evidence of anything at all.
@Naglfar:
I guess I’m a dinosaur. How sad, Big Country is nearly forgotten. They were one of my faves, when I was a teen.
OT: My sister-in-law Marian was killed when she was hit by a car, late in January. She was 66 years old, a good 14 years older than I am. My husband is her heir. She worked for the state of Connecticut. When she died, she had 35 days to go before retirement. Her, and her 92 year old father, were going to come live with us. She was her father’s caretaker. We’ve been building an addition onto our house for them. They would, of course, pay rent to us.
Now, we find out that the pension she would have received from the state of Connecticut, can only be paid out to a spouse, of which she had none. All of this is uncharted waters to my husband and I. I suggested my husband see a lawyer.
Fortounately, Marian did have around $60K in CDs. Another issue: When we found out Marian had died, we had to quickly change the building plans for the addition, making it quite a bit smaller. We paid a penalty for this, since it was only about 10 days before construction was to start.
My father-in-law will still be coming here to live with us. I hope he makes it. Otherwise, we’ll have a vacant, brand-new addition. I guess we could rent it out.
Just venting.
@Dormousing_it
I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope that everything else going smoothly so that you can grieve in peace.
Thanks, Cats in Shiny Hats. I know this thread is stale now.
TERFs will call drag queens “womanface” so it’s not surprising seeing MGTOWs comparing drag kings to black face too. TERFs and MRAs have similar thoughts about a lot of things.