By David Futrelle
What happens when a fixed belief runs headlong into reality? Do you adapt your beliefs to the new reality — or do you adapt reality to fit your beliefs, constructing a fantasy world to live in where you’re never wrong?
If you’re a MGTOW Redditor, well, it’s door number two.
One of the strangest and most persistent delusions shared by manosphere men — and MGTOWs in particular — is that women are only attractive in their teens and early 20s, “hitting the wall” when they reach their 25th birthday or so and becoming hideous old monsters no man could ever desire.
Never mind that this has no relation to reality and that many of the most famous female sex symbols of the moment — from Salma Hayek to Kim Kardashian — are in their thirties and forties and fifties. Never mind that many of the women these guys likely ogle at the supermarket on a daily basis have “hit the wall” and kept right on going.
Their insistence that women are suddenly hideeous old bags after the age of 25 leads them into many strange places.. Consider the dude who posted this query to the Men Going Their Own Way subreddit the other day: “What happens to womens Instagram when they turn 25?”
This strange, sad, delusional man.
Dude, women don’t become invisible when they hit 25. They don’t get themselves to a nunnery. They don’t retreat to a cave in the woods. And they don’t shut down their Instagrams.
Indeed, a teensy tiny bit of internet research on my part reveals that the largest demographic on Instagram — making up 35.2 percent of U.S. Instagram users — is the 25-34 year old group. (18-24 year olds make up only 21.4 percent.) In other words, Mr. MGTOW, most women on Instagram are post-wall and still posting.
Not only that, but if you take a quick look at the most popular women on Instagram you’ll find that they’re almost all above the age of 25. Sure, you’ve got Kylie and Kendal Jenner (22 and 24 years old, respectively). But you’ve also got Khloe and Kim Kardashian, 35 and 39. And when you look beyond this single family, you find many other post-wall women in the top twenty, from Ariana Grande (26) and Miley Cyrus (27) to Katy Perry and Taylor Swift (both 30) to Beyonce (38) and Jennifer Lopez (50). These women all have anywhere from 100 million to 200 million followers each. They are anything but invisible.
“The wall” is not a real thing; it’s something to scare women with. But that would require women to believe in it. As it seems now, the only people who’ve been suckered in by this propaganda are those spreading it in the first place — MGTOWs and Red Pillers and other misogynists. You know your movement is in trouble when the only people believing your bullshit are those in your movement. That’s not how propaganda is supposed to work.
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Mostly a reader here (I really hate the word lurker), but I just wanted to chime in – congrats to Nanny Oggs Bosom! Coming out/living out feels like a full-time job, but it’s so worthwhile.
With regards to women and aging, all I have to say is Sophia Loren was still considered a sex symbol well into her fifties. She’s eighty-five now and has a new movie that’s supposed to come out this year.
Heck, this picture is Angela Lansbury at 41, in a publicity shot for her starring role in Mame:
and I defy anybody to say that is post-wall; she was just getting started.
She did Murder, She Wrote through her sixties, and is still doing Broadway productions even though she’s in her nineties now.
(And good lord is it a shock sometimes to go back and watch The Court Jester with Danny Kaye and realize that’s Angela Lansbury as the princess.)
If Trump and co manage to cancel or overturn the election somehow, then come Jan 20th, the Secret Service will be obligated to eject him from office by any means necessary. Their duty is to the Constitution, not the president. Will they really? If they do, will Trump flee the country, attempt to retake the White House, or rule the US from Trump Tower? Would any of this trigger the civil war that some conservatives want, the peaceful breakup that some liberals want, or an ungodly mess as nearly everyone tries to hold things together regardless? It’d be interesting to know, but I’d really rather not see it play out for real.
@Snowberry
I think he might try to have the Supreme Court involved if it’s a close election. It seems like at least a couple of the conservative justices (Gorsuch and Roberts) might not be as friendly to Trump as he hoped, as seen by their ruling in the recent LGBT discrimination case. If that’s so, they might not rule in his favor if Biden wins by a very large margin. Other than that I can’t say, I’m a bit nervous as to what will happen if/when his gun-toting superfans learn that their Dear Leader has lost by a wide margin.
Re: cancelling or overturning the election
We’ve never had a President like Trump before, so I’m honestly uncertain what the Secret Service will try to do. The Republican led Senate could try to pass some law to keep him in, but I don’t think the House would approve it.
@ Alan
Sheer nosiness on my part, but what would leave a person/organization pursuing a private prosecution stuck with the bill instead of the defence? Treading on that kind of landmine would be an expensive setback for litigious (is that the right word?) activism.
@ Kevin
That’s a great question; and one which we had been giving much thought to. Without going into too many details prematurely, we’re very much getting set up for something in this regard.
In summary, so long as the prosecution was properly brought and not vexatious, then there is very little cost risk to the prosecutor. In fact, even on a losing prosecution the prosecutor can get their costs from central funds.
Some of my wonderful chambers colleagues have done a very helpful webinar all about this.
http://www.goldsmithchambers.com/webinar-a-guide-to-private-prosecutions/
@Alan
Thank you for the heads – up.
@ Kevin
You’re very welcome; and it is worth a viewing I think.
One thing I hadn’t known before was that even private prosecutors can initiate ‘Proceeds of Crime Act’ proceedings. That’s where all income generated through criminal activity can be confiscated.
Normally that money just goes to the State; but apparently there are ways of splitting it with private prosecutors. That’s cropped up a lot in Intellectual Property cases.
And having defended a lot of POCA cases I’m all too well aware that the ‘benefit’ is calculated in terms of all income received, not just profit. So that throws up some interesting possibilities. Deprive animal welfare and environmental offenders of their ill-gotten gains; but also get to keep some of that.
Weird how i turned 26 last month and I’m getting leered at more than ever, then
It’s just a revenge fantasy. Besides, “black don’t crack” disproves the wall anyway! ?
I’ve seen the age vary for when a woman supposedly “hits the wall.” Some have said it’s in a woman’s 30’s, while others have said it’s 23. It’s all very creepy. It also implies that they all think their mothers and the older women in their lives are ugly and have no apparent value as a human being because of that.
One of the saddest things I’ve seen is women buying into this myth and saying that men look handsome as they get older, while women just look old and unattractive. I have not seen that at all, with many older women I know looking gorgeous.