When Harry Styles agreed to model a series of dresses and skirts for a Vogue cover shoot, he knew it would stir up controversy. He probably didn’t think he was going to be blamed for undermining civilization itself. But that’s what some right-wing opinion-havers would have you believe.
“Blexit” leader Candace Owens started the brouhaha with this melodramatic tweet:
She followed up with a swipe at feminism:
It wasn’t long until fast-talking dunderhead Ben Shapiro decided to chime in.
But Ben wasn’t content to simply share a couple of tweets on the issue, and so he took it to his podcast today, delivering a nearly half-hour rant on the subject, interrupted only by Shapiro reading out ads for luxury bedsheets and his publication the Daily Wire.
He began by not-so-subtly suggesting that men wearing dresses might deserve a punch in the mouth, and followed with a rambling, repetitive rant taking on what he, likes Owens, sees as a dire threat to western civilization: men in “floofy” frocks.
This excerpt will give you some of the flavor of the thing:
But Shapiro wasn’t just annoyed; he presented himself as a noble guardian of civilization fighting off the cross-dressing barbarians.
“This stuff matters,” he declared.
It matters. Because these are fundamental ideas for the preservation of civilization. Boys and girls are different. Boys and girls are different. And it’s important to inculcate in your children that boys and girls are different. And any parents who fail to inculcate in a boy that manliness is a good thing, and that responsible manliness helped build civilizations … any parent that does not teach their girls that femininity, meaning the protection of hearth and home in a different way than masculinity, is a good thing. Any parent that doesn’t teach their girls that is not doing their kid any favors. They’re undermining the civilizational compact that men and women [have], based on biology and in every human culture.
Dude, it’s just a man in a dress. Cis male musicians have been donning dresses for decades — from David Bowie to Kurt Cobain — and somehow civilization hasn’t come tumbling down.
But Shapiro thinks this is a Very Important Topic.
We shouldn’t be shy about discussing these issuesl the left certainly isn’t shy about discussing these issues. They’ll put these [ideas] in public schools, they’ll tell your kindergartener that real men wear dresses. And then you’ll be explaining to a five year old that real men don’t wear dresses. And I don’t feel that’s an acceptable ramification of our cultural discussion.
I really don’t think there’s much discussion of cross-dressing in kindergarten.
Shapiro throws in a weird racial aside:
Harry Styles is a free man, living in a western country, in a west by the way that is defended by white masculine men, as a general rule.
Shapiro insists he has nothing against Harry Styles. It’s just that when Styles puts on a dress he is TEARING APART THE VERY FABRIC OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
I’m not saying don’t pick up his CDs; I’m not saying don’t listen to his music; I’m not saying don’t watch the movies he’s in. All I’m saying is that when you put out an argument that men ought to act like women and that this is a good thing you’re doing something that tears at the fabric of not only civilization but family and the fabric of childrearing and everybody with half a brain knows this.
Again, Ben, it’s just a man in a dress, a playful tweak of conventional notions of masculinity. How fragile is masculinity — how fragile is civilization itself — if it can be brought to its knees by a handful of pictures of a man in a dress?
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Worth noting is that “Western Civilization” as it’s usually defined was literally created by men in dresses. Chitons, togas, tunics, etc, they’d all be described as dresses in modern America. Trousers were a garment of barbarians, and nobody in Roman Europe would believe that a civilized man would voluntarily wear such a garment.
Barbaros tantum gerunt braccis!!!
I have used this site as documentation to show people that what broke Candace Owens was a couple of women telling her a doxxing app isn’t a good idea.
Unfortunately I don’t have any such documentation for what broke Ben Shapiro.
@Tabby Lavalamp
Being given a syndicated column in right wing publications when he was 17?
I know Candace Owens is wrong about everything, but her apparent belief that “the east” (including the PROC, Laos and Vietnam) isn’t teaching Marxism to their children while we in the west are is interesting. I also have to wonder if she’s aware of the existence of Kathoeys, Hijras, Bakla and whatnot.
I can’t stand most men’s clothes and wear and buy many combos of women’s and love it. I have tho sometimes had to virtually argue with shopkeepers to let me buy what I would like off of the women’s rack!
In one of my local Scottish pubs pre-lockdown (in a pretty conservative area), there was one of the old guys propping up the bar and pontificating loudly about how he “hated those men who wanted to look like women and turn themselves into women.” And he talked violently about what he would like to do to “them”.
The barman tried to shut him up but he wouldn’t listen. I stood up in the middle of the pub and announced how I wore women’s clothes and was indeed one of “those men” he was talking about. He was shocked and shut up, sadly tho he is not alone in our area. Felt good tho!
Watching Bernadette Banner hand sew a set of combinations is just so soothing. And her pet piggie is adorbs!
HAH! Shapiro’s terror of what he believes are theoretical kindergarteners being taught that men can wear dresses would be horrifically and delightfully exacerbated by the slightly hippyish, absolutely fantastic preschool where my wife and I sent our kids. I was volunteering in the pre-kindergarten classroom, and there were papers up on the wall that said things (notes from kids’ comments in class discussions) like, “Linda says she’s a girl, so she’s a girl.” “It is NOT gross to wear a dress [referring to a little boy character in a book under discussion].”
@Eric
What’s unnatural? It’s literally a piece of fabric.
One of the major points of this blog is mocking misogynists. We do that because it shows how ridiculous the arguments are. Also because it’s fun.
What’s wrong with those statements? And how are they any less morally absolute than what you said, which literally had morality in it?
Ben Shapiro made a dipshit claim. It’s up to him to back it up. No one is obligated to treat his little rant as a serious argument that is due a thoughtful and serious response.
The GSA have now officially allowed the formal transition to begin.
Emily Murphy has sent a letter to Joe Biden saying she was acting totally independently and was not taking directions from any other person.
That was shortly before Trump tweeted that he told her she could do it.
Notwithstanding of course that he’s still going to prevail etc.
@Alan Robertshaw
Speaking of which, that seems to have broken at least a few of the cultists.
https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1331019823262953472
Hey Eric
Really who shoved a stick up your ass. Do you get this uppity when you see a woman wearing a suit or pants? Also why are you using a picture of a kid for your thing. That’s pretty creepy man. Ben Shapiro also a dumb ass who thinks the military is full of white men. He know less about reality as you do and you’ve shown to know very little
@Lainy
He probably does. He’s a kid who thinks he’s a man, claims to be a MGTOW, and calls teenage girls “disgusting creatures,” so he probably does get upset when he sees a woman wearing pants.
@Eric
Ah I see a Rational Man has entered the conversation! How do you do, Rational Man? How’s your mustache hanging? Are you the type who likes knit beanies and craft beer, or do you lean more towards Stetsons and single malt whiskey? What about beaver hats and champagne?
Look at you focusing on the tone of our arguments instead of the content though! So secure, so confident. Surely anything but the mark of fragility. Surely a sign of a mind that can be changed.
BTW, there’s nothing at all morally wrong with feminine men. Also they’re hot, probably unlike you.
@naglfar
Jesus kid is dramatic as Frodo from the hunch hack singing about how the Virgin Mary needs to protect him because the hot romai woman gave him a boner
You know it doesn’t make it right, but I’ve been in rhe LGBT community for a while now and I’ve talked to a lot od different people about how it was for them growing up, and I’m getting strong “lashing out because their gay” vibes from Eric right now. Not uncommon for kids growing up in a homophobic world and that don’t understand the feelings their having. Kid still needs to shut his trap though and stop trying to act like he’s an adult
And I’m basing this basicaly on how much this kid Eric has talked about how much he doesn’t like girls, but also that its this post where he let himself rage. Because well, it reminded me og the bully i had when i was 12
So there was this bully that would bully me and my friend Sal for a long time. He was supsd cruel to sal though. The same bully reached out to him a year ago to apologize for what he done and he had done so hand in hand with his boyfriend
He talked a lot about how the reason he targeted Sal was because he had veen jealous. Sal had everything he wanted. Sal didn’t seem to be uncomfortable with himself. He had friends that loved him, family that loved him no matter what and most of all Sal did not care about being masculine. He still doesn’t. Sal was also very gay and when he firgured that out that he likes guys he was pretty vocal about it. Sal had the confiedence to be himself while the bully felt like he had to hide himself and for years he lashed out about. He called Sal so many slurs and try to pick fights and it only made him more mad when Sal wouldn’t fight back. When sal looked at him with pitty because he knew how angry, sad and unhappy this kid was. And while I wanted to punch that vile right out of that kid’s mouth. Sal never let me. That bully makes me think of Eric. And that’s why a post about a man not carrying about what other people think and just being happy with his one, short life, makes him so agressive.
@Cyborgette
Eric said in another thread that he’s 14 years old, so I would be quite interested to hear his take on hats and drinks given that he likely knows nothing about any of them.
FWIW I’m not a man and I don’t drink, but of the hats listed I prefer the Stetson, at least it’s practical.
@Lainy
I’m not sure if Eric is gay, but I do think he’s angry with feminine men out of jealousy. Regardless of his sexuality, toxic masculinity is telling him he can’t wear whatever he wants, so he takes it out on people who are doing that and being confident.
Side note: I checked Eric’s website and it appears he’s in rather deep to this. He uploads 2 hour long chat streams where he talks to other kids calling themselves MGTOWs. I didn’t want to spend 2 hours listening, but I got far enough in to learn that he apparently only has friends in that “community.” It makes me rather worried about him.
@naglfar
Yeah the thing the internet does to kids like this is sad. This kid is sad. Maybe gay, maybe not. the jealousy is there is what I’m sensing.
@Lainy
Since he lists his address on the website, I’m beginning to wonder if there’s something I could/should do. Not quite sure what that would be, as I don’t know what the situation actually is or what would make it better.
@Naglfar
Usually i would say if there was some way of letting his parents or guardians know what he’s up to on line would be a good thing. They could be great people who have no idea what kind of scum their child is being brainwashed with, but is father could also be the type to encourage this kind of behavior.
Like those women who send rape threats teenage boy send them to their mothers on facebook.
@Lainy
I guess I could send a letter, but the thing I worry about is that if the parents are abusive then that could cause further abuse and I don’t want that.
@Naglfar
That is a true and real concerned. One of the reason my childhood and highschool bully lashed out at me, my friend sal, and others was because his father was abusive to him and his mother. kids can be little shits, but a lot of time their not like this on their own. There is something wrong with this child and i don’t know if it’s problems in his home or because he’s in the brainwash stew.