We Hunted the Mammoth: The FAQ-ening
Q) A mammoth, huh? What’s this blog about?
A) Misogyny, not mammoths.
Specifically, this blog focuses on what I call the “New Misogyny,” an angry antifeminist backlash that has emerged like a boil on the ass of the internet over the last decade or so. These aren’t your traditional misogynists – the social conservatives and religious fundamentalists who make up much of the far right.
These are guys, mostly, who range in age from their teens to their fifties, who have embraced misogyny as an ideology, as a sort of symbolic solution to the frustrations in their lives – whether financial, social, or sexual.
Some of them identify as Men’s Rights Activists, trying to cast their peculiar struggle against what they see as the excess of feminism and the advantages of women as a civil rights issue of sorts. Alongside those who explicitly label themselves MRAs we find a great number of antifeminist and antiwomen activists we might call Men’s Rights-adjacent – like those in the Skeptic and Atheist subcultures who still haven’t gotten over an offhand remark Skepchick founder Rebecca Watson made about a dude in an elevator a couple of years ago.
Others proclaim themselves Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), declaring a sort of independence from women – while spending much of their time on message boards talking endlessly about them.
Still others see themselves as Pickup Artists (PUA), or masters of “Game,” espousing elaborate “scientific” theories of male superiority while trading tips on how best to pressure or manipulate drunk women into bed. This misogynistic wing of the PUA subculture has a considerable overlap with a subset of traditionalist and far-right blogs. Many of those in what has come to be called “the manosphere” — hey, don’t blame me, I didn’t come up with that name — don’t simply embrace misogyny; they also proudly embrace “scientific” racism and other bigotries.
Still, while some of the New Misogynists see themselves as conservatives, even “neo-reactionaries,” many identify themselves as libertarians or even as liberals. Theirs is a backlash that frames itself as a step forward.
That said, there are numerous posts here that don’t have anything to do with MRAs or MGTOWers or PUAs or any of their ilk. Sometimes I like to post cat pics.
Q) Ok, but you still haven’t explained the mammoth thing.
A) This is a reference to a quote I once posted from a dude who felt women weren’t sufficiently appreciative of what men had supposedly done for them over the ages. Here’s the quote, in all of its weird glory:
We men built a nice safe world for you all the the coal-mines of death, roads, railroads, bridges and tall office buildings. Its $1,000,000 spent per death of a man on a large dangerous project on average now you can just 9-5 it and call it a day in air-conditioned and heated safety. Forget about the wars we died in and the sacrifices made just ignore history or is it now hersorty? You are accruing the benefits without ever having to pay the price you still don’t have to sign up for the draft and who will protect you? The Sex and the City girls will fight off the North Koreans with their Manolo Blahniks?
Men gave you this modern world now you take it for granted we hunted the mammoth to feed you we died in burning buildings and were gassed in the trenches but that was just for fun right?
How quick and conveniently you forget who made this possible.
We gave you Leonardo da Vinci, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy not to mention countless others, Jonas Salk saved half the world from death and you just piss on it all.
This quote is such an amazing clusterfuck of misogyny, entitlement and unwarranted self-importance – not to mention historical ignorance – that the bit about mammoths became a catchphrase around here, neatly conveying pretty much everything this blog is against. And so I decided to make it the name of the blog.
Q) And who exactly are you?
A) David Futrelle. I’m a freelance writer and blogger living in Evanston, IL, and the guy behind the Confused Cats Against Feminism blog. For more on my illustrious career, see the David Futrelle FAQ.
Q) You’re against the Men’s Rights movement. Are you against men having rights?
A) Of course not. As hundreds of posts on this site show pretty clearly, the so-called Men’s Rights Movement is a hateful, reactionary movement driven largely by misogyny and hatred of feminism. It doesn’t help men. It encourages them to scapegoat women and stew in their own bitterness.
Q) Are you secretly funded by the international feminist conspiracy?
A) No. I’m not funded by any organization. Some readers have very kindly given me donations. You can too, if you wish.
Q) What’s with all the cat pictures?
A) I like cats.
wait, but women hunted mammoths too….paleolific tribes didn’t discriminate by gender .
check out a book called The Invisible Sex : The Role of Women In Pre-history.
Aww…is someone trying to sleep with a girl in his Introduction to Women’s Studies class?
Dear god, that quote is a disaster, but it did get you an unforgettable blog title.
We’re on the same page with this, I think. I’ll going to dig around a bit more, but I’m liking what I see here. Vic from Shards of Silence brought me here by linking to you in this post http://shardsofsilence.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/womenagainstfeminism/
I have a Feminist Friday project running almost every week, if you are interested. The idea is we write a post and try to end it with a discussion prompt. Then we chatter about the topic of the post, share links, etc. Just have a little thread time. It’s been hosted on six blogs so far (a seventh is joining in this week) and has run weekly since March with only two off-weeks.I have an index page for them, which I will happily share with you if you like, and I’m announcing this week’s topic a little after 9 U.S. ET in the morning.
Thank you for the good work, David! Lovely website here.
Keep up the good work David! I am very pleased!
David, thank you so much for being prepared to take on all the truly unspeakable slander and truly scary mentalities thrown at women by the (weirdly-named) manosphere. I keep coming back to your blog because you are one of the very small handful of (intelligent, coherent) humans who give me hope for the human race and make me realise I don’t have to feel alone against all the hatred.
I just happened to stumble upon this site, as it was referred to on a MRA (as you so call it) website. What really concerns me as a guy (or male, or man, or whatever is acceptable to call myself nowadays), is the fact that ‘extremist’ views seem to be espoused everywhere in society, but it is the so-called ‘PC’ sites and blogs that seem to have a monopoly on the term, and then only to use it to point out views contrary to their own. I liken the phenomenon to the change in the use of the word ‘terrorist’. It USED to mean people in some OTHER country, that may want to do harm to us here in America. Now, post 9/11, they are using the term to describe everyone from ‘preppers’ to disobedient/overstimulated children. Generally, anyone who doesnt ‘behave’ or ‘conform’. I fear that there is way too much extremism, EVERYWHERE. Pro-fem, anti-fem, etc, whoever you identify yourself with, lets please not degenerate into careless use of such terms for each other. Seriously. People scare me. I have read enough, and already too much, of the hate on the internet to have much hope left for our society. If people just left other people alone, who just want to live their life, perhaps all this hollow advocacy would finally just fade away. Look in the mirror before you point a finger. Thats all im saying.
This site should be required reading for all 12 to 16 year olds, everywhere. Thanks, David. You’re really inspiring.
“Required reading for all 12-16 year olds”
Why?
You can’t force your opinions however silly they are onto the next generation. We have to think for ourselves man.
Well that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
So “never questioning sexist society” is actually just thinking for yourself? Stupid troll is stupid.
Of course! Misogyny is super edgy and original!
OMG!!! I’ll take educational systems for 100 pls Alex.
I can’t believe how hypocritical and delusional this website it. They don’t care about important facts. They rather twist them or focus on little tiny facts. Just because someone is not agree on something about a woman is automatically labels “misogyny”. This is ridiculous and I feel sorry for the walking trash that like this website.
Note to #GamerGaters: If you want get us back for tricking you into arguing with chatbots, then you’ll have to do better than this at programming it.
That’s misogyny, given how many people here are women.
Also, you need to work on your English, both grammar and reading comprehension. -2/10, would not respect.
I’m assuming this refers to boner updates. Because that’s definitely something we don’t care about.
Hmm, myself and most heterosexual men I know actively espouse and applaud women’s rights, character, charm and beauty. Then why are you, ostensibly a man, actively engaged in fomenting mistrust, tension and anger between heterosexual men and women?. Are you actually a homosexual male seeking to further drive a wedge between these two groups, for the obvious reason that you …..wait for it…..hate both of them? Say it ain’t so, Futrelle !
Wow, that insightful commentary is clearly based on an extensive reading of David’s work.
Actually, some of the thinking on the Manosphere is funny, and not hateful. You probably need to take a look at Taki Magazine, which is not “Manosphere”, per se, but has a lot of very good articles. I am an ex-Leftist, and ex-Democrat, but I am hardly a woman hater. I wonder why more feminists never made any righteous noise about rap music, back when it actually existed, or about the conduct of certain male Democrat politicians. Some guys get a pass, so to speak, some do not. And there is hardly any hatred in my comments at all. Just regret that i did not leave the Left sooner. Oh well. Live and learn.
“I wonder why more feminists never made any righteous noise about rap music, back when it actually existed.”
Um, I think maybe feminists did?
Also, when did rap music stop actually existing?
Unintentionally telling comment of the day.
If you’re recommending Taki Magazine then you currently rocking a right-wing blend of paleo-conservativism and Libertarianism. Taki has been around for decades, I assume he’s still a pompous racist ass and failed wit.
You’re also conflating the right and the manosphere because you’re super excited to be a right winger who makes goofy complaints about feminism.
Wow, this sentence is a real 1990s flashback. Dude, it’s time to get over Clinton and NWA.
Thanks for your site David, it’s been healing to undo so much rubbish I put in my head after stumbling upon rotten dating advice, ‘game’ sites by self proclaimed ‘alphas’ who spend time “reminding” women how they are only valuable according to the male gaze and evolutionary fertility markers, thus being highly disposable at any time. Horrible, horrible drivel.
There are some things I never understood about the men on those sites…
1. They proclaim dominance but reveal their dependency on women to feel masculine and powerful while professing their uncontrollable desire to have sexual encounters with women. Since they can’t stop wanting them, thinking about them, constantly talking about them, obsessing about them they try to cover their shame for being sexually dependent in this way by grading women to create an illusion that they control the dynamic between males and females. The thing I don’t get is they can’t see this.
2. They claim to be ‘alphas’ but are doing what supposed ‘alphas’ wouldn’t do…huddle together in an online support group sharing tips on how to learn to be more alpha. The mind boggles…
Doesn’t an ‘alpha’ do things independently? Aren’t men innately alpha through his athletic prowess etc and have the status conferred to him by other males not females? Would an ‘alpha’ need a support group to learn how to get ‘hot’ women, wouldn’t he just know it instinctively? If a man is truly ‘alpha’ wouldn’t he be busy doing productive work or spending leisure time in competitive sports rather than sitting at a computer obsessing about dominating women? Wouldn’t an alpha have so many ‘hot’ women throwing themselves at him that he wouldn’t even need an advice group? I smell a pack of phonies.
3. There are only so many 20 year old ‘hot’ fertile women available at any time, with men between 30-80 thinking they’ve got just as good a chance as each other competing for them. Ridiculous.
Real intimacy is scary for lots of people, but to turn that fear into hateful propaganda online is weakness not strength. I’ve read so much on what ‘real men’ think from these sites it affected my relationship with my husband but he said its a juvenile way of thinking and that most men mature out of it as they learn to love and be loved so to take no notice of the rot.
When I pointed these out my comments on the sites they were altered or blocked…probably for fear that the male readers might realise they are missing out on real living and should get out there and learn to LOVE people instead of spreading hateful drivel to vulnerable, hurting men thereby perpetuating it.
So sad.
I love when people who don’t pay attention to feminism complain that they “haven’t seen” feminists discussing this or that.
I mean, I haven’t seen Tom Brady make a single touchdown this year, so he’s obviously a shit player (just ignore the fact that I don’t ever watch football).