Not all children are annoying. Some are dead.
Put that headline on mugs and magnets and sell them at the mall. Make a whole collection, replacing the word children with blacks, Chinese, Mexicans, homosexuals, old people…the possibilities are endless. I can’t predict how long it’d be until you’re prosecuted for hate speech or for just being a mean asshole, but we can probably ballbark it at around 2 days.
But don’t worry, if you really have a need to express your loathing and disdain for an entire group of people (and to make money off of it), there is one safe target and that is men. Here’s an entire online store full of such merchandise, including the warm message in the title. It’s fantastic, you can say whatever you want about men and no one but a few gender-betraying misogynists like myself and Michele Catalano will get upset about it.
Michele went to a store in the mall this weekend and because she is an oppressed woman obviously in denial about what pigs men are, she didn’t squeal happily and whip out her credit card when she saw a collection of sassy, non-nonsense, finger-snapping, girl-power mugs with captions like:
I only fake it so he’ll buy me stuff.
I love sensitive men. they’re easier to take advantage of.
Platinum digger… when gold just ain’t enough.
And Michele’s personal favorite:
Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m just June Cleaver at heart. I like cooking and cleaning and I love sex. Todd gets home three hours after me most nights, so I always have dinner on the table and a clean house waiting for him. He doesn’t ask me to do this. I do it because I like to. It’s how I was raised. It’s not a subservient thing; he helps with with the dishes every night and the Saturday cleaning rampage. I help with the lawn and yardwork. But it is something I enjoy doing. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy taking care of our home. I have no idea what a women who says “I don’t cook or clean” does when she gets home from work, if she works. Eat Bon Bons and watch Oprah? Sorry if I’m stereotyping, but women who show off mugs like this are only stereotyping themselves.
But Michele! You’re doing it wrong. You’re being a misogynist. I know this because the feminists keep telling me so every time I make the same mistake of expressing an actual fondness for men and irritation with women. You’re not supposed to do that; don’t you see you’ve been indoctrinated into the heteronormative patriarchical subjugation machine? Cooking and cleaning are demeaning, thankless chores and you ought not to engage in them. It’s more enlightened and progressive to eat take-out and live in a pigsty, or best of all, hire a maid. Who cares if she’s a woman too, we’re the ones with a point to make.
Now in all seriousness. I’m with Michele; these ra-ra man-bashing “sentiments” drive me absolutely nuts, mostly because it makes women look so very, very stupid. You’d have to be stupid not to easily see the hypocrisy and moral failure in this line of thinking. That store I linked above, oh Jesus, imagine selling shit just like that but instead of “men” you use any other group on the whole planet.
Women are like paper napkins…convenient and disposable.
All blacks are idiots and I live next door to their king.
I only buy her things so she’ll have sex with me.
I love kindhearted women. They’re easier to take advantage of.
I ran into a Mexican last week. Backed up and ran over him again.
People would FLIP OUT.
Some have asked me why I bother getting pissed about this kind of thing, and the reason is because it’s wrong. It’s hypocritical and unproductive. It deepens the rifts between men and women, it puts men on the defensive, and personally I don’t LIKE men being on the defensive because they’re just as difficult to deal with as bitchy women. It foments contention and has absolutely no redeeming value. It’s just like “reverse” racism - which we all know is actual racism - and any woman who thinks those captions are “cute” or “funny” is no smarter or more enlightened than your average chauvinist pig.
Gah, it just drives me nuts, that’s all. Like Michele said, it’s embarrassing in a way. I am actively embarrassed by the hordes of man-hating women out there doing their level best to convince every man they come across that we’re a bunch of mean, bitter bitches. I wish they would grow up and stop that shit.
The main thing I wish, though, is for this kind of thing to be seen the same way it is when you say it about any other group. Think about it this way. The whole trend of women being able to say whatever hateful thing they want about men and getting away with it is rooted in the fact that women were oppressed by men for thousands of years.
So we’ve collectively decided (apparently) that the formerly oppressed group gets to rage about the oppressors for a good while. I know a lot of decent women who aren’t really bothered by the man-bashing for that very reason. Oh, men were dishing it out forever, now it’s our turn, fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.
And check out the product description for all the mugs at the online store:
At first glance these oh-so-chic mugs are just another pretty face; lean in and you’re in for a surprise. How often does shocking get to be dressed so well? Go ahead; admit it, our nice & naughty mugs capture all of the risque thoughts we think, but would never say. You’ll love these 16 oz mugs for their honesty in the form of a completely useful morning staple.
Jesus Macy’s Christ.
What I wonder is if these same women would have the same attitude if they saw a store that was selling mugs with captions about how all white people are idiots and should be taken advantage of and manipulated and insulted. Why not? Blacks were oppressed by whites for a long time, too. So it’s just cute-funny-payback for them to sell magnets that say, “Not all white people are annoying. Some are dead.”
Right? Isn’t that amusing and clever and most of all, sassy?
Bullshit. Bet you a million bucks they wouldn’t be so understanding about honky-bashing even though it has the very same justification, if not more. But if someone can carefully explain to me why it’s any different, I’ll give YOU a million bucks.
Yeah, the only thing that is worse than a man who beats on a woman because she’s weaker, is a woman who berates a man and points at the woman beater as an excuse to do so.
Great post.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:33 amHow about a mug with:
“Behind every bitchy woman…. is the fed-up guy waiting to push her off the bridge”?
or maybe:
“Behind every bitchy woman… is the guy starting divorce proceedings.”
It’s comments like those which are one reason I’m not a liberal. I saw liberals talking so much about equality for women, gays, blacks, etc, but when it came for equality for men, straights, and white people, there was no equality left to spare.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:34 amRachel, I absolutely agree, as usual.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:37 amGood grief! I feel bad for my hubby having to put up with all my crap. He’s an amazing man who (while not perfect) is a wonderful husband. I definitely do not do my part in the housework. Though I do the laundry and try to keep up on the dishes, he does all the heavy stuff - vacuuming, mopping, cleaning toilets.
I pay all the bills (even sometimes on time!), do all the grocery shopping, and even try to cook a couple times a week.
I hate all those man bashing jokes. “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Oh that’s hilarious. Sure I don’t “need” my husband but he sure makes life more pleasant. I’m sure fish would love to ride bikes.
I feel bad for the husbands of these man bashers. But then again they probably laugh at the jokes because that is what society tells them is appropriate. *sigh*
August 19th, 2008 at 11:40 amI’d ask you to marry me but you’d expect to bring Rupert on th honeymoon.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:41 amWhat really irks me about this is that the same women who buy this shit jump on the bandwagon when their Celebrity crush pofesses kindness as a strength and finds intolerance unbearable.
Fuck Those Hypocrits.
My annoyance with such slogans began with “Women need a man like a fish needs a bicycle” way back in the ’80s. It’s gone way downhill since then.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:44 amWomen sufferagettes of yesterday would stab today’s feminists.
Being a feminist USED to be about wanting equal standing in society, not berating men into oblivion.
I’m disgusted with feminism and this kind of BS, I have issues with men, but not from the feminist perch.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:45 amfrom answers.com:
“No [men] who really think deeply about [women] retain a high opinion of them; [men] either despise [women] or they have never thought seriously about them.”
This is how Otto Weininger wrote it, but substitute your group of choice into the brackets and create new and fun racist and misandrist phrases!
August 19th, 2008 at 11:47 amHot damn! I’m all three of those! I think im eff’d.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:51 amAnother one that gets me is how often a woman hitting a man on TV is presented as righteous, or worse yet, humorous…
August 19th, 2008 at 11:51 amPersonally, I don’t find the jokes offensive. It’s the attitude behind the joke that matters.
If my wife owned the pictured mug, I wouldn’t be concerned in the least since I know her true feelings. With some other women, it would make me feel uncomfortable since it may actually reflect their true feelings!
I also tell racist, sexist, and blonde jokes, but tend to be selective in audience. Stereotypes can be good entertainment as long as you don’t believe them.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:56 amFor the record, it is possible to be a feminist and still agree totally with Rachel. Welcome to the fabulous world of equity feminism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_feminism
I also like the term “logic” feminism.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:58 amThink about all the boys being raised by women like this. *shudder* Poor little guys.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:59 amI couldn’t read past “Jesus Macy’s Christ” due to an uncontrollable, male abdominal convulsion.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:07 pm1. I love your banner ad now: “Meet Mozambiquan Women”. (I actually had to look up Mozambique; I had no idea where it was.)
2. I hope I never see one of these “clever” items in the workplace. I’ll be down in HR to file a formal harassment complaint so fast I’ll leave a trail of smoke. Sauce for the gander, baby.
3. In the “What’s Wrong with This” category, you forgot “confirms what some men already suspected”.
4. Joe Jackson said it best: “When there’s war between the sexes there’ll be no one left at all”.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:09 pmDon’t feel too sorry for them too quick.
Some will be tear-soaked doormats most of their lives; others will spend their adult lives wreaking emotional, and possibly physical, havoc on a succession other women in revenge for their mother’s contempt and derision.
They will all be unhappy. The overwhelming majority will never grow up.
The most ironic part is that the designers / makers / marketers / purchasers of this stuff will never realize the part they play in creating more of the behavior they despise.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:16 pmWhat always bugged me about this is the hypocrisy. I can understand why some women have a mad-on at men…hell, I don’t like quite a few men myself, and I am one! But as our lovely and talented hostess points out, producing the same thing, but aimed at women, would cause an almighty uproar.
Feminism started out being about equality with men in all the important stuff—but a lot of it rapidly devolved into “let’s stick pins in the men.”
August 19th, 2008 at 12:27 pmActually, I think the world would be a better place if the women who would buy such stuff would - and display prominently.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:28 pmThe ads are cracking me up!
And you’re totally right. I’m just sick of the stupid man-bashing. At the very least no one I know dares do it around me anymore.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:31 pmI can’t help it.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pmWhy shouldn’t we feel sorry for them? Many of them are going to be emotionally fucked up for the rest of their lives through nothing more than the accident of having an asshole for a parent.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:59 pmI pissed off a feminist English professor once by writing a paper on (what I saw) were the differences between egalitarian feminism and “man-hating feminism”. It pissed her off so much that she spent at least 3/4s of a class period trying to debunk why there was no such thing as man-hating feminism. Then I pointed out to her in a paper at the end of her class that the only good men in the books she gave us in class were either gay, submissive pushovers, or simply used as living sex toys.
No wonder I got such a low grade. But on the other hand, the proudest moment of my academic career.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:01 pm14K, you’ve got a real problem.;)
August 19th, 2008 at 1:03 pmThis just pisses me off too. I happen to think men are great. I like being married to one.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:15 pmHow about this:
Not all feminists are annoying. Some are dead.
I wish I had those principles! In college, I cared about only one thing: Passing at all costs. I figured I’d worry about principles once I got my degree XD
It’s easier to have them now - if I get fired somewhere I can find a new job within days. Couldn’t do that in college.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:21 pmI so agree Rachel. This kind of crap is driving a huge wedge between the sexes. I’ve met some great guys who are extremely guarded now regarding dating partly because of that attitude and I don’t blame them.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:29 pmActually, it’s still safe to stereotype rural Southern whites: hillbillies, hicks, rednecks, etc. It’s hard to find a stand-up comedian who doesn’t rely on this stereotype for material, at least when (s)he isn’t actually appearing in the South.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:31 pmRight on. And with all the Yankees steady streaming down here, it annoys.
Let’s see, y’all screwed up where y’all live so that nobody wants to live or work there…and now you want to bring that mindset down here to screw up where we live?
Go and crap in your own food, don’t come down here and try to crap in ours.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:37 pm“a woman who berates a man” gets away with it because she knows he (probably) won’t hit her.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:45 pmActually, it’s still safe to stereotype rural Southern whites: hillbillies, hicks, rednecks, etc. It’s hard to find a stand-up comedian who doesn’t rely on this stereotype for material, at least when (s)he isn’t actually appearing in the South.
Right on. And with all the Yankees steady streaming down here, it annoys.
Let’s see, y’all screwed up where y’all live so that nobody wants to live or work there…and now you want to bring that mindset down here to screw up where we live?
Go and crap in your own food, don’t come down here and try to crap in ours.
Years ago, I used to see bumper stickers that read, “Don’t Californicate Colorado”. Californias would get fed up with the high taxes and government intrusiveness and move to Colorado, then turn around and demand the very things that led to California’s high taxes and government intrusiveness. Unfortunately, it looks like they’ve won.
Jeff Foxworthy has made millions by joking about rednecks. His audiences - especially the ones in the South - know he isn’t doing it out of meanness. Southerners have a lot of fun laughing at themselves (Alabama’s unofficial state motto is ‘Thank God for Mississippi’) and often get a kick out of movies like “Forrest Gump.” We have a sense of humor but everything has a limit. Just as blacks can tell jokes with the “N” word but get hostile when others do so, there are limits on what Southerners will accept.
As for anti-woman items, the worst I recall is a bumper sticker I saw many years ago that read, “Life’s a bitch and then you marry one.” There has to be a story there and I really don’t want to know it.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:52 pmI thought that anti-men stuff was funny until I was about 14. By then I had too many guy friends to believe that kind of garbage.
I have actively disliked that sort of thing ever since it dawned on me that “jokes” like that wouldn’t be tolerated about any other group.
I was astonished and disgusted a few years ago to see that shirt in the girls’ clothing section of a department store that said “Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them.” I don’t see why any parent would buy such a thing, IF FOR NO OTHER REASON than they should object because it encourages behavior that would get their oh-so-clever little girl in trouble.
Now that I have a son I find that kind of shit even more offensive. Why should my child be put down because some bitter and foolish feminists think it’s logical to punish today’s men for the sins of their predecessors?
It’s all a part of the world view that holds that males are savages that must be domesticated and emasculated. Feh. Fuck that shit!
August 19th, 2008 at 1:52 pmA neighbor gave me a mug when I was in high school that said “Boys Will Be Toys”, and this was 1987 or so. I think my Mom actually still has it. I remember opening the gift and thinking what the hell does that mean? I still don’t really get it actually. Is it a statement of fact, an aspiration, or wishful thinking? And what kind of thing is that to give a high-school aged girl?
It’s awful that this kind of crap is still around 20 years later, and just goes to show how pervasive it is. It’s so ingrained in the culture at this point that girls learn it early and have to unlearn it to have healthy relationships. SAD SAD SAD.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:59 pmI don’t know what’s worse at that shop you linked, Rachel…the page that the link goes to for Divorce, or the fact that while the three fucking pages of Mother’s Day shit are the same, the five items on one page for Father’s day are things like band-aids that look like strips of bacon.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:02 pmThere’s a Wedding section at that store — WTF???
With such contempt for all men, how can a woman hope to be of any interest to a decent one? I guess the answer is that they don’t — they actually want to marry Castrati. No wonder Western civilization is failing to reproduce!
This will sound terribly old-fashioned, but I hope that both my daughters will eventually marry, and that their marriages will be based on mutual respect.
It’s one thing to note the differences between men and women — and to laugh at some of our mutually alien ways! — but I hope I’ve taught my daughters to treat others as individuals, and to expect to be met with the same consideration.
Brooke, good point! And dfwmtx, kudos!
August 19th, 2008 at 2:02 pmCollege Girl has, so far, avoided any courses based on feminist theory, but the course catalog at her school is replete with them. I have a sad suspicion that “equity feminism’ is not on many syllabi :(.
And then you die.
Damn. Wearyman stole my pie!
August 19th, 2008 at 2:03 pmIt had to be said.
Damn. Now I’m hungry for pie!
August 19th, 2008 at 2:17 pmThere was a brief moment in time when the Men Bashing stuff had a tiny bit of real humor. When I was courting my Lady, we saw a button with the slogan “Most women would rather have beauty than brains, because most men can see better than they can think.”. What could I do? I bought one for her.
Sadly, the days of subtlety have passed. What amuses ME is that I see girls (I don’t care what age they are, if they are this immature, they are girls) wearing this, and whining about how the guys that date are such losers.
Excuse me, honey, but why would a winner have anything to do with you?
August 19th, 2008 at 2:31 pmMy least favorite subset of man-bashing is father-bashing. TV sitcoms are especially egregious in this regard; most TV dads are portrayed as whiny, wimpy, incompetent, goofballs.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:49 pma little free association:
August 19th, 2008 at 2:49 pmwife. . . life. . . strife. . . knife!
I have been to the boardwalk at Atlantic City, my friends, and as wretched as these products are, I have seen worse sold in the shops there. Such as (may God have mercy) a toddler’s shirt that read “All Daddy wanted was a [BJ]“. Of course they didn’t use the initials.
The casual and vulgar cruelty of it is amazing. Ha ha, the kid’s a walking billboard for the degenerate humor of his parents! Let’s take a picture!
Our country has clearly not punched enough hippies.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:52 pmNo self-respecting woman would buy such cr@p. And maybe that’s the key - the products are for those who have NO respect for themselves, therefore no respect for others.
I really, really like men. Especially my husband! He cooks, can fix almost anything, is great at solving problems, plays a mean piano and/or organ - and is a chiropractor! I’ve died and gone to girl heaven!
August 19th, 2008 at 3:06 pmDude, not true. Comedians who come down here feel no shame in making fun of Southerners in their act. The thing is, we already make fun of ourselves, so we’re not hearing anything we haven’t already said to one another.
___
Regarding those products, Rachel, that makes me really sad. I truly believe that it’s impossible to be a true feminist if you have anything to do with putting down a member of another group. The same goes for pride in other areas - if you love yourself that much, and think you’re just absolutely the shit, then you don’t have to put others down to make yourself feel better. And anyone who uses these products to try to get a reaction (because, let’s face it, all they want is attention - OMGZ I’M A TRAITOR TO WIMMENS FOR SAYING THAT) needs to get some therapy and find some self-esteem.
Furthermore, sitcoms? Can’t watch ‘em any more, because most of them have this same message: men are dumb, and they’re only there to go to work and get money for their wives. If the wives work, it’s for self-fulfillment and to prove that they can…god forbid anyone ask her to pay for groceries without her being able to pitch a fit!
And I’m totally stopping here, because I’m stepping onto a soapbox, and there are so many other folks that should be up there instead of me.
August 19th, 2008 at 3:10 pmProbably. I get the feeling that many of them would be big on the whole White guilt trip, so they’d be fine.
There’s a website for those. Tshirthell.com or something. The accompanying shirt for the one you mention is “All Mommy wanted was a backrub.” Most of the shirts there are just completely inappropriate to wear, but God they can be funny in that completely wrong South Park sort of way. I really can’t imagine anyone actually buying the shirts they have for kids.
August 19th, 2008 at 3:19 pmI have baked bread and changed diapers, and the Mrs. has helped me put on roofs and lay block. We each do the things we do best, and share the rest. I evict ugly bugs, open jars, and lift heavy stuff. She handles diplomacy and finance. It’s worked for forty years. I think it may last.
August 19th, 2008 at 3:22 pmHeh. Any woman who actually tries that will be in for a big surprise when she finds out her man is perfectly happy eating takeout 7 days a week and living in a pigsty.
Hell, that’s how he lived before he met you.
I don’t. I love when they do that. It’s like they walk around with a big flourescent sign over their heads that says “MORE TROUBLE THAN I’M WORTH” or “YOU’LL BE SICK OF ME IN A WEEK, DON’T BOTHER”.
If they didn’t act like that we’d have to actually talk to these bitches. Surely you won’t be so cruel as to force us to do that, will you?
August 19th, 2008 at 3:42 pmit’s a safe bet the same bitches who buy, and say, and think anti-men stuff like that will be the same bitches who’re griping about being unmarried at 40. “it’s because men today are *afraid of* a strong, confident woman like me!”
when the cops break in after the neighbors call and say they haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks, they’ll find her surrounded by her 14 cats; in her ever-present muu-muu; gripping her ‘men are pigs’ coffee cup.
sure hope that’s enough for her, because it’s all she’s ever gonna get.
August 19th, 2008 at 3:45 pmoh, and the cartman quote from 2:17 is *classic*. i’m gonna go get me a t-shirt with that on it. hope that doesn’t make me a hayta.
August 19th, 2008 at 3:47 pmJust remember, Taliban is taking notes. Once they’ve finished cornholing SanFranKornHole and getting Homofornia into line, they’ll be coming after the women who like these mugs and shit.
I, for one, will be cleaning my Kimbers and Smith and Wessons and Brownings and Springfield Armorys. Oh, and practicing reload. But, I am part of the group that says, “we don’t have to defend you . . . AND WE WON’T!!!”
August 19th, 2008 at 3:52 pmWay to go, Paul Moore! You and the Missus should be marriage counselors!
August 19th, 2008 at 4:01 pmI would take offense to this stuff, but when women talk all I hear is “Blah Blah Blah.” Then when I ask them to move, they’re blocking my view of the game I hear the same thing, only shriller.
Actually I’m with Andrew C. the jokes don’t bother me, it’s the intent. My wife is always telling me the latest men bashing jokes she hears at work. (she works with a bunch of really bitter bitches) We both laugh at the jokes because I know she doesn’t think that way and we both like to ponder how pathetic these women’s lives must be, that they do.
Several months ago. My eleven year old son got into a verbal argument with a girl his age while I stood by and watched. When the argument started to turn nasty and personal I started to interrupt when suddenly the girl’s mother charged in and started screaming at both my son and me. When she quickly descended into a long string of men bashing insults, I took my son’s hand and started to walk away. The woman loudly yelled that we were both cowards (and a few other things). Seeing the hurt look on my son’s face I stopped, knelt down beside him and said, loud enough for the woman and several bystanders to hear.
“Son, sometimes in life you are going to be confronted with bat-shit crazy stupidity and hatred from women. Many women think they are safe to behave this way because most men have grown up being taught not to hit women. So they think they can say or do anything to a man they want without consequences.
Since you will not be able to argue calmly and rationally with an irate idiot, there are only two ways to deal with this kind of behavior (pointing to the woman). You can either walk away and ignore it or you can beat it to a bloody pulp on the sidewalk.
It is very important that you always try to walk away. Walking away will keep you out of jail. But, if the bitch you are walking away from attacks you with anything other than words, you feel free to chose the ‘beat it to a bloody pulp’ option.”
Then I looked up at the woman and said “We, are walking away now.”
And we did, and it was really quiet behind us.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:02 pmmightysam at 3:42 reminds me of the LG Shine (cell phone) ad where the girl is yammering on about her modeling job or some shit and the guy is eyeing the pretty girls who walk by, and uses his shiny phone’s reflection the check their asses. The yammering girl texts him “OMG ur such a pig”. And I say (at the TV) “what the hell’s wrong with not hiding the fact he’s bored of what you’re talking about? you stupid vapid bitch.” But vapid women is a whole other topic.
EDIT:
David: freaking awesome
Peregrine John (below): me too.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:07 pmDavid, I’ll be memorizing that…
August 19th, 2008 at 4:09 pmDavid,
Awesomeness.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:19 pmI was watching Batman Begins last night. There was a scene with Bruce Wayne and his lady friend in a car. It was a somewhat heated exchange, but not a screaming fight or anything. Bruce said something she didn’t like (I don’t remember what it was, but it wasn’t a threat or anything). She hauled off and slapped him in the face TWICE! No warning or anything. Just SMACK! SMACK! I even mentioned it to my hubby. If it were reversed and a man slapped a woman like that because she said something he didn’t care for, he would be in jail. There are lots of ways to respond to a comment without slapping. Just because she’s a woman doesn’t give her the right to just haul off and slap a man. Self defense is one thing… but not this crap.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:28 pmMaya - Funny, my SO and I feel the same way about that girl. She’s such a tool.
David - NICE.
What I’m half tempted to do, at least at this point, is actually come up with a full-on offensive/racist/whatever store, where you really do take all of the mugs and pins that you see people get about men and convert them into ethnic stereotypes. I might even use a Mad Libs-type system for it. I haven’t thought through the logistics, but I think it could work…
I only fake it so group will buy me stuff
Example: I only fake it so the Jew will buy me stuff.
Group (plural) are like paper napkins… convenient and disposable.
Example: Black people are like paper napkins… convenient and disposable.
A racial epithet needs a racial epithet like a fish needs a bicycle.
Example: A (Hispanic) needs a (Chinese person) like a fish needs a bicycle. (Note that I toned this down to not trip ye olde spamme filteur.)
Oh yeah… I could do this for days…
August 19th, 2008 at 4:35 pmDavid — printed out your post and will commence memorizing it. My three youngest sons need to hear this often.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:37 pmI think products like this do a service for the rational people of both sexes. First, it identifies the blatant man haters, immature girlies and feminazis to the male population. Conversely, it also lets the smart men know which women to stay the hell away from. The smart men know not all women are crazy.
I will admit past guilt to a silent snicker to such idiotic humor, but putting it in this context really makes gives me pause. Now I feel like a jerk. I have a great husband, who does great things and we get along well. This will just make me think twice when I might say something flippant.
David,
August 19th, 2008 at 4:38 pmHave you ever been to the site T-shirt Hell? I think that’s what it’s called. It has some stuff similar what your suggesting. I recall one shirt distinctly in yellow and green “Nothing runs like a queer”
Bravo, David. Bra-vo.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:43 pmWow, David…I’ll be memorizing that, too.
I was going to say that personally all the man-bashing doesn’t bother me, because I have a very simplistic approach to life, and to other people, which goes something like this: - “If somebody holds holds an opinion like that, then they’re obviously a moron, so why should I bother worrying what they think of me in the first place? It’d be like someone suddenly licking your windows, and you reacting by worrying whether you’ve been keeping them clean and sparkly enough to pass muster”. Or something like that, anyway.
But yes, it does matter (the male-bashing, not my windows) - I might laugh at the man-haters, but I don’t want any son of mine growing up to think that he’s a second-class human being emotionally, intellectually, and morally.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:44 pmDavid,
Lets hope that idiotic mother didn’t manage to undo the excellent lesson you taught her daughter about how a real man behaves!
Paul Moore,
August 19th, 2008 at 4:52 pmForty years — yay! here’s wishing you forty more!
The Boss and I are at twenty-six and counting (my folks’ marriage hit fifty-seven this year — I’m pretty sure this runs in families). Bread is my specialty. He makes a mean stirfry. Last night we were working on a car, and tonight? We’ll be welding up some gates for the homestead. Together. bzzzzzt!
RE: David
Awesome reply. I’ll probably end up as the lonely old cat lady and thus never have children but DAMN if that isn’t THE BEST COMEBACK EVAH!!1!
This could be used to describe a whole bunch of illogical stupid shit going on in the world right now, and not just women acting like man hating harpies.
BRA-VO David.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:54 pmI’m with you Rachel! I call bullshit as well! I am so sick of seeing things like that that bash men and all of these idiotic books that have catchy little titles like “Are Men Necessary?” Why don’t all of you women who honesty believe all of this nonsense have BIG cup of shut the fuck up!
I am a strong and independent woman myself and I believe that men and women are equal and one is no one is more important than the other. Yes, typically men are better at some things then women and vice versa. I am tired though of this childish attitude of all of the damn feminists who basically say “anything you can do, I can do better.” Grow up and please shut up.
I am married to an absolutely wonderful man who treats me like a goddess. I keep an immaculately clean house(part of which is due to my OCD, but I digress), keep laundry caught up, and make sure the bills get paid not just for me but for him as well. Why you may ask? Because I WANT too and my hubby deserves to be treated well.
Now I’m pissed off. Don’t I feel sorry for any idiot that cuts me off in traffic today!
August 19th, 2008 at 4:57 pmMy son has heard that same lecture paraphrased several times. He is only 11 and it takes several times for things to sink in and stick. Plus he has an older sister who loved to torment him because she (and he) knew that she could wipe the floor with him if needed. So it used to make her rather bold about picking on him. Until she discovered what life without cellphones, ipods, TV, phones, and computers was like.
On the other hand his twin sister who hearing me repeatedly admonishing him to just walk away took it upon herself to continue berating him one day. As she followed him into the house while he was practicing walking away she got fed up with him and pushed him.
He stumbled, regained his balance then turned around and while she stood there grinning at him he punched her square in the face.
My dear wife went crazy and I was in deep do-do when I got home because his only defense was “Dad said I could.”
We talked it all out, and when I finally explained, my wife understood. She wasn’t happy, but she understood, and forgave.
Both kids learned valuable lessons that day. My daughter learned that:
1. just being a girl will not always protect you from boys.
2. that everyone has a breaking point and you shouldn’t try and find it.
3. when someone tries to walk away from you, let them.
4. Contrary to what TV shows you, getting punched in the face - hurts.
My son learned that :
August 19th, 2008 at 4:59 pm1. sometimes Mom and Dad are not always on the same page when it comes to parenting.
2. maybe there are times that even when beating someone to a pulp is provoked, you should still keep walking away.
3. Contrary to what TV shows you, punching someone in the face - hurts. His knuckles were black and blue and swollen for several days.
David,
Sage advice indeed. Sounds like a talk my husband had with the short man. Now if I would just get him to quit fighting with his sister …
Truth in advertising — you guys are right, there is a market for this crap — dating demotivators!
August 19th, 2008 at 5:01 pmDavid,
That’s great — love it! “Contrary to what tv shows you. . . ” heh!
Mrs. David’s reaction was, of course, perfectly reasonable — from a mom perspective. Which is why children are supposed to have one of each. Because we’re not the same — we’re not supposed to be! — but we’re both valuable.
Viva la difference!
14k,
August 19th, 2008 at 5:17 pmWell done — and equal opportunity!
Snoop if my memory serves me that slap was actually justified. It was after Wayne said he wasn’t one of her good people, showing her the gun he had. The gun he planned to murder his parents’ killer with in the middle of a hallway, but got beat to the punch by Falcone’s hitwoman. So he did deserve to be slapped many times.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:19 pmAgree, Rachel. Male-bashing feminism is just a subset of the modern Orwellian “equality” imposed on our society (i.e., all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others). If a girl needs a belligerent anti-male T-shirt or coffee mug to make herself feel equal to men, she obviously believes she’s inferior to them — and she probably is.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:22 pmTalk about intellectually lazy! There are far better reasons to dislike a random person(s) than some trivial incident of birth.
A slogan those squid lovers should be exposed to more often: “I’m amused that you’re dumb enough to think you’re better than me.”
August 19th, 2008 at 5:26 pmHonestly, I wish more crazy women did me the favor of labeling themselves so visibly. I’m sure I could have avoided at least one or two terrible relationships if they had.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:35 pmAh, 14k, how I do adore you!
Oh! Don’t let’s forget Christians! You can slander and libel them ’til the cows come home, and threats of violence will be pretty dang rare. That whole “turn the other cheek” thing is out of hand enough to include all 4 cheeks, now.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:35 pmInterestingly enough, even the most hysterical woman will usually fall immediately silent upon being offered the alternative of having her tongue ripped out, fried, and eaten in a sandwich with tomatoes, cheddar cheese and mayonnaise.
As an added bonus, she’ll usually do her best to steer well clear of you in the future. It takes an unusual woman to attempt browbeating a man she suspects just might be a cannibal serial-killer. If a woman is prone to believing the worst of men, why not let her imagination work for you?
August 19th, 2008 at 5:40 pmI love you, Rachel. You covered this so much better than I did.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:46 pmEven so, if you took that exact same situation but reversed the genders, it would be held up by so-called feminists as an example of “misogyny”.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:07 pmYeah but they’d do that if you showed a guy laughing at something a woman did, even if its something they’d laugh at if a guy did.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:23 pmEvery time a woman insults men, she insults boys. Some adults seem to find it hard to remember the mindset of a child.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:34 pmTo a child, there’s an “us” and “them/they”
“Us” is the child, “them/they” are the adults.
“Them/they” represents the people we trust, the people we believe are looking out for us. As a child, what “they” think of us, directly affects our self-esteem and sense of self-worth.
How does a 10 old year old boy feel when he sees a 40 year old woman wearing a “Boys are stupid” tshirt?
How does an 8 year old boy feel when he sees his his aunt drinking out of a cup that says “Men have feelings too, but who gives a shit”?
The most vulnerable victims of misandry are young boys. They are not strong enough to console themselves.
They don’t have the practice and strength to prevent what an adult says about them, from affecting their self-esteem.
I’ve always said:
Feminists hate women.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:43 pmHe’s probably giggling because his auntie used a dirty word.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:50 pmRachel, do you know the definition of PMS?
It’s the point in a woman’s cycle we she acts like a man acts all the time.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:50 pmDavid, ever thought of getting a blog ? I know why I don’t have a blog, mostly because I reduce the people I love to tears when I even suggest the idea and they say they’ll never speak to me again if I do, but with the kind of common sense I’ve just been reading, I’d have you bookmarked right away!
August 19th, 2008 at 6:51 pmThis is, quite simply, bigotry towards men. And I have no doubt that the owner(s) of http://www.shoplucys.com considers him or herself a very modern, open-minded person.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:55 pmRachel: Love the article. I’ve pointed the exact same thing out to people before. Some get it, some don’t — but, hey, morality is volitional: being moral is a choice one has to make, and not all make that choice. Some choose evasion and dishonesty; they have to hold onto their lies in defiance of reality, reasoning and logic.
I’d disagree with this part, though:
“So we’ve collectively decided (apparently) that the formerly oppressed group gets to rage about the oppressors for a good while. I know a lot of decent women who aren’t really bothered by the man-bashing for that very reason. Oh, men were dishing it out forever, now it’s our turn, fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.”
When were all men ever oppressing all women? I’d say “never” in this sense: Both men and women held the ideas that led to the view people had of women — i.e., both men and women were oppressing themselves with bad, ill-conceived ideas.
Men and women are both self-sovereign, responsible creatures, and are both responsible for the “oppression” because of the ideas they choose to hold. (With allowance for their context, whether pre-Ancient Greece, pre-John Locke (who first identified the theory of natural, inalienable rights), or pre-Founding Fathers (who universalized rights to all people regardless of nationality).)
Where in “Braveheart,” for example — either in the movie or the real historical event — did all men oppress all women? Seems to me that Braveheart had his rights stomped on (and was oppressed) just as much as women did. Surfs, both men and women, had their rights routinely violated.
The stomping could come just as well from a Pharaohess Hatsheput or a King Tut, a Queen Mary I or a King George III.
When were women writing books, speaking out, protesting, staging rallies, going on strike to make public all these great ideas they supposedly had about freedom and rights? When were men keeping ideas of equality from women? Never.
Because neither men nor women had such ideas until recently. We needed Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, John Locke and the Founding Fathers to get where we are. Thank goodness for them!!!
What’s more, the individual is the unit of moral choice, not the group: not “men” nor “women” nor “black” not “white.” Even when there was slavery in the US, it was neither practiced nor condoned by all whites, and thus could not be attributed to each individual white. Some white individuals were morally reprehensible, some were good.
Whites today did not cause slavery, so cannot be held responsible for that effect. Same with “men” — even if you could argue successfully that all men oppressed all women at one time, you cannot hold current individuals responsible for an effect they did not cause.
I say we need less conceptually corrupt men and women in the world, and more like Sappho, Aristotle, Hypatia, Galileo, John Locke, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Ayn Rand.
Rational men and women rock. Irrational ones suck.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:55 pmI don’t let anyone woman insult me without letting her have it in return. Bitchies give, bitchies gonna get, ya know what I’m sayin’?
Which is why I’m still single.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:56 pmmightysamurai Says:
How does an 8 year old boy feel when he sees his his aunt drinking out of a cup that says “Men have feelings too, but who gives a shit”?
He’s probably giggling because his auntie used a dirty word.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:57 pm——————–
Either that or as a typical intelligent and perceptive young boy, he’s realizing that boy turns into man and therefore boy is man and hence his aunt doesn’t give a shit how he feels.
And have any other males ever had the experience of holding a door open for a woman, only for her not even to say ‘Thanks’?.
That happened to me once, and I thought - WTF? I don’t hold doors open for women because I think they’re incapable of pushing a door open for themselves; I hold doors open for everyone on the general principle that I wouldn’t want a door swinging shut onto my face and then have to spend a couple of weeks wearing a nose splint, so I’d rather spare other people from suffering the same fate.
Feminists - to them, everything we males do is about enforcing the heteronormative patriarchical subjugation machine (I copied and pasted that last part from Rachel’s post because I didn’t have a clue how to spell it).
August 19th, 2008 at 7:03 pmNeitzsche sez
“Even in the slave I saw the will to be master.”
by which I believe he’s saying that the slave doesn’t want everyone to be free they want a slave of their own.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:36 pmThe oppressed don’t want an end to oppression they want to be oppressors themselves.
Neitzsche was a freakin’ idiot but at least that much is true…
Feminists hate that they ARE women.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:36 pmOh please. You’ve managed to find one corner of the Internet purveying man-bashing. You could just as easily find any number of sites purveying hatred of gays, women, blacks, Mexicans, etc. Yes, the former is more socially acceptable than the latter, but it’s really not worth making an issue of until it appears in a more mainstream venue - the New York Times, for instance, or NBC. Otherwise it’s just a bunch of bitter divorcees blowing off steam - and surely not that big a deal. I’ve heard the same sentiments about women from men after difficult breakups.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:36 pmJonathan,
The difference is that whereas the stuff that rags on Blacks, Mexicans, Jews, etc. is mostly confined to the internet and the part of town you don’t walk in if you have any sense, the men bashing tripe is available in Sears, Wal-Mart, J. C. Penny’s and the like - I’ve seen it there.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:48 pmC. S. P. Schofield Says: “Most women would rather have beauty than brains, because most men can see better than they can think.”
Neurologically, that might be the right strategy. The male brain has 250% more area occupied with vision and sexual excitement than does a female brain. On average.
And there is a little ambiguity about the “they can think” too when taken in context of functional neurology.
Trey
August 19th, 2008 at 7:53 pmThese people are just giving the other more control over their lives. They claim they are the victim meaning the other person is the one responsible over what happened and continually claiming it continues to put the other in control (because the claimer is a VICTIM and hence IS NOT IN CONTROL).
August 19th, 2008 at 8:57 pmThis was excellant — until the unmitigated bullshit about this “trend” of hateful comments against men ( its been a torrent for over 40 years) being rooted in the “fact of” thousands of years of men oppressing women.
Thats utter nonsense. History is not the history of a male boot in a womans’ face– thats feminist propaganda… and its anti-male bigotry.
There is no fundamental difference between “equity” and regular ole man-hating feminism– they both pursue female self-interest monomaniacally, but just disagree as to what that self-interest is…
August 19th, 2008 at 9:10 pmJonathan,
August 19th, 2008 at 9:35 pmWould Maureen Dowd of the NYT be mainstream enough for you?
Snippets from a CNN interview about her book Are Men Necessary?:
Son, are you blind?
This was not dredged from the depths of the internet. This was from a physical store at a physical mall.
A store in the mall isn’t mainstream?
And how many of those men went and founded a business to promote their hatred of women?
August 19th, 2008 at 10:13 pmIt may be wrong, but it certainly isn’t counterproductive. It allows women who are disrespectful of men in general (as opposed to in particular, which may be earned by the man in question) to clearly identify themselves. Speaking as a male, this is a public service.
As to being put on the defensive… I’d have to take it seriously to be defensive about it… and I just can’t… it looks to much like the ranting of children about how mean their parents are for not giving them their every whim.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:37 pmYou should have your own blog, David. That story about the punch in the face is golden.
H. Lecter… nice. I feel like no blog is complete without at least one reference to cannibalism in the comments, ideally from someone your are only pretty sure is joking.
Buzzion… definitely siding with you on the Bruce Wayne issue. It was an appropriate slap. While a man would not have the simplicity of a physical expression of disappointment and disgust, I hope that he would be able to come up with a verbal retaliation that stung as much. She was doing him a favor by trying to remind him of who he was and I hope someone would do me that favor were I in that situation.
Rachel: You are my helmet-wearing hero, weird and delightfully cynical. May your indignation and dog-mockery never end.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:17 pmYou should have your own blog, David. That story about the punch in the face is golden.
H. Lecter… nice. I feel like no blog is complete without at least one reference to cannibalism in the comments, ideally from someone one is only pretty sure is joking.
Buzzion… definitely siding with you on the Bruce Wayne issue. It was an appropriate slap. While a man would not have the simplicity of a physical expression of disappointment and disgust, I hope that he would be able to come up with a verbal retaliation that stung as much. She was doing him a favor by trying to remind him of who he was and I hope someone would do me that favor were I in that situation.
Rachel: You are my helmet-wearing hero, weird and delightfully cynical. May your indignation and dog-mockery never end.
P.S. you should sell helmets in your store. I understand that would be much more difficult to make than just short bus t-shirts, but I want an official Rachel helmet. Obviously, you should go out of your way for a recent reader you’ve never met when there is no guarantee of any fruit from your labor, so chop-chop.
P.P.S. If that “chop-chop” gets misconstrued into some sort of oppressive, misogynist comment I will laugh.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:24 pmDo you post photos on flickr? Because if you do, I adore several in your collection.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:32 pmIf that’s not you, I still enjoy your commentary. Blunt. Insightful. Poignant. I like it.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:38 pm14k,
August 20th, 2008 at 12:05 amWorth your weight in gold yet again! That’s exactly what I thought of when I read Red Beard’s “chop-chop!”
Florida has the same problem with people from NY, NJ, and MA, and they’re winning, seeing as how annoyingly liberal our governor is.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:38 amWhen I was a boy, my mother and my aunts all sat around yakking about men in that way. Trash talking all their men, and what disappointment their adult sons were.
It never occurred to me until last year why I’m age 45 and unmarried. It’s because I’ve never seen any benefit to it.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:05 amMen have not “oppressed” women for thousands of years. Rather, Western European-oriented societies have granted women a lot of freedom, comparatively, than Muslim societies for example. Bernard Lewis recounts the Sultan’s ambassadors to Vienna being shocked that the Emperor himself would stop in the middle of the street and doff his hat to ladies crossing it. Different cultures have treated women better and worse, depending basically on the competition among men for women and how it’s managed.
Sorry to say, I don’t think men in relationships/marriage pay much attention to what women not their wives/gfs say. The situation where commercial disparagement of men comes into play, TV commercials, sitcoms, t-shirts, mugs, etc. is in the relationship market. There it likely DOES have a marginal and negative effect. Particularly if the guy is above average intelligence (women don’t like that, correlates to lower testosterone), hit puberty later and had less status/social power in adolescence. It’s not probably dominant — men’s past relationships with women are probably predictive of their attitude towards women, but can have a marginal negative effect.
Men with negative views towards women will be less likely to commit to women of lessened attractiveness, less likely to remain faithful, more likely to bail out at the first sign of trouble. The marginal effect IMHO is small but negative towards women in their mid thirties or later looking for a boyfriend, likely among the “B-Team” i.e. the guys who were not the socially dominant ladies men who dominate the dating scene in HS and women’s twenties. Which depending on how you slice it could be anywhere from 80% to 60% of men.
What’s interesting about these ads, t-shirts, and mugs is that they insult women who have husbands, sons, brothers, and fathers. Many women find it enraging, since it implies the women in many cases were so stupid they married an unsuitable man.
IMHO this phenomena is the product of the marketing/advertising/creative class that is encased in the hipster bubble. Unable to see that this sort of thing can enrage customers, not the least of them women who’s choice of husband is questioned (or their sons). Men probably don’t care — they seem to mostly tune out most things women say except for their wives/gf’s or women who they view as prospective dates, etc. You see very little interest in male entertainment in exploring things women like or how they think, for example.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:50 amFelicity:
Fine, then take issue with Maureen Dowd! Not some Internet novelty store.
Of course male bashing is more socially acceptable than the bashing of any other discrete social group. I like to think, however, that the best way to deal with it is to laugh it off, not to cast men as yet another victim group in need of p.c. protection.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:14 amAnd my dear mother wonders why I’ve never gotten married…
August 20th, 2008 at 9:01 amQ: “Why do men usually die before women?”
A: “Because they want to.”
August 20th, 2008 at 9:09 amDitto “Junior Curmudgeon”, even on the age, exactly my own…
August 20th, 2008 at 9:11 amPointing out hypocrisy and the idiocy of something is not putting men into a victim class. No one is calling for the p.c. protection of men here.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:12 amAh, years ago I worked in a place where a male coworker had a background photo of him and his wife on their honeymoon in Hawaii. They were standing on the beach, and were wearing swimsuits. Her suit was not skimpy at all, and neither was his. That didn’t stop a tight-fitting club clothes every day feminist from a totally different department from filing a “sexual harassment” claim. Yes, folks, having a photo of YOU AND YOUR OWN WIFE is sexually harassing other women.
He went back to that ‘other department’ (corporate sales.. figures) on a Saturday and looked at *her* desk. The entire department was staffed by women, and there were the typical “Sexy construction worker” beefcake calendars, Victoria Secret catalogues, and other items objectifying men as sex toys lying around in plain sight. He brought that up to the staff when they questioned him about HER complaint, and the answer from the feminist staff was “Well, what were you doing snooping around in corporate sales?”
Man bashing & objectification: OK to girls these days. But when the shoe is on the other foot, the bloggyblogs and lawyers are on fire….
It took me 32 years, but I learned to avoid women with such double standards. I had to leave “liberal” California to do it, though, and I’m much happier.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:49 amRegardless, I don’t agree with that sentiment. I don’t even find Scarlett Johannson attractive because of her asstarded stupidity. Idiocy to me is a most potent libido killer.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:52 amI just hate man-bashing. Maybe I’m June Cleaver at hear too because everything I do at home I do out of love for him inasmuch as I married the sweetest fella in the world. I’m treated like a queen and you’ll never hear me agreeing with a feminist because I don’t want them messing up my playhouse.
I will also say this. In many respects, men make fabulous friends. I have male friends and they never BS me. Maybe I’m just drawn to a good class of man, but they know how to temper any advice of criticisms they offer with tact. They’re up front and spot-on 24/7. They’re easier to work with and for–most of the time (I realize there are jerks of both sexes in the workplace). In the business world, if two men get into an argument, it usually blows over in a few minutes and they shake hands and go back to work. I really like that about them. It means progress is being made. You surely won’t see women do that. Females are more deceptive and backstabbing.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:22 amWho, me? Hmm yeah, that’d be me, in there with the same username. Many thanks! There’s not a lot of visual humor in there, but if you see something useful to your macros, I hereby create the 14K Dispensation: have at it.
Aww, thanks, 14k! Most of the time in here I feel like I’m barely keeping up with Rachel’s collection of wits and thinkers.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:31 amI would like to add an account of husband/father bashing I heard about from one of my peers. A mutual “friend” of ours was at a (Christian-no less) teen retreat with her tween daughter. It’s a convention with kids coming from surrounding southern states to compete in various events. Our “friend” saw her old college flame. He had made a successful businessman, and he was over a group of teens from elsewhere. She pointed him out to her daughter and said, “I could have married him.” Her daughter replied, “Why didn’t you!?” I was appalled at this account that was told to me. Her husband is a lovely guy–a teacher and football coach. He’s a man’s man, but he’s still a good husband and father. It was bad enough for her to think it, but to teach her daugher disrespect for her father is horrific. Our “friend” seems to have issues from her early life that are unresolved. I don’t know what they are and it’s rude to pry, but I think it has something to do with her screwed-up mind where men are concerned.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:44 amActually, to go against some of the sentiment here, I think this idiotic merchandise is more a product of bitter divorced women-types than it is of “man-hating” feminists.
I don’t think many feminists would find these “witty” slogans acceptable either. Or, at least they shouldn’t if they aren’t going to be hypocrites. Seriously, not too many feminists would find a slogan saying “I only fake it so he’ll buy me stuff” to be particularly empowering.
August 20th, 2008 at 4:49 pmholding doors open…90% of the time, a man will say “thanks” if you hold the door open for him. About 50% of the time, a black woman will say “thanks.” About 10% of the time, a white woman will say thanks.
(I am white. Your mileage may vary.)
August 20th, 2008 at 5:00 pmAnd people wonder why we’re in such a hurry to invent Sexaroids.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:01 pmRachel,
As a man, I WAS in the relationship market; that’s past tense, because I no longer am on the market. No, I didn’t get married-thank fucking goodness! I took myself off the market simply because of this misandrist zeitgeist, and how seemingly few women have spoken out against it. To me, that was prima facie evidence that most women AGREE with this misandry; to me, silence on this issue = assent; to me, it reflected women’s TRUE feelings about me as a man; finally, to me, I resolved to never get involved with someone who hates me, which is almost all women. TGIS (thank GOODNESS I’m single)!!!!
MarkyMark
August 20th, 2008 at 8:13 pmSaw a picture message-thingy today on a guys phone, from another guy. A talking vagina was bitching about drinking too much, watching too much football; when are you going to do this or that…
I was kind of glad to see it, after reading this post, (even though it was creepy in the extreme) and yet, kind of disappointed as well.
Anyway, the backlash is out there, it’s just underground. For example, a joke I heard today (which I’m sure must be ancient)-
What do you tell a woman with two black eyes?
Nothing - she’s already been told twice!
Ha! I will never tell this joke to a chick. Unless I’m really blasted, or writing to your blog-thingy.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:29 pmI was with this article up until the quotation “I have no idea what a women who says “I don’t cook or clean” does when she gets home from work, if she works. Eat Bon Bons and watch Oprah? Sorry if I’m stereotyping, but women who show off mugs like this are only stereotyping themselves.” I’m sorry, you think that women who “don’t cook or clean” have a 100% overlap with women who think men exist only to buy them things? And then it’s “if they work?”
Not only do we work, we go to school, balance the budgets, run household errands, sometimes deal with longer commutes because we live near our husbands’ workplaces… some of us might even shovel the walks and mow the lawns so the men can do tidy-up.
Can we make the completely valid point about unacceptable merchandise without judging other women and assuming that they aren’t holding up their ends of things if they don’t cook or clean? Maybe some of us just aren’t great at being domestic and make up for it with other skills.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:45 pmFirst, here are the lyrics of that 60’s Bond theme, “Diamonds Are Forever”….there’s a small video there too - sung by the legendary Shirley Bassey.
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/bassey_shirley/diamonds_are_forever.html
And I have to agree the really bad men bashing ones here seem to be divorce related.
I gave my cousin a sticker after her divorce that read:
“I still miss my ex, but my aim is improving !”
August 20th, 2008 at 11:01 pmI (and others) have said this here before, but it all depends on where you live. In my 43 years, I can count on my hands the number of women who have not thanked me for holding the door for them. (I don’t count the one who ran into the door because it slipped from my fingers just as she got to it :-P), but I live on the border of a Hillbilly area, where people are raised to be polite to everyone.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:19 pmRachel L is holding women up to the same standard as everybody else. It’s okay to let women be prejudiced if their ideas don’t count; If women were unable to think.
Second class citizens get away with more; like the retarded and 2-year olds.
August 21st, 2008 at 3:43 amI don’t let the man-hating women get away with it. When I see it, I call them out on it. Men Suck is a recent post where I do just that.
I’m a single dad with half-time custody. I cook, clean, care for my kids, volunteer in their schools. And I’m a man. I run into discrimination and ugly stereotypes vented against me all the time.
These mugs suck. Thanks for pointing them out. And any woman who vents her anger at all men might choose to instead take a look inside herself and understand why she is so pissed off. No thing in the world has instrinsic meaning. The meaning we place on some thing (person, object, action, etc.) is what we each individually put on it, based on our own psychology and experiences. (The Dalai Lama is way more eloquent when it comes to explaining that one)
August 21st, 2008 at 12:26 pm