Tag Archives: MRA

What I’m Reading, February 17, 2015

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New Study on Gender and Hot Sauce Has Exceptional Conclusion, Maggie Lange, New York Magazine, February 3, 2015

Just as you hoped, a new study from Penn State researchers titled “Gender differences in the influence of personality traits on spicy food liking and intake” has important information about the ways in which men and women are entirely different sorts of creatures, and how one group might be genuinely badass taste adventurers and one group might not be.

In the study, the researchers conclude that women are more likely to seek sensation from spicy food, while men are more likely to see other extrinsic rewards like praise and admiration.

To put it another way, no one eats Guatemalan insanity peppers because they taste good.

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Stop what you’re doing, and GO READ THE BUZZFEED EXPOSE OF A VOICE FOR MEN’S PAUL ELAM. (SPOILER: He’s even worse than you think), David Futrelle, We Hunted the Manmoth, February 6, 2015 Continue reading →

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What I’m Reading, July 9, 2014

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MRAs Aren’t Just Terrorizing Women — They’re Hurting Men, Too, Tom Hawking, Flavorwire, July 1, 2014

It’s easy to write off MRAs as lunatics — any group who can call feminism “a multibillion-dollar hate industry” isn’t exactly asking to be taken seriously, especially since I’m writing this on a day when the Supreme Court just decided that a corporation’s right to believe in whatever bullshit it likes is more important than a woman’s right to insurance-subsidized birth control.

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There are many things to dislike about r/RedPill types. Many, many things. But here’s the issue: quite apart from their hatefulness, they do their “cause” — such as it is — absolutely no good at all. As with extremists in many other areas, they hijack and polarize a discussion that is worth having.

The one where I need help understanding why MRAs don’t become feminists, Mychal Denzel Smith, Feministing, July 3, 2014 Continue reading →

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What I’m Reading, July 8, 2014

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The birth control debate is really about the housing market, Eric Garland, Eric Garland Blog, March 4, 2012

All of this debate is about the housing market. And unemployment. And Afghanistan. And health care for Baby Boomers. And Netflix. And drones. And the bankruptcy of Greece. And more. None of this spontaneously vomited national debate has a thing to do with healthcare or birth control or morals. It has everything to do with a nation that is afraid to discuss its real future, so it would much prefer to re-fight the great debates of the 20th century.

As somebody who discusses the future professionally with leaders of organizations, I will tell you that people everywhere are so terrified of what is coming next that they are fundamentally incapable of having a discussion about it. The American Mindset is almost entirely about Growth and Winning, and the simple fact is that we are likely unable to grow geographically or economically due to fiscal and demographic constraints. Thus, our steady-state economics, or even steadily receding economy, will not look like winning, either on a balance sheet or in people’s minds. Americans are addicted to seeing the Dow Jones go up every year. They want their houses to be worth more and more, forever. They want to stay “number one,” whatever that means, at all costs. And virtually none of that is likely in the near future. It is so difficult for Americans to consider that they are reverting to all manner of fantastic, irrational thinking to avoid the painful realities that may be ahead.

A Fascinating Study of How Creationists Understand Early Human Fossils, Mark Strauss, io9, July 2, 2014 Continue reading →

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An MRA Gets Burned

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If you think, as this guy apparently does, that our society “panders to women’s every whim,” and if you express that view in public, you might get burned for it, as happened here:

"Society already panders to women’s every whim". I’m guessing no woman has ever pandered to any of your whims

Click to embiggen.

Sometimes a reasoned debate just isn’t in the cards. That applies to about 98% of what MRA’s say, as far as I’m concerned. (The remaining 2% mostly relate to food and other necessities of daily survival.) I’ll just let Liz Lemon close this out:

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When Are Orcs More Plausible than Women?

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By anonymous (modified image: http://freywild.ch/i33/i33en.html) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsThe short answer is “never,” but bear with me.

Some guy who goes by the name Vox Day on the internet has announced plans to create a medieval combat video game. The game will allow players to manage the combat of a variety of characters, including humans, elves, and dwarves. The game will also have goblins, orcs, and trolls, but I don’t know if those are playable characters or enemies. (I don’t play much of this style of game, so I don’t know exactly how it works.)

What the game will not have is female characters. At all. Because as far as Vox Day is concerned, women don’t fight in combat, and to claim otherwise would require him to “throw out historical verisimilitude.” (Also, he figures “whiny women” won’t be playing his game anyway.)

As David Futrelle (linked above), Ophelia Benson, Jason Thibeault, and PZ Myers have all pointed out, women have in fact served in combat throughout human history, including in the European Middle Ages (PDF file). I will describe another woman warrior below, but first, I have an observation about Vox Day’s game.

He will include goblins, trolls, orcs, elves, and dwarves in his game, but he considers women to be implausible.

Forget historical accuracy for a second. If you have difficulty even imagining a woman in a combat role alongside actual mythical characters, well, you may have issues.

By U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Keith Brown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Women in the military? That’s unpossible!

Now then, let me tell you a bit about Milunka Savić. Continue reading →

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