I was recently tipped off to a blog post by a college-aged guy. He had seen a bulletin board post about male privilege posted in his dorm hallway, and became incredibly angry and upset. He decided to photograph each blurb from the display and rant about how each point was ridculous and promoted a man-hating feminist agenda.
I encourage anyone to help me educate this young man. Here are some gems from the post:
In regards to the gender wage gap- "The last time I checked, this injustice was abolished some time in the late '70s, my friend."
Discussing rape by intoxication- "If a guy passes out on a couch from drinking too much, he is JUST AS MUCH AT RISK to sexual or physical abuse as a passed out woman, or even a passed out homosexual, for this matter! "
In reference to females fears of walking alone at night- " Girls just get pre-emptive about this, and think the whole world is out to sex/kill them. Which is NOT true, especially considering the FACT that there ARE female assailants!"
He goes on to dismiss that there is sexism involved when the worst insults for people of both genders are words that refer to women (pussy, bitch). And he insists that victims of rape and sexual assault are partially if not equally responsible for their rape as their assailant.
And he finishes by insisting that he loves and respects women and that he condemns sexism.
Please, feel free to comment on his post and increase his awareness. Have a great day!
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My main beef is that he first says stuff like "the wage gap doesn't exist" and then tries to backtrack by making vague statements about his agreeing with feminism in theory "but if it did, it wouldn't be fair" and then straight away contradicts what he just said by blaming feminism for the problem "but feminists want to lower men's wages, not raise women's"... He reminds me of someone I know who often deals with situations like this by first completely getting his facts wrong, then making some quasi-amend-making statement, but then completely ruining all good intent by acting arrogant or insulting you with more misinformed logic.
Wow.. the point where he has to differentiate between "guy," "woman" and "homosexual" amazes me. Because, you know, someone's sex is exactly the same as someone's sexual orientation... differentiate that!!
I was laughing at this dickheads ignorance before I got to the part about slut shaming and OH GIRLS INVITE SEX BY WEARING THIS.
Uh. No.
What a fucking tosser. I just had a mild rant and a link to Finally, A Feminism 101.
I hope he realises how ridiculous that all is
I poked around on his (fairly unreadable) blog and he certainly doesn't seem very bright or well-liked (apparently he "makes people uncomfortable"- I wonder why?). I also came across this gem under his "interests" section:
* Really hot girls: I'm not gonna lie - I really really like girls - SEXUALLY that is! And if I recall correctly, this is what primarily defines male heterosexuality! I just wish people (girls in specific) wouldn't be so grossed and/or creeped out whenever guys think with their genitals instead of their brains! Because we do, and it's NOT abnormal!!!
Getting upset at every single every single creepy asshole on internet would be impossible, so I am choosing to find this funny in a sick kind of way.
This guy is completely idiotic. He tries to refute every statement on the bulletin board, but half of his supposed "arguments" are just, "well, that's the way it is, so there!" peppered with the odd all-caps or bold word here and there (which is insanely annoying). Another thing: as you stated, he dismisses the concept of female words being used to insult both men and women, and then goes on in the blog to say "P3WNED, BITCHES!" ... I wonder if he realizes he just proved his opposition's point?
This guy is the perfect illustration of "OMG I'M SO ENTITLED." Did any of you read any of his other posts?
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This kind of rape apologist is especially dangerous. He refers to himself as a radical liberal. What we have here is a fauxgressive, someone who will say he believes in equality, while rolling his eyes and waving his dick at anyone who points out that privilege exists.
In his "about me" portion of the blog, he writes:
"* My political views are to the farthest left of the spectrum as possible. Back in high school (the Kerry/Bush election being my first real exposure to politics) I gave myself the title "Square Root Liberal" (which in math terms, Square Root = Radical, it was a play on words) Nowadays, I look at social/political issues from both points of views, and from there, deduct myself onto one side or the other. (99% of the time as 'Liberal') Many people refer to this as "Progressive", but I like being different from everyone else. So I refer to myself as an Adamant Liberal - the most radical of radical!
;P"
Yeah. Rape apology + privileged obliviousness to inequality + 'hey but teh menz are hurt by feminizums; we just want to fuck the women, not kill them all' bullshit = Adamant Liberal? What?!
I only wish this was surprising.
If you read some of his posts, you see he's only 'liberal' because it's 'controversial.' He's got a big 'anti-establishment' thing going on. It's pathetic.
The one time I'm actually smiling after reading the comments :)
But that guy's points don't even make sense. Does he realize he's just proving that male privilege DOES exist and how harmful it can be. And that he's not very bright?
He comes across as a college-aged person with a lot of strong opinions based on the minimum of critical reasoning.
Here is the one "teaching moment" I will take away from his response. I think there are a lot of other people like this guy: people who are trying to be kind, who don't feel as though their lives are easy, who think rape is awful. They would never DREAM of assaulting someone (male or female.) They recognize that the 80's version of sexism ("I'll give you the raise if you do me a 'favor'") is bad-bad-bad. So when someone says "Male Privilege," what they hear is: "you're JUST like the rapists, you objectify women ALL THE TIME, oh, and the problems in your life are insignificant because you're a MAN."
Of course Male Privilege exists. (So please, nobody jump all over me for acting as "an apologist for white men"!) Enlightened, liberal, pacifists men still benefit from their gender, race and sexuality. But I think the cause of feminism will greatly benefit if we can employ ways of inviting men _into_ the conversation. Because it IS important that privileged groups (men, whites, straights) UNDERSTAND that they are privileged. But if privileged groups (men, whites, straights) feel as though they are being dismissed, ("you are privileged, therefore, you are the bad guys, therefore, you're only recourse is to apologize for existing") then they are more likely to resist and RESENT feminism.
Note: I am NOT saying that the featured bulletin board did any of these things. I think the young man in question REALLY went overboard. I AM saying that conversations about privilege have a tendency to turn-off one half of the intended audience (eg. the privileged class.) We need to keep that half of the audience engaged if we hope to accomplish anything.
Wow... I just kept thinking "No you didn't!" to everything he said as I read it. How can he NOT see his sexism? Or could he be pulling a Steven Colbert?
As a woman who HAS been viciously raped after a night out, on an occasion were i was left to walk home alone, this angers me greatly. I was no more asking for my attack than a person who gets crapped on by a pigeon walking down the street asks for that to happen. It took me a while to realise as when i finally told my mother about what happened to me she asked what i was wearing that night and says 'i must have been doing something wrong'. I have realized i did nothing to provoke this attack but be at the wrong place at the wrong time, i wasn't wearing sexualised clothing or anything else that a narrow minded person could credit with such an attack. He stole my handbag and obviously saw a bonus golden opportunity to dehumanize another person.
I could have used this experience to hate men and enforce my own narrow minded opinions but i have chosen not to as i view people as individuals. Yes, i get scared walking down the street and worry unnecessarily but i would never dream of lumping men together in the same category as the one that attacked me, yet you cannot ignore the statistical fact that men commit the mass majority of sex attacks in this world. It is a fact you have to consider without letting it cloud your opinions of individuals of course.
This man obviously speaks from a very closed upbringing, where his cocoon of a life have bred such ignorant opinions. I pity for him as the greatest emotion i can think of is empathy, where you can at least try and consider things from another persons perspective. Not only enlightening yourself to others around you but getting a deeper sense of the world around you also.
I cannot believe that there is anyone still out there that thinks like this. Where in the world is a man just as likely to be taken advantage of while drinking? If anything, I hear alcohol comsumption could inhibit a man's ability to achieve errection. So how a woman could take advantage of a passed out man with a flasid penis is beyond me.
he is one of the most sexist guys I've seen in a long time. And I have a hobby of hanging out with social conservatives for fun. If you saw the comments, there were only 3. the last one( it was from the original poster) said :
"VAGINAFEST 2009 is OVER, BITCHES!!!
Enough of this foolishness, AT ONCE!!!
Yes, this is MY BLOG, which means that I have control over what gets posted.
As such, I have exercised my COMMUNIST powers, and have DELETED EVERY SINGLE ONE of the hateful and negative pieces of shit these feminists left in response to this blog post.
TAKE THAT, YOU WHORES!!!
YOUR WORDS ARE INSIGNIFICANT, AND DON’T AMOUNT TO ANYTHING!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!Now, here’s what I would like you all to do right about now:
Get on your knees and suck my dick because I think that’s about the only way I can shut your stupid asses up!!!"
End DIRECT quote
Wow. Just....wow....he's so intelligent! With his incredibly original insults! No one has ever called me a whore before! SO YES, ITS A LITTLE HARD to respect his ideas, what with the swearing and anti-women vitriol. There's so much I could say about this, but there's no point. It's pretty obvious.
As a young woman in college, and a Women's Studies major, I am not at all surprised by this mentality. But in the off chance he will ever see this page and happen to stumble into a vat of earnestness, here goes:
Yes, fellow college student, most universities across the country feel strongly enough about the issues facing women (sexism, domestic violence, other forms of discrimination, etc.) to create a whole major of study to it! Some schools have Gender and Sexuality Study programs as well.
Maybe this young man should try to take one of those classes, because in those classes he would learn that the wage gap has not been "abolished" by any such legislation. The wage gap still very much exists, and (on average) women make only 77 cents to every dollar a man earns. Less than 5% of CEO's of Fortune 500 companies are owned by women. This young man can even look at the number of women present in the government to get an active picture of sexism. Riddle me this: have we ever had a female president? Hmmmm...
In regards to this young man thinking that victims of rape and sexual assault are partly to blame for their attack, this is a belief that many people have because it makes them feel less vulnerable. People are able to judge a victim and say "Oh, well she was wearing that skanky outfit. She was asking for it." Or, "Oh, well she put herself in that position by walking alone." When people think these things about victims of rape of sexual assault they tend to think, I would never make those same choices, and it makes the outsider judging the situation feel less vulnerable to having the same thing happen to them.
Everyone has a right to life, and no one can take that away. Just like everyone has the right to control what happens to their body. Without consent, it is rape or sexual assault, regardless of the situation!
left a nice lil' comment on the latest post of his blog...........
You explained the difference very well...nice to read it.