A Crash Course in Feminism Mk. II (or, why everyone should be a feminist)

[eldargal]

so you're a straight dude and you're a feminist? don't you get sick of being told how terrible and awful straight guys are

I mean, I guess? But not really. Here’s a few things about when people say stuff like “cis het guys are ****ing disgusting.”

1. When it comes to harmful comments, being told that cis heterosexual guys are ****heads is the bottom of the barrel.

Do you know why it doesn’t really bother me when I hear ****ty things about cishet guys? Because on the wide ****ing spectrum of gender and sexuality, we have it easiest by a ****ing MILE.

We have the most privilege and the least resistance in a LOT of things. We never have to deal with our actions being called into questions and we’re allowed a stupid and ridiculous amount of wiggle rooms with ideas like “boys will be boys.”

We can do things women would get crucified for doing. Sleeping around doesn’t make us “slutty,” it makes us “studs.” Spending a lot of time focusing on our look and style doesn’t make us “shallow,” it makes us “classy,” even though neckbeard fedora MRA dickheads have ruined that word.

So if a woman wants to call cishet guys gross, it’s kinda like calling a white dude a cracker. You can’t be racist or sexist to the people who are in power, because it’s an institutionalized thing.

2. Here’s the thing. Straight guys are kiiiinda the worst.

I’m sorry, but have you SEEN other dudes? Jesus christ, we’re ****ing awful.

It’s gotten so bad that literally like 80 percent of the time I’ve begun to talk to a new girl through the internet, dating sites, tumblr or texting, they seriously make a point to say something like “holy **** I’m so glad you can have an actual conversation.”

When I see screenshots of dudes texting it’s so ****ing terrible. This “what would u do if I was there right now lol” bull**** is so disgusting, charmless, lame and ****ing pathetic, it reminds me of me when I was like 18 and I ****ing hate 18 year old me. He’s a sexist and a dip****.

And that’s not even the worst of it. This isn’t even touching the sort of hatred and hostility that a LOT of men have when it comes to rejection. I’ve SEEN conversations women have had with men where, once the woman rejects the guy as politely as she can, he immediately turns on her.

As soon as he has to fathom the idea of a woman not wanting him to shove his terrible dick inside her for 20 seconds, he gets ****ing furious. He insults her weight, appearance, anything he knows she might be insecure about. It’s horrible and disgusting.

This is just a SMALL part of the ****ty things that cishet guys are capable of because we’re taught to think of ourselves as kings who, if the women are lucky enough, will bestow our kingly dick and balls upon them.

This isn’t even TOUCHING the dangerous ideas of the friend zone or how dehumanizing and manipulative it is, but I’ve talked about that before, mostly because I used to be one of those white knight dudes and I feel horrible about it to this day.

3. The most terrible thing to men? IS MEN.

Somehow, MRAs got this idea that feminism is about killing men and taking their place or something. That just goes to show why feminism has to exist, because somehow men’s rights activists took a movement about women and made it about them.

But here’s the thing. The terrible **** that happens to men? We pretty much do all of it to ourselves.

First of all, there’s the idea of toxic masculinity. We raise boys to believe that they have to be tough. “boys don’t cry,” we try and tell them. And because of this, they feel pressured to be tough and to feel nothing, so they’re emotionally stunted and filled with anger.

Second of all, we throw out dangerous ideas that grant them more freedom to be ****ty to each other. “boys will be boys,” we say as we write off bad and violent behavior.

Let’s look at that mixture. We’re telling young boys that they aren’t free to express their emotions in the natural way, so they end up bottling up everything. Then, we grant them the freedom to be physically and verbally aggressive to other people.

That’s a dangerous mixture.

Even beyond that, MRAs are so quick to shout “things are bad for men too” at so many things, then when presented with those ideas, they write them off as invalid.

Whenever we talk about the statistics of women who are raped and how it’s a problem and a crime of aggression, men are so quick to say things like “Men get raped too!”

But if you look on Facebook, as soon as someone posts an article about some 35 year old teacher who raped a 17 year old boy, it’ll literally only be the men who say things like “heh, that boy is so lucky” or “wish I had a teacher like that!”

do you know what it means to claim that men are also raped, and then immediately joke about how lucky it is for a man to be raped by a woman?

It means that you don’t give a **** about other men. It means that you don’t give a **** about other human beings. It means that literally the only reason that you said it, without caring about the men who are hurt in those crimes, is because you want to take attention away from the VASTLY higher number of women who are raped and make it about you.

That is why women need feminism.

And that is why I don’t mind seeing jokes about straight(ish) dudes like me on tumblr.

[URL="http://nudityandnerdery.tumblr.com/post/110210074267/so-youre-a-straight-dude-and-youre-a-feminist"]Source[/URL]. Bolded an important point.

[Mr Mystery]

Could have been written by me. Serious levels of identifying.

[CoffeeGrunt]

I'm really liking the way Emma's going with this He For She thing.

Also that opinion above seems pretty close to my own. I dunno, looking at other guys at times makes me feel pretty disgusted, and that's without being targeted by them. Hell, just Google "horrible online dating conversations" and watch the deluge of straight guys who are culturally trained to act like 'playas' getting 'hoes.' There's s vanishing level of respect for anyone, and I find it interesting when MRAs blame women for it.

What gender are the people laughing at guys for being virgins? What gender are the ones who bully you for being a p*ssy when/if you cry? What gender were the ones who told you that "no really means yes, they're just being coy?" Or any one of the thousand other tidbits of BS you grow up with as a guy. What gender are the people who joke about women being an ineffable other no man can hope to understand?

The thing is, when you start cutting all that BS out of your mindset, you realise just how stupid it all is. Are women really such mysterious Elven creatures who exist beyond nature? No, they're just people who eat, fart and poop like the rest of us. Does no mean yes? Of course not, yet it's worrying how often you hear that, especially among teenagers.

I dunno, I feel the most militant of MRAs need to sit down with women and ask them about these things, about the crap that p*sses them off, or ruins their day. Rather than writing off the female's clearly inferior brain as being naught but a shoe catalogue mingled with snapshots of Gerard Butler, where they're just frigging people.

Hell, I always found it weird that in an entire construction college, only one girl attended while I was there. It "wasn't for girls" apparently, and she got endless slagging claiming she's just attending it to get with classfuls of boys. Seriously? I dunno how people can ignore that sort of thing with such earnest concentration to the point where it no longer exists and shut up women aren't unhappy you're just nitpicky, blah blah blah, political correctness!

[Mr Mystery]

Women don't poop.

Everyone knows that.

[Psychosplodge]

That suggests you've been lucky enough to never watch two girls one cup...

[Deadlift]

That suggests you've been lucky enough to never watch two girls one cup...

Yummy

[40kGamer]

Bolded an important point.

Thanks for posting. Very interesting read through. I didn't even know what MRA referred to before reading this. Shows what I know.

But if you look on Facebook, as soon as someone posts an article about some 35 year old teacher who raped a 17 year old boy, it’ll literally only be the men who say things like “heh, that boy is so lucky” or “wish I had a teacher like that!”

Unrelated but on the point of statutory rape. The whole things seems so arbitrary. I guess it all depends on what age you think someone is emotionally mature enough to have a physical relationship.... and when you get into that debate 18 seems to be a pretty random choice.

[Erik Setzer]

Eh... on the subject of teachers and students, I don't consider the student "lucky." I think it's still a teach abusing their position, and the student will almost certainly have emotional issues as a result of the relationship, unless it's just about sex, which means both people involved already have emotional issues. Doesn't matter what gender you are, you can still be a creep and/or a victim.

[Kirsten]

[URL=http://s1216.photobucket.com/user/KirstenIGMB/media/manpain_zps6fe475c2.png.html][/URL]

[Mr Mystery]

Bit Ninja'd!

[url=http://douglasernstblog.com/2015/02/06/g-willow-wilsons-a-force-will-marvel-put-the-boundaries-of-diversity-before-good-writing/]Massive apologies about the link, but it's the first I could find, and I am meant to be working[/url].

Though the 'article' does make for an interesting juxtaposition on attitudes to female writing and teams and that.