The male anti-defamation league
: I’m only a half-hour through watching Iron-Jawed Angels, the HBO movie on suffrage, and I’m already upset at how every man is portrayed as a 2-D pig. Hadn’t we gotten past that?
65 responses to “The male anti-defamation league”
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Why would you think that, when half the commercials on television portray men as slack-jawed idiots?
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I thought it was over in 1971. Wrong! It had just started. The anti-sexist females were total sexists. Something was wrong in the state of Denmark, and we have been paying ever since. These “iron jawed” females have led to the Vagina Monologues, because the latter can talk better than the former. It’s only a matter of time before they move into the rectum for their inspiration.
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I could tell it was going to be like that just from the ads, and so I didn’t watch. I hope this and Angels in America isn’t the start of a trend of HBO shifting from great movies like The Gathering Storm etc. to this kind of left-wing agit-prop.
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Yeah! and look at Janet Jackson. She’s a hecka lot better than her brother.
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If they didn’t, who’d watch?
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Speaking of men in commercials, here’s a “fun” game – when a commercial features a man and a woman disagreeing over something (which car to buy, whether to go on vacation or not), count which one wins the argument.
99.99% of the time, the female will win. If the male somehow does win, there’s even money that the woman will then either shove/punch him or cast a glance that says, “guess who’s sleeping on the sofa tonight?” -
If what we’re supposed to be “past” is one-dimensional, witless scriptwriting, then I would say: no, we’re not past that.
Remember Goldman’s law: In Hollywood, *nobody* knows *anything,* so they all try to repeat past successes.
— Dave -
Great Moments In Equal Rights.
A number of years ago a (female) friend and I were unloading some gear from my car. At one point point she paused with a rather heavy box and said, “Hey, you have a penis, you carry this!” Without missing a beat I responded with, “You have a vote, you carry it.” And she did.
I’m pretty sure that was the only time I ever had a clear victory against a feminist. -
It occurs to me that the fact that men are so often ridiculed in TV ads is probably an indicator that they are attempts to appeal to women, who still do most of the shopping. If men made more of the family purchases, I’d guess the man-bashing would go down. No?
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Male-bashing has been part of an organized political strategy at least since the mid-seventies. A principal offender, Del Martin, is the nice granny-looking lady who got the first lesbian marriage license in Frisco the other day. It appears to be a successful strategy, and our advocacy class never abandons a trick that works.
Men will never organize themselves to oppose it, so it will probably be a permanent part of the culture for the foreseeable future. -
And the major networks are clueless as to why there has been a sharp dropoff in viewership in 25-44 year old males in the last few years! I watch almost no major network TV anymore and only a few hours of cable a week.
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In all honesty – was there actually any significant group of male pro-suffragists way back then?
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One important reason that men are ridiculed so much on TV is that they are one of the few groups that can be ridiculed with impunity. Many groups are off-limits due to their membership in politically correct protected categories, so naturally nobody belonging to those groups can be made to look foolish. Or evil–note how in the film version of “The Sum of All Fears” the terrorists were changed from Muslims to Nazis.
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Just Wondering: Yes, there were such mem, but those who write these “documentaries” prefer not acknowledge their existence.
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I’m transsexual, and jumped the fence from male to female about six or seven years ago; so I’ve seen this one from both sides.
One of the biggest joys (“comforts” might be a better word) of my new female status is that I no longer am the recipient of all the subliminal hostility. Which wasn’t all that subliminal, if you get right down to it.
As a man walks down the street, pretty much everybody is evaluating him for potential danger. It’s mild, but pervasive. I hear young black men have it even worse; but even middle-age white men get it.
I find it much more peaceful over here on the women’s side. Your mileage may vary. -
If you think about it, there would have to be, wouldn’t there? If women couldn’t vote, they couldn’t very well grant the vote to themselves, could they?
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It starts with the language. There’s an English word for men who hate women: misogynists. There’s no word for women who hate men. And there are plenty of them.
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Why should men worry about what those clowns are saying?
Who are they that we should worry? -
“It starts with the language…There’s no word for women who hate men.”
Um, yes there is: misandrists
I learned it from Florence King, who was, however, making a point similar to yours: that no one knows the word “misandry” because it’s never used. -
Just Wondering, who do you think voted in female suffrage?
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Actually, the word for women who hate men is “American”. I’m fifty-one years old. I’ve never been married. I’m, by most people’s standards, rich. In short, I’m a “catch”. I have a wonderful time dating Chinese women, Russian women, Mexican women . . . anything except American women. Why do I no longer date American women? Too many last-minute cancellations (without any offer to pay for, say, the $250 in opera tickets), too many rants at how terrible men are, too many failures to say “thank you” after I changed the oil in her car, repaired a leaking faucet, painted a room (in one case, this was followed by a rant about how immature American men are).
I’m an American myself, born in Chicago. It makes me truly ashamed to think of what our women are like. -
The 2 things (and only 2) a man should consider in all of this is (1) the hypocrisy and (2) demonstrating that we could not care less. Maybe they’ll figure out that the end of the road for discrimination, slurs, etc. is the indifference of the intended.
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Note to C.S.: Andrew Sullivan uses ‘misandry’ today, in an item about a Women’s History class at the Univ. of Mass. in the ’80s.
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What difference does it make whether the males portrayed are pro-suffrage or not? My guess is that neither every nor even most of the men who voted against women’s suffrage were “2-D pigs.”
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We’ve only just begun portraying men as morons, thugs, and potential rapists.
And Susan, nobody is 2-D, not even knee jerk mindless hyper feminist twits. -
These comments remind me of all the people (and yes, they really did exist) who complained about the lack of positive white characters in Roots. I share some of the concerns about the portrayal of men in contemporary pop culture, but I’m guessing that sexism wasn’t completely unheard of in early 20th century America.
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Great posts. There will be no men’s rights movement because most of us men do a great job in separating what matters from what does not matter. Sexist language and commercials do not bother me because they don’t matter. They don’t keep me from providing for my family or going fishing.
The early days of the civil rights and feminist movements were important because the abuses of power and discrimination mattered, the discrimination was dangerous and effective and needed to be challenged and stopped. Such discrimination was keeping people from providing for their families and, well whatever their version of going fishing is. As such, it was hurting the whole country. Whitey as well. (I can say whitey cause I am whitey.)
Much of the current civil rights and feminist brouhaha is so much hot air because the institutional barriers to success have been so weakened that they are now ailing and seen as gauche by most of the public.
So, make fun of men, I don’t care, but mess with my family directly or in terms of my pay check and watch out. I will respond and respond directly!
Trey -
Doesn’t make it any less annoying that men are portayed like assholes (white men, I might add). The joke used to be that the black guy in the horror movie would be the first to get it. Now, the white guy in the commercial (who inexplicably has one Chinese friend, an Hispanic friend, and a black friend, and they all hang out riding around in a Nissan Sentra or Honda Accord) is going to be the heel.
Not to go off topic here, but when did it become compulsory to obsessively portray life as 100% evenly distributed multiculture? -
I watched it (my wife made me). I was lousy history, they even had the flag hung wrong in the joint session scenes.
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Perhaps a bit OT
I attribute the latest teen female promiscuity
and “MTV” genre of boob flash to a genetically coded
desire in the female to want A MAN A REAL MAN
no matter what she says to the contrary -
It starts with the language. There’s an English word for men who hate women: misogynists. There’s no word for women who hate men. And there are plenty of them.
I hereby coin the word “himogynist” to describe women that hate men! 8-) -
Um, yes there is: misandrists
Damn, damn & double damn! There goes himogynist!
8-( -
“So, make fun of men, I don’t care, but mess with my family directly or in terms of my pay check and watch out. I will respond and respond directly!”
Trey
Trey, one relates to the other. By the time they knock on your door it will be too late.
Antimale affirmative action [paycheck]
Antimale child custody action [Big messing with family]
Antimale domestic violence laws and practices [too late for you, sucker]
Antimale child educational tactics [it’s here,now]]
Antimale propaganda blaming “white males” for everything = sexist racist slander = hate speech = bashing [universal political effect, here now]
Women with vote but not draftable [“Equality”?]
Women live longer [possible sexist effect, maybe not likely, yet suspicious]
Etc.
Equity feminists making comeback vs gender feminists [very good]
P.C./Liberals starting to be counterattacked [very good]
Engage now, Trey -
Actually, the word for women who hate men is “American”.
No doubt! Precisely why I married an Indian woman. I treat her better than any Indian male does, just by being a decent gentleman, and she showers me with love and appreciation. Something I’ve never received from American women. Unless of course they were trying to distract me while they cleaned out my wallet.
-AR -
Jeff,
Great thread. Your posts have become simply outstanding. I didn’t watch the movie because just the preview was a total turnoff to me and I knew what it would be like. As an American woman, I also agree with the comments dissing American women as a group; a bigger bunch of whiners and victims I have never known and it shames me to be a member. The more we have gotten, the more we want, and the more miserable we are.
But American men are the best! -
My husband and I can hardly watch TV anymore. The man-bashing is too much, and ads are the worst. Men (especially white men) never make the right decisions, never do any work around the house, never stand up for themselves. Not only is it sexist enough to be offensive, it’s so far out of touch with reality it doesn’t interest me.
But it’s a far cry from “don’t bash men” to “American women are hateful.” Is anyone else a little shocked at the woman-bashing here? Does my sarcasm meter need retuning, or am I to understand that people calling man-bashing evil/dumb/unfair are in the same breath bashing women? Why is misogyny superior to misandry?
Analog, I hope you realize you’re being not only sexist but also racist. No Indian men are “decent gentlemen”? Not one?
Jim, listen to yourself. You go around spewing vitriol and we’re supposed to think you’re a “catch” because of your money? If you’re looking for an unequal partner, someone to be fawning and submissive all the time, someone desperate enough to marry for money, you’re probably right not to date native-born American women. Don’t expect the immigrants you’re dating to stay submissive for long, either. The longer they’re in America the better they’ll taste their freedom.
Or is Jim a troll I’m failing to recognize? -
I haven’t seen the claptrap in question, so I don’t know if it’s covered this or not, but does anyone know much about female opposition to suffrage? It existed, and some of the strongest voices against granting women the vote were women’s service organizations.
It was startling to me to read their arguments about why they were against suffrage. None of that “Women are just too feeble-minded to grasp politics” stuff. I recall a lot of thoughtful (though still, to my mind of course, incorrect) rationales about interupting the traditional and vital role that women play in the home, etc.
Again, they were all reasons with which I disagree, but there was no bigotry or sexism to be found among them. -
Analog, I hope you realize you’re being not only sexist but also racist. No Indian men are “decent gentlemen”? Not one?
Katherine:
Kate. May I call you Kate? I hardly consider myself sexist, and neither does my highly educated Indian wife. And she would know, coming as she does from a culture that is second only to the Middle East when it comes to sexism.
Racist? Hardly. Racists generaly do not go around marrying little brown people. Fool around with and subjugate, certainly. But marry, no.
Indian men are most decent and gentlemanly to each other, in spite of the regular fist fights on the floor of Parliment. Ask any Indian woman and she will tell you that women are treated as second class citizens for the most part. Female infanticide is still a common practice in the hinterlands and tribal areas. So much so, that there is a huge imbalance between men and women.
Now, of course there are some decent and enlightened Indian males, but they are very much in the minority.
Oddly enough, most of the blame for the misogyny can be laid at the feet of women themselves, for they are the one that perpetuate the problem with how they treat their sons, versus their daughters.
I hope this helps!
-AR -
To C. S. Froning, et. al.:
Thanks for the vocabulary lesson. I had never read or heard the word “misandry” before.
To analog roam:
Himogynist: near miss:-) -
A lot of you folks could stand to relax a bit. Yes, there are a great many commercials where a man’s goofiness is played for laughs, but there are also many that highlight men as good fathers, providers, etc. Maybe you don’t notice those because they naturally tend not to be as broad and humorous, but they’re out there. (I’m thinking in particular of the playful Lever 2000 spot where the guy is walking down the hall with his daughter clinging to his leg.)
To Abdy, I would note that a) life isn’t portrayed as 100% evenly distributed multiculture and b) so what if it were? Does it hurt you in some way to see people of different races portrayed as friends? Is it such a terrible impulse? -
Feminist female anti-male opinions and behavior are perhaps more complicated in their motivation than they appear. Simone De Beauvoir testified at length in The Second Sex to female envy of males because “society” gave males a chance to make their own identities in the great world, but not females. IOW, some of this animosity at least comes from a sense of inferiority that results from buying into that kind of sociatal judgment. Of course, no one has to buy into that judgment in the first place–and De Beauvoir uses up a lot of ink declaiming against such attitudes on the part of women while at the same time saying that nothing is compelling them to have them in the first place.
In any case, anti-male attitudes that result from such ideas of disenfranchisment in effect validate male norms of society (“feminists want to be like men,” which as De Beauvoir says is fundamentally correct), and that means in effect that it is women themselves who choose to envy males while denigrating them at the same time. It’s called sour grapes.
I’m impressed by the men posting here who refuse to deal with American women who can’t get their emotions straight on this subject. I strongly favor making feminist females eat their own dirt–it’s called taking responsibility for your s-t. They want to take thost attitudes, I say fine, just as long as they are willing to take responsibility for them and their consequences.
BTW, much of feminist envy derives from a form of what Karen Horney called “flight from womanhood,” which comes down to saying that feminist females hate two kinds of people: men and women. -
I know I am late here, but never look to Hollywood to make a film that aims to “make a point” to be fair. Making complex characters is a tough job few seem to want to do.
Russell – excellent point. Just as there were many women against sufferage, there is a lot of arguing amongst my sex today over, for example what the definition of a “good mother” is.
The anti-American women comments are a bit of a joke. Joe, I think there is a general rudeness among both sexes and all people today that I find deplorable. I see my friends drop commitments with friends for better ones with others all the time. Rude. Uncivility abounds between both sexes. Also, I find men crass who think they have to impress me with their wallet size. It’s not wallet size I am interested in, frankly, but that they are decent people with goals they are reaching for. That always impresses me. If you have to impress me with your wallet, it tells me you don’t have much else to offer me. If that makes me a b_tch, well I guess I am.
As far as Indian/European women being more appreciative, I have no idea since I have yet to date a woman (ha), but I do remember when marrying Asian women seemed the hot thing for white guys in NYC to do in the 1990’s (In an office of 20 men, 8 were married to Asian women). Then a few guys I worked with complained that once the ring was on the finger and the door was closed, she became a different person. Their new wives were suddenly not as compliant. On hearing this, a Korean banker at my firm said, “Gentlemen, where do you think the term dragon lady comes from?” HA! One of these demure wives interrupted a meeting because she was upset with having to wait and said, “Jim, you get out here now!” It was one of the most embarrassing moments I have ever had to witness at the office. Not saying this is TYPICAL, but come on with the “American women suck” meme.
Also, although you would never know it from Howard Stern, all of my friends got nothing from their divorces (no fault), and two pay alimony (as do all 3 professional women in my office) which was unheard of 30 years ago. Now it’s pretty common since many women out earn their husbands (of course this is NYC which is a another planet, I know). About half of my friends help put their husbands through school (usually advanced degrees or a trade school).
Anywho, I for one like American men in general (nobody’s perfect), and I appreciate any nice thing anyone does for me and a man with manners is the tops in my book. Although I admit a thing for sexy Australians and their Aussie accent – woof! -
I think that womens’ television preys on women nearly as much as it does men.
consider some of the standard plot lines..
your sister and husband are conspiring to steal your baby.
your babysitter and husband are conspiring to steal your baby.
your husband is conpiring to steal your baby all by himself.
or
He seemed like a nice guy, but now he’s a wacko wife beating rapist – and no one will believe you.
she seemed like a nice sister/babysitter/daughter’s cute friend, but now she’s a sociopathic tart after your husband; he doesn’t notice cause she’s cute.
..they’re often out to get your baby as well, but sometimes just the house.
or
you’ve got to save the world/children/rain forest, but are being thwarted by men – who don’t appreciate that your righteous indignation is indeed righteous.
you’ve got to save the aforementioned but aren’t receiving nurturing support from your husband/boyfriend who’s just a big baby and doesn’t recognize your need for autonomy – nor the need to save the aforementioned.
or
women have supernatural powers that have been suppressed by men. Only the communion of women can revive these powers. The big problem with the world is that men don’t appreciate womens’ hidden supernatural powers.
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I think the most egregious assault on men is now at the hands of educators and psychiatry. Anyone else noticing Ritalin as a growth industry? The largest recipients are boys.
Young boys don’t mature as quickly as girls. They are more gross motor than fine motor in their skills entering school, hence more disruptive. Inherent male qualities are becoming pathology in the eyes of school and behavioral folks.
I remember visiting one of my daughter’s kindergarden years ago. The teacher complained that the boys were so problematic: squirming, not listening. Amazingly, a fenced track was next to the classroom. Would this woman or any educator have connected that sending the little guys out for a few well scheduled daily runs might have solved the problem? No. Better to make a referral to the psychologist. -
What a great thread! Many very interesting comments. A couple of thoughts:
I see that instapundit linked to the entry from Rose Prescott (you’re famous!) regarding a transexual’s view of what it is like to be a man and a woman. I see he also wondered if there were any studies.
I agree with Karen on a few of the posts that can be summarized as “american women suck”. I don’t see how you can square making broad comments about women and then complain about unfair statements about men. Plus, I don’t think it is particularly accurate.
Finally, regarding ritalin, after watching the impact on my son taking Straterra and a generic version of Paxil, I have changed my mind a bit. Previously, I was convinced that ritalin was a liberal plot to emasculate boys. Now, I see some benefits for a great number of kids. I don’t doubt that it is overprescribed and I don’t doubt that the school’s approach of greatly curtailing outside play is harmful, but there is some benefit to these drugs for many kids. -
Finding a good American woman is getting harder and harder. I’m a 28 year old student (was working in a small web dev company that went belly up 2 years ago) and I tell you its murder. I’m in good shape (lift weights and run), dress decent, and have my priorities in the right place. Still it is like pulling teeth with most of the girls I date. My last two serious relationships were with foreign women attending my university. One was Bulgarian, the other was from Norway.
I’m not saying all American women are bad; just all the ones I’ve met. So here is what I do to make sure the girl I date has her sh*t together:
1) We both pay for our own meals. No free rides!
2) She has to pick me up half the time.
3) If she doesn’t turn her cell phone off during the date, shes history. This is a real big problem on today’s scene – the girl you are on a date with will call or get a call and blab on the damn thing as if you are not there.
4) American women will test you many times early on, to see if you are a chump that they can walk over. As soon as a women knowns you will buckle under pressure, you are toast. She either runs the relationship, or looses interest in you and you become a ‘friend’. Magically, if you stand up for yourself and show backbone, you become a ‘challenge’ and the woman’s interest level goes way up. Screwed up, I know.
Its tough in todays single scene for American men. My major goal is to filter out the wacked out feminazis and clueless women as quickly as possible.
Women do not have to do anything to get dates other than show up. To them, it is trivial to reject potential mates, because men will line up like sheep.
Its time to stand up, grab your balls, and take back American manhood! -
Let me tell you the reason there will never be a wide-spread “man’s movement.” Becuase it is not manly, that’s why.
Of course much of what has been said above about the abuse of men is true, but so what? Don’t you get it guys, they ridicule and demean because they can. Men keep their mouths shut and take it like men. Or, even better, they look at the offender(or the nearest woman if offender is TV), James Bond-like with the amused smile and Say something like: “That’s very clever sweetie, now be a good girl and fetch daddy a beer.”
So, guys please stop embarrassing me by whining like bunch of pussies, or worse, chicks. -
I have also noticed the tendency to medicate boys out of what was once known to be simple lack of discipline. Maybe it comes from boys not spending as much time running around and playing outside. Like penny said — a bit of physical activity would probably do most boys good — it used to. I’m not sure why this is — perhaps the increasing commercialization of sports; perhaps the increased tendency of both parents to work long hours; perhaps the way children stay inside staring at the tv or playing videogames; perhaps the fact that the academics who are pushing the medicate-’em theories were nerds who grew up to despise all physical activity, including a boy’s normal restlessnes, as somehow anti-intellectual and useless… perhaps all of these things and more.
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Mateo_g: I wouldn’t suggest grabbing your balls while on a date with a woman. Most of us, even those of us who like to be dominated by a Macho Man, think that sort of thing is rather crass.
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Jim, listen to yourself. You go around spewing vitriol and we’re supposed to think you’re a “catch” because of your money? If you’re looking for an unequal partner, someone to be fawning and submissive all the time, someone desperate enough to marry for money, you’re probably right not to date native-born American women. Don’t expect the immigrants you’re dating to stay submissive for long, either. The longer they’re in America the better they’ll taste their freedom.
Uh, where did I say that I was looking for somebody submissive, or that the women I date are submissive? I don’t want somebody submissive, unless being as nice to me as men are qualifies as submissive. I expect women to act as honorably as I do, which includes things like offering to pay for already-bought tickets when cancelling at the last minute. I’d add that I think that ranting to me about how immature men are after I’ve painted a woman’s living room goes a bit beyond not being submissive.
The women whom I date are not submissive, nor is it likely that they are interested in my money, since they are all quite financially successful. That was an unfortunate segue I made from my financial status to alleging that I’m a “catch”. I’m also well-educated, cultured, fit, and a good musician and cook.
And no, I’m not a troll. I’ve posted here perhaps four times ever, and I have no website. -
Jeff, I’m not renouncing medication for kid’s that truly need it, but I fear the criteria of use for those meds needs some scrutiny. Strange, how those of us decades ago in grade school without benefit of “identification” and medication, were left to mature and do fine.
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Can we at least portray men as 3-D pigs?
Is that so much to ask? -
Penny, the ritalin thing is a scam involving gov’t funding for HAADD students [children]. It would not be surprising that males predominate due to sexism — do you know? At any rate, there is probably about 1/100 rate [my total but not entirely uneducated guess] of those who are actually in “true need” of it who are taking the med.. More “scrutiny” will not occur. The “scrutinizers” are incompetent, and driven by other goals. That they actually get the med. to some who can really benefit is entirely by accident.
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Joe
I’m also suspicious that we are now medicating those male gender qualities that the majority in education, females, feel uncomfortable with or annoyed by.
Big Pharma has a hand in this too. Prozac is also spreading rapidly with children. Not a lot of thought given to the permanent impact farther out on developing brains.
Remember tonsillectomies, when a whole generation had them yanked? Later, surprise, it was realized that they were an intergral part of the immune system. -
Some very good posts here including Catherine’s and the very amusing one by max. Speaking of the Lifetime channel, I heard a comic on the Tonight Show describe one of their typical programs as “Boohoo – The Story of A Woman”.
One of the reasons for the whole “men bad, women good” state of American society is the way that both men and women have had it hammered into them over the years that any woman who is a stay at home mom or appearing to be subervient to a man is a total f*&^ing loser. You’d think that idea would be self-evidently false but many people believe it.
The two most popular ideas of what a woman is supposed to be are either (1) a single “strong and independent” businesswoman with a heart of granite and an infallible ability to tell all the stupid men around her what’s wrong with them
OR (2) a Britney Aguilera clone (“I’m dir-r-rty” snap-snap) who whores her way through the male population and thinks that showing her bare ass is some kind of cutting edge act of genius.
As effed up as the culture is towards men, it’s pushing women in some pretty idiotic directions also. -
To the whining guys:
Please. I have plenty of bad apple stories, jerk stories, cruel stories, but it doesn’t make me sit here and say “All American men are asshats.” For every jerk there are 3 nice ones.
You are really sounding like a bunch of babies because you ask out the wrong girls.
One thing I agree on – talking on the cell phone in the prescence of others is rude. It’s a habit of the younger set, thank goodness. -
Jeff, I haven’t seen the HBO film, but I’m appalled at the amount of anger and hatred of women right here in your comments.
Oh, but I suppose it’s okay, because they only hate FEMINISTS. Or American women.
Way to go, guys. -
Can’t we just call this HBO movie bad TV? I am sure that’s what it is.. I mean, all HBO shows aren’t great, are they? Besides, its a movie about the suffrage movement from the view of a hollywood writer thats trying to get history into a very small block of time.. of course its going to be over the top good versus evil! With all those stars, its also a celeb fest, so our heroines have to have something to be heroic against. Just like all the Arabs were crazy evil bastards on Delta Force so that Chuck Norris looked good, instead of short..
I am sure you all know that reality is more nuanced, and if you want to actually learn something, you can read a book on the subject of the suffrage movement… Movies are for entertainment. Even bad ones. -
OK all this talk about
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Meryl, you must be Streep. Iris, you give a bad name to the Eye. Gary, you are an “it”. Ask and Ye shall receive.
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Re: John’s “Yes, there are a great many commercials where a man’s goofiness is played for laughs, but there are also many that highlight men as good fathers, providers, etc.” Nobody’s denying the above statement, but it misses the point. The point is, when the bashing, mocking DOES occur, it’s nearly always the man that gets bashed/mocked.
And gents, while I’ve been given the mike, let me add one more dimension as to who gets dumped on the most in TV ads: add to “white” and “male”, the word “bald”. When Madison Ave. wants a candidate for somebody dumb, goofy, or nerdy in their commercial, you can take it to the bank that it’s gonna be a bald, white man (BWM). Examples? My latest most-hated commercial is the Honda SUV(?) ad that shows a BWM doing all kinds of ridiculously stupid and embarrassing things while on a camping trip. And how about that recent pukey Subway ad that shows-you guessed it- a scrawny BWM prancing in public in a cheerleaders outfit? And finally, how about the A-1 sauce ad where a BWM is lapping up the leftover A-1 sauce when we initially thought it was the dog beside him?
Don’t take my word for it. Just watch the ads, any time of day, any day of the week, and tell me I’m wrong. Hey, any of those above examples I guess could be construed as funny, but not for those who see that it’s the same type of person that’s the brunt time after time after time. And as a BWM myself (as if you haven’t guessed), I could put up with it if it weren’t for the disgraceful double standard, where in one instance (bash a minority) someone loses their job, while in the next (piss on a BWM), someone gets promoted. -
ET, Amen. I feel your pain. The stunning thing is the double standard, or the arbitrariness of the standard. I believe that this results from the fact that the most rabid anti-racists, are racists, for example. This further indicates that they can’t really think well, and are trying to cover this defect by diverting some blame onto others. To get even more psychoanalytic [or at least to pretend to], I say they have no self. Therefore, in their minds everyone else becomes what they are, to wit, “racists”, which means the alleged racist is only that and not a person. The racist has no self.
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There is, in fact, a men’s movement thathas been growing for the past 15 years or so. Of course, it’s rarely mentioned in the media, but it flourishes on the Internet.
You can find many of the groups listed here:
http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/secondaries/linklist.htm -
Joke for Catherine:
A Japan-America friendship group had a banquet one year and invited a senator to give a speech. Most of the group was middle-aged couples with American men married to Japanese women.
In the senator’s speech he mentioned the old saying that Heaven was an American home, because it’s so big, Chinese food, because of the variety, and a Japanese wife, because they were so submissive. About half of the men laughed at the word ‘submissive’; the other half were afraid to. -
“Real men” may take it as they please, though I would like to say there’s a difference between whining and bitching. But a lot of young boys are growing up watching this, hearing it, and they’re taking it in as they figure out what their society expects from them as they become men.
A lot of young girls are watching it too, checking out how their potential mates are supposed to act a few years down the line.
There’s a reason the media portray so many positive roles for women; they want to tell girls they can grow up to do anything. Which is fine. But what are they telling boys?
