Yep, that’s a butt on the cover. He put a butt on the cover. Men are oppressed by women’s butts.
You may remember the embarrassing spectacle a couple of months back when Warren Farrell asked the readers of A Voice for Men to help him pick out a cover picture for a new ebook version of The Myth of Male Power, the 21-year-old crackpot bestseller that more or less provided the, er, intellectual foundation for today’s Men’s Rights movement.
It wasn’t just embarrassing because AVFM is a noxious hate site that regularly calls women c*nts and whores and helps to organize informal campaigns of harassment directed at individual women. It was also embarrassing because all three of the pictures were sexualized images focusing on specific female body parts. You can guess which three, and you’d be right: tits, ass, and vagina (the latter tastefully covered in a merkin made of moss).
Well, Farrell ended up rejecting all of these images in favor of … a different picture of a woman’s butt. Yep, the screenshot above features the actual cover of the recently released ebook version of The Myth of Male Power. (You can see it in its full sized-glory over on Amazon.)
The implicit message of the cover couldn’t be clearer: men may seem to run the world, but women can control and exploit them through the power of their sexuality. Male power is undercut by … butt power.
Am I reading too much into a cover image? Farrell doesn’t really believe this nonsense, does he?
Well, in the introduction to the ebook, Farrell writes:
In case you’re wondering, “genetic celebrity” is Farrell’s term of art for any attractive woman.
But golly, you say, the fact that a dude feels “powerless” because he can’t have sex with every woman with a nice butt that happens to wander across his field of vision doesn’t actually mean that men are powerless or that male power is a myth. Well, Farrell has an answer to this as well. And by “answer” I mean, well, whatever this is:
Got that? I’m not sure there’s anything there to get; it’s nothing more than hand-waving to distract attention from the nonsensical nature of his previous statements. In case any Men’s Rights activist ever brings Warren Farrell up as an example of a respectable, “academic” MRA, you may wish to point out that almost nothing Farrell writes ever actually makes any fucking sense.
In the book itself, Farrell repeatedly suggested that male power can be undone almost completely by the sexual power of women. In one oft-quoted passage, he wrote about the effect that a “secretary’s miniskirt power, cleavage power and flirtation power” allegedly has on their male bosses. (Myth of Male Power, p. 21)
While that statement has earned a certain notoriety for its sheer ridiculousness, Farrell went further elsewhere in the book, essentially arguing that men are as addicted to female “beauty” as drug addicts are to the drug of their choice — and as helpless.
“Sexually, of course, the sexes aren’t equal,” Farrell wrote. “[M]any men feel ‘under the influence the moment they see a beautiful woman.” (p. 320, emphasis in original.)
This sort of temporary “intoxication,” Farrell argued, leads men into shackling themselves to these temporarily sexy tyrants for the rest of their lives — thus agreeing to support them (he suggested implicitly) even after they get old and ugly. (p. 85.)
In Farrell’s original book, this “argument,” such as it is, was merely one of many that he thought undercut the alleged “myth of male power.” Now, with the butt on the cover, he’s put it front and center. Or, more precisely, rear and center.
Warren Farrell, you’re an ass, man.
Oh, awkward segue here, I just wanted to show off the cover to the new edition of my classic book, The Myth of Human Power.
It will soon be available for one million dollars in cash in unmarked bills, upon delivery of which I will sit down and write it for you. It will probably be pretty short and not very convincing.
Alex, hi, good to see you!
LBT – whoot, congrats!
Also, good luck, LBT. Let us know how that goes. =)
KITTEHS! Hi! lol
LBT, that’s awesome!
weirwood, I fear you are correct.
The socks can be fun for a while … they give themselves away even when they don’t write in ALL CAPS.
/written from my house directly on the beach
@kitteh: Speaking of beaches, ever been to *Bondi* Beach, btw? If you don’t mind. =)
He’ll be back! Sadly it won’t be to save us from evil robots from the future.
alternatesteve – nope, despite pinching the line from Mikey about the house, I’m not a beach person. I’ve visited Sydney, but never gone near Bondi. It’d be kind of a waste, since I don’t swim. 🙂
Have you ever been there?
Reading some of these comments reminded me of the time in high school when this boy asked me out and several people told me I HAD TO say yes to him, or else he might shoot up the school. Strangely, that made me want to go out with him even less.
Bloody hell, Rilian. 🙁
@alternatesteve90
Hugs are always welcome. I haven’t had someone tell me I *will* die cos you know! charging men money = death! before but I shouldn’t expect less. His motivations were VERY clear after I dare state that money can buy you love. Haha.
Thanks for blocking him David.
Farrell is absolutely right. Why, every day when I go to court, I don’t even have to make any arguments. I just turn my back to the bench, lift up my skirt, and show the judge my perfectly toned, heart-shaped ass (lacy garters, belt, thong — naturally), and I WIN.
If the judge doesn’t happen to be a heterosexual male, no problem! There is good chance my opposing counsel is one, so I just lift up my skirt and wiggle my ass at him. Which immediately causes him to waive all his claims and (if applicable) drop the lawsuit, and I WIN.
If neither the judge nor opposing counsel happen to be heterosexual males, still no problem. I just lift up my skirt at the nearest court officer, and he proceeds to club the judge and opposing counsel to death. Then I WIN.
Afterwards, I go out and sit on the courthouse steps. I work up some tears, and men passing by throw money and Maseratis at me.
Piece of cake.
@ Amused be careful! Some MRA dipshit might wander in here and quote your clearly true account of using your sexual wiles against men word for word as proof of the manipulative nature of all women, because clearly feminists are incapable of humour.
Reblogged this on Iconography ♠ Incomplete and commented:
OMG LOL The ending is just classic 😀
Jeez, I don’t know that I’d want a Maserati thrown at me. I can see bruising (me) and damaged paintwork (the car) at the very least.
I can’t help wondering what a “heart-shaped” ass looks like. All the asses I’ve ever seen were just plain ol’ butt-shaped.
Not to be graphic or anything, but if the bottom part of your ass was elongated and pointy, wouldn’t that cause some issues when you sat on a toilet? Not to mention making holes in your jeans.
Totally random, but I just ran across a picture which sums up the UK better than any other image I’ve ever seen. Behold!
I mean, you wouldn’t want to queue-jump the fox, would you? That would be rude.
Exactly my point (pardon the pun). At most, it might be an inverted heart shape, if the lower back is taken into consideration. But even so, it’s quite a stretch…
“I’ve been locked inside your heart-shaped butt for weeks…”
How does a woman’s butt look like a heart? Like this (safe for work):
http://www.timtim.com/drawing/view/drawing_id/1825
Other possibilities for the heart shape include testicles, arrowheads, and an ancient abortifacient. Romantic!:
http://listverse.com/2013/02/08/10-theories-on-the-origins-of-the-valentines-heart/
However, according to Wikipedia, the medieval symbol seems to be based on medieval anatomical descriptions of the human heart and was first depicted as an upside down pine cone shape (which seems a lot better stylized depiction of the actual heart than the current symbol).
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_(symbol)
This bit useless knowledge brought to you by Valentine’s Scrooge. “No, that chubby winged naked baby is neither Cupid nor a cherub.”
Winged babies of any variety are about as not-conducive-to-sexytimes as anything I can think of. Just look at Cupid spoiling the mood
” rel=”nofollow”> here. I mean, bringing the horse into the room, kid? Really?
(Actually I like that pic; the horse is adorable.)
kitteh: Aw, man, I hate when that happens!
Oh to have been a fly on the wall when Cupid got the telling-off he had coming to him. 😀
The expression on Venus’s face is priceless.
At least, I’m assuming that’s Venus.
Venus is all “Dude! Do you mind?”
Yup, it’s Venus and Mars.
Probably a good thing we can’t see Mars’ expression.
I imagine the horse is there so Mars can flee when Vulcan gets home (I think those are the right names; I tend to think in terms of Greek mythology).
I would reckon so (yes, those are the Latin names). Hmm, maybe that’s what the kid’s saying – “Mum’s husband’s home, you’d better scram!”
Say, who was Eros/Cupid’s father, anyway?
In some versions of the myths, he’s not even Aphrodite’s son, but a primordial force (what Pratchett would call an anthropomorphic personification) who predates her. When he is considered the son of Aphrodite, his father isn’t usually mentioned.
Google says that Cupid’s father is given as either Vulcan or Mars, but again, he’s also widely considered to pre-date them.
Eros’ father’s identity may be forever unknown. But at least we know who Hermaphroditos’ father was…it says so right in his name!
Didn’t Hermaphroditos come into being because of one of those nasty literal-minded bits of wish-granting the Greek gods went in for? I read he wished to be united with his beloved, and they were – in one body.
Close! Hermaphroditos began life as a single-sexed male. Of course, being the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, he was predictably too gorgeous for his own good. A nymph named Salmacis fell madly in love with him, but was rejected. So, in desperation, she launched herself at him, wishing aloud that she could be one with him forever…and BOOM. Wish granted!
Ah! I got the result but not the rest of it right.
Curious – it does the beautiful fellers no good to say no thanks in Greek mythology, either; Narcissus is the obvious example.
Actually it doesn’t pay to be appealing at all in those tales, not with those dirtbag gods, satyrs, etc, etc, wandering around.
Yup…the “civilized” patriarchal Zeus being the worst and rapiest offender of all, ironically. Soon as he saw a pretty woman, he was all over that.
Zeus being Zeus, as soon as he saw a pretty person, he was all over that. Ganymede, anyone?
Or a pretty boy – Ganymede comes to mind.
Zeus was a complete shit. He makes Odin look morally upright.
Ninjaed!
I am undecided whether naming all of Jupiter’s satellites after Zeus’s rape victims is appropriate, or in horrible taste.
I love you man!!!!!
I doubt it was even acknowleged they were rape victims when the satellites were named. It was all “Zeus’ lovers” in every book on mythology I’ve ever read, and they were written much more recently.
I cannot remember whether or not I posted this here, so here it is. The following link will take you to a podcast by Herb Goldberg on Drawk Kwast | The Alpha Male Advantage, about the myth of male privilege.
It made me a bit uncomfy…
http://www.drawkkwast.com/2013/11/myth-male-privilege/
NOTE TO WHOEVER IS TRYING TO COMMENT AS “[name of manosphere dude] is a pedophile”
I don’t like that guy either, but I’m not going to let through any comments of yours if you use that as your name. Pick another name, and I can let them through, though I’m going to keep you on moderation for awhile.
Uh, depending on who it is it’s actually probable that the guy’s a pedo. As you should know by now, MRAs and pedos/pedo apologists intersect in a very significant way.
It would be like me naming myself “Trump is a bloviating jerk.” He bloviates and acts like a jerk. These are things that he does in the real world. It’s indisputable, even if you like the guy and think his bullshitting is hilarious. Sure, it’s an attack, but it’s an attack based in truth and it’s not exactly going to harm anyone. If you call a pedo a pedo what’s the worst that could happen? I mean, to society, not to them. Who gives a shit what happens to some pedo.
Uh, scribbles? Why are you addressing David well over a year after the fact?
Also, we don’t do threats or sink to their level and throw out attacks like that. We already get enough shit from them that we don’t need to add to it by being assholes.
Pedophile or not, we don’t have the right to say that shit, not to mention it might be upsetting and/or triggering to people who have survived childhood sexual assault.