I spend more time on YouTube than I probably should. Most of the time I’m on the site, I’m tracking down strange and awesome music videos. But I also love cat videos (big surprise), ridiculous fake alien and UFO videos, videos of people behaving in incredibly unwise ways that are somehow not lethal to them, and pretty much anything that’s got Yackety Sax as its soundtrack.
What do MRAs enjoy watching? As far as I can tell, when they’re not watching videos of other MRAs, or flooding the comments of feminist videos, they like watching videos of women getting punched.
How else to explain the hundred-plus upvotes that greeted this brief video – it’s all of 15 seconds long –of a man knocking out a woman who was assaulting him. The video starts with a fight already in progress, as a woman rains blows on a much larger man backed up against a wall at what seems to be a strip mall while her friends shriek in the background. The man, after fending off a number of punches, hits her directly in the face and she drops to the ground.
That’s it. That’s all we know. We don’t know who these people are, what the fight was about, or even who started it.
But to the denizens of the Men’s Rights subreddit, this is a man who is fully justified in using violence against a woman, and they can barely conceal their excitement, posting dozens of comments proclaiming him a sort of Men’s Rights hero.
“Kudos to the guy who stood up to this bullshit,” dalsgaard declares, in a comment that gets dozens of upvotes. “I hope other men will take his example.”
Tim8080 only wishes he’d been there to take part in the punching:
Actually, the man in question isn’t particularly old, and he’s certainly not frail; he’s actually rather large and imposing.
Gus2144 thinks that for some reason gender equality necessarily involves a lot of hitting:
Evidently in that last comment Gus took it a little too far for his Men’s Rights bretheren, and he garnered himself a few downvotes.
But the serious downvoting in the thread was reserved for those who questioned whether or not MRAs should be celebrating the incident captured on video as a grand victory for Men’s Rights.
Indeed, CapnDancyPants won himself more than two dozen downvotes for simply wondering what might have happened before the fifteen seconds shown on the video:
MRAs: If they can’t punch women, they don’t want to be a part of your revolution.
Shovel nose catfish, maybe? The fish next to it is a pacu, so it’s probably an Amazonian catfish, but that doesn’t really help much!
What the everloving fuck is that thing doing there? I’m barely religious, and the unorganized neo pagan sort at that, but I’ve always found Mecca and the pilgrimage beautiful…I have a thing for eras past that shouldn’t just be tossed aside to make way for the supposedly more correct modern ways. And that? That’s a damned shame right there. Certainly, there are the repressive parts, and, for example, corsets shouldn’t be required, and neither should bras, but if you’re going to opt to strap something to your chest, at least corsets look good. The sexism of Islam needs to go, but treating Mecca like that? Totally unrelated and wrong. No reason that had to be “modernized” to remove the sexism, and I highly doubt that fucking neon clock has had any affect on the issues preventing a wholehearted endorsement of bygone days (I’m a total romantic at heart, the non-modern meaning!)
Actually if anything the sexism is getting worse, since the government has been restricting women to certain times in terms of when they can do their circuits round the Ka’Bah. Plus the Hajj is supposed to be a time when differences in nationality, class, and wealth don’t matter because everyone is doing the exact same progression of tasks, so dividing people based on whether they can afford a luxury hotel is not really getting into the spirit of things.
The thing about building a toilet on Khadijah’s house seems to be what’s making people angriest, though. I mean, could you even think of a more perfect metaphorical way to say “I piss on your grave”? In terms of the clock tower, it reminds me of when the Lloyds building first went up in London and the general reaction was “why is there a giant ugly spaceship in the middle of the street?”.
BTW apologies for the inconsistent spelling. How I spell Arabic names tends to vary depending on whether or not I’m kind of saying the words aloud in my head, in which case I end up with something that reads more like the Arabic pronunciation rather than the usual Western transliteration.
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to comment on the current state of sexism, etc, in any particular group. Just trying to say that my Romanticism acknowledges that some parts of the past truly need to be left there. But I’m drunk! Sorry!
You know what’s scary? I might “pass” a breathalyzer. I am no where near good to drive! Legal limit, maybe it should be next to nothing. Communion wine is one thing (and similar), that won’t get anyone drunk, but will make you blow more than a true zero, but 0.08? Maybe too high?
@Marie, if you’re still reading…
I don’t need the Internet hugs – all this happened years ago and I am in a much, much better situation now, oh my gosh I can’t even describe how much better – but I will still take them. Hugs are awesome!
Re: ladybugs, I suspect people like them who won’t tolerate other bugs because they’re little and round and colorful and have a cute name and are known to be completely harmless. They appear on greeting cards in cartoon form with smiles and eyelashes and little pink cheek spots, sometimes with glitter added.
I have a fun ladybug story from when I was about two. Anyone want to hear it?
These orange ladybugs would overwinter by crawling into the walls of my grandmother’s house. There were so many sometimes you could smell them.
Sorry, even I don’t see how that last comment of mine was “on topic.” I’m just surprised to find that the first association I have with ladybugs is those orange pests.
Okay, I lost my last comment, but I largely vented my spleen, so I’ll just say that what the Saudi Wahabbists have done to Medina and what they’re doing to Mecca is pretty much unforgivable, from a religious and an historical point of view. Do they even care about maintaining a common set of experiences as a building block of their culture?
@somegal
yay for the approved snakes. I’d probably double check the rules if my mom agreed to them, but even if she did, I’m currently blowing my pet money on guinea pigs and can’t afford another. I made the unwise decision of buying the guinea pigs on an impulse, 1 month after my rat died, because I just love pets. They’re so cute, and they just let me cuddle them forever, so it really didn’t teach me not to make impulse buys on pets….
@kittehs
She doesn’t have a huge fear of snakes, she’s just afraid one will escape and get in her bed, which amuses me. It’d be in my room after all. My yiya* was terribly afraid of snakes, and me and my sister would tease her w/ toy snakes, which she also didn’t like. We weren’t very nice kids…
*greek for grandmother
@cassandrasays
ugh on the building a toilet on top of the grave. Well, ugh on all of it, but that part striked me as particularly ucky. I’m one of those people who doesn’t believe graves/ body affect the dead, but it’s terribly icky what it says to the living who’d like to see the grave or something. Just an icky message to send.
I’m really not coherent today that may not have made sense.
@karalora
yay that you’re in a better place 🙂
@falconer
there were ladybugs in my aunt’s house. Me and my sister slept in the attic when we went there as kids, and the attic was a cozy-ish area except the beds were covered in lady bugs. I hate lady bugs b/c of this. They fly in the house and just die in the attic and leave there bodies there and you find them when they sleep and I do not like them at all.
/rant
@Karalora I would love to hear the ladybug story.
I’d agree with you about why most people are fine with ladybugs. I won’t fault anyone for being afraid of insects, but I do think people miss an opportunity to indulge in some cuteness. Beetles in general are actually pretty clumsy, which makes watching them romp around really fun, in my opinion.
@Karalora
I would also like to hear your story, but I still find ladybugs a bit gross. They are just less gross than all other bugs. Arachnids and ants (terrible experience as a kid) are the worst. I can’t even touch pictures of them without freaking out. And wasps. They are also the worst. Ugh.
I’m generally fine with non-stinging/biting bugs, with a few exceptions:
1: Silverfish. If you handed me a wand that would eliminate one species from the planet, I wouldn’t even hesitate to point it at silverfish. They just trigger some part of my brain that even the cliched “lizard brain” would look at and go, “Dude, primitive….”
2: Earwigs. Appearance + Name = Wrath of Khan flashbacks.
3: Ants in my home. This is nothing less than a declaration of war on their part, and I have no problem declaring a counter-strike. The invaders will be destroyed, and their trail will be blocked with whatever I have to use (a combination of cinnamon and vaseline, oddly, was one of our greatest successes against the ants that were coming into our apartment one summer).
4: Roaches. Anyone who’s ever lived in a city apartment knows that one roach = swarms of roaches. Again, scorched-earth tactics are not merely acceptable, but preferred.
@Freemage
We have actually (Thank the FSM) only had one roach in the current apartment and they don’t bother me if I can’t see them. The spiders OTOH I know they are there and there have been over 100 since we moved in less than 2 years ago (most when we first moved in and the sister helped me kill at least 25 in two days). I know they are there and they are surely plotting against me.
In used to get a lot of spider bites as a kid and while I know rationally the bites weren’t bad and most spiders don’t do that anyway, emotionally I am terrified.
My entomology prof (despite being an insect-fan since his childhood) has a problem with roaches, for pretty much the same reasons you described, Freemage.
I’m pretty good with most crawlies, but scorpions really get to me.
Fire ants are something I didn’t encounter until moving to TX, and hate. I got one bite that did all manner of funky things and itched like a mad bastard for two weeks. The skin is still not quite right where the bite was.
Lessons I learned in my first apartment:
1) Even if you know that a roach fell in that bowl, it’s still hard to stop yourself from dropping the bowl when it jumps out at you.
2) Doad is more afraid of bugs than I am.
The arthropod I would like to eliminate from the planet? Booklice.
I loathe roaches. We had some two moves ago, but not that many (that we saw.) Also a huge ant problem where I ended up freaking out and cleaning the whole kitchen because they were so big and creepy. And then, like two weeks later I was smushing them w/ my hands, because why bother getting something when there are so many of them.
I actually let the spiders in our bathroom live because I noticed they caught some of the roaches.
We had a bug problem.
More bug hate: Moths. Butterflies too, especially big ones.
I like invertebrates outdoors, though, even though aphids are rendering my mint inedible. I get excited every time I dig up a worm. (Doad thinks they are creepy.)
TKUP- that’s either Sir Terry Pratchett or his twin. Which he hasn’t got. I think.
oraclenine – correct! I took that pic on his book signing tour in about 1996. He signed it next time he was here. When I asked if he’d mind being photographed with Miss Dinah, he said, “Of course! It’s not every fantasy writer gets to be photographed with a dressed cat. Rowling hasn’t been photographed with a dressed cat. Tolkien wasn’t photographed with a dressed cat.” 😀
This was after he’d talked about vampire kids rebelling by wearing pink twinset and pearls and drinking wine. It was before Carpe Jugulum came out and I was in my Goth phase. (TP: have I signed a book for you before? Me: No, but you have for friends of mine and we all look alike anyway.)
Bugs!
Yup, ladybirds and similar beetles are really cute. I don’t mind earwigs. Don’t like it when ants swarm inside and like Freemage, I cannot abide silverfish. European wasps are a pest here and scary bloody things (had a nest of them outside my room once and had to get the place fumigated). Only had a couple of roaches inside ever, but I don’t think Oz ones are as much pests as the other varieties. Spiders are what scare me, though less now than in years past. Bushflies are what I find most annoying: little bastards are so persistent and love trying to fly into your mouth and nose. The Aussie Wave is totally a thing. Blowflies are a damn pest but they aren’t literally in your face like the bushflies.
katz – ladybirds (ladybugs) eat aphids, which is another reason they’re popular. 🙂
Which Pratchett should I read next? I like Discworld, and I enjoy the hell out of the witches.
@The Kittehs’
I hope that I go that direction and don’t end up freezing in abject terror in another decade or so. I try to force myself to handle them on my own, but most often, if I see a spider and the boyfriend isn’t around, he wakes up/comes back to post-its with arrows marking the last known location of the enemy.
If you’re handling them as in touching them, you’re way ahead of me! Just being able to deal with a huntsman with a long broom is a major advance, I used to be terrified of the things. They’re not at all dangerous, they’re just so big and they move so fast; the thought of one getting on me is what scares the bejezuz out of me still.
Love the image of the post-it note arrows, I have to say! 😉
hellkell – Lords and Ladies is a cool one with the witches, and it starts from when they come back to Lancre after Witches Abroad.
Roaches tend to make me go ugh… except Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. For some reason, I find them almost endearing. (Apparently in some places, they’re kept as pets.)
I am intensely grateful that for all its dust, cobwebs, and nails, my crawl space has as of yet had not a single pest within its molting walls. (Yeah, I’m surprised too.) Since I want to keep it that way, I try to never ever have food or food trash in my room. Water bottle only.