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announcements antifeminism misogyny rape culture self-promotion threats

Check out my interview on Vice about harassment of women online

viceinterview

I’ve been so busy the last several days I forgot to put up a link to this interview I did with a writer from Vice. Check it out!

I’m happy with the interview overall. Though I should point out that my comments were edited somewhat, and there are a few places where the writer removed some of the context and/or simplified what I said by removing some qualifying statements. Thus, for example, where I talk about how rape threats towards men have less of an impact, I don’t want to suggest that no men outside of prison fear rape; obviously that’s untrue, and obviously there are many men outside of prison as well as inside who have been raped. What I was trying to say — and what I suspect would be much clearer in the unedited transcript of my interview  — is that the typical (straight, cis) man outside of prison doesn’t spend much time worrying about rape, and is much less likely to take rape threats seriously than women, who have every reason to take them much more seriously.

Anyway, that caveat aside,  check it out.

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antifeminism creepy gender policing hetsplaining homophobia mansplaining men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny patriarchy patronizing as heck penises transphobia vaginas

Better Penis Homes and Gardens

The wrong kind of sexy House
The wrong kind of sexy House

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While we’re on the subject of creepy dudes and their terrible opinions about vaginas, I feel I would be remiss not to mention the whole “penis home” thing.

What penis home thing, you ask? Well, you may have heard about the recent fall from grace (oy there’s a cliché) of evangelical megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll, under fire for being a tyrannical buttheaded bigot with terrible opinions about women and LGBT folks. With Driscoll also facing accusations of abusive behavior, financial hanky panky, and even plagiarism, his Washington-based Mars Hill evangelical empire has been forced to shut down some of its local franchises.

Ok, you say, that’s sort of interesting, but what does it have to do with penis homes? I specifically asked about penis homes.

All right, penis homes. Some years back, Driscoll outlined what he saw as the proper Christian roles for our penises and vaginas. In a post on an internet message board from 2001 that’s recently been brought to the attention of the wider world, he offered these thoughts on (cis) men and the proper homes for their penises:

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alpha males are these guys 12 years old? creepy domestic violence douchebaggery entitled babies evil sexy ladies evil women hundreds of upvotes mansplaining men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny oppressed men post contains jokes post contains sarcasm PUA reactionary bullshit red pill reddit

"If women didn't have vaginas, they would be hunted for sport," and other brilliant insights from "Red Pill" Redditors

helmut-lang-bag

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After a day spent going through hundreds of pages of violent misogyny posted in that notorious 4channer IRC chat log, I thought I’d cleanse my palate by taking another peek into Reddit’s favorite gathering hole for Red Pill Redditors.  The Red Pill subreddit, after all, is all about self-improvement, and helping men navigate the sexual marketplace in “a culture increasingly lacking a positive identity for men.”

So let’s see what sort of self-improvement tips I can find there today! Here’s one!

sumdumguy-throwaway 6 points 17 hours ago   If women didn't have vaginas, they would be hunted for sport.      permalink     save     report     give gold  [–]2vengefully_yours 11 points 14 hours ago   Not much of a challenge really, they are slow, relatively incompetent, weak as shit, and have nearly zero spatial ability. It would be like hunting a video game journalist.

Oh, dear. We’re off to a really bad start here. I mean, some people might consider these comments to be just an eensy-weensy bit, you know, sexist.

But these are just a couple of comments. Let’s back up a moment to look at the post these comments were responding to. Here it is, a (presumably) very thoughtful treatise on the expectations men and women have going into relationships, by a fellow with the unusual name Gay Lube-Oil. (Presumably his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lube-Oil, named him after “new journalism” legend Gay Talese.) It’s got literally hundreds of upvotes, so it must be pretty good.

So let’s take a look at the younger Mr. Lube-Oil’s thoughts on this fascinating topic.

What you’re going to find is that western and western influenced women expect a lot more from men than they’re willing to give in return. Women shouldn’t be judged for their bodies but that fat dude is a creep. I needed time to find myself but men without a good income are losers. My husband needs to be there for me, but if I sense any emotional weakness ill be gone faster than Jose Canseco during a piss test.

Huh. I see no citations for any of this, but I guess I’ll take his word for it.

Why are all women like this?

Ah, a variation on Freud’s famous question: “women — what’s their fucking problem?”

Because all her life, the only thing that was expected of her was for her to bring her vagina. It got her into parties and clubs. It got her drugs. It might have even helped her get a job that she was less qualified for. The corporate media taught her that as a vagina operator, men owed her tons of free shit. The movies and shows that she defines herself by depict women as passive objects to be showered in male affection. Diamonds are a girls best friend (because women are incapable of real friendship).

Huh. I thought maybe I’d ask my best friend about this, but as it turns out she’s a woman, and therefore not my best friend at all.

Its foolish to expect any equality in a relationship because society conditions women to be selfish assholes. When a women says that she will be there for her boyfriend. She means in the literal physical sense. Depressed men are unattractive and women have no interest being anywhere near them. Ultimately, most women only bring to relationships what they bring to the club: vagina.

This is kind of a double whammy because, as we’ve been told again and again from the fellows I write about on this blog, vaginas are dirty and slimy and smell very, very bad.

There are two ways to respond to this Red Pill truth. You can use women for their vaginas and nothing else. Or you can teach her to cook, workout and whatever else you expect out of a LTR. In the end all you get by default is vagina, unless she stops being attracted to you. If that’s the case she has a headache.

It’s like that old joke:  “Boy, the vaginas at this place are really stinky. And such small portions!” 

(Thanks, Blue Pill Subreddit, for pointing me to these wondrous bits of Red Pill Wisdom.)

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#gamergate 4chan a new woman to hate advocacy of violence antifeminism are these guys 12 years old? bullying creepy cuckolding disgusting women douchebaggery doxing drama kings evil fat fatties evil sexy ladies evil SJWs evil ugly women excusing abuse gamebros geek girls harassment internet tough guy men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA no games for girls no girls allowed no trolls allowed not-quite-explicit threats sarkeesian! sexual assault sexual harassment twitter vaginas victim blaming video games zoe quinn

Zoe Quinn's screenshots of 4chan's dirty tricks were just the appetizer. Here's the first course of the dinner, directly from the IRC log

Sorry, guys. I actually read the logs.
Sorry, guys. I actually read the logs.

The We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive continues! If you haven’t already, please consider sending some bucks my way. (And don’t worry that the PayPal page says Man Boobz.) Thanks!

A couple of days ago, embattled indie game designer Zoe Quinn embarrassed some of her biggest critics by posting screenshots she’d collected from a 4channer IRC channel, showing an assortment of hateful and duplicitous #GamerGaters literally conspiring to wreck her reputation and create the illusion of a vast grassroots uprising against alleged corruption in the gaming business.

Her critics, put on the defensive, tried their best to dismiss her screenshots as “cherry picked,” and a few even accused her of writing the very messages she screenshotted and posted. Oh, there might be a few bad apples in the bunch, some were willing to concede, but they were in the minority.

And then they pulled out what they thought was their trump card: the full chat log from the IRC channel #burgersandfries from when the Zoe Quinn “scandal” first erupted in mid-August up until September 6th. All anyone had to do, they suggested, was to read the log, and they would soon see that Quinn was presenting a distorted picture based on out-of-context, “cherry-picked” quotes.

Of course, reading this particular log is a bit easier said than done: it’s 3756 pages, in 10-point type, of chaotic overlapping IRC conversations.

This is a classic case of what’s come to be known as “doc dumping,” which Wikipedia helpfully defines as

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creepy douchebaggery I am making a joke

"Is u ass bif?" The Question of Our Time?

Is U ass bif?
Bif, such an ass!

Let’s take a quick break from all that gamer aggro to take a quick peek at the CreepyPM subreddit, where we find this lovely little Grindr exchange, posted by Jacob of rniraclewhip.tumblr.com, featuring a man with a strange question:

92vyo2k

I think our questioner was just being kind here, pretending that he actually was asking about ass size. No, his question was actually a very clever literary reference that went over Jacob’s head but which I picked up right away because I am so very, very smart.

It’s a reference to a famous scene in Death of a Salesman.  Biff Loman is telling his brother Happy about a job interview that didn’t quite go as planned.

BIFF (breathlessly): I did a terrible thing today, Hap. It’s been the strangest day I ever went through. I’m all numb, I swear.

HAPPY: You mean he wouldn’t see you?

BIFF: Well, I waited six hours for him, see? All day. Kept sending my name in. Even tried to date his secretary so she’d get me to him, but no soap.

HAPPY: Because you’re not showin’ the old confidence, Biff. He remembered you, didn’t he?

BIFF (stopping Happy with a gesture): Finally, about five o’clock, he comes out. Didn’t remember who I was or anything. I felt like such an idiot, Hap.

HAPPY: Did you tell him my Florida idea?

BIFF: He walked away. I saw him for one minute. I got so mad I could’ve torn the walls down! How the hell did I ever get the idea I was a salesman there? I even believed myself that I’d been a salesman for him! And then he gave me one look and — I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been! We’ve been talking in a dream for fifteen years. I was a shipping clerk.

HAPPY: What’d you do?

BIFF (with great tension and wonder): Well, he left, see. And the secretary went out. I was all alone in the waiting room. I don’t know what came over me, Hap. The next thing I know I’m in his office — paneled walls, everything. I can’t explain it. I — Hap, I took his fountain pen.

HAPPY: (Angrily.) Is u ass, bif?

Is you ass, bif?

This is truly the question of our time.

EDIT: Ok, I changed the Death of a Salesman quote. Dammit, this dopey joke is funny to ME.

 

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a woman is always to blame all about the menz antifeminism crackpottery entitled babies evil fat fatties homophobia men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA oppressed men patriarchy playing the victim reddit

#GamerGate Showdown! The Lavender Menace vs. the Somewhat Socially Awkward Young Men

In the future, young men will be forced to play all video games as Fat Lara Croft.
In the future, young men will be forced to play all video games as Fat Lara Croft.

The We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive continues! If you haven’t already, please consider sending some bucks my way. (And don’t worry that the PayPal page says Man Boobz.) Thanks!

Of all the loopy manifestos that this whole #GamerGate fiasco has inspired, I think this loopy manifesto, posted several days ago to the Men’s Rights subreddit to a smattering of upvotes, is probably my favorite.

Take it away, trudatness:

Think about what really went down in gaming journalism – not on the micro level, but on the macro level.

The most left-wing journalism companies happily filled the gaming journalism void. Think about it…

The most virulent lavender menace feminist laced industry on the planet began covering an industry whose target audience was comprised of somewhat socially awkward young men.

Hey what could go wrong?

Answer: Everything.

Woah, hate to be a stickler for stuff that actually makes sense, but if you’re going to use a homophobic slur to describe your opponents, make sure you pick the correct homophobic slur. The phrase “lavender menace” originated as an insult aimed at lesbians in the feminist movement; the term was later reclaimed by lesbian feminists. Whether as as a slur or as an honorific, I’m pretty sure the term is not a terribly apt description of the dude-dominated world of video game journalism, as dudes cannot actually be lesbians.

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#gamergate 4chan a new woman to hate a woman is always to blame antifeminism are these guys 12 years old? crackpottery creepy douchebaggery empathy deficit entitled babies evil sexy ladies evil women gamebros gaslighting harassment internet tough guy men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny no games for girls no girls allowed sarkeesian! straw feminists threats twitter video games zoe quinn

Do you still think that #GamerGate is a spontaneous movement against game industry corruption? Zoe Quinn has some screenshots to show you.

4Channers discover that Zoe has been spying on the #IRC channels where they'e been planning this "raid."
4Channers discover that Zoe has been spying on the #IRC channels where they’ve been planning and coordinating their “raid.”

The We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive continues! If you haven’t already, please consider sending some bucks my way. (And don’t worry that the PayPal page says Man Boobz.) Thanks!

Ah, sweet schadenfreude! The gamebros at 4chan have been insisting publicly that the whole #GamerGate campaign — you know, the vicious attacks on game developer Zoe Quinn and other women in gaming — has been a spontaneous grassroots uprising against corruption in the world of game journalism, not a targeted campaign by misogynistic 4channers and their allies to ruin the lives of Quinn and everyone even vaguely connected with or even just aligned with her.

Well, it’s just become a lot harder to make that argument with a straight face. Last night, Quinn announced that she’s been lurking in the IRC where 4chaners have been diligently and often quite deviously planning this “spontaneous” uprising. And she’s started posting screenshots that seem to offer pretty incontrovertible evidence of  just how duplicitously 4channers planned every element of #GamerGate.

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alpha males evil sexy ladies men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny PUA red pill

That finance douchebag on Tinder is a perfect example of pickup artistry gone wrong

Mystery has taught you well, young douchebag
Mystery has taught you well, young douchebag

The We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive continues! If you haven’t already, please consider sending some bucks my way. (And don’t worry that the PayPal page says Man Boobz.)

Thanks! (And thanks again to all who’ve already donated.)

By now you’ve probably seen the latest set of creepy PMs that’s making the rounds of the internet — you know, that series of sour-grapey insults some random finance asshole sent to a woman on Tinder who had gently rejected his crude sexual come-on. If you haven’t, I’ve pasted them in below.

Well, it turns out that this would-be Romeo is not only an asshole, but a wholly unoriginal asshole at that. Thinking that more than a few of his angry negs sounded vaguely familiar I did a bit of Googling and discovered that a couple of his more, er, polished insults came straight out of the pickup artist playbook. Quite literally.

That bit where he tells the woman he messaged that she’s “not hot enough to be acting like this?” An old PUA neg he literally may have discovered by cruising the message boards at VenusianArts.com, the website of everyone’s favorite PUA peacock Mystery, where one commenter described it as his favorite line to use with “highly egotistical women” he met in the club:

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Pledge Drive: Kittens With Cash Edition

Kittens love money.
Kittens love money.

As the telltale “cats with money” pic indicates, the time has come for the Third Quarter 2014 We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive!

To repeat my simple pitch from my previous pledge drives: If you enjoy this blog, and can afford it, please click on the “donate” button below and send a few bucks my way. Or, if you’d prefer, a lot of bucks. You don’t need a PayPal account to donate; you can use a credit card, and there are other options as well. If you’re outside the US, PayPal should be able to handle your weird foreign money.

Oh, and the PayPal page will say you’re donating to Man Boobz; don’t panic! That’s just the old name of the blog.

As always, your donations are all greatly appreciated, whatever size they are. They keep me, the cats, and this blog going. Oh, and that other blog of mine as well, that Confused Cats thing.

Big thanks to everyone who donated during the last pledge drive. Thanks as well to those who’ve donated since the last pledge drive, and to those especially generous souls who donate on a regular basis. And to those who donate in other ways, from our amazing commentariat to our outstanding mod team to all of those who’ve offered their talents and expertise to this project and this community.

If for whatever reason you can’t donate, don’t feel guilty. Seriously. I know what it’s like to be broke.

We Hunted the Mammoth is reaching more people than ever these days, racking up close to 3 million more page views just since the Second Quarter Pledge Drive only a little more than 3 months ago.

And the number of comments is not-so-slowly but surely creeping towards half a million. No, really. We recently topped 450,000. Holy crap. That’s a lot of comments.

 

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a new woman to hate a woman is always to blame antifeminism are these guys 12 years old? bullying douchebaggery doxing entitled babies evil women gamebros geek girls irony alert mantrum men who should not ever be with imaginary women ever men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny no games for girls no girls allowed no trolls allowed oppressed men revenge of the nerds sexual harassment

You'll never guess what misogynistic gamebros did to these two women in gaming! (HINT: Drove them out.)

Sometimes the only way to win is not to play.
Sometimes the only way to win is not to play.

Congratulations, assholes! You did it! Your threats and harassment have driven game journalist/designer Jenn Frank and game designer/media critic Mattie Brice to leave the gaming world.

Frank, an award-winning writer and sometime game designer, came to the attention of the misogynist mob after writing a brief opinion piece for The Guardian decrying the widespread and vicious harassment of women in gaming. In addition to writing about the harassment she’s gotten — including someone trying to hack into her email account — she (as you might expect) also highlighted the misogynistic rage directed at feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and indie game designer Zoe Quinn.

The new rule seems to be that any woman who writes about online harassment will herself be harassed, and in this case it didn’t take long.