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Feb. 9, 2016 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
37:47
Rambling About： Feminist Masculinity
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Time Text
V sent me an article from Bitch Media called The Violence Behind the Word to Be a Man.
Now, if you're wondering where you've heard of Bitch Media before, they were partnered with Feminist Frequency early in the video series that she does.
So, that's probably it.
But, I mean, you know what Bitch Media is going to be just based on the name, don't you?
Based on the title The Violence Behind the Words Be a Man.
And Culture, Politics, Masculinity, Domestic Violence, and Violence.
These are the tags.
So I'm just going to go through this on the fly.
I'm not going to bother editing this because screw it.
And the reason I'm going to go through this is because V was like, look, don't worry about the article itself.
Just go through the links and, you know, just explore them.
Just see what you find.
And I was like, okay, I'll do that.
And so I thought I'd record doing that.
I had a quick look at the very beginning of the article and I thought, fuck it, I'll record this.
So it begins with, when a man shot and killed nine of his college classmates at Umpqua Community College last October, that would be Mercer?
Is that Mercer?
His name?
Chris Harper Mercer, yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
People question the number of guns he owned and the depths of his loneliness.
When a man walked into a showering, a showing, sorry, of the movie Trainwreck and killed two and injured others, police described him as kind of a drifter.
Well, again, which one was this?
These happen so often, I struggle to keep up.
Um, Hauser.
I'm not familiar with this one.
Okay.
Either way, obviously these are.
These are these are gendered attacks.
So, and Isla Vista would be Elliot Roger.
Yeah.
Sorry about the cough.
I'm just getting off for a cold.
So after a violent attack, observers can be quick to jump to explain the attacker's psyche and put the blame on mental illness.
But what often goes unexamined, or under-examined, sorry, is the role gender plays in violence.
Over 90% of homicides are committed by men.
Now that's true, but if it was a gendered issue, if it was an issue that was about gender, why would there be 10% of women committing homicides?
Why would it not be 100% of homicides committed by men?
Or is it just like mental illness when women do it?
Is that what we're saying?
I have no idea what their opinion is on this.
We know that men commit acts of violence much higher rate at a much higher rate than women, which is true.
We know this so well, in fact, that we rarely talk about it.
Of course, it's a man who killed his ex-girlfriend in a jealous rage.
Not the other way around.
Of course, high school boys raped a fellow classmate and filmed it.
Well, okay, okay, handle it.
I did a two-second Google search and found a woman who killed her boyfriend's new lover, which obviously isn't him.
So, I mean, I guess this one, you know, Kenyan woman stabs boyfriend 21 times after seeing rivals' message on his phone.
Or what about this woman who kills her boyfriend because he was jealous about relationships with other men?
I mean, it's not like it doesn't happen the other way.
But I don't think that's really the point I need to be focusing on.
So it's only when women commit acts of violence that suddenly violence has a gender.
You literally just said over 90% of homicides committed by men.
You have made this a gendered issue already.
But okay, so she was the mother-turned killer.
Which she probably was.
That's probably an accurate description of what she was.
We say violence is a bad thing, yet our culture lives and thrives on it.
Just look at the media.
The way we spend so much money on the military and the way we train our police in this country.
Yeah, okay.
Well, I agree that America's police are overly militarized.
But, okay.
So this guy is the Webster University Anthropology Professor Don Conway Long, a board member of the American Men's Studies Association.
The hell is the American Men's Studies Association?
Advancing the critical study of men and masculinities.
This sounds like a...
I've got no doubt this is completely, completely neutral.
have a look at their mission statement.
So the mission statement is the American men's studies association advances the critical study of men and masculinities by encouraging the development of teaching research and clinical practice in the field of men's studies.
Now, There is a field called men's studies, apparently.
AMSA provides a forum for teachers, researchers, and students and practitioners to exchange information and to gain support for work on men and masculinities.
What work exactly do you do on men and masculinities?
So they affirm the following statements about the organization and the field of men's studies.
Men's studies includes scholarly, clinical, and activist endeavors, engaging men and masculinities as social, historical, cultural constructions reflexively embedded in the material and bodily realities of men and women's lives.
So sorry, is that just saying men exist?
Social, historical, and cultural constructions reflexively embedded in the material and bodily realities of men and women's lives.
So just things that happen to exist that people accept exist.
is this what you're saying?
AMSA is multidisciplinary in nature and committed to disseminating new knowledge about men and masculinities to a broad audience.
AMSA seeks the participation and membership of all men and women irrespective of race, class, and ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical abilities, nationality, or religious identity.
Oh, I might join.
AMSA is committed to excellence, inclusiveness and ethical behaviour in men's studies research.
Publication, teaching and practice.
Yeah, I guess we'll ask about what is ethical later.
AMSA strongly encourages student participation and membership, offering scholarship and mentoring opportunities for young scholars in the field.
AMSA values and encourages mutually empowering scholarly and professional relationships that are generative, empowering and affirming in nature.
So it sounds pretty fucking gay.
Is there anything else?
Oh, Board of Directors.
Well, should we...
We'll have a quick look at the history.
So the early history of it is, what, from 1982?
It seems to be?
The 1980s?
That's going to take a while to go through.
I'll go through that another time.
Let's see who the board of directors are.
So, okay, women on the study of the board of directors, that's fine.
So, her interests include gender disparities in mental illness, health education and behaviour, intervention, research.
Currently, her work explores how gender role socialization influences mental health over the adult life course for black men.
An anthropologist and health educator by training, she uses quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, aren't they the only two, to extend the current scholarship on mental health disparities and how they impact communities of colour.
So when you say it's pretty inclusive as long as you're black.
Jeff Cohen, PhD, Vice President.
So Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice.
In the social work program at the University of Washington in Tacoma, his scholarship focuses on the intersections of gender, masculinities, and crime, as well as research methodology and restorative justice, and has been published in the Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Chronology, Journal of Men's Studies, the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, and Youth, Violence and Juvenile Justice.
He is currently working on several collaborative projects, as well as continuing his work in developing more inclusive and methodologically consistent approach to studying gender in the social sciences based on the application of integral theory.
I don't even know what integral theory is.
Vicki L. Summer, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Faculty Member of the Women's and Gender Studies Program.
Okay, why not?
Why not have all these women's studies majors doing men's studies?
I can't see why that would be a problem.
I mean, it's not like they've been taught that there's an evil patriarchy holding women down and men are perpetuating it wherever they go.
There is nothing wrong here.
This is completely normal.
So she's been an advocate for the development of critical study of men and masculinities since first attending the 1924 AMSA.
I love that.
Let's introduce critical theory into masculine studies, men's studies.
I mean, I'm personally starting to think that critical theory is a form of intellectual gaslighting.
But okay, let's do that.
Let's find some vulnerable men who really, you know, maybe they're looking for guidance and subject them to critical theory.
She's committed to curriculum development in gender studies and developed a major in women's and gender studies at Augustana that includes courses on both American and global masculinities.
Her current research project includes media representations and US global masculinities curriculum development.
That's brilliant.
I think that definitely a woman doing gender studies and women's studies programs should be the one telling people about what it is to be men.
What it is to be masculine.
That's definitely the way forward.
I mean, look at this.
Look at this guy.
He certainly can't do it.
Shane Miller, Associate Professor of Communication.
So he is currently the chair of the gender studies department.
What a surprise.
His research interests include examining the intersection of sports and gender, particularly the ways in which performative elements of each impact and inform the other.
Brilliant.
These are really important things.
You see, I mean, I know that cancer is a thing that exists, but these people need to be studying gender.
You know, I mean, these people are never going to cure cancer.
They're never going to cure a serious disease.
They're never going to actually solve any problems.
They're probably not all that bright, which is why they think that studying gender is something that's really interesting and exciting to do.
But they are all professors, and I mean, professors in gender studies, so it's really difficult stuff.
So basically, I mean, I just look at all these amazing people who are going to teach everyone how to be a man.
Because you don't know.
You don't know.
You haven't got a clue.
You need to learn what it is to be a man from these incredibly masculine men.
So that was that one.
Jesus.
So, the longtime advocate against men's violence was part of the burgeoning field of masculinity studies at universities nationwide.
Wow, really?
A master's degree in masculinity?
That's crazy talk.
We only have master's degrees in femininity.
So apparently these are things that now exist.
I've never.
Stony Brook University.
We'll go back and see if we've got anything.
Oh, here we go.
The start of the country's first ever master's programme in masculinity studies.
Well, that was a link to the same thing.
Okay.
But there we go.
Masculinity Studies.
Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities.
Fantastic.
There's nothing I think that we should do more than really just top-down tell people.
Look at those nice people.
Gloria Steinem, Sheryl Sandberg, who exactly is on the, I mean, let's look at the mission first before we get ahead of ourselves.
So the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities, established at Stony Brook University in 2015, is dedicated to engaging interdisciplinary research on boys, men, masculinities, and gender.
Our mission is to bring together researchers, practitioners, and activists in conversation and collaboration to develop and enhance projects focusing on boys and men.
This collaboration will generate and disseminate the research that defines gender relations to foster greater social justice.
Right, okay.
So there is definitely a social justice agenda here.
Just, I mean, if anyone, if anyone for some reason didn't think that that was the case, follow us on Twitter.
I wonder what all their Twitter feed looks like.
I'm probably already blocked.
So, oh, 400 followers.
They're really influential.
Okay, this looks really, really dull.
Oh, good.
Emma Watson and Gloria Steinem.
They're retweeting that.
That's fantastic.
So the vision is that the centre is committed to fostering a world in which everyone, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality, can reach their full potential as human beings.
We support and promote research that furthers the development of boys and men in the service of healthy masculinities and greater gender equality.
So not in the service of themselves.
Not in the service of what they want, but in the service of greater gender equality and healthy masculinities.
We seek to build bridges among a new generation of researchers, practitioners, and activists who work towards these ends.
This unique collaboration will enhance the quality and impact of research and enable a more informed policy and practice.
I'm sold.
So who am I going to be answering to?
Gary Baker, Markin Dubnaman, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonder, Carol Gilligan, James Gilligan, Chris Howard, Madeleine Coonin, Donald McPherson, Frank Ochburg, Gloria Steinem, and Catherine Stimpson, with Michael Kimmel as the executive director.
I wonder who Michael Kimmel is.
Let's have a quick look.
See if we can find out.
Michael Kimmel, American sociologist specializing in gender studies.
What a surprise.
Right, okay, so he seems to be a chap with some sort of impetus in this.
He seems to have been doing it for quite some time.
I mean, he's considered a leading figure in the academic subfield of men's studies.
I dread to think.
He's written quite extensively on this.
Maybe I should get some of his books.
Let's see if we've got any videos.
Can we see anything of him?
Oh, he did a TED Talk.
Can I not do anything with this?
I can't.
Can I pause?
Oh, I can pause this one.
I can't pass one.
Okay.
I'm here to recruit men, to support gender equality.
Of course you are!
Of course you are.
Women need men's help.
I listened to Emma Watson's speech and I was incredulous because I thought women were strong, independent fish who didn't need no bicycles.
Wait, wait, what?
Got the women going.
What do men have to do with gender equality?
Gender equality is about women, right?
I mean, the word women.
The word gender is about women.
Actually, I'm even here speaking as a middle-class white man.
Now, I wasn't always a middle-class white man.
It all happened for me about 30 years ago when I was in graduate school.
And a bunch of us graduate students got together one day and we said, you know, there's an explosion of writing and thinking in feminist theory, but there's no courses yet.
So we did what graduate students typically do in a situation like that.
We said, okay, let's have a study group.
We'll read a text, we'll talk about it, we'll have a potluck dinner.
So every week, 11 women and me got together.
We would read some text in feminist theory and have a conversation about it.
There we go.
This is the guy who was founding the Center for Study of Men and Masculinities.
A guy who knows all about being a man.
So, I mean, what else do they do?
Like, you know, who's on their committees?
Anyone I recognize here?
Not really.
But I'm sure if I had to Google a bunch, I would.
But anyway, let's carry on.
So this is at Stony Brook University.
What's that going to tell me?
Oh, it's just another link to this.
Jesus Christ.
Unnecessary links in this fucking article.
So, domestic violence takes the lives of thousands of women every year.
Okay, I'm sure that's true.
Right, okay.
Okay, so he says, the three worst words you can say to a boy are, be a man, says Dr. Michael Kimmel, the sociologist author and founder of the Center for Study of Men and Masculines in this thing.
In books like Angry White Men, American Masculinity at the End of an Era, Kimmel argues that men must recognize the roles that they play in a violent world, as well as their responsibility in changing it.
Well, I suppose that, like, men.
I mean, the problem, Michael, is that what are you doing to acknowledge your contribution to the violent world?
I mean, you are a man, you are therefore clearly violent.
And if you say, well, I'm not violent, even though I am a man, then it's not a gendered issue, is it?
It's a more individual issue.
In fact, there are probably much more important reasons than person's gender as to why they become violent.
And if that wasn't the case, why are most men not violent?
Why do most men not do all of these terrible things?
But he says, right, okay.
Violence against women and children aren't women's issues.
That sounds like women's issues.
Not when the overwhelming majority of perpetrators are men.
Men have to make those connections, Kimmel says, so that men can understand how a feminist world is a better world for everybody.
The way masculinity is constructed and enforced hurts men and women and everyone else.
Right, so you think it's masculinity that's causing all the world's problems.
And that's one of the things I really like about feminism, is they can take an irreducibly complex system like the world and everything in it and actually reduce it down to one thing causing all the fucking problems.
It's incredible.
It's not like this is some sort of fucking intellectual snake oil.
No, no, it is a complex system.
You know, I know we all know this.
But it's masculinity.
It's the patriarchy.
Dun dun dun.
Lightning.
When discussions about violence and masculinity come up, they often get entrenched in a tired debate over whether men are naturally more violent than women in some way.
They probably are on average.
Numerous studies have proven, again and again, there's no such thing as a male or female brain.
Well then why would why would you even be saying this?
Why do we need to gender violence if male and female brains are apparently the same thing?
Now I don't think that research is particularly laudable, but I mean I've seen the exact opposite from probably the same fucking publications.
But okay, so anthropological research further backs up the scientific idea that men are not inherently more violent than women.
Conway Long points out that a community outside the Louisiade archipelago of Papua New Guinea called Vanatini, Finatini, on this sparsely populated island, men and women live equally.
Assertiveness and autonomy are highly and equally valued as personal qualities for males and females.
Violence and aggression are condemned and rare for both men and women.
Yeah.
Okay, so it's a tiny, sparsely populated island where men and women live equally.
Wow, that's great.
That's great.
There's a, there's an island.
Is it, is it?
Let me just, uh, let me just have a quick google search here it's uh oh yeah yeah that's that there we go So there's also an island, there's a, well, an island.
There's a people on New Guinea called the Sambia people.
I don't know why they're not suggesting we live like these people.
I mean, they're a tribe of mountain-dwelling hunting and horticultural people who inhabit the fringes of the Eastern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea and are extensively described blah blah.
So they're known by anthropologists for their ritualized homosexuality and semen ingestion practices with pubescent boys.
In his studies of the Sambia, Heard describes the people in light of their sexual culture and how their practices shape the masculinities of adolescent Sambia boys.
So apparently, homosexuality and heterosexuality are not opposed, but understood to be stages in a single sequence of normal male development.
As Sambia saw it, boys lacked a crucial substance necessary to develop muscle, stature, bravery, and other characteristics of a successful warrior.
This substance, Jurungu, is concentrated in semen, which the boys would ingest in the course of homosexual acts during several stages of initiation.
So why are we copying these ones?
Just out of interest.
I mean, if the primitive islanders in Papua New Guinea and the surrounding islands know so much about how people are raised, genders, if you will, as a boy progressed in this initiation, he would change from being a receiver of semen to a donor of semen, as younger initiates would perform oral sex on him.
But no, no, let's talk about the one where the sexes are equal.
That's, I'm sure, much, much more sensible.
So, okay, so what's the deal?
This is not a place where men and women live in perfect harmony.
Okay, well, fuck it then.
Where the privilege and burdens of both sexes are exactly equal.
Okay, so it's not, like, perfect.
So why would I...
Who cares?
Who gives a fuck?
And I don't know whether you've noticed, but I mean, do they have a picture of wherever this is?
No, they don't.
Let's see if I can find a picture.
Oh, what a surprise they They live like people from thousands of years ago.
That's incredible.
I mean, they do have some Western cultural inventions, I see.
Like, you know, they're wearing shirts that are clearly modern fabrications.
But otherwise, they seem to be living like people lived thousands of years ago.
I mean, I'm not saying that they're necessarily connected.
Masculinity might have nothing to do with whether these people have advanced as a culture, but, I mean, since they are such backwards people, not just necessarily culturally, but technologically.
I don't think I'm going to be taking too many cues from how they live, because how they live doesn't seem to be advancing the human race.
I mean, that's just me.
I'm a horrible, horrible bigot.
I can't stand to see other cultures not doing as well as mine, I suppose.
And I think that we should extend civilization to them.
Like we already have, clearly, given the fact that they were wearing modern Western clothing.
But, you know, we should also pay attention to how they live, because why not?
Anyway, take a look at studies done in American Men and you'll read a very different story.
One that further emphasizes the link between male gendering and violence.
Men are more likely to become violent, homophobic, and sexist.
We can just send them to the Sanbia people.
They will not be homophobic at all.
Due to the ways they're educated and socialized.
Not because of some sort of inherent tendency towards violence.
A study from Stanford University found that when a man's masculinity was questioned, he was more likely to place blame on the victim of date rape or a sexual assault.
You know what, Frank?
I don't think you're a real man.
Yeah, well, that bitch was asking for it.
What are you talking about?
Why would they necessarily be connected?
Another study showed that when men were randomly told they were feminine by researchers, they were more likely to support male superiority in the Iraq war and become homophobic.
Yeah, okay, so they were more likely to act in a more masculine way.
Well done for proving that.
I mean, that is something that needed to be proven because nobody would have known if you hadn't proven it.
You know, it's not something that any idiot can see.
At the same time, while there are proven mental health benefits to talking about feelings, all too often boys are taught to repress feelings of sadness and hurt.
Okay, let's have a look at this then.
So was it done on men or women?
Does it say?
So, 30 people, 18 women, and 12 men.
And, okay, let's get to the...
Okay, let's get to the...
Okay, thrilling.
But the point is, I'm sure there are mental health benefits to talking about feelings.
But you really have to approach talking about feelings in the way that the person who you want to talk is going to be comfortable with it.
Sitting around like a bunch of clucking old hens and going, tell us about your feelings, Bobby, is going to make Bobby clam up and he's not going to want to hear about it.
There is a reason, right?
There is a stereotype of the father and son going out and throwing football around to talk about some problems.
You know, boys are not good at just sitting there and being interrogated about their fucking feelings.
You know, they're really not.
But, you know what?
Fuck it.
It's a study done by a bunch of feminists.
Who knows?
Who cares?
What difference does it make what these boys want?
So all too often boys are taught to repress feelings of sadness, hurt, and compassion, and not to open up lest they appear weak.
Well, maybe in public, but not in private conversation.
I mean, I don't know whether anyone's aware, but I mean, men have friends and they discuss their feelings with their friends.
They just don't do it publicly.
In fact, it's a way of demonstrating to someone that you trust them to discuss your personal issues with them.
And I mean, in my experience, at least, it's generally considered quite, like, quite a big deal if a guy opens up about something like this to you.
But, I mean, just, why don't we just have this all done in public?
It'd be, you know, everyone should know.
Everyone should see this, you know, this man's feelings.
That's how it should work.
This contributes to a society where adult men are three times more likely to commit suicide.
You know, I don't think you know why men commit suicide.
And I don't think I know why men commit suicide.
But I certainly don't think a bunch of feminists are going to get to the fucking bottom of it.
More likely to become abusers of alcohol and drugs and much less likely to seek help for mental issues.
Okay.
Now it's just typical feminist claptrap.
Men, you should feel bad.
You should hate what you are.
In addition to gender, race plays a role in violent masculinity.
Are you going to say that black people are more violent?
Just, I mean, I'm surprised you'd go there.
As progressive policies and democratizing movements gain traction in our country, legalizing same-sex marriage, pushing for equal pay, combating unfair and racist police brutality with Black Lives Matter, we're faced again with the rise of the angry white man.
Oh no, it's the white guys who are the problem.
White privilege plays a role in white men feeling threatened by a world that just doesn't case to them.
Yeah, but it's okay, they'll just commit suicide.
It's a phenomenon Kimmel calls the aggrieved entitlement.
No, no, that's right, because it should be that the world caters to everyone but white men.
And, you know, white men are just being entitled by thinking that, you know, maybe they should have a portion of it.
How dare they?
As Elliot Roger said, because he's representative of so many people, in the sickening YouTube video he uploaded before his 2014 shooting rampage, girls gave their affection, sex and love to other men, but never to me.
Okay, yeah, Roger was mental, though.
Roger didn't just believe he was entitled to women's bodies because he was a man.
He also believed it was because he was white.
Well, he wasn't fucking white.
What are you talking about?
He was half Asian.
He doesn't even mention whiteness.
He doesn't talk about it.
In reference to black men dating white women, Roger wrote that he deserved more than those who descended from slaves.
Okay, yeah, sure.
Maybe Roger was also a racist, but so what?
He is mental.
He does not represent anyone.
Though the angry white man is dying.
Sorry, a dying and increasingly older group.
They're there and they're louder than ever.
Men who believe that in the America they're entitled to, the land of unlimited opportunity is being taken away from them.
Don't you think that maybe if people's opportunities are being restricted, then, like, they should be entitled to be angry about that?
I mean, it's not unreasonable, is it?
So Trump is the perfect example.
He channels that idea of angry white man every time he talks about restoring America, making it great again.
And really what he means is making it right for the American white man.
Well, do you not think that you focus too much on white men?
I mean, everything you've just said, look, we're going to racialize and genderize this.
We're going to turn it into a feminist crusade against white men.
Because they are the root of all evil.
They are the problem that needs to be overcome.
Is it any wonder that they should fight back?
I mean, it's weird that you would try to illegitimize their fighting back.
It's so bizarre.
They have every right to fight back because you have declared war on them.
You are going, well, white men are the problem.
Everyone can see that.
White masculinity is the problem.
We need to do something about white men.
And it's no fucking wonder.
White men are pushing back, you fucks.
Our ideas about manhood are also changing.
A growing number of men are becoming involved in issues deemed only women's issues.
But what's that got to do with manhood?
Last year, a sports team partnered with the It's On Us campaign to spread awareness, blah, blah, blah.
Okay.
Yeah, Obama's tears during the State of the Union speech.
Yeah, yeah.
Look, there's nothing actually unmanly about crying.
Crying has a time and a place.
You know, sure, Obama's probably a giant faggot for having a bit of a weep during the State of the Union speech, but nobody mocks him for it.
You know, nobody's like, oh, look at that Obama.
He's just crying over the deaths of people that happened under his watch.
Why not?
That's not unmanly, for fuck's sake.
I mean, everything else about Obama is unmanly, but that in itself is not.
You know, there are plenty of times where you can name a historic figure who's considered, like, you know, the apex of masculinity, an ancient male hero.
You know, like someone like Alexander the Great.
They cry all the time.
They cry when they lose their friends and colleagues.
You know, they cry when they accidentally have a fit of grief and stab one of their best friends to death, alright?
They spend days weeping in their tent.
You know, and it's not unmasculine to fucking cry.
It's unmasculine to be a complete fucking pussy and just start crying when there's no reason to do so.
So studying how masculinity is constructed and drawing connections between traditional male gender roles and violent outbursts is key to creating a safer society for everyone.
Oh, there we go.
Now this is great.
What we need to do, how it's constructed and drawing connections between traditional male gender roles and violent outbursts is key to creating the safest society.
They know there is a connection between male gender roles and violent outbursts.
Even if male gender roles have traditionally been entirely focused on protecting women and children.
I mean the raison d'être for men is to protect and provide for women and children.
I'm not saying that the reason the suicide rate is so high is because men who want to hold up to this are being just absolutely demolished by society.
They're having their lives ruined to the point where they think the only way left is out.
You know, there is nothing left for me in life.
I'd just have to commit suicide.
I don't know why they're doing it, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was a connection there.
You know, it really wouldn't.
But this really annoys me.
is the demonization of masculinity this is the this is what these people are doing You know, fucking Michael Kimmel and the rest of the masculinist critical theorists.
They're not out to try and help men.
They're out to try and destroy men.
And they're going to try and destroy men because these are the simpering little bitches who, like Michael Kimmel said, he'd be the one man in a room full of women and his dick would still be miraculously dry.
Because he was the little sniveling wretch who would spend all his time with women rather than being a man and actually bonding with the men.
He would be the one who would go and crawl to the women and try and avoid everything about masculinity because, well, look at him.
I mean, where's his fucking picture?
Look at him.
Does this guy win any competitions for being a man?
Does he, you know, win any fucking masculinity competitions?
Of course not.
So until we live in a world where feelings aren't associated with the feminine and doesn't deem the feminine as lesser, we won't be able to have healthy outlets for anger.
How do you know that?
Until we live in a world where feelings aren't associated with the feminine.
Are you saying that men don't have feelings?
I mean, is there anyone on earth other than a feminist who thinks that men don't have feelings?
I've never met one.
Anger is a fucking feeling, you idiots.
You know, this anger is a feeling, so we know you think that anger is associated with men and violent outbursts and all that sort of shit.
We know men have feelings, you fucks.
And that doesn't deem the feminine as lesser.
No one deems feminine as lesser.
It's just not masculine.
And apparently, but, you know, until then, we won't have healthy outlets for anger.
I mean, you don't know.
I mean, you don't know.
There are plenty of healthy outlets for anger.
Absolutely loads of them.
Just none of them involve what a male feminist would want to do.
Because a lot of them involve physical activity and conflict, frankly.
until we stop glorifying retribution and anger within the context of masculinity we won't be able to convince men that their man card isn't something that can be taken away or demanded back with force see until we stop glorifying anger within the context of masculinity as if there is no as if there's nothing good about masculine anger as if it's never done anything good for the world it's I I'm just baffled like
Like, just read military history.
Just read it.
You know, there are so many times when heroic deeds have been done based on the ability of a leader to rile up a population and get them angry to take action.
But, you know, I mean, you know, until we stop glorifying anger within the context of masculinity, we won't be able to convince men that man card isn't something to be taken away, apparently.
We need to show boys and men that violence is a choice, not something innate to our biology.
Okay, look, okay, stop.
Stop, right?
Violence is something innate to humans.
As a species, every human has the capacity to be violent and probably has been violent in some way in their lives.
Okay, violence isn't the be-all and end-all, the great evil that you think it is.
You know, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.
I mean, it's just the way it is.
We need to show that when you're trained in violence, you will use it.
You know, that's really interesting because isn't it like the monks and whatnot?
They train in violence specifically so they don't have to use it.
We need to show the importance of having a serious conversation about men and masculinity and violence in this country.
Of course, because that's your entire career, isn't it, Michael?
I mean, that's what you do.
That's what you're on a stage doing a TED Talk for.
That's what your career is.
I mean, this is what you fucking...
Oh, this isn't the one.
But this is what you do.
This is your entire job.
Of course, you think this.
You know, I love these snake oil salesmen.
They come along and go, by the way, I'm a critical masculinist theorist or something, whatever he calls himself.
I have a problem that you have and you didn't even know you have.
But let me introduce you to the problem you didn't know you were having that I also have the solution to.
So really, that's convenient.
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