fox embraces MRA movement with the war on men

[lilah]

This article is so vague and makes complete generalizations. Apparently there's a marriage crisis and to fix it women need to embrace feminine ness. Vague much? At least fundies will tell you to get pregnant and return to the kitchen.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/11/24/war-on-men/

[Peas n carrots]

I just wasted 2 minutes of my life reading that.

Talk about vicious generalizations. I don't know women who are angry at men (I'm sure they do exist to be fair) but I do know a lot of women who won't put up with bullshit from men. If you are a man who is insecure about women making more than you, having a better career etc well that woman just isn't going to give that man the time of day. I think these men are just upset that there aren't as many doormats that keep sweet to pick from.

[EyeQueue]

"In a nutshell, women are angry. They’re also defensive, though often unknowingly. "

So, even if you don't know it, you're an angry, bitter feminist (and probably ugly, to boot). Nice generalization, there, sweetie.

"That’s because they’ve been raised to think of men as the enemy. Armed with this new attitude, women pushed men off their pedestal (women had their own pedestal, but feminists convinced them otherwise) and climbed up to take what they were taught to believe was rightfully theirs."

And look at the lexical acrobatics here. It's not that women are equal. No: it's just because we were-taught- to only -believe- we are. Nice way to fuck over your own gender, sister.

Oh, and her big fix: have women be women again, so I guess that means back into the kitchens with the lot of us, and we'd better be obedient to our headships (ON ALL COUNTS!11!)

My question is: is she going to be first in line to take her own advice and give up her successful writing career? I thought not.

[MissA]

Yes, because whenever I hear someone blaming the entire opposite sex for being unsuitable mates I immediately assume "My GOD, yes, that must be correct! Clearly it's not that this particular person is an asshole."

[Guest Anonymous]

I only skimmed it, but I wanted to point out a couple of things:

The battle of the sexes is alive and well. According to Pew Research Center, the share of women ages eighteen to thirty-four that say having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives rose nine percentage points since 1997 – from 28 percent to 37 percent. For men, the opposite occurred. The share voicing this opinion dropped, from 35 percent to 29 percent.

Do you remember that hellish, post-apocalyptic desert that was 1997? Do you remember how nobody ever got married, and there was that huge gender war? No?

Essentially, the positions have swapped since 1997. The percentage of women who prize marriage as the most important thing now is pretty much the same as the percentage of men who did in 1997, and vice versa. The world did not stop spinning in 1997, people didn't stop getting married. Everything was exactly fine, and everything is fine now.

Also, notice the wording: 'having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives'. I really don't think this means what the writer wants it to mean. Listing 'having a successful marriage' as one of the 'most important things' does not directly translate as "wanting to get married". Similarly, happening to not mention marriage as one of the 'most important things' is not the same as not wanting to get married.

Also, this?

In a nutshell, women are angry. They’re also defensive, though often unknowingly.

I absolutely love this. It's just brilliant. There are so many beautiful tricks that unscrupulous people use to win arguments, and this is one of my favourites. Most people reading this article (men and women alike), are probably thinking to themselves: "I don't think that's true, I've never experienced that". Saying that the phenomenon is subconscious, and that women are feeling a certain way / doing certain things 'unknowingly', is a brilliant cardboard defense: "No, dear, you are feeling that way, you just don't realise because you're doing it unknowingly." :lol:

[docmom]

It's not that women are equal. No: it's just because we were-taught- to only -believe- we are.

You know who taught me that I was equal to any boy?

It was my father.

[RosyDaisy]

The author can take her article and stick up her ass! It's full of nothing but horse shit!

[2xx1xy1JD]

Crappy writing with a slew of generalizations and no actual logical arguments or facts.

Now, here is what I do see coming: men being more active in challenging gender stereotypes.

I've been doing family law since 1996, and I've seen changes in the role of fathers. As more women are in the workforce and earning decent money, the old mom-at-home and dad-at-work model is disappearing fast. Out of necessity, both parents often need to cooperate to make schedules work. I'm also seeing more divorced dads who weren't as hands-on prior to the divorce become much more involved afterward. I also see this with parental leave - sometimes, if mom can't qualify for full mat leave or can't really be away from work for a year, it just makes practical sense to have dad take all or part of the leave. (I'm Canadian, and parental leave here can be taken by either parent or shared - when my oldest was born, hubby qualified for the leave, but I didn't because I was self-employed.) As dads get more responsibility for child care, either during marriage or after divorce, they are starting to have to struggle with issues of work/life balance. No, we aren't at complete equality yet - but I'm seeing men confronting gender stereotypes and expectations all the time. I also see it in the realm of domestic violence. As a feminist, I sometimes feel that men are dealing with the same sort of issues that women dealt with 25 years ago, right down to some of the ignorant comments and discrimination.

Examples:

- hubby had supervisors ask "why do you want to do that?" when he requested parental leave (which he was fully entitled to do as law and his contract), and also had to listen to some "I had a baby and was back at work 2 weeks later" rants

- most shelters, while giving lip service to other variations, continue to be based on the model that violence is something that men do to women. There is very little capacity to deal with men who are fleeing violence with children, or same-sex couples.

- professionals are STILL not recognizing that it is possible for a man to be the victim of domestic violence. I've had 3 cases involving men being violently attacked with a weapon (2 of which nearly resulted in death, and which took place in front of young children who were traumatized). 1 resulted in the man being verbally attacked by a cranky judge who blamed him for the violence despite clear evidence that he was the victim and his crackhead girlfriend was the attacker, 1 resulted in a judge being sympathetic to mom after a rogue psychologist did a report excusing mom's actions and blaming the dad, and one was blamed by a domestic violence counselor and a social worker, neither of whom read the full police report or saw the full child protection file. Socially, it's even worse. I've had people actually LAUGH when I mention that I'm acting for a man who was a victim of assault. To me, it was a sad reminder of the way that MP Margaret Mitchell got laughs from some men in the Canadian Parliament when she demanded action on domestic violence in 1982. I find that the men themselves are often so affected by shame and stigma that they minimize what has happened to them.

- I see men who, for the first time in their lives, may have had to realize that THEY are responsible for the kids, and that they have to speak to their employers and fit responsibilities into their work schedules. One may alter travel schedules so that he's home during his weeks with the kids, another makes it crystal clear that he needs to leave at precisely the same time every afternoon, another has to figure out how to manage when a kid gets sick. When the shoe is on the other foot and THEY have to figure out child care, they become vocal about it.

[JMarie]

The author is Phyllis Shlafly's niece.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/s ... estic-help

[Terrie]

What the men cited in the article don't realize is that if they find some woman who is willing to play mommy, whore and cleaning lady all in one for them, it won't fix what's missing in their lives, because the problem is how they view themselves. Women just make an easy scapegoat.

[Loveday]

The author is Phyllis Shlafly's niece.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/s ... estic-help

That explains so, so much.

[shesinsane]

The author is Phyllis Shlafly's niece.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/s ... estic-help

Indeed, that's why it takes her hundreds of words to say "it's the woman's fault that men don't want to get married."

Maybe her next release will be about how some men have always been "confirmed bachelors" but now are afraid to admit for fear of being labeled homosexual (and how that's teh woman's fault too).

[Anxious Girl]

A woman who hates herself. Ah, gotta love the hypocritical shit fundies spew and they don't even realize it! :D

[MamaJunebug]

I've heard this gal interviewed at least once on the incredibly conservative Issues,Etc., radio show. She's garden-variety misogynistic female, a horrible thing to experience.

[Carla Bruni]

This article has made the rounds on all the "manosphere" blogs I got sucked into over the weekend, and the general response was, "seeeeeee! seeeeeeee! you shall all suffer now! mwahahahahaha!"

I also love how the author didn't even *think* to control for fluctuations in the economy (which can cause women to consider the benefits of adding a stable second income to their personal financial considerations), developments in workplace gender equality (which, however limited they may have been, have made it a bit easier for women to succeed professionally, thereby limiting the need to focus exclusively on career advancement), and changes in the way society views unmarried couples (which takes some of the pressure off of men to marry for the sake of getting married, consequences be damned). Clearly none of that matters. It's just that women have always been evil demons, and now poor little abused men have finally had enough! Blech.

[luckystone]

Oh! I saw that linked to elsewhere, it was so hilarious

[Peas n carrots]

This article has made the rounds on all the "manosphere" blogs I got sucked into over the weekend, and the general response was, "seeeeeee! seeeeeeee! you shall all suffer now! mwahahahahaha!"

I also love how the author didn't even *think* to control for fluctuations in the economy (which can cause women to consider the benefits of adding a stable second income to their personal financial considerations), developments in workplace gender equality (which, however limited they may have been, have made it a bit easier for women to succeed professionally, thereby limiting the need to focus exclusively on career advancement), and changes in the way society views unmarried couples (which takes some of the pressure off of men to marry for the sake of getting married, consequences be damned). Clearly none of that matters. It's just that women have always been evil demons, and now poor little abused men have finally had enough! Blech.

I don't get why some people think women shouldn't work. Being the history nerd I am doing geneology research I see so many families where women are widowed or the husband leaves and the family is put in quite dire economic situations. My one 4x great grandmother's husband died and she had 4 kids under 10 during the mid-1800's. It was Dickensian hell...the census listed her as a Charwoman and she lived in one of the worst areas of London. My DH's great great grandfather left his wife with 9 kids and another on the way and was never seen again. His great grandfather had to quit school at the age of 11 to work in a coal mine to support the family.

The MRA's believe they should be deferred respect and privilege based solely on the fact of their gender. They are insecure little men who can't see that when LOTS of women reject you, maybe you are the problem.

[2xx1xy1JD]

I don't get why some people think women shouldn't work. Being the history nerd I am doing geneology research I see so many families where women are widowed or the husband leaves and the family is put in quite dire economic situations. My one 4x great grandmother's husband died and she had 4 kids under 10 during the mid-1800's. It was Dickensian hell...the census listed her as a Charwoman and she lived in one of the worst areas of London. My DH's great great grandfather left his wife with 9 kids and another on the way and was never seen again. His great grandfather had to quit school at the age of 11 to work in a coal mine to support the family.

The MRA's believe they should be deferred respect and privilege based solely on the fact of their gender. They are insecure little men who can't see that when LOTS of women reject you, maybe you are the problem.

Yeah, there's a degree of nastiness there that makes me think, "if you were the last guy on earth, I'd let the human race die out".

[Fargood]

I also noticed that the article says that having a "successful marriage" is important to women, not just "marriage."

[Fargood]

I don't get why some people think women shouldn't work.

Agreed. Society also loses out on one-half of its intellectual capital by keeping women out of the workplace.

After spending a long holiday weekend with my children, work was a pretty awesome place to go on Monday morning.

[starfish]

If I was somehow related to Phyllis Schafly, I'd never tell a soul.

[ems]

This response is pretty great:

http://siblingandcharybdis.com/2012/11/ ... or-idiots/

[whirlygirly]

Pet peeve: "You’ll never hear that in the media." Uh, honey, look up at the top of the page- see where it says Fox News? That's the media. Drives me nuts, all these idiots on their 24 hour news channels, talk radio, et al, going on about how "the media" is so biased and won't tell you this or that. Hello, you're not part of the media??

[Beammeup]

Colbert slaughtered her tonight. I <3 him.

[Fundie Lite]

You know who taught me that I was equal to any boy?

It was my father.

EXACTLY! I was the only child and it was my father who encouraged me to do stereotypical "boy" activities like shooting and fishing. He taught me not to put up crap from anyone either.