Sorry to disappoint you guys, but it's me, the Dear Hubby, instead of the Quacked-Out Duck Lady.
She's experiencing some of the fun I used to enjoy, mainly formatting e-books to satisfy the jackals at the various digital distributors. Given that, the full-time job, the bills, the laundry, and writing her wacky romance novels, she didn't have the time or energy to deal with the blog this week, so I'm doing it. This is taking crucial time away from my more important tasks, mainly ARRRRRR WHAR BE THE WENCHES AND THE GROG ARRRRRRR!
First, some news on our website(s). I've taken the time to change the e-book covers to reflect Mary Anne's title changes on her contemporary romances. Her contemporaries weren't moving off the digital shelves as quickly as the historical/fantasy romances, so we discussed possibly bundling them at some future date. Of course, there has got to be some unifying theme to help tie the bundle together, so when we looked at the nitty-gritty essence of the two current contemporaries and the one she's currently working on, we found a hook - Dangerous Relations, where relationships and the law intersect and many times conflict.
So now we have Dangerous Relations: Seducing the Billionaire and Dangerous Relations: Griffin's Law, with Mary Anne currently pounding away on the third one. No, I'm not telling you what the work-in-progress is tentatively titled, leave me alone you freaks.
I also fixed our Nook links on the Complete List of Books page, which were all broken due to Barnes and Noble introducing their Pub-It service, a direct competitor to Amazon's Kindle Publishing. It's aggravating to deal with, but I understand the necessity of the computer programming changes.
Now onto the meat of the blog post. The other day I encountered, on a fairly well-trafficked comedy website, a piece written by a male feminist.
I struggle to understand the very concept of a male feminist, or any other (what I see as) self-hating political activist.
Feminism is one thing. That particular thing I can grasp with my feeble mind fairly well, I think. I can see a woman or group of women wanting more political and societal power. Hell, every person and group wants more power, even the ones that have power already.
What I don't understand is someone who wants to be all flamboyantly, childishly outraged by a circumstance of his birth, and lick the boots of a "minority" that consists of 50.8% of the population (according to the 2010 U.S. Census).
There are only two possibilities that come to my mind when I'm presented with such strange behavior (then again, I'm prone to binary thinking because I'm male and I'm an I.T. professional):
Possibility #1 - The male feminist is insincere in his outrage.
We've all seen THAT guy. You know, the guy who'll get all sympathetic with a woman, like he's trying to be one of her girlfriends. Provided the guy is heterosexual, you know the only reason he's watching a romantic comedy and getting all teary-eyed sitting next to a woman is so he can win her over and (at some point) get her naked. Which makes him...
A HUGE HYPOCRITE.
Possibility #2 - The male feminist is sincere.
If the male in question is indeed truly outraged by the plight of the downtrodden half of the population, what with their rights being trampled upon constantly by THE MAN and THE PATRIARCHY and all, then he thinks women are too weak to do anything about it themselves. They need his help and the help of his fellow penis-owning oppressors-no-more to rise to their rightful places in society. If he thinks that women are so weak that the so-called oppressors themselves need to help them cast off their shackles, then that makes him...
A HUGE HYPOCRITE.
Sorry Charlie, wah wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Either way, he's an enormous douchebag and possibly the ultimate hypocrite.
You don't need to be a feminist to realize that both men and women have power, or even that there's a constant struggle for power that happens between the two sexes. All you need to realize is that the powers mentioned are differently expressed. Which is as it should be.
"If the male in question is indeed truly outraged by the plight of the downtrodden half of the population, what with their rights being trampled upon constantly by THE MAN and THE PATRIARCHY and all, then he thinks women are too weak to do anything about it themselves. They need his help and the help of his fellow penis-owning oppressors-no-more to rise to their rightful places in society. If he thinks that women are so weak that the so-called oppressors themselves need to help them cast off their shackles, then that makes him…"
As a self-described male feminist (and also a binary-thinking I.T. guy), I think you're wrong. By claiming that men should be interested in women's equality, we're not implying that women are inferior and cannot succeed without our help. We're simply saying that equality is the right thing, and that everybody should be working toward it.
To draw a (possibly inflammatory) analogy, prior to the Civil War, blacks made up about half the population in many southern states. But white abolitionists of that era be condemned for disempowering blacks by demanding more power for them. And in that historical context, it was true that the slaves didn't have the power to free themselves without the consent of the white power structures that controlled them.
So I don't see the hypocrisy.
"As a self-described male feminist..."
Congratulations. Your father must be proud.
"By claiming that men should be interested in women’s equality, we’re not implying that women are inferior and cannot succeed without our help."
That's exactly what you're implying. By being "interested" in fixing women's equality (something that was fixed by explicit law nearly 50 years ago), you think women aren't equal already. Thus, they are inferior and need your "interest" to make them equal.
And comparing today's women to Civil War slaves? Really? That isn't so much inflammatory as it is stupid.
"So I don’t see the hypocrisy."
That's not a big surprise.
I am a male feminist because I believe woman should have body hair on there legs/pits if they want to without people saying there gross because I don't find it disgusting and they would never say that to me, I a male feminist because I don't like gender roles and I am not intimidated or have some stupid male pride over who gets paid more I am male feminist because people say "I trow like a girl" implying that I should be a shame of been like a girl because they are weak and something shameful (witch brings homophobia and oppressing feeling in my male gender) I am a male feminist because if I liberate woman of this social constructs that still exist I will free my own gender, so please don't try to shame me for calling my self a male feminist or calling me a hypocrite I don't want power, I want equality, I want to stop hate and oppression.
@T.K.
1. Nobody wants to hear about your sexual fetishes.
2. Dial whine-one-one and call for a waaaaahmbulance.
3. I can't decide if you're the first kind or second kind of hypocrite. Given your less-than-stellar writing skills, you have the stench of poor education on you, which is indicative of recent liberal arts college courses. Liberal arts university guys are usually all about the poon, and the whole "free my own gender" schtick is something I could see you whispering into the nearest hippie chick's ear as you snuggle in your Occupy Smellyville love-tent.
On the other hand, you seem pretty sincere, which would make you an even bigger douchebag hypocrite since you're all about oppression and subjugation of women IN A COUNTRY THAT ALREADY HAS LAWS AGAINST IT, as opposed to those wonderful, free, women-loving countries like Bumfuckistan, Outer Shitholeia. Perhaps you could relocate there and show them the error of their ways. Drop me a line when you get that done, mmkay? Thanks a million.
you're just personally attacking me with bad assumptions, outdated stereotypes and saying is some schtick like you personally know me believing what you want and creating this FAKE imagery in your head of my personal reasons of why I am feminist and thus "proving" how I am been a hypocrite (nice accusation of oppression and subjugation with imaginary proof of validation by the way). I thought you where misguided, I though you where actually gonna give me a validating argument on how I'm been a hypocrite, but no, because there is no way for you to prove it you went on making assumption and attacking me to do so, this just shows for a fact how closed-minded and what a selfish childish asshole you are. why is it so unbelievable for you that a man would want equality with no interior motives? is it because you're reflecting this idea on yourself? (usually white straight male of cisgender think like this, but I'm not talking about you angryoldfatman I don't need to jump in to assumption like you do to prove your false OPINION of a point). A person who doesn't believe in equality or just doesn't want to believe that there still inequality and makes a joke of other people who strive for it just because they got luck and privileged and this inequality just dosen't effect them, there always ignorant, missed informed and selfish,and for this reason whatever they have too say is always just a waste of time. So I'm obviously done here. and by the way grammar-Nazi fuck you.
lol wait! has this dude, angryoldfatman (really!? talk about self-hating..) even googled or checked in a dictionary what feminism is? I think this dude is the the poster child of logical fallacy...
FEM.I.NISM (noun)
"The Advocacy of women's rights on the ground of political, social and economical EQUALITY to men"
nothing about power or Independence for women that just comes with the beauty of equality, maybe the word 'feminism' should be change to 'equalism' so people (you) don't miss understand it so much. see how feminism can be applied too everybody no matter race, sexuality or gender. women have political right's but we have poor social right's or at lease socially accepted right's and we still get paid less then men for no reason in many profession (excluding modeling and pornography you tell me what dose that say about the society we are living in and how us woman are portrait). Feminism should be outdated in this day and age but inequality still obviously exist just because there a "minority", which I disagree, dose not mean is fair and just brush it off and ignore it because it dose not effect you, MALE, with many perks just for been one, that just make you a elitist jerk :)(I think the culprit of this is that I.T. professional title you keep trowing around). for some reason you just don't want men to accept been feminine don't you!? COME ON! ADMIT IT! YOUR'RE BITTER BECAUSE YOU HAVE SUPPRESS FEELING OVER YOUR PARENT NOT LETTING YOU PLAY IN THE PINK SECTION OF THE TOY STORE! RIGHT!? OR DO MEN IN TOUCH WITH THERE FEMININE SIDE INTIMIDATE YOU? IS THAT IT? and I am sorry but are you a female? stop try to talk for me like you know how it feel to be female oppressed. you're DUMB the more people that are feminist the better, no male is oppressing me just because they support equality that dose not make sense so shut up. (ESPECIALLY ABOUT TALKING IN A FEMALE POINT OF VIEW) and about you're obsession with power and how you think everybody seeks it,(shortcomings in the male genitalia era? do you know about rape culture? it resonates with idiots like you) please, GET OVER IT!
LOL butthurt little shits. Your pained, outraged textwalls make me aroused.
Otherwise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN7qUV37nlY