Camille Paglia has a written a new piece for Time Magazine, called It’s a Man’s World and it Always Will Be. Camille has the audacity to point out that if men are “obsolete”, then women will soon be extinct.
Oh dear. Cue the shrieking harridans over at Jezebel. They demand to know just what Camille means by that! How could that be possible? The increasingly clueless and defiantly obtuse Erin Gloria Ryan has some questions for Dr. Paglia.
Let’s help her answer those, shall we?
A peevish, grudging rancor against men has been one of the most unpalatable and unjust features of second- and third-wave feminism [Citation needed].
http://www.munkdebates.com/debates/the-end-of-men
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/308135/
http://www.amazon.com/Men-Are-Not-Cost-Effective-America/dp/0941138119
http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1339991-are-men-necessary-when-sexes-collide
Men’s faults, failings and foibles [Like? Aggression? War? Rape? Dick-waving? The Jackass franchise? What?] have been seized on and magnified into gruesome bills of indictment [By whom?].
By whom? Are you kidding me? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!
How about by Jezebel?
Men are rapists (especially MRA men)!
Assholes who don’t know how to clean but can be trained like dogs to do so by the truly dedicated!
Fathers are not really that important after all!
blah blah blah blah …. Basically the entire site is devoted to pointing out any flaws the ladies can find in men, all the while ignoring the fact they would have no power, clean water, communications or computer technology and would essentially be screaming messages back and forth between grass huts without men, a point Camille has made in the past.
Ideologue professors [Who?] at our leading universities [Which ones?] indoctrinate impressionable undergraduates [How? Are you implying that young people internalize ideologies simply by hearing them once? How is this indoctrination occurring] with carelessly fact-free [Odd hyperbole] theories alleging that gender is an arbitrary, oppressive fiction with no basis in biology [Bold statement. Source?].
This is almost too laughably ridiculous to warrant a response. Has Erin never heard of the women’s studies department? Almost every liberal arts oriented university has one, stuffed full of professors that do not study women, they study “feminism”, which is not the same thing.
People internalize ideologies by hearing them once? What? Show me the university degree that can be earned after one class. Impressionable undergraduates are typically enrolled for four years. Four years is more than sufficient for complete indoctrination.
If you want carelessly fact-free, just consider your questions at the beginning of the paragraph. Who? Which ones? Are you seriously patting yourself on the back for your epic take down of Camille? Really? That’s what Camille means by “fact-free”, toots.
And now you are denying that feminism considers gender a fiction with no basis in biology? Really? Here we go with the “fact-free” again. Google “gender as a social construct” and tell me what you get. Seriously. Go do it. It’s not a bold claim at all. It’s pedestrian at this point. Feminism claims that gender is a social fiction with no basis in biology.
There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender… identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results.
– Judith Butler
Moving along…
Is it any wonder that so many [How many?] high-achieving young women, despite all the happy talk about their academic success [Cite examples here, otherwise it just sounds like you’re talking out of your ass], find themselves in the early stages of their careers in chronic uncertainty or anxiety [See previous note about ass-talking] about their prospects for an emotionally fulfilled private life [See two previous notes about the origin of talking w/r/t Your Ass]?
Here we go with all the stupid facts again. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America reports that approximately 40 million people aged 18 and over suffer from anxiety issues, which is the most common mental illness in the US, and women are twice as likely to be affected as men.
Happy talk about women succeeding academically? Oh, you missed this article? And this one? And this one, too? They’re all from Jezebel, you moron.
When an educated culture routinely denigrates masculinity and manhood [Clarification needed here to explain what your argument even is. What is manhood? What is masculinity? A John Wayne movie? Like, Iroquois manhood? Mustaches? Fatherhood? Dressing in plaid shirts? Dying of prostate cancer? Can the men be gay? Can the men be peaceful? You’re assuming your audience understands dog whistle shorthand that only exists in your brain.] then women will be perpetually stuck with boys, who have no incentive to mature or to honor their commitments.
Well color me fucking SHOCKED that Jezebel has no idea what masculinity or manhood means. Here’s a starter course for you.
From my long observation [Anecdata], which predates the sexual revolution [Cut this; reminding readers that you formed your opinion before hippie-times doesn’t add to your cred; it makes you seem doddering], this remains a serious problem afflicting Anglo-American society, with its Puritan residue [Sounds like a euphemism for dried ejaculate; cut].
Anecdata? Dr. Paglia has been teaching at universities since 1972. Her book Sexual Personae topped the bestseller lists in 1990, a rare accomplishment for a scholarly book. She has been active in universities as an educator for over 40 years. That’s hardly “anecdata”.
“Doddering”? Charming. I’m surprised Erin didn’t pull out the fat and ugly arguments to go along with “old”. All praise the sisterhood, huh? What was that about critiquing other women on their thoughts and ideas again? No? Just call her old and be done with it?
How clever.
“Ejaculate”? That icky boy stuff? Ew, gross.
How mature.
In France, Italy, Spain, Latin America, and Brazil, in contrast, many ambitious professional women [How many?] seem [Ugh] to have found a formula for asserting power [Statistics? Something? Back this up please? Careful with the “Latin America, sexy feminist wonderland” stereotype; easily disprovable, or at least vehemently argued against. Also kind of in line with troublesome “sexy brown chick” trope you keep going back to; careful here] and authority in the workplace while still projecting sexual allure and even glamor [Oy.]. This is the true feminine mystique, which cannot be taught but flows from an instinctive recognition of sexual differences [Girl what are you even talking about here? Get some new cultural references].
Want facts? Probably not, but here are some anyways. This report might help.
Quantitative research was conducted in France, Germany, US, UK, Brazil, Mexico and China. Qualitative research was conducted in France, Germany, US, UK, Brazil, Mexico, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia.
Nearly 70% of women globally think that being beautiful helps them get what they want out of life, and the same number believe that the relationship between happiness and beauty is directly proportional. 93% of women said they felt more confident overall when they knew they looked beautiful.
Careful now. This may not be racist at all. Rather inclusive if you ask me. That’s kind of foreign to feminists, though, isn’t it?
After the next inevitable apocalypse [Okay. That is your argument. Men aren’t over because the world is ending. Okay. Okay. Got it.], men will be desperately needed again [Again, not sure you established that men aren’t needed now…]!
Not sure you established that men aren’t needed now.
Wow.
That needs to be “established”, does it? Okay, here you go. All information taken from the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Oh, sure, there will be the odd gun-toting Amazonian survivalist gal, who can rustle game out of the bush and feed her flock [Who is this piece about? Women who have children without men around? Childless young women with academic accomplishments? Why is the subject of this piece constantly morphing?], but most women and children will be expecting men [Citation needed] to scrounge for food and water and to defend the home turf [Just to review: we’re now arguing that gender roles must exist because after a theoretical apocalypse, women and children will “expect” men to fend for them? That’s what’s happening here? Okay.].
Most women want breadwinner husbands? Uh, yes. Yes they do.
‘Women with young children are going back to the very traditional division of labour in which they want the husband as the breadwinner.
‘Having tried full-time working themselves they have found the home much more interesting and want to be enabled to have that.”
Stupid facts, again!
Indeed, men are absolutely indispensable right now, invisible as it is to most feminists [Citation needed], who seem blind to the infrastructure that makes their own work lives possible [Who hurt you, Camille?].
Citation needed? Go back to the top. Men are obsolete. The end of men. Are men necessary?
It is overwhelmingly men who do the dirty, dangerous work of building roads, pouring concrete, laying bricks, tarring roofs, hanging electric wires, excavating natural gas and sewage lines, cutting and clearing trees, and bulldozing the landscape for housing developments [Who is this argument against?].
It’s not an argument against anything. It’s pointing out the reality. Facts. I know, Erin, facts confuse you and make you feel all wobbly inside. Don’t worry. You can stick your head back in the sand very soon.
It is men who heft and weld the giant steel beams that frame our office buildings, and it is men who do the hair-raising work of insetting and sealing the finely tempered plate-glass windows of skyscrapers 50 stories tall [Ok.]. Every day along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, one can watch the passage of vast oil tankers and towering cargo ships arriving from all over the world [Don’t mention that you hang out in Philadelphia; undermines credibility].
Aw, no argument left? Just an insult against Philadelphia?
How very, very clever.
These stately colossi are loaded, steered, and off-loaded by men. The modern economy, with its vast production and distribution network, is a male epic, in which women have found a productive role—but women were not its author [They just made every man who ever existed inside of their bodies; nbd]. Surely, modern women are strong enough now to give credit where credit is due!
Hey, looky, looky. We actually agree! Women’s greatest contribution to society is to be a mother to children.
They made every man who ever existed. Erin, you do realize that human reproduction requires that icky ejaculate you were grossing out over not so long ago, right?
Women: they made every man
Men: they made every man AND THE WHOLE FUCKING ECONOMY, TOO.
Credit?
It’s due.
Lots of love,
JB
