“I never forgot it, confusing as it was, no fun with no guilt feelings.”
– Alanis Morisette, ‘Forgiven’
When I say “bad boys”, what you might be inclined to picture is a man in a leather jacket with tattoos, hair gel, chain necklaces, and a motorcycle. The kind of guy with an irresistible “not giving a fuck” attitude that women go nuts for. But the digital era has created a new kind of “bad boy”, in terms of what the Church of Progressive Feminist Capitalism defines as “bad”:– the geeky guy.
Outside the fact that we spend money on toys, cosplay, and collections, us geeks are bad consumers. We still define ourselves by what we consume, but we don’t mass consume what everyone else is consuming. Our money gives more power to small “ma and pa” businesses and small niche content creators on the internet than it does to the huge corporations. Corporations are trying two strategies to fight their losing revenue. For one, make their same idiotic blockbusters they’ve always made to impress the masses, but get a ‘geek culture’ franchise label. This is what Marvel does. This is what the Star Wars and Star Trek movies are now. Even Doctor Who has lost its way somewhat. This is why journalists said gamers are no longer the target of game companies. Games are now for the dull-brained masses.
The mega-corporations have one other strategy against us; women. Whether you watch Ready Player One, Big Bang Theory, Atypical, I.T. Crowd, or anything featuring a male character who is geeky or autistic, that character will invariably be defined by their success or lack thereof in dating, and the fictional stories about geeky and autistic men you’re likely to see on TV or in the mainstream movies are all about sex and dating. This is not by accident, but by design. The dateless male geek nullifies the threat that geek men might just enjoy existing without women. The message is clear: good men want pussy, and good women will work hard, like Penny in Big Bang Theory, to tame geeky men who redeem themselves by giving up what they want for what women want.
Why is that so important to pop culture? Well, pop culture is not, for the most part, what is organically created by independent creative thinkers. It’s planned by what amount to think tanks of newly hatched English major graduates. It’s a carefully thought-out product, and a huge team effort, with the result engineered much like a car or a building. So no part of say, a Marvel movie or an episode of a best-selling sitcom is accidental. And the primary purpose is to make money through ad deals.
To make money through ad deals, your show has to encourage a consumerist cultural mindset. These people writing this crap will claim to be progressive or Marxist even, but they really aren’t. Being Marxist means you want to dismantle capitalism. The people don’t want that and never will. They want to perpetuate everything that sucks about capitalism (the idea that you should define yourself by the junk you buy, and keep buying and buying, like a hamster on a wheel) and diminish everything that’s great about capitalism (freedom of expression, individuality).
But why sex? Well, sex sells. Even sells crappy cultural ideas. But what they’re not selling men is sexual freedom. I often roll my eyes when I see another reminder that the sexual revolution is just something that women got. Men are still pushed into the traditional role; breadwinner and faithful to one woman, even if she sleeps around. It’s also the only thing the geeky male appears to lack. It’s inconceivable to someone steeped in our juvenile, sex-obsessed celebrity culture that some people are happy and just fine without its endless pursuit.
The sexless geek is seen as similar to a drug addict, a poor unfortunate soul needing rehabilitation. It also makes sense from a narrative perspective; as stories need conflict, and geeks don’t run into as much conflict that’s fun for an audience of lay people anywhere but in the realm of dating. But I also hear the message when I put on my “They Live” glasses and watch something like the first episode of Atypical:– REPRODUCE! Don’t go your own way! Your own way means you won’t be financially obligated to support a woman and children. So we will control you less. And we hate that.
I’m not a man. But I am a lifelong geek. And as a bisexual who is very much attracted to the female body, I sexually experience the world the way a man would – I like Ivy’s tits in Soul Calibur, and I don’t want to be shamed for it. But what I’m finding is that men are shamed for liking breasts, while women are not shamed for wanting to show their bodies off for strangers to see. So there’s been this awkward culture of fear around sex created by, like I said, the fact that the sexual revolution has freed women but not men to such an extent.
Feminists like to claim they’re fighting for men and that men don’t need their own movement. But if feminists fought for men 20-40 years ago as much as they did for women, why is it that it’s considered normal for a 16 year-old girl to be on birth control, and weird, creepy, perverted, and wrong for a man to have a collection of sexy anime dolls? Either sexuality is cool or it isn’t. Enough with double standards that victimize men. It’s all about getting you to repent for the sin of seeking happiness independently from the control of women. Don’t be a good consumer. Don’t go gentle. Go your own way.
