I honestly disklike the “mens rights” weirdos, but one thing strikes me painfully again and again: that modern women seem to want men to be modest and sensitive, to respect women for their personality and their achievements, and pay much attention to treat them as equals in every detail of life – but at the same time will never love, or desire, and often not even respect a man who subjects himself to all this.
A lot of the content of this one is why I decided aged 4 or so that I wanted to be a boy, and why aged 14 or so I realised that I was a feminist. I am not going to comment on the flesh popsicle, tempting though it is.
English is actually unusual among languages in that the common terms “female” and “woman” are obtained by adding on prefixes to the shorter words “male” and “man”.
If English was like most other languages, the terms would be of equal length. i.e. In French: homme/femme. In Russian: muzhshchina/zhenshchina. In Icelandic: karl/kona.
Hence, English-speaking feminists have been obsessed with fighting against this “man = default, woman = man plus girly things” idea, but this isn’t necessarily the case for those who speak other languages in which this isn’t embedded.
@phatnes, “modern women” are not hive animals. Don’t tell me what I think or how I feel and don’t assume that a slippery turn of phrase like “seem to want” makes your generalisations swallowable.
The comic references misogyny in *symbolism*; somehow you make the leap to complaining about how heterosexual relationships are difficult (for you, apparently).
Just recently someone threatened to *massacre* people if a female speaker dared to speak publicly on, of all things, bigotry in video games…and this is one of countless examples in just the past few years…but oh no straight relationships are totally hard for dudes why not bring that up any time sexism is mentioned
Here’s a tip: if you genuinely feel that simply treating women like human beings is something to which you need to “subject” yourself, it’s little wonder that you’re not getting anywhere with them: you’re mean and selfish.
Phatnes: What Lee said, but maybe a little more hopefully: Keep at it. When it becomes what you are, rather than what you do, people will start to react differently to you.
That applies to many different kinds of social interactions, BTW.
@Esn: English used to be like other languages, but the masculine prefixes were dropped and the generic forms co-opted. The old masculine prefix is actually the origin of the “were-” in “werewolf”, so if you want to be egregiously pedantic a female werewolf should be “wifwolf” or some such. Of course, this is about as likely to catch on as gynoid instead of android, i.e. not a chance in hell.
Also, the notion of “he” as the sole correct gender-neutral pronoun is a relatively recent thing (relative to the existence of the English language in general, that is) and was pushed deliberately by authority figures for political reasons. Funny how that works, huh?
Dude, I do all those things and I have the pleasure of more female company than I know what to do with. People — which, astonishingly, includes women — can tell when you’re being false or putting up a front, as versus doing something you view as appropriate.
TL;DR: If you’re doing it to get laid, and it’s not hygiene, it won’t work.
October 14, 2014
Does the “girl popsicle” taste like flesh because it’s a reminder that women are just people too? Or what?
October 14, 2014
I read that as “fish” at first and had to do a huge double-take.
October 14, 2014
yessss, fleshhhh….
Also here is a useful take on alternatives to bows in stick figures! For those of us who can’t draw: http://molly.is/saying/no-more-put-a-skirt-on-it/
October 14, 2014
I honestly disklike the “mens rights” weirdos, but one thing strikes me painfully again and again: that modern women seem to want men to be modest and sensitive, to respect women for their personality and their achievements, and pay much attention to treat them as equals in every detail of life – but at the same time will never love, or desire, and often not even respect a man who subjects himself to all this.
October 14, 2014
Actually, the 4th ghost is ‘clyde’ not susan.
October 15, 2014
lcrl: It’s Clyde in Pac-Man, but Sue in Ms. Pac-Man.
October 15, 2014
In opposition? Seems almost a revealing slip. Perhaps contrast.
October 15, 2014
A lot of the content of this one is why I decided aged 4 or so that I wanted to be a boy, and why aged 14 or so I realised that I was a feminist. I am not going to comment on the flesh popsicle, tempting though it is.
October 16, 2014
English is actually unusual among languages in that the common terms “female” and “woman” are obtained by adding on prefixes to the shorter words “male” and “man”.
If English was like most other languages, the terms would be of equal length. i.e. In French: homme/femme. In Russian: muzhshchina/zhenshchina. In Icelandic: karl/kona.
Hence, English-speaking feminists have been obsessed with fighting against this “man = default, woman = man plus girly things” idea, but this isn’t necessarily the case for those who speak other languages in which this isn’t embedded.
October 16, 2014
@phatnes, “modern women” are not hive animals. Don’t tell me what I think or how I feel and don’t assume that a slippery turn of phrase like “seem to want” makes your generalisations swallowable.
The comic references misogyny in *symbolism*; somehow you make the leap to complaining about how heterosexual relationships are difficult (for you, apparently).
Just recently someone threatened to *massacre* people if a female speaker dared to speak publicly on, of all things, bigotry in video games…and this is one of countless examples in just the past few years…but oh no straight relationships are totally hard for dudes why not bring that up any time sexism is mentioned
Here’s a tip: if you genuinely feel that simply treating women like human beings is something to which you need to “subject” yourself, it’s little wonder that you’re not getting anywhere with them: you’re mean and selfish.
October 16, 2014
Phatnes: What Lee said, but maybe a little more hopefully: Keep at it. When it becomes what you are, rather than what you do, people will start to react differently to you.
That applies to many different kinds of social interactions, BTW.
October 17, 2014
@Esn: English used to be like other languages, but the masculine prefixes were dropped and the generic forms co-opted. The old masculine prefix is actually the origin of the “were-” in “werewolf”, so if you want to be egregiously pedantic a female werewolf should be “wifwolf” or some such. Of course, this is about as likely to catch on as gynoid instead of android, i.e. not a chance in hell.
Also, the notion of “he” as the sole correct gender-neutral pronoun is a relatively recent thing (relative to the existence of the English language in general, that is) and was pushed deliberately by authority figures for political reasons. Funny how that works, huh?
October 20, 2014
> Also, the notion of “he” as the sole correct
> gender-neutral pronoun is a relatively recent
> thing ….
Interesting! What was used as a generic pronoun before that change?
October 21, 2014
oooo flesh
October 25, 2014
nkh: It’s recontextualizing the color pink. Pink may be a girly color to us, but we’re all pink inside if we’re not cooked well enough.
October 25, 2014
Dude, I do all those things and I have the pleasure of more female company than I know what to do with. People — which, astonishingly, includes women — can tell when you’re being false or putting up a front, as versus doing something you view as appropriate.
TL;DR: If you’re doing it to get laid, and it’s not hygiene, it won’t work.
October 26, 2014
I don’t care what the politics are. The ‘flesh popsicle’ went into the cat!