Tuesday, September 02, 2014

CONSERVATIVE OUTREACH TO WOMEN IS GOING GREAT.

You probably saw that survey last week that showed women don't think Republicans are on their side. Maybe that's what motivated Christine Sisto to write "No, Catcalling Is Definitely Not Flattery: Why conservative skeptics are wrong about street harassment" for National Review, gently explaining to her colleagues that, bullshit New York Post stories to the contrary, women really don't like guys on the street screaming about their tits, particularly when it leads to less-verbal aggressions. (The comments to that article are everything you'd expect.)

Well, guess what: National Review apparently decided assholes should get equal time. Nicholas Frankovich.
At some level, a man who catcalls wants the woman to reciprocate. “Guys, I see attractive men all the time,” Christine Sisto remarks, “but I don’t feel an urge to loudly request to see their genitalia.” But they might be psyched if she did.
Also, if a beautiful woman followed me down a dark alley and started ripping off my clothes, I'd be totally psyched, so what's your problem, bitch? Then Frankovich gets into some PUA yap about "social rank and mating-market" for however many of his readers hadn't already started beating off at the thought of women giving them the Rita Moreno speech from Carnal Knowledge at high decibels on a streetcorner.

Also, Molly Powell tells Sisto "if we [women] are treated as mere pieces of meat, we bear at least some of the responsibility," which you have to admit sounds slightly less repulsive coming from a fellow female than from Whiteman P. Republican, which is why Molly Powell will never miss a meal. Also: "When you are fat and gray-haired and have three chins and cankles, I wager that no one you will catcall you." (Hot Air's Jazz Shaw said "an opinion like this coming from a woman – particularly the insinuation that women might bear some 'responsibility' for the responses of men – produced the predictable head spinning on the Left," which I guess is wingnut for "Mrrow! Catfight!")

Meanwhile, if you've been horrified by how that female gaming critic was chased out of her home by misogynist creeps, Breitbart.com's Milo Yiannopoulos is here to tell you that you have it backwards, because it's actually "FEMINIST BULLIES" who are "TEARING THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY APART" by spoiling fanboy boners with their femmy complaints. As the thing is full of lines like "let's be honest. We're all used to feeling a niggling suspicion that 'death threats' sent to female agitators aren't all they're cracked up to be," clearly the point is not to sway fence-sitters so much as to assure MRA douchebags, "yep, Breitbart.com's the place for you!" (Tears are also spilled over "threat hysteria... designed to stifle debate and silence critics," because Yiannopoulos needed one more space to win Wingnut Bingo and "Powerless People's Opinions Are Oppressing Me" was sitting right there.)

I guess they think they don't need the votes so badly that they'll give up being jerks to get them.

UPDATE. In comments, @goofoffartiste: "From the Yiannopoulos article: 'There's even a theory floating around that she is planning to have herself beaten up at an upcoming conference.It's an unconfirmed internet rumour, but it illustrates Quinn's credibility.' This must be some of that journalistic integrity they keep claiming this is all about."


209 comments:

  1. "Yo, Sugartits, you'll thank me for this when you're in the nursing home!!!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's totally true that feminist bullies are tearing the video game industry apart- they forced Electronic Arts to release "Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Nutpunch" last July.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Occasionally frightening behavior from men is no big deal? I'd love to see her column in favor of "those people" flashing guns, or even "gang signs".

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've never seen Roy's watercolors...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anyone catch the bit FNC did on catcalling? That was classic. They went with the old "Men Will Be Men" excuse, which has been used to excuse things that are a lot worse. In my entire life, I've never yelled "I wanna drink milk from your tits" at a perfect stranger, nor have I had the desire to, so apparently I'm just abnormal.

    Which leads to point two: The examples of harassment they use in these things are always very mild, G-rated things that bear little resemblance to the exceedingly coarse and vulgar comments that women have reported hearing. If it's not acceptable to publish or broadcast lines like "I wanna drink milk from your tits," then why is it okay to yell them in public places?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey, attention from an armed thug is a falttering tribute to your success as a capitalist. Enjoy it, because one day when you're poor the thugs won't care about you anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Helmut Monotreme12:18 PM

    This fall from EA :Goria Steinem's Modern Workplace. Thrill to workplace discrimination in 1080p. Watch in real time as women are paid .70$ for every dollar that their male counterparts earn. Experience a career hitting the glass ceiling at full speed! Play the new "race to the bottom" mode as employee are pitted against each other to see who will work the most hours for the least pay and benefits. Find the elusive work/life balance to raise kids and have a meaningful remunerative career!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Derelict12:26 PM

    When even Republican/Conservative women don't understand or empathize with women's issues, is it any wonder why the majority of female voters look askance at the GOP?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ellis_Weiner12:38 PM

    "At some level, a man who catcalls wants the woman to reciprocate."


    Yes, and at some level, a man who points a gun at you and demands your wallet wants you to give him your money. At some level, a man who rapes a woman wants her to have sex with him. At some level, adding the phrase "at some level" to a piece of asshole douchebaggery makes it seem like a considered piece of sociological analysis, but only to the asshole douchebag who adds it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The point of divergence is consent- Nicki Minaj willing flaunts her sexuality, which is bad. That random woman on the street subjected to harassment? She needs to submit to the patriarchal dominance structure.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I guess they think they don't need the votes so badly that they'll give up being jerks to get them.


    Well, given (1) low voter turnout, especially in off-year elections; (2) all the fronts they've opened in the war on voting rights; and (3) the epistemic closure (sorry) of their own rank-and-file; they could well be justified.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Conservatives are against the sexuality ownership society.

    ReplyDelete
  13. It's worth mentioning that the great crime committed by the "bully" Anita Sarkeesian is that she raised money to fund a series of videos on sexism in video games. To this day, I've never seen anyone try to offer an antithesis or contrary opinion - making Flash games where you can punch her in the face and posting her address to public forums is so much better.


    It's hilarious to me that someone would write such a long article about something as pointless as "GamerGate," given that it amounts to a bunch of men in their twenties and thirties screaming about how they don't want girl cooties in their clubhouse. Why would you want to throw a spotlight on that, exactly? Yes, let's talk some more about how all those girls who show up at conventions are fakers because they don't play video games thirty-five hours a week like "real gamers" do. That's going to make the subculture look really good to the squares.


    And you have to love the co-option of "bully" here. Thus far, the "bullying" has amounted to a few posts on some gaming blogs and criticism by a meager handful of indie developers on Twitter. Yes, I know that these days being mocked on Twitter is THE WORST FORM OF OPPRESSION THAT HAS EVER EXISTED!!! and We Are All Solzhenitsyn Now, but let's have some perspective. In a match between a YouTuber and a AAA game company and all its fans, who's bullying who? Given the "successes" of fan-driven campaigns, what's even the nightmare scenario here? Maybe Ubisoft will make a game that doesn't feature a gruff-voiced thirtyish white man as the protagonist? What a blow to the culture that would be.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Socialist Cubone12:54 PM

    I thought the name Milo Yiannopoulos was familiar but it took a while for me to remember where I'd seen it before. He got prominence as being a gay Tory who got mad at David Cameron for legalizing gay marriage, and he lost a debate to Boy George about it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm8QCUpFPrg

    ReplyDelete
  15. tigrismus12:54 PM

    produced the predictable head spinning on the Left

    Well, head shaking, anyway. Also eye-rolling, so I can see how you might get confused.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Pere Ubu1:03 PM

    Maybe, someday, in the far far distant future, someone will make a video game that will have even a tiny possibility of passing the Bechdel Test.

    I ain't holding my breath, exactly.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Socialist Cubone1:05 PM

    The Last of Us, I think, does.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Actually, there are a lot of games that would pass the Bechdel test. Off the top of my head, Final Fantasy 6 does - note any of the scenes in which Terra and Celes discuss what it means to have a power (magic) that otherwise no longer exists.


    It's not a great metric for measuring games, is what I'm saying.

    ReplyDelete
  19. tigrismus1:09 PM

    It's really nice of some guy not receiving the deaths threats to announce they're not threatening enough. And guess whose web page is rife with stories of Christian persecution in the UK? If she'd received the exact same threats for being a Christian instead of a woman, you can bet your ass he'd have found them significant.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Derelict1:16 PM

    C'mon ladies: Who wouldn't welcome catcalls, indecent proposals, and outright sexual aggression with the potential for life-altering violence? Besides--after you've been raped (and we know you were asking for it), we'll make sure you're forced to carry any unwanted pregnancy to term.

    Wait! Where are you going? Don't be that way, baby! How 'bout if I just send you some dick pics?

    ReplyDelete
  21. So wait, women get raped by asking for it (i.e., going outdoors) and society has gone to shit since women have been allowed personal agency argle bargle birth control. But they should also make men happy by asking to see their dicks or whatever?

    Gosh, it is almost as if the right wingers are in such a froth to find fault with everyone that they wind up screaming at themselves. Maybe they'll start punching themselves in the face.

    ...which you have to admit sounds slightly less repulsive coming from a fellow female than from Whiteman P. Republican

    Um. No, it doesn't. Really.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Yeah, it seems some on the Left are still able to act surprised when the Right unleash their latest splatter of racist and/or sexist assholery. Sorry for ever giving you any benefit of the doubt, guys.

    ReplyDelete
  23. tigrismus1:29 PM

    Her whole article is the weirdest thing I've read in ages. Some asshole acting creepy or scary is just a thing, you know? You'll survive. Saying you don't like it is apparently beyond the pale, though.

    ReplyDelete
  24. whetstone1:31 PM

    "Well, he was wearing a finely tailored suit and cufflinks. If he didn't want to be mugged, he shouldn't have dressed that way."

    ReplyDelete
  25. redoubtagain1:40 PM

    "With notably rare exceptions, all of the above is true."

    ReplyDelete
  26. Derelict1:47 PM

    Saying you don't like it shows how intolerant you are. And what a bitch, too!

    Don't any of these assholes have wives, girlfriends, daughters, sisters, mothers, or even female acquaintances? Somebody to explain to them that having men make sexually suggestive/aggressive remarks is more than just "uncomfortable"?

    ReplyDelete
  27. Derelict1:49 PM

    "To the disgust of all on the Left."

    ReplyDelete
  28. BG, watery tart1:57 PM

    Also, if a beautiful woman followed me down a dark alley and started ripping off my clothes, I'd be totally psyched, so what's your problem, bitch?

    Suppose it was a fat, ugly woman --- then what?

    "When you are fat and gray-haired and have three chins and cankles, I wager that no one you will catcall you."



    So get it while you can, girls!


    Seriously, can we stop talking about how women look???

    ReplyDelete
  29. Jay B.1:58 PM

    When you are fat and gray-haired and have three chins and cankles, I wager that no one you will catcall you.


    As my body sags
    An ache, a void, mournful odes
    to tits of my past


    - Emily Dickinson

    ReplyDelete
  30. Derelict2:02 PM

    And let me add that dick pics are never appropriate. Not even this kind of dick pic:

    ReplyDelete
  31. tigrismus2:03 PM

    It's by a woman! She tells of an experience alone in a train car with some bum jacking off, and since she survived the rest of us can just shut up about it and be flattered, I guess. I'm still not actually sure what her point was.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Derelict2:04 PM

    Needs moar Play-Do and bacon.

    ReplyDelete
  33. sharculese2:05 PM

    It's always nice to be reminded that the most important thing isn't to have a good argument, it's to piss us off. They really do care.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Derelict2:06 PM

    Wow. I can't even . . .

    ReplyDelete
  35. She tells of an experience alone in a train car with some bum jacking offShe's welcome to her sexual kinks, but she shouldn't presume that all other women share them.

    ReplyDelete
  36. tigrismus2:22 PM

    Strangely enough it doesn't sound like she found it flattering, either.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Everything these guys "know" about women is straight out of the pages of Penthouse.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Robert M.2:41 PM

    Somehow, our boy Milo managed to sit next to that hat and still be the most absurd thing on the soundstage.


    Personally, I would have changed my name and gone into a different line of business.

    ReplyDelete
  39. bekabot2:55 PM

    Carrie Nation Brings It Into Town, chapters 1, 2, and 3.


    Swingin' Lizzie Borden, still under development.

    ReplyDelete
  40. I think its "if one woman says she doesn't mind catcalls then catcallers are the real feminists."

    ReplyDelete
  41. HKatz3:15 PM

    It's the same people who are confused when they offer to buy drinks for one woman at a bar, and she accepts, and then they offer to buy drinks for another woman, and she refuses, and they say, "Women are so confusing! They send mixed messages!" Because they really haven't fully grasped that women are each individuals.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Its one of those fake totalizing arguments. First: they argue that women who don't want to see guys beat off in public are saying they are "traumatized for life by the view" and then they argue that those imaginary women are just "too sensitive" and need to "grow up." Look--there are a lot of things society tells people not to do in public. Defecating and masturbating are both such things. I'm not "traumatized for life" when I see someone doing those things in public but the fact is that society has decided that the public display of private behaviors is something that I don't have to put up with because some jerk gets off on doing it in public. Every assault doesn't have to be attempted murder to also be illegal.

    ReplyDelete
  43. KatWillow3:18 PM

    "At some level" the guy who bashed me on the head 3 or 4 times with a tire-iron just wanted to tell me he didn't like me!

    ReplyDelete
  44. HKatz3:20 PM

    "Don't any of these assholes have wives, girlfriends, daughters, sisters, mothers, or even female acquaintances?"


    There are misogynists who see female relatives or partners as extensions of themselves, and might not tolerate a slight against them. But against other women, it's ok...

    ReplyDelete
  45. There is some guy over at a blog I read who delights in "explaining" to women that men are biologically programmed to "spread their seed" far and wide. This has really begun to crack me up because I'm really certain that this guy would be lucky if he managed to have sex once, with any woman, voluntarily on her part and that if he's paying for it his seed isn't going very far. How many non generations of failed seed spreading before it dawns on these losers that a hard Darwinian perspective means that would be seed spreaders are going to simply die out for lack of reproductive success?

    ReplyDelete
  46. Christopher Hazell3:21 PM

    Christ.


    What's amazing is that Sisto already anticipated and rebutted all of Powell and Frankovich's arguments, but they still say the same dumb stuff.


    Crimeny, that's just awful.

    ReplyDelete
  47. HKatz3:24 PM

    And yet, elderly women still get raped and sexually abused (including in environments that are specifically designed for their care, such as nursing homes). And one of the hideous things they and their loved ones hear is that it's no way they might have been raped because they're too old.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Actually there was some discussion of this point in a thread over at We Hunted the Mammoth. Some of the commenters were remembering an interesting incident on Redditt when Redittors formed a "stolen and up skirt" nude picture reddit thread. One guy--one guy posted a picture of his own girlfriend, nude, and it was obvious that she had at least consented to the picture itself and the rest of the redditors got bent out of shape because the entire point of the reddit thread was that its only fun if the picture was stolen from the woman and you can imagine how angry and helpless she feels. If she appeared to have the slightest agency w/r/t her own body/nudity at the time of the photo itself the entire excercise was worthless and meaningless.

    ReplyDelete
  49. @goofoffartiste3:25 PM

    From the Yiannopoulos article: "There's even a theory floating around that she is planning to have herself beaten up at an upcoming conference.It's an unconfirmed internet rumour, but it illustrates Quinn's credibility"


    This must be some of that journalistic integrity they keep claiming this is all about.

    ReplyDelete
  50. @goofoffartiste3:27 PM

    The Portal games, if robots can be considered to have a gender.

    ReplyDelete
  51. It's all part of the conservative outgrope to women.
    ~

    ReplyDelete
  52. I'm upvoting just to show that I read this, not because I'm thumbsupping the amazing "illustrates Quinn's credibility." I feel you deserve something for being willing to harvest that mango.

    ReplyDelete
  53. KatWillow3:29 PM

    Those guys are very -ah- insecure. My daughter games online, and does a lot of other stuff, under a pseudonym, but when she visited a "hackers convention" and they realized she was .... a GIRL!!*&%%$@! God damm but they were nasty to her. Horrible, insulting and threatening.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Derelict3:31 PM

    And the gamers wonder why even Mary Palm won't date them.

    ReplyDelete
  55. mortimer20003:32 PM

    Dear Fapper Forum,

    This has never happened to me before or since, but there I was, on a train in France, when this girl about 18 or so begin staring at me. She was the only other person in the car, so, naturally I started jerking off while leering and grunting at her. And she didn't mind in the least! In fact, since I didn't cross the line into physical groping, intimidation, or assault, I'm pretty sure she found my fapping flattering. She was probably thinking Okay, I guess this tight skirt does look rather good on me. I could tell. Besides, I'm not just some gross selfish pig on a train. I went out of my way to give her an authentically unpleasant window into human nature, so, you know, she'd get something out of it. Who knows, maybe she'll write about this wonderful experience some day, and use it to defend disgusting assholes like me from normal people.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Derelict3:33 PM

    Or the corollary of that: Buys the woman one drink, then gets mad because that drink purchase doesn't automatically translate into sex.

    ReplyDelete
  57. KatWillow3:35 PM

    Well, I survived the head-bashing-with-a-tire-iron. Only a week in the hospital and some minor brain damage! So other wimmen should just shut up when some guy beats them to a pulp!

    ReplyDelete
  58. Derelict3:40 PM

    On a more serious note, I think some of these people--and especially Ms. Powell--need to meet and speak with women who have suffered abuse. That guy leering at you from across the bus aisle or the street may only be a pig. Or he may be a violent predator. After you've been groped, being "too sensitive" is a survival skill, not a political statement.

    ReplyDelete
  59. KatWillow3:40 PM

    Most women who are young or halfway attractive will at some point experience rude and occasionally frightening behavior from men. So what?


    I'll tell you what! I know older and elderly women, and "unattractive" (say, fat) women who've been catcalled and such by groups of men. The intent is to FRIGHTEN, and it works.
    THAT'S WHAT.

    ReplyDelete
  60. tigrismus3:42 PM

    Jesus. I'm glad you survived, though.

    ReplyDelete
  61. KatWillow3:46 PM

    Conservative Pay Masters really prefer to hire losers and morons as their mouthpieces. I guess they, like the Roman Emperors' in Days Of Your, they're afraid of, and have killed, all subordinates with intelligence and competence. This explains milo, Jonah Goldberg, ArgleBargle and many more.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Christopher Hazell3:47 PM

    Christ, what kills me is that Sisto did an excellent job of explaining why she thinks of catcalling as harassment and not flattery:

    “I think that most women who have been assaulted know this look,” one woman says, speaking about a “smirk” on the face of her abuser, “It’s ‘I’m getting off on you being uncomfortable.’” This is exactly why catcalling upsets me enough to write this piece. The practice is not about flattering a woman; it’s about power.



    A position she goes on to support with anecdotes from her own experience.


    If you are really trying to compliment somebody, you don't go out of your way to make them feel shitty; you respect their boundaries because that's part of what being nice to people is. If catcalling was complimentary, than the people doing it would back off and apologize if it offended the woman.


    I'm kind of just repeating what's in Sisto's article, but I'm really legitimately upset by those responses from her colleagues.

    ReplyDelete
  63. thimker33:48 PM

    Misread Churchill and thinks he's negotiated the price.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Derelict3:51 PM

    There's a joke in there about "hard Darwinism," but It's too soft a target.

    ReplyDelete
  65. KatWillow3:54 PM

    Or that Victorian publication "The Pearl".

    ReplyDelete
  66. ohsopolite3:54 PM

    And that's the "enlightened" wing of the movement...

    ReplyDelete
  67. Derelict3:54 PM

    You know you want a long, low whistle from this guy:

    ReplyDelete
  68. I know--I was trusting that the ever witty alicuratti would find it for me because I was too lazy.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Derelict3:56 PM

    I'm thinking Penthouse is too high-brow. Maybe something like Shaved Sluts Quarterly is more like it.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Derelict3:59 PM

    I think this ties in with their inability to understand the concept of consent. In their minds, no hospital stay means nothing bad really happened.

    ReplyDelete
  71. KatWillow3:59 PM

    Also, if a beautiful woman followed me down a dark alley and started ripping off my clothes, I'd be totally psyched, so what's your problem, bitch?


    What if it was a man or group of men following you down the alley, ripping at your clothes?

    ReplyDelete
  72. satch4:06 PM

    “Guys, I see attractive men all the time,” Christine Sisto remarks, “but
    I don’t feel an urge to loudly request to see their genitalia.”


    Maybe Christine should lower the bar a bit and start out with something less threatening... like:


    "HEY, BABY, show US YER MOOBS!!11!"

    ReplyDelete
  73. Bethany Spencer4:09 PM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5mLjKI968g

    ReplyDelete
  74. Derelict4:10 PM

    Finding an apartment in NYC with Lebensroy for under a million is tough. And now that the hipsters have consolidated their hold on Brooklyn, I guess Roy has no choice but to look to Queens.

    ReplyDelete
  75. satch4:12 PM

    Shorter Girl About 18 Or So:

    Ho, you Americainz... always with ze jokes..."

    ReplyDelete
  76. Molly Powell really should have serviced that derelict Frenchman on the train those many years ago. Then, when she is dying from throat cancer many years later she can glowingly reflect on her deepthroating - it might even "make her day"!


    Because it sure the fuck won't be reflecting on her critical thinking or writing skills that will provide any comfort.

    ReplyDelete
  77. Bethany Spencer4:15 PM

    I really DON'T want to live on this planet anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Pere Ubu4:15 PM

    Shows how up on video games I am.

    I'm not a Real Man! *sob*

    ReplyDelete
  79. Pere Ubu4:17 PM

    If I ask real nice, would someone send meteors to smash the posters on that reddit thread?

    ReplyDelete
  80. You sound as if you're aware of all internet traditions.

    ReplyDelete
  81. satch4:17 PM

    Apparently, to these abusers, being too weak and frail to fight back trumps being old and unattractive.

    ReplyDelete
  82. satch4:22 PM

    Y'know, though... in spite of everything, exit polling from the last cycle shows that the Pugs seem to have an advantage with the married white women demographic. Who can explain that one?

    ReplyDelete
  83. Pere Ubu4:40 PM

    Qveens ist historically part of Manhattan!

    ReplyDelete
  84. tigrismus4:42 PM

    Yes, and "I wouldn't fuck you" is the twin to "I want to fuck you." Either way, it's all about him as agent and her as object.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Yes, I feel that way when I read We Hunted the Mammoth, but then I think of Vacuumslayer and little Vacuumslayer and I remember that there are reasons to want to keep living--you should cheer up! How many people can say that about themselves?

    ReplyDelete
  86. Bizarro Mike4:51 PM

    "Ooh, baby, you waddle that gut so good. Mmmm..."

    ReplyDelete
  87. Derelict4:58 PM

    Maybe fear of a Barack planet?

    ReplyDelete
  88. smut clyde4:59 PM

    I don't mind the planet, it's the other occupants who are the problem.

    ReplyDelete
  89. I tried catcalling but a single time. It was when I was back on land after about 40 days at sea and in between setting and hauling and dressing and freezing I’d been reading snatches of, The Erudite Gentleman Calls on His Lady Friend, one of the more popular issues from Lonely Fisherman Publishing, Inc.

    Anyhow, there I was on one of the four corners of the only cross street in _________, BC, when a perfectly normal-looking forty-five year old woman walked towards me and I was overcome with awe at seeing a feminine form –how wonderful she smelled! – for the first time in ages, and so close! I swooned, if that’s the word for being so overcome with instant emotion that my head swam and my tongue dog-paddled. As she passed in front of me I realized I’d have but a single opportunity to impress her with my loquaciousness and without any forethought or intent or any brainwork at all, really, I uttered in a cheerful tone, “It looks like it’s going to blow.”

    She half-turned towards me as she sauntered past, and in a neutral voice said, “25-35 knots is what they’re calling for.” And she carried on, out of my life forever and eerily accurate about the weather as in less than an hour gale-force winds of 30 knots whipped up the harbour, pounding the shore like the dashed hopes of a lonely fisherman and his futile attempt at catcalling.

    Such is the life of a man who chooses to work at sea.



    (The author notes this is a shameless repost after first being hauled from the briny at a different port on a different tide.)

    ReplyDelete
  90. Oh my god I took the test--I thought for sure I'd come out Moominmamma but they had me pegged as Too Ticky. At least I wasn't a Fillyjonk.

    ReplyDelete
  91. Derelict5:04 PM

    Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.

    Melville knew your pain.

    ReplyDelete
  92. Derelict5:06 PM

    it illustrates Quinn's credibility

    It illustrates credibility, but not Quinn's. It also illustrates gullibility--and, again, not on the part of Quinn.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Derelict5:08 PM

    According to Powell, the old ladies getting raped in the nursing home should feel flattered that anyone still feels sexual urges toward them. Yes, flattered to be battered.

    ReplyDelete
  94. smut clyde5:12 PM

    DOUBLE FACE-PALM.

    http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/zoebrigley/2005/12/30/lonesome_city_dweller_by_herbert_bayer.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  95. Derelict5:12 PM

    I got Too Ticky, too. Hmph!

    ReplyDelete
  96. smut clyde5:18 PM

    Apparently I am Sniff. What, was Hemulin not an option?

    ReplyDelete
  97. gocart mozart5:49 PM

    Who's Mary Palm? Is she Rosie's sister?

    ReplyDelete
  98. gocart mozart5:51 PM

    That was central to his point.

    ReplyDelete
  99. Someone should explain to them "outreach" doesn't mean trying to cop a feel.

    ReplyDelete
  100. with Cinematics?!

    ReplyDelete
  101. I'll be feeling merry with me Mary takin care o me….

    ReplyDelete
  102. Derelict6:18 PM

    Not acceptable, either.

    ReplyDelete
  103. glennisw6:20 PM

    "When you are fat and gray-haired and have three chins and cankles, I wager that no one you will catcall you."
    Yes, looking forward to that.

    ReplyDelete
  104. glennisw6:21 PM

    Yeah, but at least they don't get whistled at on the street.

    ReplyDelete
  105. I think they understand consent, or lack of it, on a primitive level at least--cat-calling is an assault on the personhood of a perceived lessor. It's an apish attempt to assert dominance through intimidation, usually in a cowardly manner from the safety of the troupe.


    …And there is always the fantasy that the victim might actually like it, right?

    ReplyDelete
  106. The corollary to this is the reappropriation of the word nigger by African Americans--that word is supposed to only be used by White Men in a derogatory manner; it is a sign of uppityness for blacks to use it themselves.


    Again, it is about dominance and submission.

    ReplyDelete
  107. I think that if Quinn suffers any "accidents" the police should go directly to Yiannopoulos as having suspiciously attempted to discredit the victim prior to his assault.

    ReplyDelete
  108. I'd have put you down for Hemulin, given your propensity for collecting images, but Sniff? That's just weird. I'd have you pegged more as a Snufkin, myself.

    ReplyDelete
  109. Meanwhile these are the same people who freak the fuck out when two people of the same gender engage in consensual adult-type activities such as sex in the privacy of their own homes, or buying a marriage license.

    But since the whole point of the exercise is to tell as many people as possible that they suck for daring to have opinions, this is a bonus.

    ReplyDelete
  110. ohsopolite7:02 PM

    For the sake of your olfactory organs, you hope it's a whistle.

    ReplyDelete
  111. What makes a person attractive to someone in search of consensual sex and someone looking for a rape victim are two very different things. Unable to fight back (or unable to communicate or even comatose) is attractive.

    ReplyDelete
  112. There is some guy over at a blog I read who delights in "explaining" to
    women that men are biologically programmed to "spread their seed" far
    and wide.

    Whatever dud, just don't whine when it is time to pay child support.

    ReplyDelete
  113. tigrismus8:10 PM

    That's a really interesting question, as it seems many of these same "women should be flattered" types have no problem with the thought of a guy beating up(or worse) a gay guy who was hitting on him.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Megalon8:19 PM

    Stuff like this is why I will never call myself a gamer. I've got some self respect at least.

    ReplyDelete
  115. Megalon8:31 PM

    Hey, they're Just Asking Questions, man.

    ReplyDelete
  116. StringOnAStick8:43 PM

    As a married white woman, there is no way in hell I can explain that one; I was shocked when I read that last election cycle. WTF; Rmoney? Seriously?

    ReplyDelete
  117. StringOnAStick8:53 PM

    Ah yes, homophobic guys fear that some guy is looking at them in the exact same power-destroying, piece-of-fuckable-meat manner as they themselves look at women. That shit can NOT be allowed to stand!

    ReplyDelete
  118. If you want to imagine the future of conservative outreach to women, picture a human hand coping a feel, forever.

    ReplyDelete
  119. davdoodles9:24 PM

    As usual, something from Monty Python seems apposite:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kwh3R0YjuQ

    ReplyDelete
  120. Yes, my own thought when I read this stuff is that lovely, sardonic, expression "Chance would be a fine thing."

    ReplyDelete
  121. Must be jelly 'cause jam don't shake like that.

    ReplyDelete
  122. Just repeat over and over to yourself "Southern white women, southern white women, southern white women."

    ReplyDelete
  123. You seem new around here and yet you have perfectly matched our style! Kudos!

    ReplyDelete
  124. I love you for this.

    ReplyDelete
  125. Socialist Cubone9:40 PM

    It's probably worth noting that the source for this theory is one really long post on 4chan that was probably a joke but got reposted on reddit in earnest.

    ReplyDelete
  126. Socialist Cubone9:40 PM

    It's probably worth noting that the source for this theory is one really long post on 4chan that was probably a joke but got reposted on reddit in earnest.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Yes--tigrismus's point is right on. Not only that but given that "hate fuck" and rape are both forms of power the assertion "I wouldn't fuck you"is always a threat--it is not some kind of bizarre random evaluation its an agressive act meant to remind the woman that she is vulnerable to judgement and attack.

    ReplyDelete
  128. realinterrobang10:03 PM

    That reminds me of watching this documentary last night about the McCarthy witch-hunts, and seeing Joe McCarthy's "response" to Edward R. Murrow's famous See It Now program, in which McCarthy intimated that Murrow must be a Communist because a socialist-leaning newspaper had nominated his program for their "What to Watch" pick of the week.


    Same shit, 21 900 different days, I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  129. realinterrobang10:09 PM

    We're all used to feeling a niggling suspicion that 'death threats' sent to female agitators aren't all they're cracked up to be

    'Cause it's not like there's easily-Googleable screenshots of some psychopath on Twitter threatening to rape Sarkeesian to death with a tire iron out there, and posting her address. Bitchez just be lying allatime, amirite?

    ReplyDelete
  130. TGuerrant10:37 PM

    Turns out I am a Snufkin.

    ReplyDelete
  131. AGoodQuestion10:37 PM

    Male brains and female brains are different. I say this not to justify the behavior but to try to explain it.


    I tend to think the neologism "mansplaining" is overused, but lest we think there's no such thing here we have Frankovich actually setting out to provide an example. A few seconds later he says something about the 1 percent that could probably bear to be explained but isn't.

    ReplyDelete
  132. AGoodQuestion10:40 PM

    Grand Theft Voter? Isn't that the game where tattooed street thugs subvert the democratic process by casting illegitimate votes? Or am I thinking of WND's election coverage?

    ReplyDelete
  133. I guess they think they don't need the votes so badly that they'll give up being jerks to get them.



    Its not that so much as that, like the Scorpion in the famous story, "its in their nature" to keep acting like assholes. They make a resolution at the start of every election season that they will pretend to be gentlemen, pretend to care, pretend not to be racist, pretend to be inclusive--pretend just to have ordinary human impulses and then they just say "fuck it! I gotta be me!" and then they start rolling on the floor, foaming at the mouth, howling imprecations and insults at women, blacks, and everyone else. Because they like it like that. They lack impulse control and they have an infantile need to masturbate in public and they can maintain the facade only so long.


    I think I've mentioned before that I'm rewatching the Sopranos and Gandolfini was a master at representing the rudimentary thought processes his character went through before finally just giving in to whatever evil impluse he wanted to act on. There was always a moment--right before the rage/sex/selfish/mean act where you could see a tiny glimmer of self wareness which would then be thrown away so the inner monster could rage out of control.


    You know that line--men don't rape because they can't get the kind of sex they like, rape is the kind of sex they like? Its the same thing here. Republicans don't behave like boorish assholes because they can't get the kinds of votes they'd like to get from normal people--the votes of boorish assholes are the only kind of votes they really want.

    ReplyDelete
  134. I can think of plenty of overused idioms and tropes on the internet but mansplaining isn't one of them. I've actually never seen it overused--that isn't to say that someone else hasn't seen something I haven't seen but actually to my mind its more like it is such a staggeringly widespread phenomenon that finally being able to name it is incredibly liberating.

    ReplyDelete
  135. AGoodQuestion10:50 PM

    My takeaway from that passage is that Molly Powell is so lacking in empathy that she doesn't even know or care what her own experiences feel like, or at least not once they're projected out of her skin.

    ReplyDelete
  136. That is so cool. Snufkin is definitely the Oz of Moominvalley, if I may make a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference.

    ReplyDelete
  137. tigrismus10:53 PM

    Moominmamma is the same answer set as Too-Tickey except for one, sub "Arts and Crafts" for "Making Things."

    Choosing "Collecting Things" gets Hemulin.

    ReplyDelete
  138. AGoodQuestion11:02 PM

    This. Even in an ideal world, a total stranger walking up to you and saying whether they would or wouldn't fuck you would be an "another country heard from" irrelevancy. In the world as it is, it's a violation of psychic space and sometimes physical as well.

    ReplyDelete
  139. AGoodQuestion11:07 PM

    Please, don't leave us with one less you when there are so many of them.

    ReplyDelete
  140. Derelict11:18 PM

    Nah. You're thinking of Grand Theft Voter: Black Man Rising. I was referring to the earliest version--Grand Theft Voter: Suffragettes.

    ReplyDelete
  141. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:19 PM

    Sort of like "I'm not an SF fan, I just read the stuff", which has been my line just about forever.

    ReplyDelete
  142. Derelict11:37 PM

    I mean, is there any divergence in the Venn diagram at all?

    Woman who has sex but is not married = slut.

    Woman who won't have sex with conservative male = slut

    Woman who objects to being objectified = slut

    There's your overlap.

    ReplyDelete
  143. Technically, it's a wonderful planet, but it has been spoiled by the "world" the other occupants have superimposed on it.

    ReplyDelete
  144. AGoodQuestion11:39 PM

    I think there are times when it's used as a synonym for "saying something I disagree with" or as a tag for plain ol' expository writing. But it also is a real thing, and fairly widespread so... a little from column A and a little from column B.

    ReplyDelete
  145. Derelict11:42 PM

    "Can you draw this bad analogy? Then a career as a conservative pundit awaits you!"

    ReplyDelete
  146. Married Xian white wimmen nation-wide.

    ReplyDelete
  147. Derelict11:46 PM

    They lack impulse control and they have an infantile need to masturbate in public . . .

    No wonder Powell wasn't freaked by the guy jerking off on the Metro--she probably recognized him from some RNC event.

    ReplyDelete
  148. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:48 PM

    They're not calling it Hustler anymore?

    ReplyDelete
  149. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:52 PM

    Only way I'd ever live in NYC is if I could have Kinky Freidman's or Timothy Cohn's loft.
    Though what I really lust after is Rutger Hauer's loft in Wanted, Dead or Alive...

    ReplyDelete
  150. Wrnagler12:45 AM

    I have to say, my head is spinning and I think I am proud of that, because that seems like a normal reaction to another human disgracing themselves by intentionally wallowing in depravity.

    ReplyDelete
  151. Wrangler12:51 AM

    I think he stole Charles Cooke's outfit, which itself was stolen from a Pi Kappa Alpha pledge at UVA.

    ReplyDelete
  152. sigyn1:44 AM

    OH sure, it's just an unconfirmed internet rumor that someone pulled out of their ass, but since it's 'out there' we have to keep spreading it.


    And what does it say about Quinn's credibility, that someone could have that festering inside of them?


    (this metaphor is making me queasy).

    ReplyDelete
  153. JennOfArk1:56 AM

    Sorry, my twitter alter ego must appropriate this.

    ReplyDelete
  154. JennOfArk2:01 AM

    I spit on a guy for beating off in front of me in an Italian park when I was a young thing. What pissed me off wasn't just that he was beating off, it was that he spoke to me to get my attention so I would see he was whacking it. And since he was Italian and I didn't know how to tell him what I thought of him in Italian, I spit on him instead. I think he got my point.

    ReplyDelete
  155. smut clyde2:09 AM

    You know how to whistle, don't you, Jonah?

    ReplyDelete
  156. smut clyde2:13 AM

    Male brains and female brains are different.
    The ones I've seen, Ttey all look the same.

    ReplyDelete
  157. Too bad you didn't know how to say, "Che cazzino piccolo!" That would have shamed him.

    ReplyDelete
  158. sigyn2:29 AM

    I'm picturing him getting all offended and stalking off in a huff.

    ReplyDelete
  159. Glock H. Palin, Esq.3:15 AM

    In bed.

    ...am I doing it right?

    ReplyDelete
  160. Glock H. Palin, Esq.5:11 AM

    At some level the most despicable acts can be rephrased as unobjectionable, assuming you have absolutely no interest in making language conform to reality.

    ReplyDelete
  161. What's the difference? (AFAF)

    ReplyDelete
  162. The GrOPe is The Dirty Vicar

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s9SYX7TSJ0

    ReplyDelete
  163. Yeah but southern and white and christian have a major overlap. Northern white and christian even is not as monolithically racist.

    ReplyDelete
  164. Squarely Rooted7:20 AM

    "Hot Air's Jazz Shaw said 'an opinion like this coming from a woman – particularly the insinuation that women might bear some 'responsibility' for the responses of men – produced the predictable head spinning on the Left,'"


    This is basically why the conservative commentariat loves tokenism - because they imagine that "the Left" is so psychologically fragile that every time they are faced with someone who is not a rich white Christian male dittoing right-wing talking points that this will shatter the very foundations of leftist thought. Something like:


    "I used to think society had an obligation to the least among us, but after I saw Ben Carson decry Obamacare I now care deeply about Benghazi."

    ReplyDelete
  165. In the next National Review: A black man agrees with us about progressive taxation, so conservatives can never be called racist again.

    ReplyDelete
  166. It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

    ReplyDelete
  167. That, like "June Brides Will Wear White" is a perennial favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  168. I really like the new concept of "threat hysteria." Its the greatest threat level of all. There's Code Red, there's DefCon 1, and there's "threat hysteria" which is when women report death and rape threats.

    ReplyDelete
  169. Yeah or "can't get a woman? Poor thing."

    ReplyDelete
  170. I've never seen it used for "something I disagree with" and I think that's a bit of a misunderstanding of the context within which it is usually said. Because in my experience it is usually said within a generalized situation of disrespect for the arguments that have already been advanced by women or by a particular woman. So you are already not in a situation in which your counter arguments are taken seriously or even heard at all. You aren't being disagreed with you are being condescended to, lectured, and ignored. You can't oppose that kind of unreasoning discussion with sweet reason or say "I disagree for the fifteenth time because of my background, experience, education, or these particular arguments." All you can do is note that the person you are being talked down to is choosing to elect themselves the authority in the discussion.

    ReplyDelete
  171. That's really very Too Ticky of you, not at all Snufkin who would pretty much walk away from the problem.

    ReplyDelete
  172. satch8:33 AM

    No, Thomas Sowell doesn't count...

    ReplyDelete
  173. satch8:36 AM

    As in:

    "Cokie Roberts may not actually believe this, but it's just the kind of thing she WOULD believe." And pass on as "news".

    ReplyDelete
  174. tigrismus8:45 AM

    Using "hysteria" is an extra classy touch.

    ReplyDelete
  175. tigrismus8:58 AM

    Yeesh. But publicizing it or complaining about it is "hysteria" and over-reaction. And yet the beginning of this same article, he calls writing articles about harassment of women in tech terrorism.

    ReplyDelete
  176. Special Feature: LIBERAL WITCH HUNT!! Mainstream media attacks conservatives by noting the man who shot up a busload of nuns and orphans had Don't Tread on Me tattoo, car loaded with books by various Right Wing celebs, Impeach Obummer bumpersticker, subscribed to PalinTV...

    ReplyDelete
  177. billcinsd9:35 AM

    I hear the next is set to be Grand Theft Voter: Sister's Are Doin' It For Themselves

    ReplyDelete
  178. glennisw10:03 AM

    I just recently re-read Rebecca Solnit's essay about this, "Men Explain Things to Me." - it's always worth another look to remind us.

    ReplyDelete
  179. --Ralph Nader to George W. Bush, June 27, 2000

    ReplyDelete
  180. Clifford Beall10:17 AM

    Anonymous internet commenters are unimpeachable sources.

    ReplyDelete
  181. "No," she said.

    ReplyDelete
  182. "Southern white women, southern white women, southern white women."


    Yup. Ken Cuccinelli is a monstrous, theocratic misogynist pig, and in the Virginia gubernatorial election, he won a majority of the vote of married women. Presumably they don't need their rights any more, and they'd never be in the situation mandating medically-unnecessary violation with an ultrasound probe. Or something.

    ReplyDelete
  183. On the other hand, there are the brains you save for dissection, and the brains for hall hockey. And those categories end up looking spectacularly different.

    ReplyDelete
  184. I had a loud, in appropriate, discussion of that topic--I may be the first person to have bellowed "vaginal ultrasound" in that nice suburban restaurant with my right wing, christian, sister-in-law. What middle of the roader Republicans hear and what is out there are two different things. She and her husband, my husband's brother, just don't listen to the same things I do, they don't read the same news, and things which make them uncomfortable or what they think of as "weird" or "silly" that are, in fact, basic parts of the republican platform they just ignore. My SIL is a northern white christian woman (I know, I know, these things happen in the best regulated of families) and her instincts and beliefs are terrible but what she doesn't know about her own party and reality would fill a book.

    ReplyDelete
  185. StringOnAStick11:24 AM

    Much to the undying shame and disgust of my Bircher parents, I was basically a liberal the moment I exited the womb, but I think what really stiffened my resolve was the sexist, misogynistic BS I was subjected to in my first career as a geologist; funny how it always came from people you knew were of the rethug persuasion. The fact that I never felt worried that I was about to be raped and killed by a gawdless liberal, but more than a few times by the god n' guns types sorta stuck in my mind....

    ReplyDelete
  186. You have a moral responsibility to name the owner(s) of that hand, and if you don't then:
    a) you're culpable for having boobies, and/or
    b) it probably never happened

    ReplyDelete
  187. smut clyde2:14 PM

    given your propensity for collecting images
    I do not "collect" images; I just have this old-fashioned thing called a "memory".

    ReplyDelete
  188. ohsopolite2:31 PM

    Longtime lurker, infrequent poster, first time caller.

    ReplyDelete
  189. JennOfArk3:29 PM

    He's the UK's Dan Blatt, aka "England's Dumbest Homosexual."


    h/t Tintin

    ReplyDelete
  190. bekabot3:47 PM

    Then washing itself compulsively in an everlasting aftermath.

    ReplyDelete
  191. Lourde Humongas4:06 PM

    A central tenet of the Feminist religion seems to be catcalls are all as bad as rape. If you dare to suggest that some catcalls are innocuous and that some women enjoy them - you offend a religious belief and are probably banned under some Terms of Service nonsense.

    ReplyDelete
  192. satch6:32 PM

    Let me know the next time you're there so I can book a table.

    ReplyDelete
  193. TGuerrant7:17 PM

    Even Snufkins have sisters.

    ReplyDelete
  194. Tehanu10:44 PM

    "But once she's an old hag no one will want to give it to her."
    Which of course explains why there are 80-year-old rape victims.

    ReplyDelete
  195. Tehanu10:48 PM

    To the dismay of some on the left!

    ReplyDelete
  196. billcinsd11:09 PM

    for him, it's put your cheeks together and fart

    ReplyDelete
  197. Duncan11:34 PM

    Decent women aren't supposed to enjoy catcalls, in the traditionalist Christian mindset -- you know, the one that objects to same-sex marriage, to premarital heterosexual copulation, and what they often call some version of 'porn culture'; which reminds me of how the Christian Right made common cause with Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon and worked with them to pass anti-pornography laws. So pardon me, I'm a gay leftist atheist, and I can't presume to know what is going in the minds of traditionalist and nominally heterosexual Christians, but I'm seeing some cognitive dissonance here. Even "innocuous" catcalls are a violation of female purity, an insult to everyone's mother and especially to the Mother of God. Would you catcall the Blessed Virgin?

    ReplyDelete
  198. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:59 PM

    "...in ze pants!"

    ReplyDelete
  199. SPQR783:00 AM

    The freedom lovers of the right are only concerned about about a few rights for a few people. Oppression only counts if it happens to them.

    ReplyDelete