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Permalink Reply by Russell Yount on May 1, 2012 at 5:40pm

Excellent article.  Radical feminism has done horrendous damage not only to men, but to all of humanity.  It's time for men everywhere to stand up in defense of masculinity.

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Permalink Reply by Rebekah on May 1, 2012 at 5:43pm

Maybe I need to read the book, but I found all that anecdotal. Particularly:

"The major reason young males are not matriculating is a campus atmosphere that is unwelcoming....The reason is very clear. It is voiced by young men who enroll but may leave after several semesters: We do not feel welcomed."

What does "welcoming" mean? I remember one prospective male student to my college being feted with trips to the beach and free drinks and songs. I don't remember anything like that for young women. [No, he was not a varsity football recruit. We had no intercollegiate sports.]

"Administrators, who are now for the most part women, are not interested in how active young men are in college life, with the exception of athletics. Lack of engagement of men in on-campus activities and organizations was one of the first signs of young men being turned off by college life."

I also don't understand this. Yes, a lot of schools have "women's centers" but no "men's centers," but that's one activity out of many. Though headed by an athletic family man faculty member, the men all dropped out of my college's Latin club. Though it was mostly men attending the Protestant Bible study (Catholic college), I was the one getting reminders and meeting space. I think there was a similar "division of labor" for the Catholic service groups.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Michael on May 1, 2012 at 6:45pm

Yay! A woman's perspective.

Do you think feminism is destroying society?

That there is a secret conspiracy by radical women to infiltrate society through academia?

I don't understand this paranoid, knee-jerk reaction. Everytime the decline of masculinity comes up someone blames it on women. Radical femminazis who's most famous writings recieve luke warm reception from the mainstream media because they often fail to show real correlation. I know that there are women out there that think male homosexuality counts as misogyny, but no one takes them seriously.

It's happening everywhere. These social terrorists, female radical extremist, are destroying our way of life. Just like atheism. Gay marriage. PC language. Television, movies, and video games. Yet, I've never met any man who was destroyed by feminism. I have met men a few men with no back bone, but I don't think they are a casualty of feminism just low self esteem.

I read an article about the feminist backlash and it made me chuckle. I guess I can't ask you if this is what men want, but is this what women want?

In recent years, men have been trained like circus seals to be inoffensive to women, and no longer know how to entice them and turn them on.

But women secretly long for a man with swagger, who is cocky and selfassured and has the cheek to stand up them and make fun of their feminine foibles.

They long for the rakish charm of a man who knows there's a whole ocean of fish out there, who isn't afraid of being himself in case he is rejected.

The truth is, a real man doesn't care what any woman thinks of him. He doesn't care what anyone thinks of him: he answers solely to his spirit.

Real men don't pretend or even try to understand women. They simply love them for being the mysterious, capricious creatures that they are. And they don't take them too seriously, either. They know the vicissitudes of the female mind, its constant insecurities and the fluctuations in mood.

Rather than pander to them, they simply watch them drift by like so many clouds on the horizon. They don't get entangled in a woman's feelings and listen to her prattling on and on until she's talked herself out. Such strong and stoic men are exactly what women need to anchor themselves amid the chaos of their emotions.

Sometimes my wife bemoans my detachment and laissez-faire attitude to our marriage and wishes I were more wrapped up in her. I tell her she would soon get bored of it, because men who put women on a pedestal can't make love to them in the way that women want.

The female orgasm is the natural mechanism by which men assert dominion over women: a man who appreciates this can negotiate whatever difficulties arise in his relationships with them.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-398998/How-feminism-destr...

Emphasis mine. That is actually kind of shitty. So either this is what want men really want or we can agree that this guy is dumb and doesn't speak on behalf of all men and should be ignored. If he doesn't, then can't we agree the same about the small group of radical feminists that exist?

What's weird is that I actually have a lot of the same views he has, haha.

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Permalink Reply by Rebekah on May 1, 2012 at 7:08pm

I think "together and equal" is a good approach while science works out some remaining physiological questions. Maybe after more investigation of brain chemistry and endocrinology, we'll create a society where men and women are - well, not "separate but equal" but "different but equal" in academia and the professions and the like.

I think it is clear that 1) in all ways that matter, saying that men are more intelligent or emotionally stable than women is as false as saying that whites are more intelligent or rational than blacks. 2) Unlike men's health, women's health is an endocrinological cycle. 3) There is no effective, socially acceptable way for women to express anger.

We are still learning about difference in men's and women's brains that likely affects how they think. We are still learning about how endocrinological cycles (in men and women) affect human activity formerly thought to all be in the mind and will. We are still building a society where men can use formerly "feminine" modes of expression and communicate effectively (I'm thinking understatement, not "theatrical movements.") and women can use formerly "masculine" modes of expression and be taken seriously (Like raising the voice in anger).

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Michael on May 1, 2012 at 8:15pm

I can't say how effective it is but society finds it acceptable for women to paint their feelings, haha.

Do you and women you know feel like victims or that you are oppressed? Do you and women you know identify with or up hold radical feminist ideals?

I don't mean to sound like I am interrogating, I am genuinely interested in your response.

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Permalink Reply by Rebekah on May 1, 2012 at 8:31pm

Some feelings, and in some situations. I think I can express confusion at work, for example, without professional repercussions, where a man might be told to "shape up." But if I'm happy because I just got engaged, I'm silly and sentimental, while a male associate gets profound congratulations.

I do not feel like a victim nor oppressed. I think I do have challenges in my public life (so, work, commerce, etc.) that are different from men's challenges. My work wardrobe is less expensive than the men's equivalent, but I can't stay at the cheapest motels alone on business out of safety concerns, for example.

I don't know any radical feminists, no.

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Permalink Reply by Rebekah on May 1, 2012 at 7:51pm

I think he's being ironic, but he can speak for himself.

I also think the article, or its expert prof, implied that some aspect of feminism is harming young men who would otherwise pursue and complete college education.

I work in a "male dominated" profession, and the challenge for me is to find ways to communicate professionally that are feminine, because communicating like a man just won't work. The anger example is very real. A man can raise his voice and pound the table to effectively express anger. A woman doing the same just comes across as silly.

But I'm sure there are challenges for men in women-dominated professions or workplaces. One I've read about is that entry-level men are presumed to be the boss, and are put in the tricky position of preserving both respect for themselves and their boss when directing, say, a new client to the woman boss.

So I can kind of see how education could be "male-hostile" like law is "female-hostile," but I don't consider my profession truly hostile.

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Permalink Reply by Rebekah on May 1, 2012 at 8:41pm

I didn't say professional. I said effective. I don't think it's professional, but I know it's effective.

I suppose my universal isn't true, but it is still very hard for a woman to learn to express anger. I've tried every way I know to express anger with my fiance, and he says none actually draw his attention to my problem. I've watched it in other women lawyers, and they, too, generally just come across as shrill or whiny.

It comes back to what I said about endocrinology. Men can use their size to release hormones in their interlocutors, and those hormones change the other person's thinking. Women can use their physiology to release different hormones - speaking softly and smiling to calm someone down, for example. In some situations, one skill is helpful; in others, the other.

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Permalink Reply by Rebekah on May 1, 2012 at 9:24pm

As I admitted, it can be learned. I think it still requires some kind of moral high ground, though. That moral high ground can be real, or it can be expressed in the woman's tone. That latter, necessary for the best art of advocacy, is really hard to learn.

Be careful, too, that we're not adopting Victorian attitudes about women being naturally morally superior. I think that's an area where I have an advantage. It's really easy for people to trust me, just based on my appearance.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Michael on May 1, 2012 at 8:10pm

Russell Yount

Excellent article.  Radical feminism has done horrendous damage not only to men, but to all of humanity.  It's time for men everywhere to stand up in defense of masculinity.

Not the first sentiment I've seen about this.

If they have no influence and aren't doing damage, then why ever evoke them? I think race is still an issue but I don't pick out a small group of people with no inluence like neo nazis and elevate them to being a "problem".

I think that you exagerate the problem and I think that you are wrong. However, I respect your opinion but I can't understand it without real proof.

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Permalink Reply by Vytautas on May 2, 2012 at 7:49am

Brandon... an awesome and very funny response. Thanks!

I particularly like the part that "women secretly long for a man with swagger...They long for the rakish charm of a man". Obviously this is a perverse male attitude projected onto women: no, no, women want to be treated like shit, therefore overbearing male idiocy is acceptable and good. The paper should be called The Daily Fail. Amirite?

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Permalink Reply by Steam Engine on May 1, 2012 at 7:42pm

I agree that the declining rate of male students is an issue that needs to be addressed, and that quite often "gender studies" is often skewed toward the feminine, but aside from that this article seems to offer very little of substance.

As a male college student in his early 20's, I guess I've just missed out on the vast cultural castration that's been perpetrated against me.

On a somewhat related note, the female author is named Jedediah...weird.

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