Quickies

Quickies: Teenage Nostalgia, Sexism is Great?, and Domestic Violence

  • Neural Nostalgia – “Why do we love the music we heard as teenagers?” It’s true–I’m definitely more into the music of my teenagehood now than I was when I was a teenager.
  • What If Sexism Is Actually Great? – “We were wrong about street sexual harassment. It is not, as we have written, man’s sad, nonspecific attempt to assert his dominance, show off for his bros, or get us to look up from our phones. According to New York Post writer Doree Lewak, a catcall is a compliment: a due appraisal of her physical worth, and a rare opportunity to hear a man’s opinion. Lewak explains: ‘It’s not brain science — when a total stranger notices you, it’s validating.’ But especially a male stranger.” Ha!
  • Texas abortion advocates: “We refuse to deny the existence and humanity of trans people” – “The pro-choice group Fund Texas Women is changing its name to represent all people who deserve reproductive justice.”
  • Till Death Do Us Part – “More than 300 women were stabbed, strangled, beaten, bludgeoned or burned to death over the past decade by men in South Carolina, dying at a rate of one every 12 days while the state does little to stem the carnage from domestic abuse.” This is an extensive article, and it’s hard to read, but if you can, you should check it out. (Auto-loading video at the link.) From Rebecca.

Lastly… Live Coverage: The Crisis In Ferguson

Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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3 Comments

  1. It’s hard to tell for sure but I think the Doree Lewak article is satire, not very good satire, but an attempt anyway. She tends to write about celebrity gossip but her most recent article is a fairly sympathetic look at a young man who exposed the hazing rituals at his frat. Yeah, poorly written satire is my guess.

    1. If it is satire (which I give it about 60-40 odds), it is very poor satire, since all the MRAs in the comments take it as validation, and there is no subtlety in the article itself that someone can point to and say “if you take it that way, you’re admitting that you are a sexist, insensitive, bullying asshole.” Even if she spends the next 20 years saying “No, guys, I was being sarcastic”, they’ll still be citing her as proof that all women love being harassed.

      Poe’s law says that really good parody is indistinguishable from the thing being parodied. Really bad parody is also indistinguishable, mostly because bad writing makes in impossible to discern the writer’s intent.

    2. I genuinely couldn’t tell if it was satire or not. Lines like “I realize most women with healthy self-confidence don’t court unwanted male attention. In fact, most women seem to hate it.”, “I can be that objectified sex thing for them!” and “I imagine […] when the Israelites were building the pyramids, with scores of single Jewish women hiking up their loincloths, hoping for a little attention.” suggest it is. But it’s just not cutting enough for satire.

      Still, even if it’s not satire I didn’t find it particularly offensive. She never says catcalls are okay, or that other women should take them as a compliments; she very carefully and continuously points out that its something she, personally, enjoys. Sure, it may validate MRA idiots who can’t tell the difference between ‘I like this’ and ‘women do/should like this’, but there were a lost cause anyway.

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