"As we close out 2017, let’s take some time to reflect on lessons learned over the past 12 months. In an act of no holds barred brutal honesty, this year completely obliterated the myth of the male feminist. Though these men claim to be champions of women’s rights, we’ve seen time and time again how they are nothing but wolves in sheep’s clothing.
In the last several months, Harvey Weinstein, Joss Whedon, Louis C.K., Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose have all fallen into this camp. In the case of writer Michael Hafford, who has been accused of physically assaulting four women, he went as far as authoring a column for Vice’s women-focused site, Broadly, in 2015 titled “Male Feminist Here,” parodying the deceitfulness of this very group of men. [Editor’s Note: Hafford is a former contributor to Playboy.com; the company was unaware of the allegations made against this individual during the brief time he contributed to the website.]
From an evolutionary perspective, the approach has been described by the late evolutionary biologist John Maynard Smith as the “sneaky fuckers” strategy, referring to the way in which subordinate males manage to accomplish mating with females—which they otherwise might not get to do—by taking advantage of instances in which dominant (and more appealing) males are preoccupied, fighting off intruders.
This has been observed across multiple species in the animal kingdom and in humans, it takes the form of feminist men.
These men know by rote all of the right things to say in order to gain a woman’s trust. They pride themselves on being sensitive, socially conscious “allies,” calling out “male privilege” and “problematic behavior” by the “patriarchy.” They will subvert any hint of their masculinity...
I’ve encountered a healthy number of male feminists in my day and they never fail to disappoint when it comes to posturing. Many proudly declare how much they admire “strong women” and will be sure to randomly insert inspirational yet irrelevant quotes into everyday conversation, like “Well-behaved women seldom make history,” or name Judith Butler as one of their favorite authors. (Yes, these men actually exist.) In doing so, they’re attempting to atone for the atrocious behavior of other men when really, they are engaging in their own special form of projection.
A research paper published in Motivation and Emotion earlier this year suggests that virtue-signaling—commonly seen in men apologizing for the behavior of other men—is a reflection of a person’s own moral failings. Voicing outrage at unethical behavior is a way for people to alleviate guilt, essentially through overcompensation...
When it comes to the hot topic of gender in particular, they know that
men and women are different, but they will proclaim otherwise, saying
nonsensical things like there are no differences between the sexes or
that differences are socially constructed, because doing so will win
them points and secure them sexual partners.
But pretending these
differences don’t exist only leads to a wider chasm between the sexes.
In a dating context, it hampers our ability to understand one another
and form any genuine or meaningful connection.
So, going back to the intersectional feminist dating checklist, I
guarantee any guy who touts the “right answer” to each of these bizarre,
social justice-related questions will reveal himself in time to be
hideously deceptive.
Thankfully, it seems women, including female
feminists, have become wary of these red flags. They even inspired their
own SNL skit last year, wherein a bunch of “male feminists” approach a
woman in a bar only to call her “bitch” when she rejects them.
Women deserve equality and to be treated no differently from men, and
there are plenty of decent men out there who agree with me. The
difference is these men don’t feel the need to run around waving a giant
banner notifying everyone of this (or wearing a pink pussy hat, the
national emblem of the Woman’s March on Washington in January).
To have
healthy and successful relationships, the solution isn’t mindlessly
telling women what they want to hear, nor setting impossible
expectations on men based on a biased worldview.
For those who have bought into the unfortunate narrative that women are
an oppressed class in need of special treatment in order to level the
playing field, I will say that helping and supporting women because they
are women is patronizing.
There is nothing a male feminist loves more
than educating women on how oppressed we really are."
No comments:
Post a Comment