Saturday, May 19, 2007

Feminist And Guilty Part One: Male Feminists

I've always had truck with mere idea of male feminists. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I find the concept oddly intriguing, and the reality of it is no where near as the facade they would don. It is like the evangelist that plays the role of the epitome of a great Christian, while living a life of deception on the side and rationalizing any discrepancies.

For one, I'm puzzled at the their incessant agreement with their female counterparts that male privilege exists despite the overwhelming evidence that men simply, on average, don't have it as good as modern day women. Many will point out how women have been oppressed for thousands of years (or whatever amount of time it supposedly is) and almost completely ignore the pitfalls, the adversities, the tedium, the inequalities men face and are expected to accept nary a complaint.

Or, if they are to be acknowledged, it is nowhere near the suffering women go through---women always have it worse. Even gay men don't have it as bad as women, despite political affilations male feminists have with them, women are the ones who are the majority of victims of any form of prejudices down the line. And any incessant and institutionalized discrimination against men is the result or negative manifestation of patriarchy, and no women at all are to blame either . . . whether or not they are complicit in the silence for no outrage against the damning of men and masculinity.

I'm sure that male feminists will have bulwarks that buffer most accusations MRAs and the politically incorrect-minded can muster. My most destructive barbs always include menacing edge that they can't shield themselves against utterly---the hallmark of the good guy badge. And promulgate a good image. Chances are that they are doing very little to clearly help women, but have no problems with expecting---even demanding---men change for women, because, of course, women have it worse and women, despite being strong and independent, need help and protection from big, bad other men.

Male feminists have much to gain by their label, but my questioning of their self-description is thus: what are they really DOING as opposed to the lipservice they give to their position? It often serves to keep them employed in a cushy job that offers no serious challenge. It gives them the attention that many skanks seek---an audience in which they are the cynosure, the counsel figure, the fake post-modern shaman and humanitarian.

But it also gives them much lavished attention from women. Male feminists will deny that their motivation as a penultimate feature; self gain, and with that self gain cock-blocking is an accusation that is supposed be laughable, but let's face it, women will often buy into a proud figure that will promote one's self, whether it is in the college classroom or dance club. "I'M better than HIM" they will boast with an undercurrent of masked self-righteousness, in order to gain favor with women and maybe even prevent access to women from other men by stigmatizing or blasting them. So they rise to the forefront, which is what they wanted, anyway.

Of course, much of them dismiss or try to criticise men's rights activists, and pinning them with a cluster of charges, ranging from approval of wife beating to unilateral misogyny, and what have you.

Male feminists state most men don't believe they want to change (and should), but when they want men to change it is in reference to women and in service to women. Women are infallible, men are flawed and need to personally reshape their social, sexual, and workplace attitudes for women. And after all, men have oppressed women for centuries, right, so it's only right and fair that men should employ adaptive strategies in order to help women. In this regard, male feminists are no different than traditional men who expect men to live up to the standards of chivalry without reward---that women still need to be protected. And men are universally responsible for conduct towards women, and owe women that to fulfill the debt allegedly spawned from "evil" oppressive patriarchy.

Of course, we will call a spade a spade here due to all of the campaigns of "men can stop rape" and such other expressed associative guilt heaped on men from feminists: it's collective bigotry. Male feminists also enjoy using this in order to flash their good guy badges and claim high moral ground.

Continually preaching that men should practice self-sacrifice in regards to women, most don't live up to it in their own life examples. This is the main reason why neither MRAs nor gender feminists, oddly enough, trust male feminists. It isn't just the thinly-veiled
invidious remarks towards MRA camps---male feminists grew up not comfortable in their own skin, with other men not like themselves, and may have even lived a life of wanton abandon with women in the past, and expurge their guilt and shame on others by demanding men shape up.

The true believers---which are the most damaging because they believe in their cause---aren't dangerous because tedium of their internal hypocrisy. It is the harm they create for other men, and men who desire women without the hurdles of feminist memes and the distrust fostered between the sexes.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Upcoming policy on trolls

I am going to write a hard and fast handful of rules about posting comments on here. As of late I have had a couple of visitors which my trust level remains very low about. It is nothing against the cyberspace alliances I've made over the years, so for that crowd (including MRAs) they have nothing to worry about. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me on the main forum I'm a mod on.

For feminists and their mangina cohorts, you will only be allowed to debate on threads I wish, and I will give a curt and main point overview of Dos and Dont's. If a thread gets out of hand, it gets closed. I will not flamebait without giving allowance to speak, but the rules outlined have to be obeyed. There will not be an enormous list here; just a cluster of things I will "lay down the tracks with" so to speak in order to deal with unruly characters, engage in male shaming language, and those who, with ulterior motives and clandestine behavior, betray my trust.


The Policies with be modified if need be, and a continual series of "Feminist and Guilty" is in the works, in part, of societal malaise I've observed.


And BTW, those I'm calling out here as trolls and backstabbing fools are proving me right; men are truly shit upon in this gynocentric culture---by gender feminist women AND mangina men.


Wednesday, May 2, 2007

My Review of Neil Marshall's "The Descent"

The Descent has some of basal elements that make up the so-called branch of horror, often termed survival horror. But unlike it's precursor cinematic cousins, it dives deep into its cavernous abyss and remains there, never hinting that hope and nobility will ever win out. This is not a fun flick, or a feel good movie of the summer. And in the face of all the flicks featuring women kicking ass, being all-too competent and cool, and triumphing over struggle (often at the expense of men . . . again), it delves into hysteria and the macabre.

And like many movies of its ilk, it begins with friends having a good time, laughing amongst each other and taking on one of many adventures, and quickly after which, the main character, a Scottish young woman named Sara (Shauna Macdonald) loses both her husband and young daughter in an abrupt and brutal accident that will leave her haunted and traumatized.

Fast forward a year later, where the friends gather again in order to present her with some sort of therapy, Juno (Natalie Mendoza) style, for a spelunking expedition somewhere amongst the Appalachian caverns (echoing hints of Deliverance and The Howling). Her closest friend from England, Beth (Alex Reid), is not too keen on the idea for herself or for Sara, especially considering Sara is still raw from her ordeal, but she goes along anyway because despite Juno's alpha female goading and prodding, Sara seems to be okay with it at first. And since they are professionally equipped and fairly athletic, all pretty much everything appears to be well, even though we are treated to a brief nightmare to suggest a bad omen, and Sara imbibing psychotropic drugs to remain psychologically balanced.

Gradually, over time, things start to unravel. Sara gets a bind that displays her claustrophobia wasn't merely in her head. The ever hyperactive Holly (Nora Jane Noone) breaks her leg in a zeal to find a quick exit. Rebecca (Saskia Mulder) confronts Juno's overt deception when they find out that they are not in a tourist trap, but an (allegedly) unexplored cave that yields no sign of daylight the further they press on. Accusations fly, and the young gals are often at each others throats, in anxiety, what to do next. They had been strong, independent, fun loving young women at the onset outside of damaged Sara and the weight of her tragedy. Now they are encompassed by a sense of impending doom. And worse, Sara seems to be hallucinating---at first, until the others discover to their horror---in the dank caverns they have entered a lair at their own peril---they are being stalked. And their adversaries aren't human.

What are we to make of The Descent and its characters? What is it trying to say? It's clear that the alpha female of the pack is their Captain Ahab---Juno willingly or not, sets up betrayal after betrayal, including a hint that she had an affair with Sara's late husband (Oliver Milburn). She leads them into serious danger and even death when entering a cave unlisted and unnamed for the sake of high adventure and risk taking, and even involves one of them in an unsettling accident, the only truly nurturing friend that is Sara's rock. It's that event which sets the pivotal tone for Sara's psychological crack up. In a way, The Descent unveils its dark motivations for the women just as it pits them against a primal and fierce backdrop; the women are, in the beginning, rather giddy and shallow, only to expose their other (true?) selves when adversity strikes: adulterous, backstabbing, jealous, vengeful, fearful, and panicky.



And once Rebecca's sister Sam (MyAnna Buring) discovers the nature of their predatory terror, and the rest try to take a stand with Juno in a damaged need for redemption, it is perhaps way too late---Sara becomes horror incarnate (recalling Carrie and perhaps Predator in the visuals). Call me reaching and playing the role of a pseudo-Jungian philosopher, The Descent is just as a metaphor for abysmal feminine lunacy, a trek downwards into the psyche in which Woman cannot truly escape her suffering from Pagan Earth without the archetype of The Male Principle, whether it is savior, warrior, hero, or magician. It is devolution, a one way trip into the underworld.

It has been suggested that Sara may have died in the vehicle with her family and she is in an astral Hell, or that she was engulfed by her own insanity and what we see is that made manifest. Director Neil Marshall only implies these theories, never answering the dark enigma but leaving us with our own thoughts of its onscreen violence and treachery, and while I am not certain it's what he truly intended, the largely all-female presence leaves us to speculate that a post-feminist matriarchy, as a closed circle, Western women, American, British, or what have you, would be left to their own devices . . . engaging in in-fighting in a decaying coven that would implode upon itself in the face of feral nature and predation.