Hee. Via cwmason @ Flickr
How can I be sure? Because I’m going to suggest that you specifically seek out a comment thread to a craptastic student-paper editorial.
(I know, right?)
The steaming pile of ill-considered misogyny is called “Bad Romance,” by one Alex Perry, whose dribblings about “hook-up culture” (yes, that again) include the greatest hits of double-standardry and gender essentialism. The jist:
The hook-up culture is HORRIBLE! And girls should stop being such whores. Especially because they always get all butthurt about how they can’t find a relationship. But guys don’t care. Why would they? They’re gettin’ whore-pussy (heh, that’s kinda cool). But again, hookup culture: BAD, and it is up to girls to stop it.
Don’t bother with that. Instead, enjoy the (as of this writing) 56 comments, about 50 of which are so full of feminist WIN that I smile just thinking about it. College-age women, defending their right to sexual pleasure and smacking Perry down for his economic exchange model of love and sex! Rejecting his bad thinking–and bad writing–and using the f-word! (not fuck), and the P-word (not penis)! College-age men, suggesting that Perry quit making inaccurate and unflattering assumptions about his gender as a whole! It is a beautiful thing.
If you like seeing a sexist ass Get Told, and/or rejoice at evidence of a lively feminist presence on college campuses, get thee to The Daily Collegian!
So women should stop hooking up with men, but men should not stop hooking up with women? Who are these men supposed to hook up with, if all of the women stop consenting to it? Does this dillhole not realize that if we follow his logic to its natural conclusion, all premarital sex would actually be rape? Absolutely spine-tingling.
The comments did warm my heart, though- what a refreshing change from the usual d-bag brigade.
Glenn Beck was railing against progressives last night too, at least according to a transcript online. The fact that people like these are against “progressivism” just makes me prouder that I’ve considered myself a progressive for years.
The last line of that article is classic. “Don’t hook up or you’ll become an old maid!” “Spinsterdom awaits!” Gag.
Wow. The comments on that article made my morning.
Whore-pussy?
Two of my least favorite words rolled into one. Was this wank really expecting a standing ovation?
Do a little research. Grow up. And stop pontificating on things you don’t understand, little boy.
That was my favorite.
Between this guy getting pwned and the criticism of Iulia Neagu’s rape apology in the Princetonian , I’m feeling very proud of college women right now. I don’t think I would have seen this kind of backlash against a student piece when I was in college in the early 90s (although the fact that I went to a fairly conservative Southern school might have played a role in that).
That’s PROGRESS. Y’know, what PROGRESSIVES are all about. Rock on, sisters!
Ocean_breeze: I think he expects a cookie for Mansplaining to us sexually liberated ladeez how unworthy of respect we are.
Either that or he was hoping we’d favor him with some whore-pussy. Which I don’t think he’ll be seeing much of anymore…if he ever was.
Those comments constitute one of the most satisfying smackdowns I’ve witnessed in a long time. Well done, readers of The Collegian!
It’s touching that this guy is so concerned for the fate of traditional marriage and so worried about all the single “girls” at UMass. Just a couple of questions:
How many ltr’s has he had?
Has it occurred to him that maybe women today aren’t so interested in traditional marriage, since we now have other options? It’s not like that august institution was so great for us, after all. Taking ourselves out of the work force and being totally dependent on a man who could leave us at any time, taking all of the economic assets of the marriage with him, cutting off our own aspirations to stay home and raise his children even if we didn’t have any desire to do so, being expected to run your home for the benefit of your husband and be at his command 24/7, being seen as an adjunct/possession of your husband…good times.
The smackdowns in the comments section are indeed epic (and I love that some men are taking the author to task as well). This comment is one of my favorites:
so, let me get this straight. If you’re a girl with your eye on a boy:
1. If he liked you enough to spend time with you, he wouldn’t hook up with you.
2. If he liked you enough to pay attention to you, he’d be trying to hook up with you.
THEREFORE: This is all your fault.
Well, I’ve done enough logic to know that you can derive ANYTHING from a contradiction.
COROLLARY: Alex Perry, grow up. And learn how to write a cogent argument.
The glaring contradictions in this piece are so bright I might go blind. “Men created the problem of hookup culture but women are the problem.” “Men only want to hookup but hooking up degrades women, ergo no men will want them.” What an idiot!
P.S. As a long-time reader who is finally commenting for the first time, I just want to say that I adore the Harpy community! It’s my safe haven on the internet.
@Katharsis: Aw, thanks. Welcome! Please comment whenever!
Oooh, I love this comment from Dave: “In all honesty, it’s great to see a bunch of female citizens who feel free to express themselves both socially and sexually. As a society, that is a great step forward, and nowhere does Perry state that he’s against this.”
Privilege much, dude?
I hate it when sex is considered something (hetero)men “get from” (hetero)women rather than something two people participate in together. Bleargh. Yay for smackdown.
@beckysharper: Thanks! I’m thrilled to finally “be here.”
@Awkward Avenger: So women should stop hooking up with men, but men should not stop hooking up with women? Who are these men supposed to hook up with, if all of the women stop consenting to it? Does this dillhole not realize that if we follow his logic to its natural conclusion, all premarital sex would actually be rape? Absolutely spine-tingling.
THIS! The mental gymnastics the author had to go through to write this piece staggers me. And I would bet that he/she did not have the cognitive ability to reach the natural conclusions of his/her own argument.
Does anyone else read this screed and get the sense that Alex Perry–like most misogynists–has a deep, poorly-hidden terror of being found sexually inadequate?
@beckysharper: Not just sexually inadequate but profoundly terrified of genuine relationships. And given that his entire final paragraph reads like a primer on vicious gender stereotyping (blame the victim!, binge-drinking leads to rape!, sad and lonely women pining for relationships obsessively over facebook!), Alex Perry doesn’t seem to know any actual women with actual lives and actual personalities.
Yeah, he’s what? 19? 20? Not too surprising for someone that age who’s grown up immersed in porn-y dudebro culture. Hopefully some of the righteous smackdown he’s getting will register somewhere in his testosterone-addled brain, even if it’s only in a small way.
I humbly submit that the phrase “girls enable men” be entered into the Gender Fail Hall of Fame. And that, if such a thing does not exist, we make one.
@Awkward Avenger: well, ya know, the Greeks had a system for dealing with this problem… but I’m thinking Mr. Perry might not be so keen on their solution.
This made my morning. My favorite so far:
“That’s like saying Alex Perry’s inability to think critically is both his parent’s fault for painting his crib with lead paint but it’s also his own fault for not overcoming the resulting brain damage.”
Fuck, you put my name at the top and I thought I’d done something to piss you off. Waaah!