…in which I puke on myself

20Feb09

I was on the Details website the other day, having been pulled in by a repulsive picture accompanying a similarly repulsive article on how super rich guys have to cut back on their number of mistresses during these hard economic times, when I found an even bigger gem: Welcome Back, Asshole, a fluff piece about the triumphant return of male chauvinism, accompanied by a few repulsive pictures of its own:

The article begins with the tragic story of Dave, who is “a devoted spouse and a doting father to the three young children”. The poor bastard. Dave, this tragic figure on par with Oedipus Rex or King Lear, went to college during the “p.c. era”, which forced him to repress all his manly-man urges. But they could not stay under wraps forever, oh no, and now he allows these manly-man urges to release themselves into the mouths of masseuses who may or may not be but probably have been forced to serve in “massage parlors” against their wills for the sexual pleasure of POOR POOR DAVE.

My, where is the world’s smallest violin when you need it?

The thing is, the article does give a fairly accurate depiction of the state of masculinity in our society today. The author even got some quotes from Michael Kimmel, editor of the sociological journal Men and Masculinities, author of the recent book Guyland, one of the prevailing experts on masculinity, subject of one of my brain crushes, and all-around tubular person. To use the language of Talcott Parsons, our society is moving from one based on ascription, or personal attributes, to achievement, or… you know, the things people actually do in order to prove their worth. Men, particularly white, middle-class men, are finding that male privilege just doesn’t mean what it used to, but they can still recall a time when it meant a whole lot more, if not in their own past, then in their fathers’ or grandfathers’. They feel like they have been stripped of something to which they are entitled, and it pisses them off. However, the article, of course, says nothing about entitlement or privilege and actually deigns to use the word “postfeminist” and presents normal human dickishness as part of some ancient drive that only presents itself on the Y-chromosone. Sigh. We’re not going to be in a post-feminist age until we’re in a post-partriarchal age, and acting like a dick is not the sole province of men who are fed up with treating women like human beings and aren’t going to take it any more. People, both men and women, act like dicks because they are tired or cranky or selfish or just because they’re dicks, and it has nothing to do with some kind of hideously oppressive society that is keeping white men from their natural right to treat other people as less than human. I’ve used the pie analogy once and I’ll use it again: white, middle-class men are finding that they have a smaller share of the pie than their fathers did. Their fathers never deserved the amount of pie they had to begin with, but men today don’t see that, they just see pie that isn’t on their plate, and it’s making them pouty. They aren’t to be pitied any more than a spoiled kid throwing a tantrum in a Toys R Us because his parents won’t buy him a Wii, even though they aren’t even in stock. Life was never meant to be easy and for the majority of people throughout history it hasn’t been. That anyone who is privileged enough to be living in the United States with a job, a happy family, and a college education to think they are somehow pitiable, and that anyone could agree with them, is frankly a little sickening.

Hence the dry cleaning I’m going to have to take in tomorrow. I just hope it doesn’t stain.

Filed under: "science", dumbs, gender roles, media, pc, victim blaming   |  3 Comments