Feminism and the Disposable Male
Even today in 2011, we fully expect that, if it comes down to a man and a woman in a burning building and you can only save one, the expectation is that you choose the woman every single time. So honestly: whose humanity are we placing above whose here? We’re not talking about going to work, we’re not talking about getting an education, we’re not talking about having the freedom to decide what you want to be in life. And we’re not talking about getting to take taekwondo. We’re talking seats in lifeboats here. The person in the lifeboat is going to survive no matter how capable or incapable they are of managing their own life, and the person going down with the ship is going to die no matter how independent, self-sufficient and awesome he is. That’s the equation: one life, more valuable than another, and the woman wins every time. So honestly, is there any argument, anywhere, that women’s humanity has always been held in higher regard by society than men’s. To be important to society, a woman merely has to be. A man has to do in order for his life to have any meaning to anyone other than himself.
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And that brings me to feminism. You know, the patriarchy smashers, those righteous avengers of equality, dogged dismantlers of every single gender role. What exactly feminism is doing to dismantle this traditional role of the disposable male? Feminism’s greatest victories have only reinforced in everyone that society still owes women provision, protection, help and support just because they’re women. In its collective dismissal and abandonment of male victims of domestic violence it only reinforces in men that it’s pointless for them to ask for help because men’s needs are of no relevance, and their fear and pain don’t mean anything to anyone. Feminism teaches us to put women’s needs at the forefront of every single issue, political or social – whether that issue is domestic violence law, sexual assault law, institutional sexism, social safety net, education funding, homeless shelters, government funding for shovel-ready jobs that didn’t stay shovel-ready once feminists got wind of them. Everywhere you look – everywhere you look there are feminists pushing their way to the front of the line, demanding women’s “fair share” of all of the goodies, the good stuff, the loot, the booty, the cookies. Even if women don’t need it, even if women don’t deserve it, and even if somebody else needs it and deserves it more. And they get it. Because we give it to them.
Feminism has done nothing but exploit this dynamic of the expectation of men to put everybody else before themselves, especially women. Women’s safety and support, women’s wellbeing and women’s emotional needs always come first.
This is the most stunning piece of society-wide manipulative psychology I think I have ever come across. Feminism has been on the down-low with old school chivalry right from the start and they might seem like strange bedfellows for sure, but they’re not because both concepts are built on a firm foundation of female self-interest. We made our way as humans through a really harsh history and we became the dominant force on this planet, and one of the reasons we were so successful is because we have consistently put women’s basic needs first – their need for safety, support and provision. It was in humanity’s best interest for women to be essentially self-interested and for men to be essentially self-sacrificing, but we don’t need that dynamic anymore. I mean, our species is in no danger of extinction. We’re 7 billion people clogging up the works here! What’s the worst that could happen if we all just collectively decided that men were no more disposable than women and women were no more valuable than men? In fact, the greatest danger I see to us right now is that in our desperation to bend over and give women everything they want and everything that they say they need, we’ve unbalanced society to the point where we’re just in danger of seriously toppling over.
And really, the only difference I see between the traditional role and the new one for men, with respect to disposability, is that maleness, manhood, it used to be celebrated, it used to be admired, and it used to be rewarded because it was really fucking necessary, and because the personal cost to it to individual men was so incredibly high. But now? Now we still expect men to put women first and we still expect society to put women first and we still expect men to not complain about coming in dead last every damn time. But men don’t even get our admiration anymore. All they get in return is to hear about what assholes they are. Is it any wonder they’re starting to get pissed off?
11:52 pm | January 26 2012 | 166 notes
