Women Are Not The Enemy
crossposted from Lee Edward McIlmoyle's blog
My quiet night of rest and recovery from illness has once again been interrupted by another disturbing story of undisguised male hatred towards women.
I’m gonna let that sit there for a moment and settle into your brains.
Sue Perkins is a brilliantly funny and beautiful British comedian. She’s also a lesbian, but that’s not relevant to this discussion, beleive it or not. What is relevant is that a bunch of idiots have started attacking her on social media for the simple crime of having been shortlisted by FANS (not by the producers) of the British man-cave program, Top Gear, as a replacement for Jeremy Clarkson, whose prima donna behaviour and violence towards his producers led to his rightful shit-canning last month. News Flash, kids: Sue Perkins is not up for the job. She doesn’t even want the fucking job. You monkeys lost your shit over a rumour. It’s the equivalent (if I may use a false equivalency here, and I think I can, because you assholes certainly have), of saying Harrison Ford can’t play Han Solo because he can’t walk through a door without getting injured. It’s an internet rumour. It’s bullshit. And you ass-monkeys ate it up.
But you and I know the truth. It’s not the rumour that upset you. It was the fact that, yet again, a woman was being given a semblance of equal status to a man. You dickless morons have been chomping at the bit for years, quietly choking down every perceived indignity, because you could never get the prom queen to give you a hand job; because you never got to third base with the girl next door; because your mother obviously weaned you off the tit too soon; and because of that angst and confusion, you have been secretly resenting and even hating women, all while telling yourselves that you love them, because after all, how can you hate someone you desperately want to fuck? Right?
I have written a couple of fairly polite blog articles on this subject before. It’s not my forte. I write to please myself and share my thoughts with my small but important (to me) readership. I don’t write to get up on my soapbox and excoriate myself from the drooling stupidity of what seems to be a growing army of otherwise intelligent, well-spoken, usually rational men who nevertheless cannot for the life of them see how ridiculous, foolish and dangerous they look clutching their dicks, pounding their chests, and flinging shit at every woman who passes by.
Feeling a little sensitive from being baselessly insulted by a member of your own gender? Conjuring up ad hominem arguments to the tune of ‘he swore at me, so he loses the right to debate me’? Or are you now looking through my About Page to find some dirt on me to prove that I’m not a ‘real man’, so you can go on deluding yourselves into thinking you are taking part in a civil rights movement for the poor, misunderstood, beset upon (and, let us not forget, privileged) patriarchy of old? Because, yeah, the patriarchy needs saving, boys. Round up the wagons and get the shotguns out.
You assholes. Are your feeble intellects so easily unsettled by the notions that women have human rights, and that their G-spots (which you have probably never found) are not your personal property?
Well, that’s too fucking bad. This shit has to stop.
For years now, I’ve been hearing how rape culture does or does not exist; how male privilege does or does not exist. How fight club does or does not exist. Well, here’s a clue, guys and gals: if it was in a hit movie with violence and testosterone, it might be fiction designed to mollify your savage egos. Otherwise, it might be documented fact that you are determined not to acknowledge, because none of your expert assholes have been bothered enough to do the actual fucking science and determine if it’s merely anecdotal, or if there is in fact a shred of truth to it.
And you know what? Until such a time as I see your expert assholes come forth with more than ad hominem attacks on people of the opposite gender (who happen to speak to and for other members of their gender, who agree with said spokespersons, and thus corroborate their claims, which in layman’s terms is called ‘establishing a fact’), I’m calling bullshit. That’s right. All the attack videos I’ve seen or deliberately skipped over because the first five seconds repeated the same tired bullshit in the hopes that somebody (anybody) would agree, are not scientific proof.
The same could probably have been said for any videos posted by women simply talking about their hypotheses about sexism and violence towards women in mass media, including video games.
But you know what? Your reaction and your continued misconduct have validated their hypothesis 1000%. You lost the whole fucking argument when you refused to actually listen to what they were saying and consider the possibility that they might actually have a fucking point. And in doing so, you proved it for them. Assholes.
I am a man. I am married to a woman from New York City who keeps me abreast of this debate, whether I want to know or not. So yeah, it is a bit like poking a sleeping bear. I have often stated I don’t consider myself a proper feminist, simply because I don’t think I have fairly represented women’s suffering and their needs accurately in my own work. I consider myself a friend to womankind, and I do wish to see their rights upheld and extended. By definition, that makes me a feminist. Because that’s all it takes, kids. A willingness to recognize that women have had a raw deal, and that despite the forward progress on the women’s rights front that we have seen in the last 100 or so years, nevertheless, women are still hounded, harassed, abused, raped, beaten, stabbed, burned and shot for expressing their simple and unequivocal right to be treated like a proper, first class human being.
All the clever arguments and obfuscation I have witnessed from men on this front, all the backpedalling and brow beating and smiley-faced aggression I have witnessed, shames me, and shames humanity, for it is nothing less than a sign that our brilliant civilisation, which our parents, grandparents, and the generations before them worked and fought and bled and died to build, is being eroded overnight and from within by a bunch of rabid, reactionary savages disguised as rational men, who dare to use words and images and the power of internet communication, things I hold to be sacred, in order to tear down the structures and institutions built to preserve the rights of our fellow human beings. Because those women you are demeaning and threatening or denying the right to due consideration of their views? They are human beings, the same as you. No better, no worse. They have a right to be heard.
I wish I could say I’ve been fair with you assholes. I can’t. I hear that snide tone creep into your discussions, and I have to leave the room before I vomit. I did not grow up through the 70s, 80s and 90s, three decades of progress and careful building up of relations between the sexes, only to sit and watch as you pathetic shitheads make a mockery of everything that demonstrates our right to live as we choose, to express our opinions freely, and to mold and create our environment to better serve our world. We are not stewards, we are not fellow citizens of the planet, and we are not part of the fabric of our world, because we can’t even have a civil discussion with over 51% of our own species to redress the balance of power and the abuses and injuries heaped upon them by centuries of male oppression, aggression, and willful ignorance.
I know some of you. I have called you friend. Shook your hands in friendship. Even hugged some of you. And you shame and embarrass me, and all of us, regardless of our gender, race, creed or culture. You were supposed to be better than this. You were supposed to be worthy of the sacrifices made by this world and its many creatures, of which we are only one. You are not. As a collective, you, and by you I mean WE… have failed utterly to manifest our right to continue here. This world… this reality… deserves better than to be continually damaged and demeaned by such savage and irrational bastards as us.
I have long maintained that I love humanity, even as I am disgusted with some of its more aggressive and nasty creatures. That love is being eroded by your every act, your every word, your every thought about what it will take to set humanity back on the path of self-righteous ignorance and sexual domination.
Check your privilege, boys, because you have an enemy now. And it’s not women.
It’s me.
Lee Edward McIlmoyle,
Wednesday, April 15th, 2015
My quiet night of rest and recovery from illness has once again been interrupted by another disturbing story of undisguised male hatred towards women.
I’m gonna let that sit there for a moment and settle into your brains.
Sue Perkins is a brilliantly funny and beautiful British comedian. She’s also a lesbian, but that’s not relevant to this discussion, beleive it or not. What is relevant is that a bunch of idiots have started attacking her on social media for the simple crime of having been shortlisted by FANS (not by the producers) of the British man-cave program, Top Gear, as a replacement for Jeremy Clarkson, whose prima donna behaviour and violence towards his producers led to his rightful shit-canning last month. News Flash, kids: Sue Perkins is not up for the job. She doesn’t even want the fucking job. You monkeys lost your shit over a rumour. It’s the equivalent (if I may use a false equivalency here, and I think I can, because you assholes certainly have), of saying Harrison Ford can’t play Han Solo because he can’t walk through a door without getting injured. It’s an internet rumour. It’s bullshit. And you ass-monkeys ate it up.
But you and I know the truth. It’s not the rumour that upset you. It was the fact that, yet again, a woman was being given a semblance of equal status to a man. You dickless morons have been chomping at the bit for years, quietly choking down every perceived indignity, because you could never get the prom queen to give you a hand job; because you never got to third base with the girl next door; because your mother obviously weaned you off the tit too soon; and because of that angst and confusion, you have been secretly resenting and even hating women, all while telling yourselves that you love them, because after all, how can you hate someone you desperately want to fuck? Right?
I have written a couple of fairly polite blog articles on this subject before. It’s not my forte. I write to please myself and share my thoughts with my small but important (to me) readership. I don’t write to get up on my soapbox and excoriate myself from the drooling stupidity of what seems to be a growing army of otherwise intelligent, well-spoken, usually rational men who nevertheless cannot for the life of them see how ridiculous, foolish and dangerous they look clutching their dicks, pounding their chests, and flinging shit at every woman who passes by.
Feeling a little sensitive from being baselessly insulted by a member of your own gender? Conjuring up ad hominem arguments to the tune of ‘he swore at me, so he loses the right to debate me’? Or are you now looking through my About Page to find some dirt on me to prove that I’m not a ‘real man’, so you can go on deluding yourselves into thinking you are taking part in a civil rights movement for the poor, misunderstood, beset upon (and, let us not forget, privileged) patriarchy of old? Because, yeah, the patriarchy needs saving, boys. Round up the wagons and get the shotguns out.
You assholes. Are your feeble intellects so easily unsettled by the notions that women have human rights, and that their G-spots (which you have probably never found) are not your personal property?
Well, that’s too fucking bad. This shit has to stop.
For years now, I’ve been hearing how rape culture does or does not exist; how male privilege does or does not exist. How fight club does or does not exist. Well, here’s a clue, guys and gals: if it was in a hit movie with violence and testosterone, it might be fiction designed to mollify your savage egos. Otherwise, it might be documented fact that you are determined not to acknowledge, because none of your expert assholes have been bothered enough to do the actual fucking science and determine if it’s merely anecdotal, or if there is in fact a shred of truth to it.
And you know what? Until such a time as I see your expert assholes come forth with more than ad hominem attacks on people of the opposite gender (who happen to speak to and for other members of their gender, who agree with said spokespersons, and thus corroborate their claims, which in layman’s terms is called ‘establishing a fact’), I’m calling bullshit. That’s right. All the attack videos I’ve seen or deliberately skipped over because the first five seconds repeated the same tired bullshit in the hopes that somebody (anybody) would agree, are not scientific proof.
The same could probably have been said for any videos posted by women simply talking about their hypotheses about sexism and violence towards women in mass media, including video games.
But you know what? Your reaction and your continued misconduct have validated their hypothesis 1000%. You lost the whole fucking argument when you refused to actually listen to what they were saying and consider the possibility that they might actually have a fucking point. And in doing so, you proved it for them. Assholes.
I am a man. I am married to a woman from New York City who keeps me abreast of this debate, whether I want to know or not. So yeah, it is a bit like poking a sleeping bear. I have often stated I don’t consider myself a proper feminist, simply because I don’t think I have fairly represented women’s suffering and their needs accurately in my own work. I consider myself a friend to womankind, and I do wish to see their rights upheld and extended. By definition, that makes me a feminist. Because that’s all it takes, kids. A willingness to recognize that women have had a raw deal, and that despite the forward progress on the women’s rights front that we have seen in the last 100 or so years, nevertheless, women are still hounded, harassed, abused, raped, beaten, stabbed, burned and shot for expressing their simple and unequivocal right to be treated like a proper, first class human being.
All the clever arguments and obfuscation I have witnessed from men on this front, all the backpedalling and brow beating and smiley-faced aggression I have witnessed, shames me, and shames humanity, for it is nothing less than a sign that our brilliant civilisation, which our parents, grandparents, and the generations before them worked and fought and bled and died to build, is being eroded overnight and from within by a bunch of rabid, reactionary savages disguised as rational men, who dare to use words and images and the power of internet communication, things I hold to be sacred, in order to tear down the structures and institutions built to preserve the rights of our fellow human beings. Because those women you are demeaning and threatening or denying the right to due consideration of their views? They are human beings, the same as you. No better, no worse. They have a right to be heard.
I wish I could say I’ve been fair with you assholes. I can’t. I hear that snide tone creep into your discussions, and I have to leave the room before I vomit. I did not grow up through the 70s, 80s and 90s, three decades of progress and careful building up of relations between the sexes, only to sit and watch as you pathetic shitheads make a mockery of everything that demonstrates our right to live as we choose, to express our opinions freely, and to mold and create our environment to better serve our world. We are not stewards, we are not fellow citizens of the planet, and we are not part of the fabric of our world, because we can’t even have a civil discussion with over 51% of our own species to redress the balance of power and the abuses and injuries heaped upon them by centuries of male oppression, aggression, and willful ignorance.
I know some of you. I have called you friend. Shook your hands in friendship. Even hugged some of you. And you shame and embarrass me, and all of us, regardless of our gender, race, creed or culture. You were supposed to be better than this. You were supposed to be worthy of the sacrifices made by this world and its many creatures, of which we are only one. You are not. As a collective, you, and by you I mean WE… have failed utterly to manifest our right to continue here. This world… this reality… deserves better than to be continually damaged and demeaned by such savage and irrational bastards as us.
I have long maintained that I love humanity, even as I am disgusted with some of its more aggressive and nasty creatures. That love is being eroded by your every act, your every word, your every thought about what it will take to set humanity back on the path of self-righteous ignorance and sexual domination.
Check your privilege, boys, because you have an enemy now. And it’s not women.
It’s me.
Lee Edward McIlmoyle,
Wednesday, April 15th, 2015