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Op Ed

Dispatches from the Manosphere

As a participant on the series of tubes we call the Internet, I often am confronted with some of the worst dregs of society.  I know you’re nodding your head and saying to yourself, “That happens to me too, Slay!” However I did not know–and I’m pretty sure you didn’t either–that there’s this whole other part of the Internet that is very exclusive. You’re not invited. I’m not invited. They call this frontier “The Manosphere.”

I have to thank this “not technically speaking” MRA (Men’s Rights Activist) for introducing me to the concept of the Manosphere. As a feminist, and a vagina haver, I’m not welcome in their sandbox, but luckily for me, they are welcome to cross their borders and share their philosophies with us. Thanks to their generosity, we here at P-Mag will be posting periodic dispatches from the front. Little pearls of wisdom, if you will.

First things, they’re not going to play with you anymore.

 

So that’s that. Real Men, the kind of men that live with smoldering anger in their eyes, reminiscing over the (likely whiter) time before feminism invented misandry, are taking their balls to their own part of the Internet and you’re not invited!

However, until they get around to erecting a fence around the Manosphere, we’ll be here, reporting back.

By [E] Slay Belle

Slay Belle is an editor and the new writer mentor here at Persephone Magazine, where she writes about pop culture, Buffy, and her extreme love of Lifetime movies. She is also the editor of powderroom.jezebel.com. You can follow her on Twitter, @SlayBelle or email her at slay@persephonemagazine.com.

She is awfully fond of unicorns and zombies, and will usually respond to any conversational volley that includes those topics.

39 replies on “Dispatches from the Manosphere”

This vitriol stems from the family courts: men are pissed they have to pay alimony and child support, and they call it misandry.  While the family court system does have it’s flaws and people do exploit loopholes, these MRAs are only interested in “issuing payback” upon their exes.  They are lobbying for women to be required to submit receipts for things they buy for their child(ren) and for men to only pay half of what they think is a “reasonable” expense. Of course what is reasonable is subjective: for example, these MRAs want to do things like restrict the mothers to buying generic brand foods or limit them to spending $25 on shoes every year.  And if you use the child support to pay your car note, then you should be penalized.  It’s a growing movement of angry men who think the reason they are being “raked over the coals” in family court is because of FEMINISM!  not because they were shitty husbands/fathers. These are the same folks who want a say in whether or not a uterus-owner can get an abortion. It’s mind-blowing.

Also, what’s amazing is that if the courts do indeed prefer women in custody battles, it’s because of the fucking patriarchy. It’s because women are meant to be nurturers and carers and society basically says we’re only as important as our uterus and what it can produce. If we actually lived in a feminist utopia, custody battles would only ever be judged on the basis of the fitness of the individual parents and it wouldn’t ‘favour’ women at all.

So, does this not apply to those of us who define feminism as the movement to free women, girls, female-identified, and gender nonconforming people from patriarchal oppression? Wait, don’t answer that, Mr. MRA. Your head might explode from the thought of not using your privilege to actively oppress people, and then we might not get another gloriously entertaining email!

Where the f*ck was this posted?

I’d say that this is a guy who won’t get laid, but I know better. *sigh* I will say that there’s a huge difference between supporting women’s rights and thinking that supporting women’s rights means men are losing rights. Rights build on each other. The more we treat people with civility the more we are treatedcivilly. .

I’m of the opinion that misandry cannot actually exist, because it would be the counter to misogyny, the systemic oppression of women. As women in a patriarchal society, we completely lack the ability to oppress men anywhere NEAR the oppression of women.

It’s similar to how there cannot be ‘reverse racism’ because nonwhite people lack the ability to oppress white people in societal/governmental/economic ways.

Sure, women and nonwhite people can be prejudice but without that control aspect … yeah, their “argument” is not working for me.

 

Capitalism!

Well, in regards to the first.

The second is clearly more about how traditionally women didn’t have jobs or didn’t have jobs that paid well enough and guys have to feel like they are big shot providers. I HATE it when people pay for me.

It’s both funny and completely-not that guys who make these complains have no idea where these practices come from.

 

I had to look up “hypergamy”. in my head I was saying it “hyper gamey” and was like “well if that’s how you smell I don’t think it’s feminism’s fault”.
poor widdle mennies and their toys being taken away.

also I am imagining the manosphere like a hamster ball but with too many dudes in it for it to go anywhere.

I imagine The Manosphere is just an auditorium set up like the stereotypical “Man Cave” that people have recently become obsessed with- posters of hot ladies straddling beer bottles, foosball tables, and a bunch of giant TVs playing footage of dudes throwing balls at each other.

Have fun in your sphere, dudes. After I take a break from being oppressive, I’ll call you down for dinner.

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