November 19, 2017

"I was wrong – Althouse obviously had her finger on the pulse of America when she started posting about Wankgate 24/7."

"I was wrong – Althouse obviously had her finger on the pulse of America when she started posting about Wankgate 24/7. It really has become the defining sociocultural (and political) event of 2017," writes Paco Wové in last night's Worn-Out Laugh Café.

Let me be the first to say, Time Magazine's 2017 Man of the Year should be the little man — the penis.

ADDED: I see that Time is currently running a poll on the subject. Current results here. Vying for the top position — each with only 7% — are Carmen Yulín Cruz, Taylor Swift, and (the nonperson who I think will actually win) #MeToo.

What about Trump? He gets 6%. Wasn't he Man of the Year last year? You can't just give it to the President every year. You might think a Trump antagonist would win, but the main 2 they've put on the list — James Comey and Robert Mueller — are lagging at 2% and 4%.

I'm okay with #MeToo getting the honor, even though I'd like to see something more precisely focused on all the women (and men) who spoke out about sexual abuse. The fact that there's a hashtag mixes up the bigger story with the existence of social media. (If you want to give the honor to social media, give it to Twitter.) And #MeToo has some problems with it, chiefly #MeToo what? Not everyone who uses the tag really belongs in the category that ought to be defined as the problem. There's a real danger that the category will be diluted to the point where people will stop caring about victims of abuse and start worrying about the moral panic and the urge to delete flawed human beings from the midst of the supposedly good people.

45 comments:

Big Mike said...

That could be an interesting cover!

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

I think the story about TED talks is funny.
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/11/17/ted-talks-conferences-plagued-with-sexual-harassment-complaints.html
A beautiful woman, with an attractive graphic on a screen behind her says: We've reached a new age of enlightenment. We've almost left the mouth-breathers and Republicans behind us. We can do even more as long as we pay attention to a few really outstanding PowerPoint presentations. Unfortunately, even as I say this I know that as soon as I get backstage, I'll be groped by some asshole.

rhhardin said...

It's actually a story of crazy women, hypocrisy and the mob.

tcrosse said...

Althouse produces a blog which some use as an aid to masturbation.

David Begley said...

Why not? It will create controversy and clicks.

The last gasp of the failing dinosaur media.

Althouse blog, et alia, killed Time, Newsweek etc.

MAJMike said...

The "Little Man" as Person of the Year would be appropriate in that there seem to be a lot of dick heads in the running.

Paco Wové said...

"a story of crazy women, hypocrisy and the mob"

That would make a good subtitle: 2017: A story of Crazy Women, Hypocrisy, and the Mob (Oxford comma, thankyouverymuch). Although "the Internet" should probably be in there too.

chickelit said...

The little man in the boat cannot be forgotten.

rhhardin said...

The Oxford comma should only be used when it avoids an ambiguity.

rhhardin said...

I've never understood the man in the boat. What's supposed to resemble a boat.

Don't rock the man in the boat is nice for a feminist trouble-maker though.

Meade said...

"Let me be the first to say, Time Magazine's 2017 Man of the Year should be the little man — the penis."

"Little Man" is good as Big Penis will need to soften his image as he goes up on trial in 2018.

Meade said...

Major assets may need to be sold off in the divestiture of Big Penis.

tcrosse said...

This gives new meaning to Louisa May Alcott's Little Men.

Meade said...

Trying to remember — was "Little Big Man" a rom-com?

Big Mike said...

As to the cover, I understand Tony Weiner has volunteered to pose.

Fernandinande said...

sociocultural (and political) event of 2017

Ugh, I hope not. The most interesting characters are the crypto-prostitutes and their "settlements", who you don't hear much about since they're protected by their voluntary NDAs.

++

Commenter anon observes:

"Let’s all talk about the time a powerful man found me erotically irresistible. It was hot uh permanently traumatizing. And I deserve money. Or at least attention. And pity. Or envy. And an engagement ring from him."


“It was hot uh permanently traumatizing.”

Bingo and Yup.

I mean it’s a Pussing Contest.

It’s like killing two birds with one stone.

On the one hand, they get to brag how HOT they are/were and men just couldn’t resist them. They turned the head of every man.

On the other hand, they get to lament about their vicitmhood at the hands of these misogynist men (whose crime seems to be they liked women too much). Rape!

What a combo.

From the male perspective, there used to be the madonna/whore complex.

Now, from the modern female perspective, there is the vixen/victim(or vixtim) complex, aka hussy/hissy complex.

++

Meade said...

Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he is short but very brave. In 1865, when Jack is 16, he is captured by U.S. cavalry troopers during a skirmish and renounces his Cheyenne upbringing in order to save himself. He is put in the care of Reverend Silas Pendrake and his sexually frustrated wife, Louise, who tries to seduce Jack. When he witnesses Mrs. Pendrake (Faye Dunaway) having sex with the soda shop owner, Jack leaves the Pendrake household, and religion.

So, yeah — rom-com... ish.

jwl said...

Ronan Farrow should be most influential person of 2017.

tcrosse said...

We could revive the song 'Little Man, You've Had a Busy Day'

Sebastian said...

"Let me be the first to say, Time Magazine's 2017 Man of the Year should be the little man — the penis."

Finally, an answer to that age-old question: What Do Women Want?

Laslo Spatula said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laslo Spatula said...

"I was wrong – Althouse obviously had her finger on the pulse of America when she started posting about Wankgate 24/7."

America is certainly pulsing. And throbbing, even.

Althouse might want to move her finger: things might get sticky.

I am Laslo.

Gahrie said...

I've never understood the man in the boat. What's supposed to resemble a boat.

The little man is the clitoris and the boat is the labia.

dreams said...

"Althouse produces a blog which some use as an aid to masturbation."

Don't be a big prick.

rhhardin said...

The little man is the clitoris and the boat is the labia.

Water skis perhaps, but I don't see boat.

rhhardin said...

Hood ornament on the Edsel.

Gahrie said...

Water skis perhaps, but I don't see boat.

Think the paper boats you made as a kid.

rhhardin said...

Just go with garrison cap, which is what the pussy hat ought to have been anyway.

rhhardin said...

Paglia says women's genitals are architecturally chaotic anyway.

Fortunately guys' brains are accommodating. Eagle eyed for them.

kentuckyliz said...

So the news story of the year is the breakout of sexual harassment, attempted statutory rape, piggish behavior, some legal, some tortious, some not. And still: it's all about the penis. How phallocentric.

But which accuser should be MOTY? I say the picture of the 14 year old Roy Moore sexually assaulted. Fourteen. #FamilyValues

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I bet Paco loves the fact that the tags now include Paco Wové, phallic symbol!

furious_a said...

"Yulin Cruz" is the Spanish for "Ray Nagin".

Laslo Spatula said...

The Guy Who Touches Women's Asses...

I admit it: I touch women's asses in public. Women that I don't know. Women with nice asses: I touch them. I touch them intentionally. I mean, maybe I sometimes brush a woman's ass by accident, but mostly I touch them on purpose...

Furthermore, I blame women for this: yes I do. Tight pants, tight leggings, tight skirts, yoga pants: women are putting their asses out into the public sphere. I am in the public sphere, and I touch those asses...

Now, I don't grope or pinch or hook: I keep an open palm -- I cup. Obviously, some women get upset that I do this. Somehow they didn't think this would happen when they got dressed in the morning in leggings that clearly show their buttocks. Again: I blame the women for this...

They have made their identity about their ass, then feign surprise when I view them as a vehicle for their ass. When they get really upset I hand them a card I've had printed: "I have Autism. And I'm partially deaf." Then I make grunting noises that sound like I'm trying to say words, but I can't actually say the words. Because I'm partially deaf. And have autism. This usually causes the woman to walk away. When they walk away I look at their ass: I touched that ass.

I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

The Guy Who Touches Women's Asses...

As I said previously: I touch women's asses in public. Women that I don't know. Women with nice asses: I touch them. And I blame women for this: women are to blame. The clothes they wear: what lawyers call "Attractive Nuisance", I believe.

There was a woman at the grocery store today, wearing black leggings. She had a nice ass, so I touched it. Firm. Very much a nice ass. Sometimes you touch a woman's ass and it disappoints you. This ass was not disappointing, not disappointing at all.

Then she turned to face me, saying "Hey!" So I grunted something that vaguely sounded like "Sorry" and I handed her the card that says "I have Autism. And I'm partially deaf."

She fixed me with a suspicious look, but then turned away, pushing her cart down the aisle. As she pushed her cart down the aisle I looked at their ass: I touched that ass.

I am Laslo.

Yancey Ward said...

If Time goes for the recent uproar, Person of the Year needs to be Ronan Farrow.

Darrell said...

Laslo has become George H.W. Bush. And Larry David.

buwaya said...

If there were any prominent editors left at Time magazine, there probably would be accusers there.

So maybe Farrow will get in.

But the man of the year has to be Trump, again.

tim in vermont said...

Trump and the small hands equals small manhood myth, or reality? Actual headline from CNN, and that was last year.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Time's Person of the Year is such a Boomer thing. So is Time, for that matter.

Jim at said...

#metoo is nothing more than tedious virtue signalling.

Of course it will win.

Rosalyn C. said...

I'd nominate Anthony Weiner for "little Big man" of the year. His sexting obsession and the image of his petite erection launched a huge outrage and unflagging public interest. If not for his very public humiliation, connection to the Clintons, intriguing relationship with Huma, wankgate might not have happened. As Trump would say, Weiner deserves credit.

vanderleun said...

" Man of the Year should be the little man — the penis. " Too much information about Meade, thank you.

Leslie Graves said...

Geez, y'all.

The first few women who went public with their Harvey Weinstein stories: They set off an avalanche.

The initial group included Ashley Judd, Asia Argento, Mira Sorvino and Rosanna Arquette.

I wonder what they think, when they see what they have wrought. They deserve special recognition.

Howard said...

Garrison cap? Do you mean a piss-cutter?

Shawn Levasseur said...

I'd like to give the Person of the Year award to social media in general. But not just Twitter, as Althouse suggests, especially as Facebook has been part of it.

I feel that there's a shift going on in society that's yet to fully play out, has been going on for a while, but has ramped up in 2017, and (to address the Time POY qualifications) has effected the news for good AND ill, more than any thing else this year.

- The momentum given the sexual harrassment outings
- The never ending post election blame game taking place on, and to a great deal ABOUT social media
- The battle to "tame" social media spaces, trying to define who or what is permissible on them.

In taking the Time POY survey, it doesn't offer any non-specific human options. Mark Zucherberg is about as close as you can get to the topic, but it takes Twitter out of it, and Zucherberg may have built Facebook, but what makes it "Thing" of the Year for me has little to do with just one man.