December 4, 2017

"I asked if he is a feminist. 'Of course,' he said. 'The opposite of feminism is ignorance.'"

From "A Man Among Female Leaders: ‘The Risk of Mansplaining Is Very High,'" by Katrin Bennhold (in the NYT), about Xavier Prats Monné, a Spaniard, who spoke about maternal health at a meeting of female political leaders. I love the quote, because he had to say yes, but he made the extra effort and generated an aphorism.

Who knows if he believes the aphorism or even if it's true? Truth is rarely the point of an aphorism.* And truth can't be why Mr. Prats Monné generated this particular aphorism. He's performing in the theater of feminism, where men must continually make an effort to understand what is happening.** Prats Monné speaks of ignorance, and he demonstrates his non-ignorance not by making a truthful assertion — surely there are some non-ignorant ways to stand apart from feminism — but by making the extra effort, taking the trouble to construct an aphorism.

The meeting took place in Iceland, which is, we're told, a "tiny gender utopia where selling pornography has been banned since 1869*** and the world’s first openly lesbian prime minister was elected in 2009."
The ground floor was packed with women and a sprinkling of men, most of them security guards and journalists. Mr. Prats Monné, a regular at conferences, said the room not only looked different, but sounded different, too: “It’s so quiet,” he said.

Next to us, two women — a center-left lawmaker from Europe and a conservative one from the Middle East — met for the first time. They hugged and kissed. Mr. Prats Monné mostly shook hands.

“It is a cohesive group that has its own signs and body language,” he said, his inner anthropologist emerging. “They acknowledge each other as being from the same tribe. I’m not from their tribe — although I do feel very welcome.”
Kissing. You can't go up to women and just kiss them. Even to say that's what you do can get you in trouble. I'm thinking of Trump's much-reviled remark: "I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait."

Who gets to do the social kiss? Only people who feel no sexual attraction to each other? But how do you know the person you're kissing isn't attracted to you? You could make sure you're not attractive.

Anyway, Trump didn't say he likes to kiss everyone hello. He specified beautiful women and feeling "automatically attracted." Unless you spread your kisses around, you can't palm them off — lip them off — as social kissing. You need to be part of a "tribe," a "cohesive group that has its own signs and body language."

If you read far enough into the linked article, you'll see some contradiction to the "gender utopia" characterization of Iceland:
Iceland is living its own #MeToo moment, after the country’s youngest female lawmaker, Aslaug Sigurbjörnsdottir, 27, went on television last week to share her experience: of rumors that she had slept her way up, of a rival candidate putting his hand on her thigh every time he addressed her in front of a room full of students.

An hour after the program aired, Ragnar Önundarson, a banker, had reposted one of her Facebook pictures. “I want you to think about the kind of image you project,” he had written.

A day later you could buy T-shirts featuring a troll with the caption “Don’t be like Ragnar,” and by now 500 people have signed a petition supporting Ms. Sigurbjörnsdottir.
And there's this illustration. Note the caption (click to enlarge):
_____________________

* You disagree? You're disagreeing with an aphorism. Checkmate!

** We're seeing some ludicrous performances in this making of an effort, like the one we were laughing at yesterday:
I just want to say I am going to take time to reflect on this, to educate myself daily, and to strive towards a more enlightened path. I want to ensure that all voices around me are heard, and that everyone is treated respectfully and empathetically. More than anything, I want to create an environment that is a better, safer and fairer place.
*** They have a ban on pornography because — like us — they banned it long ago. Unlike us, they failed to get around to recognizing free speech rights, so the ban survived. I'd be more impressed at the strength of the feminism in Iceland if they'd first embraced strong free-speech rights and got rid of the old censorship based on fear and prudishness and then banned it, despite the recognized value of free speech, specifically because they'd determined that suppression of pornography was necessary to the even higher value of the equality of women.

109 comments:

Rob said...

An openly Lesbian prime minister and a ban on pornography—so many missed opportunities.

David Begley said...

The opposite of feminism is Islamism.

And Europe’s governing elites have willfully let into their countries millions of Muslims. Burkas will be mandatory in 50 years.

Ann Althouse said...

"The opposite of feminism is Islamism."

1. Not all of Islam is anti-feminist, and much of just about any religion (considered at the same level of abstraction) is anti-feminist.

2. Prats Monné may have unwittingly expressed Islamophobia. His aphorism has potential as the major proposition in a syllogism:

The opposite of feminism is ignorance.

Islam is not feminism.

Therefore Islam is ignorance.


There's a risk to the exuberant cranking out of aphorisms.

Humperdink said...

"The opposite of feminism is ignorance"

The same argument the global warming crowd uses. Doncha know it's settled science, you're an idiot.

Ann Althouse said...

Those 2 photos of Sigurbjörnsdottir are driving me nuts.

The woman is clearly completely beautiful, but she's impaired her beauty in both pictures by doing things that seem to be straining for acceptance:

Photo #1 looks like what an insecure young woman does when she's trying to get a good selfie. She's pulling that one eyebrow (the more curved one) way up and completed the over composed expression by pressing her lips together into a smirk (as if something interesting is happening). And she's got the hair arranged into a look of casual messiness.

Photo #2 veers in the opposite direction. Now, she's trying to look all businesslike, as if she's expressing the idea is this what you want, you jerks?

Glen Filthie said...

Or, Ahouse - instead of an “aphorism” ... it could have been an antithesis. But most likely it was merely the work of your typical liberal beta male wimp, for whom words tumble from the mouth like turd from the ass.

David Begley said...

Book at the link is authored by a feminist and she writes about women under Islam.

https://www.city-journal.org/html/women-under-islam-15589.html

David Begley said...

Great syllogism and it has the added benefit of being true. Too bad the Left is not rational. It is all about political correctness.

LincolnTf said...

The opposite of "feminism" is a Clinton voter. Or a Kennedy voter. Or a Franken voter. And on and on and on. The Dem Party is a nest of predatory males, coddled and empowered by the media, only the most ignorant or self-loathing woman would ever support such human garbage.

rhhardin said...

suppression of pornography was necessary to the even higher value of the equality of women.

Pornography reduces women's market value as sexual pertners, so to get it back up to equality you need to ban the porn competition. Women having not much other value, is the assumption.

TrespassersW said...

Wow. The guy isn't just one prat, he is multiple Prats.

rhhardin said...

Ignorance without misunderstanding is stupidity.

Shouting Thomas said...

Fuck fag hag Marxist feminism.

No, I don't have to kiss ass.

Where's the Lenny Bruce or Tom Lehrer of our era to stand up to obnoxious fag hag Marxist feminist bitches?

American and Western European women are the richest, safest, most spoiled and protected, most politically powerful and ass kissed group of people in human history. They have too much, not too little.

Althouse is a good example. What in the fuck does she have to bitch about? Bitching is just a bad habit, and we men have become too frightened and sissified to tell the bitches to shut up.

campy said...

Is the Iceland porn rule a ban-ban? Or is it a "ban" like Harvard's "ban" on single sex clubs that really only applies to all-male clubs?"

Ron Winkleheimer said...

My first thought, upon seeing the statement that porn had been banned since 1869, was much like the Professor's. The person writing that statement cannot have any real knowledge of history or even of the current state of affairs. They exist in a fact free bubble impervious to intrusions from reality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXQkXXBqj_U

Paco Wové said...

You could whip up a little aphorism generator. "The opposite of {random school of thought} is {random noun with bad connotations}". Generate nonsense and pat yourself on the back at the same time.

SDaly said...

The opposite of feminism is freedom.

Andy Krause said...

I missed the part how all of the "feminist" porn actresses are being forced to perform.

Ann Althouse said...

In the early days of blogging, I thought it might be fun to create alternate personas and comment on my own blog. I never did it, because the antagonism to "sock puppets" became clear early on, but if I had done it, I would have tried to create a character like Shouting Thomas. I would have found that very funny. I would have amused myself. It's like writing a play and having multiple characters. I mean, I think I would have written a better character, but you have to go with what drops in, when you live without puppets.

LordSomber said...

"A woman has the intellectual temperature of the medium in which she lives: vehement revolutionary or dauntless conservative, according to the circumstances. A reactionary she can never be."

— Don Colacho

urbane legend said...

Theater of feminism

Brilliant turn of phrase. Covers the subject perfectly.

Humperdink said...

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so." (RR)

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

I don't know anything about the guy but Ragnar Önundarson sure is a kick-ass name.

Bill Peschel said...

"if I had done it, I would have tried to create a character like Shouting Thomas"

I felt like answering on your behalf with a modified Monty Python: "That's not an argument. That's abuse. Next door, please."

Phil 314 said...

The Professor trolls Shouting Thomas.

Please, no.

Is ST a louder, more vulgar version of Rhhardin?

Or following the Professors logic is ST Inga's alternate personality on Althouse?

rhhardin said...

There was a book of 19 aphorisms in the 60s that had split pages so you could turn tops and bottoms independently, and thus swap subjects and predicates.

A stitch in time gets the worm.

It quickly became a computer program with 200 aphorisms.

tim in vermont said...

The thing about creating a character like ST is that you would have to take his arguments seriously, and there are arguments there. Points he is making. Kind of like dealing with the other side's arguments, except you don't have a paycheck to keep you from straying, as Dr K says, your brains will fall out.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Who knows if... it's true?

*raises hand*

Pick me...pick me...

*raises hand higher*

...please pick me...

*waves hand back and forth*

...please please please pick me...

rhhardin said...

If you print random combinations of subjects and predicartes, you instantly think that the randomness is broken. You get repeats of subjects or of predicates all the time.

Which proved that people can't discriminate randomness.

To prevent that annoyance, you have to make it non-random. For instance, it works well to assign each subject to a predicate in random order and then print them.

So a subject or predicate doesn't repeat except every 200th line possibly, with 200 aphorisms, when it's time for a reordering.

tim in vermont said...

It's pretty clear that Mick was a troll character, I think. Best fucking troll of all time.

LincolnTf said...

Whatever happened to Crack Emcee? I could never quite figure that guy out.

Ignorance is Bliss said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ignorance is Bliss said...

In the early days of blogging, I thought it might be fun to create alternate personas and comment on my own blog... if I had done it, I would have tried to create a character like Shouting Thomas.

Didn't O.J. write a book along those lines?

lgv said...

I'm confused, is it OK to sleep your way to the top or not?

Does sleeping your way to the top preclude you from #metoo membership?

Can you sleep your way to the top and still be a feminist?

It criticizing sleeping your way to top automatically ant-feminism?

Are we done with the cheek kissing greeting that is culturally common on other continents?

jaydub said...

"Who gets to do the social kiss? Only people who feel no sexual attraction to each other?"

In Spain it's considered rude to not give the opposite sex "dos besos" when greeting or saying goodby. Same between two women. But, I don't think Spanish women are as insecure as American women.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

S.T. isn't wrong. Western females ARE rich safe spoiled bitches Who whine a lot. Good luck getting us to shut up. ;)

tcrosse said...

suppression of pornography was necessary to the even higher value of the equality of women.

Do they ban Gay Porn with all-male casts ?

Darkisland said...

In a strip club, who is exploiting who?

Are the women exploiting the men who give them money?

Or are the men exploiting the women who take their money.

Ditto porn.

Is male on male porn always OK since no women are exploited?

CAVEAT: I am assuming that there is no force involved, that the women, and men, are acting of their own volition. I believe this to mostly be the case in the US but I realize there are exceptions.

John Henry

Bad Lieutenant said...

Speaking of multiple views of Ms Sluttydottir... Have she and Megyn Kelly ever been seen in the same room?

Curious George said...

"I don't know anything about the guy but Ragnar Önundarson sure is a kick-ass name."

Son of Onundar. Icelanders use a whacky naming convention. A persons last name is their fathers name plus son or dottir (daughter). Aslaug Sigurbjörnsdottir is daughter of Sigurbjörn.

MadisonMan said...

So. Porn is banned in Iceland.

Is there internet?

mockturtle said...

Feminism is an admission of weakness and a loss of individuality in that one requires an 'ism' to feel empowered.

tcrosse said...

The opposite of Feminism is Heresy.

Bad Lieutenant said...


tcrosse said...
suppression of pornography was necessary to the even higher value of the equality of women.

Do they ban Gay Porn with all-male casts ?
12/4/17, 7:49 AM


No, because some women dig that.

Unknown said...

In the bar there is a group of regulars where hugs and the occasional cheek kiss are exchanged on greetings and departures. In the holiday season: more so. There are unwritten rules, of course, and those unwritten rules change with the dynamics of the particular persons involved.

I am a recipient of kisses and hugs, and I give hugs back. I don't kiss: the women who kiss me I give a smile to in return: my kissing them would change the dynamic. The guys who kiss back are often returned to the hug-only category; sometimes they can be dropped from physical contact entirely. They probably don't even know what happened exactly, just: no more hugs.

It probably is obvious that the women initiate the behavior, and send the signals as to what is acceptable to them. What is acceptable from one guy is not acceptable from another, etc etc. Sometimes those signals are tough to deduce. The Enigma Machine wouldn't stand a chance.

So: you are leaving. Spirits are good, maybe the home team just won. One woman hugs you and kisses you on the cheek. Another woman hugs, no kisses. Another acknowledges your leaving with a smile. Don't cross the wires: a wrong step with one woman registers among the others. They will confer as a group and make a decision, all without talking, just the glance of an eye, perhaps. You will most likely be oblivious that it is happening.

Oh yeah: the women in this group are young and very good-looking. So that is its own dynamic right there. Obviously.

- james james

Saint Croix said...

"I don't know anything about the guy but Ragnar Önundarson sure is a kick-ass name."

I also like Wolfgang.

Foreign kick-ass names for 100, Alex.

You know what name does not kick ass? Prats.

Prat means an incompetent, stupid, or foolish person; an idiot.

And the second definition is worse!

Saint Croix said...

If you are ever in the theater of feminism

oh my God that's a shitty play

be sure to say, "no, I'm a humanist"

because that embarrasses the shit out of them

And if they say they are humanists, too

be sure to ask them what a "person" is

because they don't know

Gahrie said...

I'd be more impressed at the strength of the feminism in Iceland if they'd first embraced strong free-speech rights and got rid of the old censorship based on fear and prudishness and then banned it, despite the recognized value of free speech,

So you don't actually believe in free speech at all.

Or is it just the usual Leftwing "free speech for me but not for thee" bullshit?

Gahrie said...

Too bad the Left is not rational.

Oh it's worse than that...many of them (like our host) reject rationality.

tcrosse said...

Eventually someone could come up with an If-By-Feminism-You-Mean speech, modeled on the famous If-By-Whiskey locution. Paglia, perhaps.

Saint Croix said...

We need a poll on who is the hottest babe

I say the one on the right

wwww said...


European feminists talk more frequently then US feminists about maternal health, pregnancy survival rates, breech birth, and infant health care. US maternal health rates have declined over the last 20 years -- would be a topic appropriate for a US feminist movement.


I don't know if Iceland is more "feminist" then the US, but it seems like a pleasant place to raise a young family if you are an introvert and like fish, cold weather, hot tubs, and swimming. It's a small community. Very safe. Iceland is just a little bigger then the population of Madison, WI, and much smaller then the population of Madison and the metro areas. Beautiful mountains.

People are social and go to their communal swim and hot-tubbing, but they are also much more introverted then, say, Italy. Social kissing is much more common in southern Europe. Icelanders exchange books on Christmas Eve. Icelanders take swimming seriously. It's a huge community pastime for the population, as is sitting in the natural hot springs.


HoodlumDoodlum said...

The ground floor was packed with women and a sprinkling of men, most of them security guards and journalists.

Oh goodness, how problematic! You're saying men are overrepresented in the profession of security guards (with the attendant risk, respect, & pay)?
What's to be done?!

wwww said...


Iceland babies at swim lessons. Pretty cute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWv8RWyEf60

HoodlumDoodlum said...

*** They have a ban on pornography because — like us — they banned it long ago. Unlike us, they failed to get around to recognizing free speech rights, so the ban survived. I'd be more impressed at the strength of the feminism in Iceland if they'd first embraced strong free-speech rights and got rid of the old censorship based on fear and prudishness and then banned it, despite the recognized value of free speech, specifically because they'd determined that suppression of pornography was necessary to the even higher value of the equality of women.

The opposite of modern feminism is the love of freedom.

JPS said...

"The risk of mansplaining is very high."

Would someone please splain to me what the hell "mansplaining" is supposed to mean?

Let me rephrase. I think it means, You owe it to me to shut up when I object to your argument on the grounds that you're a man. It would be one small step toward righting societal injustice, and I'll cry and stamp my feet if you persist.

I just can't understand why the term gained any currency, except as hard-left wishcasting, or why any of the rest of us should afford it any respect.

Fernandinande said...

Did you know - ?

-- In 2016 the population of Iceland = Santa Ana, CA + 35.

-- Iceland has had two inventors, one of which was actually American, the other invented the p-Orridgemeter.

-- Iceland is racist: over 90% of government officers and employees are white!

-- Iceland doesn't like naked people - because it's so cold!
"ULTRA-LIBERAL Iceland wants to ban online pornography. It is just the latest step in its attempts to eliminate the sex industry entirely. In 2009 it introduced fines and jail terms for those who patronise prostitutes (whom it treats as victims). In 2010 it outlawed strip clubs."

Ken B said...

What cowardice from Althouse. Anything that reflects ill on Islam must be rejected a priori, it cannot be fundamentally different from any other religion, a priori, the truth of an aphorism suddenly DOES matter if it reflects ill on Islam.

traditionalguy said...

But on VJ Day, all the rubics cube of sexual empowerment of women rules are suddenly,called off. And the wahabi police are unemployed for a season. Oh happy day.

William said...

The opposite of feminism is sex.......The trouble with life is that the primal urges our bodies generate are so far behind the high ideals that our minds fabricate.

Anonymous said...

The NYT's article is text candy for the femi-Nazis : puffy, soft, and totally false. Completely ignorant of human nature. Chicksplaining, if you will.

Fernandinande said...

"Deborah Dunafon knew that a big sign outside her strip club that read 'Toxic Masculinity Welcome Here' could land her in trouble."

"Trouble from whom?", he pretended to wonder.

"socially irresponsible culturally poisonous feminine spectrum sex workers covert problems rape culture unnecessary weight already a burden" ... and ... "danger!"

Bill R said...

...of a rival candidate putting his hand on her thigh every time he addressed her ...

This comes under the category of fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.




Meade said...

The opposite of feminism is msinimef. So, of course, I'm a feminist male.

facto ipso!

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Meade said...The opposite of feminism is msinimef. So of course, facto ipso, I'm a feminist male!

Opposite and backwards are not equal. Opposite and inverse are not equal. Kind of like men & women outside of utopias like Iceland.

The opposite of inverse is something like direct. The opposite of backwards is forwards. A synonym of forward is progress and since the opposite of progressive is regressive it follows that...well, I guess you all know where that goes so it'd be mansplaining to continue.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Wiki: Demographics of Iceland

Just a few highlights:
93% of the residents of Iceland are Icelandic citizens

Iceland remained extremely homogenous from Settlement until the 20th century.

According to Icelandic government statistics, 99% of the nation's inhabitants live in urban areas (localities with populations greater than 200) and 60% live in the Capital Region.

In 2016, 71,6% of the population belonged to the state church (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland), approximately 5% in free churches, 3.7% to the Roman Catholic Church, approximately 1% to the Ásatrúarfélagið (a legally recognized revival of the pre-Christian religion of Iceland), approximately 1% to Zuism, 8% in unrecognized or unspecified religious groups, and 19% do not belong to any religious group.

Ethnic Groups: 94% Icelandic, 6% other


This feminist utopia is by most measures incredibly un-diverse (very white, very few immigrants, very few non-citizens, very few non-religious, etc)! If someone on the Right in America said their ideal demographic makeup was something like that they'd be crucified (as a horrible racist bigot) by all the nice centrist people--how ugly can you get?!
But I guess it's ok for some people to embrace such things; it's interesting to note the demographics of the kinds of places Lefties/Feminists/Progressives actually chose to live and contrast that with their rhetoric. Probably it's one of those things you don't want to think deeply about, though.

buwaya said...

There is no need to coin new aphorisms.
Memorize Don Colachos, and you are covered for anything.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

The opposite of feminism is Shouting Thomas.

Take a lesson, men.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“What cowardice from Althouse. Anything that reflects ill on Islam must be rejected a priori, it cannot be fundamentally different from any other religion, a priori, the truth of an aphorism suddenly DOES matter if it reflects ill on Islam.”

What bravery from Althouse, considering that the majority of her readers and commenters are Islamaphobes.

Ken B said...

I don't get how telling adult women that their consensual sexual choices are illegitimate counts as feminist.

holdfast said...

We all know that men are much more responsive to visual stimulation than women - so isn't banning Pr0n an egregious case of gender discrimination?

Do they also ban dild0s and vibrat0rs? Don't those reduce men's market value as s@xual partners?

Of course, that paradise has no military and is 100% dependent on NATO (i.e. the USA) for its defense. I guess feminist values = worthless and dependent.

Ken B said...

Refusing to think is never brave Inga. Maybe that's where you went wrong.

buwaya said...

Growing up in a minority group is an education in itself.
Spaniards kiss on greeting and departing. The Spanish-mestizo community in our former colony has that custom.

The Filipinos and Chinese, however, do not, except the still fairly hispanicized upper class, or the wannabes. So it takes a bit of insight to figure out who gets kissed and who doesnt, taking into account not just race but class. In mixed groups its safest to refrain.

buwaya said...

The opposite of feminism is a maternity ward.

Come to think of it I don't think thats in Don Colacho.

n.n said...

The opposite of feminism is humanism, which recognizes individual dignity, and the evolution of human life from conception.

n.n said...

Transgender politics.

Gahrie said...

What bravery from Althouse, considering that the majority of her readers and commenters are Islamaphobes.

Smart, educated people are Islamaphobes. Islam explicitly demands the destruction of our way of life and the enslavement of our people. Islam is as big a threat to our civilization as communism and fascism were.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Scandinavian women are vastly overrated, looks-wise. Aslaug Sigurbjörnsdottir looks just like what she is -- a descendant of generations of Vikings and thick-necked, bushy-browed, stocky farm girls with a musculature built for churning butter, wrangling horses, and frightening off Skraelings by smacking their swords against their bare breasts.

The opposite of feminine is Aslaug Sigurbjörnsdottir.

wwww said...



You know, in the end, maybe the word "feminism" becomes less then helpful. Another way to think about it might be --what sort of place is a good life for mothers and babies? What sort of place is safe and healthy for teenage girls?

There's something else I've noticed. Americans talk about abortion and sexual rights a lot more then other places. It's not just one side of the political equation. It's the left and the right. Other societies talk a lot more about maternal health and infant outcomes. I'm not sure what is going on there, but it's striking to me.


One other Iceland factoid:

Iceland has put together a world class soccer team. They made the world cup while the US is out. Lost to Trinidad/ Tobego.

Iceland, a population of less then 1/2 the size of the Madison, WI metro area, put together a team that made the World Cup. The US has more then 300 million people and can't figure out how to put together a team.

I saw a huge world-class soccer stadium when visiting the small town of Grindavik. Walking in the small town, you see the cute wooden Lutheran church, the small dock and boats for cod fishing, a few restaurants, coffee shop serving lobster soup & apple cake, houses and a swimming pool and soccer stadium. This town is maybe 3,000 people and they have a soccer team.

I dunno, maybe they're too busy playing soccer and teaching their babies to swim to care that there are no strip joints.

Darrell said...

I thought Björk was in charge.

Gahrie said...

Iceland, a population of less then 1/2 the size of the Madison, WI metro area, put together a team that made the World Cup. The US has more then 300 million people and can't figure out how to put together a team.

All of Iceland's best athletes play soccer. The U.S.'s best male athletes play basketball, baseball, football and hockey.

The reason why the U.S. has the best female soccer team in the world is the lack of competition from other sports.

buwaya said...

Iceland, like all of Europe, has a less than replacement level birthrate. It wont be too long before there are no more Icelanders, as they are too few to have much of a demographic buffer. If they had, besides this, a more open immigration policy, Iceland would very quickly stop being Iceland.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Bjork was cute, for sure.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
HoodlumDoodlum said...

Igv said...Can you sleep your way to the top and still be a feminist?

Come on; we've been over this.
Anything women choose to do is empowering & praiseworthy.
What you call "sleeping your way to the top" is really just an empowered woman "using her sexuality" (in an empowered way) to counter the disadvantages our puritanical, patriarchal society traditionally imposes upon anyone who isn't a cis gendered white male, ok? It's empowering and opposing it is slut-shaming antifeminism.

Now, simultaneously: it's true that any guys involved--any man who sleeps with a woman and gives her an advantage at work--are guilty of sexual harassment and discrimination. Likely to a criminal degree. That part's obvious: by sleeping with some women & not others the guy creates a work environment where sexual access plays a role in success, so that's clearly wrong and any men engaging in that behavior, or even just failing to prevent it, deserves to be fired and socially ostracized.

Darrell said...

Not all of Islam is anti-feminist,

Yeah. Only the ones that follow the Qur'an and Hadiths.

wwww said...

All of Iceland's best athletes play soccer. The U.S.'s best male athletes play basketball, baseball, football and hockey.


yeah I know but out of 320 million I'm baffled USMNT can't find 12 men that could beat Trinidad.

Iceland only about 320 K people. 320K versus 320 million. Some families like soccer in the US just like some parents train their kids to like golf.

Darrell said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Darrell said...

Meade can discipline, beat, his wife for anything, anytime--for example.
Progressive Imams say, use a toothbrush or something. So that means progressive Imams know nothing about brushing teeth or what a toothbrush is.

Howard said...

Man, you cucks are reflexively fearful of women with any power. The tribes most successful at conquering territory are well known for equality of women, including the Vikings, Celts, the Mongols. Therefore, the opposite of feminism is weakness.

Clyde said...

That calls for this song!

Ragnar the Red

With the part of the brave lass Matilda played by Aslaug Sigurbjörnsdottir. Love those Nords!

Clyde said...

And yes, that's the Bannered Mare in Whiterun. If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand.

Stephen A. Meigs said...

Seems like the average, basically good male is more likely to espouse causes that benefit females than males. While the average, basically good female is more likely to espouse causes that benefit males. Most wise thoughts occur in unselfish people. In consequence, wisdom occurs most easily in the mental environment it has evolved to occur in--an unselfish environment. Brains have evolved to produce wise thoughts especially when in a mental environment suggestive of unselfishness. Gender permeates morals--taking a view more supportive of your own gender's selfish interest suggests selfishness and is not the sort of environment conducive to gaining wisdom. Most (good) people want to encourage wisdom in themselves, and to do so they tend to overshoot their unselfishness somewhat for the purposes of obtaining wisdom. One can see this empirically as well. Pro-marriage political parties tend to support female selfish aspirations and to be supported by males, while more free-love political parties tend to support male selfish interest and to be supported by females.

Thing is, though, that females can feel comfy because they know they are going to be cared for, because they feel comfortable in their mate choice, or because they know they are not being recklessly cruel in a fashion or extent that society deems undesirable. The comfy feeling may be similar or the same all three variants, but good females don't tend to value the first comfy feeling much, because it's rather whorish basically, yet it would seem to be good for them to value the third comfy feeling. Good (compared with bad) males tend to want females to be comfy for all three reasons. (Though of course it is not possible to please many females with caring, caring being something that gets diluted.) Nothing wrong or strange with females getting pleasure from male caring—being pleased by something is different from having a tendency to especially want to be pleased by something and it is doubtful females are indisposed to be pleased by male caring in a lover. Good females may tend not to value the comfy feeling of postponing sex and the comfy feeling of not making enemies by being recklessly cruel as much as their lovers do. This can create tension. But girls are so turned on sexually by males who by nature often encourage girls to wait somewhat until they are more comfy in their decision making and who by nature have the power to get their way there, that they appropriately have not much choice but to submit. Similarly, catlike girls are so sexually turned on by males who by nature care greatly about not imprudently being sexually cruel more than what the vast majority of people find beautiful (whatever they wanting being the safest most comfy option and what is likely right) and who have the power to get their way, that they appropriately have not much choice but to submit. It's wrong to say that females are bad since the great virtue of their natural sexual preferences in giving them no option but to submit to males in these limited spheres where males are more right is just that, a great virtue. Actually, the tension in cat-like girls is good because cat-like girls can want to kill so over much males might feel rightly the need to force them to torture as a partial replacement and by way of reducing the number killed, which would make girls (pretending to be human sacrifice priestesses or actually being something akin to that in a society that willingly has such things) enjoying just the torture something she couldn't be sure wasn't a result of a zombification that reflects no natural hate on her part at all.

Stephen A. Meigs said...

Better females tend to value beauty and pleasure from sex more than comfy material pleasure. But it's good for catlike females to value the comfy feeling that comes from knowing that the mass of humanity won't likely rise up against you on account of your killing excess people for the sexual kick of hating one person while loving someone else (a proof that the love is not a base addiction that makes hate difficult). This may explain why a susceptibility to feeling embarrassment can be especially attractive in catlike people, the tendency keeping them from cruel excesses. One possibility is to ban marriage in people who behave catlike. I.e., perhaps no marriage should ever oblige a male to care or not take care for a catlike female or the children produced during catlike sex that involves concomitant cruel feelings. I have mostly thought marriage good when male caring is involved, because it allows selfish females and selfish males to more easily behave with mutual selfishness at the expense of future generations of selfish people (what is wrong is not necessarily reprehensible). But is it prudent to encourage mutually selfish people to adopt catlike cruel mating tendencies? On the other hand, to protect themselves from being zombified, female cats love giving surprises, and it seems really good (by way of contrast with zombifiers) for any male to emphasize to his mate that she won't be loved any less if she doesn't hate anybody while feeling love for him. Yet logically it seems hard to behave differently in courtship with catlike girls when it is wrong to know beforehand whether a girl wants to behave catlike or not. Maybe there is some sort of complex intricate solution involving (say) females often lightly changing their suggestions back and forth about whether they are cat like or not, or at least partly some sort of frequent divorcing and partial remarrying as females frequently change their mind what sort of sex they want? I don't think there is an easy solution. Male cats (i.e., actual cats as opposed to catlike humans) may never make a female cat feel like she is the only non cruel one he'd ever care for (assuming she is not being cruel)--perhaps there is nothing like marriage in cats, not even a somewhat discernible commitment feeling. Bears too I suppose are sometimes especially cruel for similar reasons, and it feels much more promising that maybe there are sometimes some male caring commitment feelings there. A male bear might give a non-cruel female bear reason to think she is the only non-cruel female bear he'd ever care for, discouraging zombification that way, but it seems to come at the expense of surprise and mysteriousness, another discouragement of zombification, allowing a male to know beforehand what deadly things the female is contemplating, allowing him to more easily manipulate (possibly by wickedly encouraging her to kill according to his will someone she doesn't want to kill). Bears seem pretty indifferent to surprises--in particular they don't seem to have much by way of pouncing tendencies, preferring to lumber along chasing their prey for miles. It's all terribly complicated, I'm afraid, whatever the best solution be, though it's the long-term where perfection is most needed. It is okay if one's first attempts are somewhat muddled compared with perfection, so long as the attempts don't give rise to a bad habit that can't be corrected and so long as one hasn't hurried through what thoughts one has given towards the matter. For sure right living is much more productive of wisdom than muddled living or wrong living, but perfection is not a possible option, and not living or living with excess focus is not a good, wisdom-producing option either, even when dealing with something of great importance. One needs at least some data and also an understanding of the greater picture. Best to me, it seems, is to let my feeling of beauty be my guide.

Gahrie said...

Could somebody translate the last comment for me?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

@Gahrie

I doubt it.

MadisonMan said...

What, you want short paragraphs?

D.D. Driver said...

I have to confess, Iceland has always been a challenge for me when I play Super Mario Brothers 3.

JaimeRoberto said...

That explains why all my searches for Icelandic porn come up empty.

mockturtle said...

Gahrie asks: Could somebody translate the last comment for me?

I think someone may have gone off his meds. :-(

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Could somebody translate the last comment for me?”

Is it n.n’s sockpuppet? It sounds a bit like him, but more verbose.

Bilwick said...

He might have been correct about that, when feminism was an outgrowth of the classical liberal Enlightenment, and therefore libertarian, individualist and rational. Nowadays what we call "feminism" is more or less the Womens' Auxiliary of the statist Hive.

n.n said...

Inga:

Equal and complementary?

Stephen A. Meigs said...

I think someone may have gone off his meds. :-(

Feel good drugs are very wrong for those thinking about what I call cat morals, that is, the morals about hating one thing while loving something else to check to see whether love is real and not just a result of an addiction (caused by the love potion that is sodomy, typically). Near the edge of the chasm of hell is exactly where serious students of cat morals need to park themselves, the danger of bad cat morals to the future of humanity being exactly what students of cat morals need to appreciate and remind themselves of.

Females may think that being cool is sexy and this or that drug makes them cool and thus sexy. Sure, all things else equal, sex may be better for girls if they are cool about it, like girls who are confident they are mating the right guy. But blech! Good males find such fake unnatural coolness ugly. A male worth his salt will not love her well if at all for being doped up. And why should he? Coolness in a female selects for desirable sperm (in intraejaculate sperm selection) only if the male doesn't by nature tend to tolerate unnatural coolness--otherwise her coolness is just selecting for sperm from ancestors of her partner who had sex with females who never would have had the sex except they were doped up--nothing the least bit impressive about those ancestors--quite the contrary.

Fear can keep people from being reckless if people wrestle with understanding it. Your comment is reckless and supportive of a cowardice that if fairly general would be dangerous to the future of humanity. Alcohol, if it really causes a "beer goggles" that makes everyone more attractive, actually is less dangerous, probably, than drugs that don't have this "beer goggles" effect. Point being that cat behavior won't seem especially sexy if taking drugs makes hate difficult. It will merely tend to ruin otherwise possibly important relationships with cat people by making them unsexy. The danger from anti-anxiety or anti-depressant drugs (which presumably lack the "beer goggles" effect) is a sudden explosion of cat sentiment because the drugs cause people to ignore their natural fears indicative of a very real but poorly appreciated danger to themselves and humanity, causing them to deal with cat morals with wanton recklessness.

n.n said...

what we call "feminism" is more or less the Womens' Auxiliary of the statist Hive

It's worse than that. Progressive feminism is an acute form of chauvinism, that denies individual dignity (both male and female), and denies lives deemed unworthy. It is an auxiliary of the left's neo-National Socialism.

Sebastian said...

“I want you to think about the kind of image you project" Why can't Icelandic women handle that aphorism?

(I know, I know.)

FIDO said...

So, no porn since 1869 and most of the Icelandic women are feminists

And

Iceland, like all of Europe, has a less than replacement level birthrate.

Methinks I see a correlation.

The men of Iceland have a kick ass merchant marine and fishing fleet for reasons besides fish and stuff.


Daniel Jackson said...

Iceland is a rather interesting case; perhaps on one end of the Normal Distribution for anything demographic or even political. The fact that there is very little variation to the country's gene pool. Icelanders need a phone app to make sure they are not about to have incestuous sex. There is a rather well known correlation between interbreeding and diminished intellectual capacity. Hey, what sort of imbeciles could be generated after 1,000 years of screwing your relatives?

It would appear that any attempt to introduce a tad bit of heterogeneity into the gene pool has been blocked politically.

As for the Icelandic soccer team, I watch the World Cup last year and noted that these guys head-butted the ball a LOT! Hell, their last real estate tycoon made his money selling the island next door as a wonderful place for sheep with its lush green pastures. That was about 1,000 years ago.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Doesn't Bjork look, and sound, like there is something wrong with her?