The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

On ‘Feminist Men’ and Unicorns

Posted on | September 28, 2014 | 40 Comments

Chelsea Bock (@ChelseaCristene) is a young feminist writer and community college English instructor who came to my attention because of a blog post she wrote about E.J. Levy, but that’s another story for another day, or maybe later today. Anyway, curiosity led me to check Bock’s Twitter feed, where she was RT’ing stuff from the Good Men Project and #HeForShe and Autostraddle (!), and I was like, “Oh, I know this type. Trying to save males from their own sexism.”

In essence: You guys don’t know how to be men. Let me tell you how.

Sweetheart, you’re a unicorn hunter.

You’re chasing something that your theory tells you must exist somewhere — the Feminist Man — even though every previous claim to have found one turned out to be like the Piltdown Hoax. Bill Clinton was supposed to be the Feminist Man; it turned out his commitment to equality could be summarized in two words: “Blow me.” More recently, the unicorn hunters claimed that Professor Hugo Schwyzer was the Feminist Man, until it was revealed that he was in fact a dangerous psychotic with a habit of banging his community college students. Perhaps you see the pattern here.

If you’re a womanizing sociopathic narcissist on the hunt for some easy action, being a Feminist Man is definitely your gig.

One gets the idea, generally, that these unicorn hunters are perfectionists doomed forever to be disappointed with actual men, none of whom is ever going to fit the unrealistic requirements of being the Feminist Man. Do they want Ashley Wilkes or do they want Rhett Butler? Or is the problem that the Rhett Butler types are rare and usually not interested in the type of woman who says she wants a Feminist Man? When you get to the bottom line, really, you recognize that this is a personal problem for a certain group of disgruntled women, and not a problem that easily lends itself to one of those personal-to-political issue platforms.

Adulthood involves accepting that the world is what it is, and not wishing you could live in an imagined utopia. Make a choice: Do you want to grow up, or do you want to be a ToysRUs kid?

It seems that Chelsea Bock doesn’t like making choices. It’s possible to read between the lines of her writing and social media output. Did I mention that she RT’d an Autostraddle article? Yes, but what I didn’t say was that the article was about Bisexuality Awareness Week. And the subhead on her article about E.J. Levy? “There is no right or wrong way to be queer.” Also there’s this on her blog, Gender on the Rocks:

I do speak from a different point of view because I believe that we are all innately bisexual — just by varying degrees. And after this, I will definitely be writing more on queer theory in the future.

So you can be excused for thinking that maybe — just maybe — Chelsea is keeping her options open. Or maybe that she doesn’t have any really exciting options on her personal horizon. (We can imagine her Craigslist ad: Female, 26, seeks human of any gender willing to make exclusive romantic commitment to someone who is profoundly ambivalent about her erotic preferences.)

Sometimes if you can’t choose between men and women, what you’re really choosing is . . . cats. Lots of cats.

Feminists are not at war with men. They’re at war with human nature. Their demand for “gender equality” is like Hitler’s demand for the Sudetenland, where a compromise — “Peace for our time!” — is merely an invitation to further aggression. If there is such a thing as a Feminist Man, he probably looks a lot like Neville Chamberlain.

 




 

Category: Feminism, Sex Trouble

Comments

40 Responses to “On ‘Feminist Men’ and Unicorns”

  1. Phil_McG
    September 28th, 2014 @ 6:59 am

    Had a good laugh at one of her recent retweets from a gay man:

    “Some straight men are afraid gay and bisexual men will treat them EXACTLY how they treat women.
    Interesting how that works.”

    Yes, we’re afraid gay and bisexual men will buy us stuff, put up with our mood swings, and let us talk their ears off. Terrifying.

  2. CrustyB
    September 28th, 2014 @ 9:11 am

    It’s fun to pretend you’re a victim!

    Reminds me of a story Tom Wolff told about Marshall McLuhan. They and some writer friends realized they had never been in a nudie bar before so they decided to check one out. They went in, took a table, and a topless woman came over to take their drink orders. Each man was very uncomfortable and stumbled over their words, stuttering as they gave their orders. When the bare-breasted woman walked away McLuhan scoffed.

    “These women aren’t naked at all!”

    The men were confused. “What the hell are you talking about?” Wolff asked.

    “Gentlemen,” McLuhan responded, “we are the naked ones.”

    The power in sex is on women’s side. Men are just led around by the nose.

  3. robertstacymccain
    September 28th, 2014 @ 9:28 am

    “Men are just led around by the nose.”

    We are “led around,” but I don’t think the nose is the organ by which this is done.

  4. Paul H. Lemmen
    September 28th, 2014 @ 10:38 am

    Heh. Escapism to a mental (and thus unattainable) Utopia.
    Feminists fear real men because they cannot control them with their vaginas. The Rhett Butler types they desire won’t put up with their crap.
    Start sending out those starter kits …

  5. The Daley Gator | Five Bog posts you BETTER read today
    September 28th, 2014 @ 11:37 am

    […] The Other McCain asks why Feminists prefer unicorns to men. And NO, it isn’t that you perverts! […]

  6. RS
    September 28th, 2014 @ 12:41 pm

    I attempted to explain the truth of your comment to my son who recently attended his first homecoming dance, the preparations for which were orchestrated by a number of 15 year old girls, and which would have flummoxed Klemens von Metternich at the Congress of Vienna.

    Towit: It is always and only about the dress. You, as the male escort, carry an importance less than the dress, the shoes, the accessories, the hair, the venue for the photos, the venue for the pre-homecoming repast, the location of the post-homecoming party, and your tie. Yes, the color of your tie is more important than you. Your job is to show up and detract from your date in any way, shape or form. Learn that lesson now, and it will save you from countless problems in the future.

  7. badanov
    September 28th, 2014 @ 12:54 pm

    Bill Clinton was supposed to be the Feminist Man; it turned out his commitment to equality could be summarized in two words: “Blow me.”

    Thanks for the belly laugh.

  8. RS
    September 28th, 2014 @ 1:16 pm

    “*[N]ot* detract.” My bad.

  9. CrustyB
    September 28th, 2014 @ 1:30 pm

    Your job is to show up and not detract from your date in any way, shape or form.

    Indeed. The focus of sex (in the broad sense of the term) is the woman’s body. The man focuses on the woman’s body and the woman focuses on the woman’s body.

    BTW Klemens von Metternich at the Congress of Vienna jokes crack me up every time!

  10. Jeanette Victoria
    September 28th, 2014 @ 2:17 pm

    Makes me so glad I was the nerd girl with the slide rule in HS. I really didn’t start to date until College.

  11. Jeanette Victoria
    September 28th, 2014 @ 2:19 pm

    The problem with feminist “men” is they like to talk and share their feelings. I can’t think of anything more unpleasant.

  12. Steve Skubinna
    September 28th, 2014 @ 3:58 pm

    If a woman wants a man to chatter away with about handbags and interior decorating and sip Cosmos with, that’s what gay friends are for.

  13. Quartermaster
    September 28th, 2014 @ 4:07 pm

    Slide Rule? You realize how much that dates you?

  14. Quartermaster
    September 28th, 2014 @ 4:08 pm

    Anatomically male, perhaps, but not men.

  15. Steve Skubinna
    September 28th, 2014 @ 4:09 pm

    The takeaway here is that feminists are, at best, at war with human nature.

    At worst they are at war with humanity.

  16. robertstacymccain
    September 28th, 2014 @ 4:12 pm

    The customs and rituals associated with “popularity” were never something I engaged in or cared about, so that I attained an objectivity about social status at a precocious age. From the homecoming dance to The Big Wedding, one sees how all this is done by women, for women. Gender-wise, it’s self-referential, and men have no influence over the “popularity” game, despite the fact that somehow the girls consider the companionship of a high-status male as the trophy to be awarded for a girl’s victory in the game of “popularity.”

    This is one reason I’ve never understood “The Beauty Myth” (Naomi Wolf) argument that the dictates of fashion and media culture are imposed on females by the patriarchy. Everyone of any consequence in the world of fashion is either a woman or a gay man, It’s not as if the ads and features in Vogue are the work of Southern Baptists from Oklahoma. Personally, I’ve always considered women’s magazines a species of decadent trash, and view the fashion industry as a racket. How am I, then, as a prototypical right-wing male supremacist, somehow implicated in the “body image” problems that fashion magazines are said to produce?

    But if feminists were capable of logic, they wouldn’t be feminists, would they?

  17. Jeanette Victoria
    September 28th, 2014 @ 4:45 pm

    I can’t disagree there. And I can’t stand vapid women who share their feelings as well.

  18. Jeanette Victoria
    September 28th, 2014 @ 4:48 pm

    LOL my best freidn in High School was gay we never talked about interior decorating (LOL and his lover was a interior decorator), We mostly spoke about places we wanted to travel too and went to art shows and plays

  19. Jeanette Victoria
    September 28th, 2014 @ 4:51 pm

    Yup I’m older than dirt

  20. Paul H. Lemmen
    September 28th, 2014 @ 5:00 pm

    Heh. I would have dated you! You were my kind of girl back then, one with a mind. After all, at age 7 I started using this handy guide from 1934 (snitched it from my father and I still have it).

  21. Bob Belvedere
    September 28th, 2014 @ 5:43 pm

    I asked my [then] wife to be if I could help her with the Wedding planning and she told me: ‘Just show up on time, look pretty, and don’t drink beforehand’.

  22. Bob Belvedere
    September 28th, 2014 @ 5:44 pm

    Well, since Feminism is a form of Leftism and Leftism is a war with Humanity…

  23. concern00
    September 28th, 2014 @ 5:46 pm

    Pursuing the unicorn ensures that feminism becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, otherwise known as an inescapable trap for the unwary.

  24. Daniel Freeman
    September 28th, 2014 @ 6:50 pm

    Ironically, another definition of “unicorn” is a cute bi chick who’s into older couples. So if she gave up on monogamy, she could be a unicorn instead of looking for one.

  25. RS
    September 28th, 2014 @ 7:15 pm

    That advice is good for about 90% of life’s interactions.

  26. RS
    September 28th, 2014 @ 9:11 pm

    The substance if my point above, is if the nefarious Patriarchy in fact existed, there would be none of this stuff. Homecoming Dances would consist of a bank of recliners and 250 X-Box consoles, plus endless chicken wings and soda.

  27. On ‘Feminist Men’ and Unicorns | That Mr. G Guy's Blog
    September 28th, 2014 @ 9:33 pm

    […] On ‘Feminist Men’ and Unicorns. […]

  28. Steve Skubinna
    September 28th, 2014 @ 10:12 pm

    No, leftists love humanity. It’s individual humans they hate.

  29. Quartermaster
    September 29th, 2014 @ 6:27 am

    ThasOK! I still have my slip stick.

  30. Quartermaster
    September 29th, 2014 @ 6:30 am

    If you said that back when I was Hi Skool, I would have asked, “what is an Xbox.” My friends and I also would have told you to feed the wings to the cat.

  31. Jeanette Victoria
    September 29th, 2014 @ 7:58 am

    LOL

    http://youtu.be/FGfYlyfk4fU

  32. RS
    September 29th, 2014 @ 9:16 am

    Yes, well I grew up under more humble circumstances. Chicken Legs were for the glitterati; actual chicken breasts were reserved for European royalty. Yea, verily, it was the humble wing drummie which provided us sustenance. But then only on Sundays, (two per person) along with half a potato and two green beans.

    I also walked 15 miles to school, uphill both ways, of course.

  33. Paul H. Lemmen
    September 29th, 2014 @ 9:24 am

    At -15, in chest deep snow year-round?

  34. ‘My Hypothetical Daughter’ : The Other McCain
    September 29th, 2014 @ 10:42 am

    […] zany Gender Studies type, there are sure to be many more. Thus while I was reading an article by Chelsea Bock, I noticed in the sidebar an article by Emily Heist Moss with this eye-grabbing […]

  35. Quartermaster
    September 29th, 2014 @ 11:01 am

    You left out the knee deep snow.

  36. Quartermaster
    September 29th, 2014 @ 11:02 am

    But, not all women sharing their feelings are vapid. Just ask my wife right after we conclude an argument.

  37. Quartermaster
    September 29th, 2014 @ 11:03 am

    Humanity as a concept, perhaps, but that’s as far as it goes. They wish to dominate humanity.

  38. theoldsargesays
    September 29th, 2014 @ 10:46 pm

    Don’t you mean …”after she concludes your argument”?

  39. Quartermaster
    September 30th, 2014 @ 6:20 am

    No.

  40. News of the Week (October 5th, 2014) | The Political Hat
    October 5th, 2014 @ 4:20 pm

    […] On ‘Feminist Men’ and Unicorns Chelsea Bock (@ChelseaCristene) is a young feminist writer and community college English instructor who came to my attention because of a blog post she wrote about E.J. Levy, but that’s another story for another day, or maybe later today. Anyway, curiosity led me to check Bock’s Twitter feed, where she was RT’ing stuff from the Good Men Project and #HeForShe and Autostraddle (!), and I was like, “Oh, I know this type. Trying to save males from their own sexism.” […]