Flip Articles On Their Head
The simple trick I use to identify author prejudice and sort the reasoned wheat from the rhetorical chaff.
I am so sick of commentary and emotional vomit. I write a lot about being male, politics, and sociological issues. I also occasionally put out a funny article because I fancy myself a funny person. Mostly, though, I write articles that rub women the wrong way; usually it is the same kind of woman, over and over and over again.
The “block” button has become my best friend, because eventually I got sick of reading and responding to the comments of hysterical women with very, very fragile egos. The gender war is real here on the internet, especially because women can comment with impunity from the safety of their keyboards.
The problem is, they think their opinion matters.
These women not only think that their opinion matters, but that they have every single right to voice their shitty opinions all over the writing of men. Men who, surprise Becky, don’t give a damn about what you think.
Why is it that as men, our stories and comments are not only discounted, but questioned and invalidated by entitled feminists?
Why do these women think that we care?
We’re writing our stories and we’re told that somehow, our personal stories are wrong, our opinions are wrong, and that we’re liars. Regardless of what we do, we’re doing it wrong; but only because women say so.
That is why I’m proposing a “fuck it” stance for all of us white men, black men, asian men, gay men, trans-gender people, and anybody else who doesn’t fit the entitled, white feminist role.
Listen, if we’re virgins, we’re failures. If we’re sexually active, we’re fuckboys. If we’re fuckboys, we aren’t good husband or father material. If we’re in charge of our own lives, we’re selfish bastards. If we’re shy and socially awkward, we’re on the road to being incels.
If we believe we are entitled to some space anywhere, we’re not. So why should we care anymore? Fuck it. Do whatever you want, be who you want to be, and don’t give entitled women the time of day.
I very rarely ever respond to comments anymore. Instead I remove them from my posts, and block the women who post them. Because,
- I don’t have time for that.
- I don’t care about the opinion of entitled women on the internet.
- I would never, ever, in my right mind, post a comment on anything that just rips a person apart for no reason other than to appease myself — and that is exactly what these women are doing.
- It’s so, so boring.
- I’m done, d o n e, giving women my time, energy, or space; and you can bet your bottom dollar that pisses them off the most.
Listen, if you’re a woman reading this, a woman who believes you are entitled to do and say whatever you want, it’s 2021, times are changing, and you can’t and won’t ever shut me up. You want to argue that misandry doesn’t exist, and leave me backhanded comments about my credentials? Go fuck yourself.
What I’m trying to say is, you’re boring and nobody wants to hear your shitty opinion.
The point is, that none of these comments make any sense whatsoever, and none of them matter. So, I remove them, I block the women who post them, and I continue on with my day.
I’m so over fragile feminists, it’s just not a good look, it’s so boring, and by not giving these women the space they clearly desperately desire, I’m telling them that they do not deserve that space — and you should tell them too.
It’s time for us to take up space and it’s time for women to realize that they do not get to do whatever they want with impunity anymore.
Blocked. Deleted. Reported. Bye forever, Becky.
The second half of this article is very different…
Doesn’t sound like the usual penguin article does it? You’d be right there. It isn’t. This article was gender-flipped from one I read in ‘Fearless She Wrote’ back in 2020.
It was one I copied and pasted out of disbelief. I couldn’t believe it was a) accepted into a publication and b) curated to a wider audience.I’ve made some minor changes and variations to help with flow, I cut it down a little for brevity — but what is written above is as close to the original article in reverse as I could make it.
The flipped version and commentary is my rebuttal of the author’s approach to the subject. I’m presuming my inversion counts as ‘fair use’ under parody… but we’ll see. I don’t want to plagiarise but I feel there’s a point to be made
Medium should be a place for discussion, debate, sensible conversation and personal growth. A place to interact with the ideas and conceptual framework of others with politeness and political compassion.
Dismissing an entire group of people based on any immutable characteristic is problematic. Dismissing any critique of your ideology by retreating into an echo chamber and blocking anyone who disagrees is immature.
The original is an example of misandry marketed under the banner of feminism. The gender-flipped version is therefore misogyny pretending to be male empowerment.
It sounds like incel vomited hate speech. Consider what that means.
One of the things I do with articles is flip what is being argued on its head. That works very well with both race and sex. If your newly flipped version sounds like a racist or sexist diatribe of the sort that would get you arrested if you published it — the author is prejudiced.
Note the word prejudiced. Words matter.
The author may have perfectly good reasons for being angry or prejudiced but that is a separate matter to whether their arguments are sound. They might be sounding off. I suspect this author was... but that doesn’t offer any viable solutions to the problem being presented.
There are lots of arguments to be had about why doing such a mental exercise is problematic. For one thing, such authors tend to be writing against the prevailing societal imbalance. They’re writing from the position of the theoretical underdog and this means their words lack power.
Those are valid arguments and I’ll happily debate them, I consider such a defence somewhat semantic in nature. The question remains… is this really the quality of discourse society deserves? This argument of ‘lacking power’ does nothing to improve the quality of the overall conversation. Given the propensity of people to only read things they agree with, I’d argue it makes things worse.
Back to this article, chances are if you were outraged by my flipped version, you’d love the original (and vice- versa). This poses a real problem for how men and women relate to each other in digital spaces.
Being prejudiced against the opposite sex is not the same as pushing for equality between the sexes (even if your prejudice is justified)
The author and I do agree on some things.
Comments can be insulting and abusive and there is no real place for abuse on Medium. Having been an avid reader of comments I can say such attacks happen to female writers by male readers more than the other way round.
This is wrong. Unequivocally wrong…Don’t do that. Don’t ever do that.
But having someone politely disagree with you is not a form of oppression and doesn’t need to be treated like a personal attack.
When you strike a disrespectful and combative tone in your own writing is it hardly surprising when you get blowback? And before this line of argument begins, this is not victim-blaming, if you go out looking for a fight don’t be surprised when one comes calling.
When I’m disrespectful in my writing — and I fully admit sometimes I skirt into that territory — I expect to get called out in the comments. I often do and it’s great. Not because I like arguing (though I do a little bit) but because it really separates out those people who can debate and those who want to wang an insult in your direction and run off.
Some of the most initially aggressive comments I get do lead to very interesting debates. Push people hard enough and you can find the kernel of consensus and agreement.
Angry ill-informed comments are often left in place as a digital monument to the stupidity contained therein.
Even if you hated this article…
Let’s have a good discussion about where this latest iteration of feminism is going right and wrong. Let’s talk about misogyny and misandry that goes beyond the scope of this article. Let’s have the sort of conversation that gives the people who stumble upon it further things to reflect upon.
I’m not openly male or female on the platform —I’m not openly anything but Penguin. If you’ve got insights to add about being either sex or even being both sexes on this platform then lets discuss them like rational adults.
I’d love to link you to the original article but the author has blocked me. If nothing else, she’s got a consistent world view.
So whether you like this article or hate it… challenge me, agree with me, disagree with me but let’s find a respectful space where genuine psychological change can be crafted. We can make a concerted effort to learn something new about what it’s like for other individuals on this platform.
Medium is a marketplace for ideas and audiences should be encouraged to find each other. For that reason feel free to link articles you’ve written about your own experiences writing on this platform in the comments section.
Surely even that tiny inclusive gesture is better than hurling hand-grenade-insults across no-persons-land and scurrying back into our own ideological trenches. We’ve got to be better than the first half of this article suggests we can be.
Otherwise, I fear that Medium will become Twitter with an unlimited character count.
Want to get to know me better? I’ve got an article for that.