Man-Witch Hunt In Progress
I’ve had just about nothing whatsoever to say about #MeToo because I’m firmly of the belief that the smartest thing I can do is keep my mouth fucking shut. Do I have opinions? You betcha. Does anybody want to hear them? Maybe a few other old fat white guys; if so, they can email me. The smartest Mitch “The Turtle” McConnell has looked in years was when he said, in response to a direct question, “I believe the women” before scuttling away down a hallway, but the smart part was that he declined to elaborate.
That said, I’ve got nothing in my heart but dark hilarious mockery for men who bring complaints about witch hunts to the conversation. Tone deaf, history-ignorant idiots, apparently, with no idea who witches were or why they were hunted. So I laughed when I saw this Norm Saunders pulp art detail from the cover of the December 1973 Man’s Story magazine. It’s the witch hunt, boys, and it’s coming for you! You better run!
Illustration is for a story called “The Wild Raid Of The Lace Panty Commandos” which only makes it better.
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=20313
I should remark at this juncture that a well-meaning commenter linked in all good spirit of mockery to a place where “man-babies” were indeed whining about this very thing. I didn’t pass the comment through moderation because pointing and laughing still has an amplifying effect on the braying of the asses; so too does this post I suppose, but if I’ve just splashed a lidful of gasoline on the fire, I’m still not wanting to leave the bottle open.
I think our role can be to call each other to higher standards of behaviour, and continuing to keep an open discussion with the general objects of our desire as to how we can best express our intent and hear what theirs is, so we can negotiate a mutually agreeable amount of intimacy.
I like to refer to dating someone as ‘doing the dance’, because there are so many parallels. There are rules, which you can play around with if you really know what you’re doing, practice helps, as does natural skill, and if you start stepping on toes or putting your hands in the wrong places, you’re likely to get slapped, or told/made to leave and not come back.
I think that’s fair. But in the spirit of calling each other to higher standards of behavior, the resolution currently before the house is that well short of being slapped or asked to leave, a woman could potentially feel harassed or intimidated by behavior that a man may have been socialized to consider “normal” seduction. That the man would not necessarily KNOW this seems very important to men and lawyers; having it pointed out by such is just (observational data point) additionally infuriating to the women who have experienced it.
What’s dumbfounding to me is that more than a few of the men in that thread I linked don’t want to “know”.
Yeah. And I think I know why, too. If their “seduction” routine doesn’t press every woman to the point of a “hard no”, they might in theory end an evening without sexing some woman who might eventually have consented. And what greater tragedy can there be than an unrubbed penis? Against such great evil, are they to weigh the mere feelings of women?
Gah. You’re gonna get me in trouble…
I’d say that a higher quality of man has a sense of when feelings aren’t being reciprocated, and leaves the other person to their ablutions. I would certainly agree that many current standards of ‘normal’ behaviour could use some polish, at the very least. As others have noted, our societies tend to carry a lot of old traditions that are getting in the way of enjoying ourselves more.
I keep reminding people that the age of modern contraceptives and STI treatments isn’t really very old, it wasn’t long ago that there were very real risks associated with being more permissive, or at the very least costs. Our culture is still heavily influenced by the Dark Times, before the Pill, good and cheap Condoms, and cheap and quick testing, and treatments, for the more regular kinds of STIs. I have hope for a happier and sexier future.