Because I think many people do not truly appreciate the level of specifically gendered abuse women on the Internet are subjected to, simply for being women daring to say anything publicly, I’m going to start collecting mine here. Just starting from now; I do not have the energy or strength to go back and gather the older stuff. I expect this post to grow quickly. (Comments on posts may have been deleted by me. Tweets may have been deleted by their original posters.)
posted March 21, 2019:
I’ve gotten a lot of abuse for my review of Captain Marvel, including the tedious “feminazi” label, but this one is an obnoxious low:
I never understand why men think calling a woman ugly or unfuckable is a negation of her intellect. But thanks to absolute human shitstains like this asshole for proving how utterly essential feminism continues to be.
posted February 20, 2019:
There’s a lot of nasty shit in response to my total rip of Alita: Battle Angel, but this is simply the most hilarious antiwoman thing so far, and maybe ever:
Sabretruthtiger — gotta love how these guys always gotta shout about how much “truth” they are slinging — thinks a woman would be jealous of manufactured robot bodies! Or of phony CGI cuteness! As if any adult woman would want to look like an artificial waif! Poor, poor dude really does not understand a damn thing about women. Which shocks me not in the least.
posted January 7, 2019:
My slam of Aquaman has really upset the fanboys (and a few fangirls, if screen names are anything to go by, which they probably aren’t). I’ve had to close comments on that thread because it was turning into a cesspool. Lowlights:
The standard witticism of “you need to get laid”:
Accusations of being an “angry feminist pseudo lesbian,” among other tedious negative stereotypes of women who prefer to be considered human:
(Also: “so old”? Are men “so old” at 49? Of course not.)
I’m just “jealous” of “beautiful strong women,” says a “handsome devil” (*snort*):
The movie’s not sexist; I am, in fact, the one who is sexist:
I’m a feminist scold ruining everyone’s fun, oh noes:
I’m destined to be a cat lady (presumes this is a bad thing):
I’m a “silly bitch” and a “cunt.” (“Cultural vandal” is awesome, though. I’m keeping that one.)
(Not featured here is the non-gendered abuse my review has received. The fun never ends!)
posted May 21, 2018:
The misogynistic insults I’m getting in response to my review of Deadpool 2 are about as original as the movie itself. This one came by email (open the image in a new tab or window for a larger, more legible version):
posted Apr 11, 2018:
A comment on my review of A Million Ways to Die in the West:
But remember, it’s feminists who hate men!
posted Jan 01, 2018:
Getting the new year off to an unsurprisingly shitty start (a response to spoiler alert: about the ending of Spring):
posted Apr 28, 2017:
My review of Avatar: The Last Airbender — an animated TV show about a serene peacemaker — prompted this spew:
I would suggest that this level of hatred and anger does nothing but prove my point that the show is ineffectual at telling the story it wants to tell. Clearly, it had no influence for the better on this asshole (whose IP address and email address have been noted, and may be passed to law enforcement).
The clear-eyed, logical, unemotional, totally appropriately masculine feedback to my review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is beginning to flow in (I expect much more).
I’m not sure what my vagina has to do with my review, or how a supposedly less dusty vagina would have changed my reaction to the film, but I do wonder if funkmasterrex *snort* will be suggesting to all the male critics who’re less than happy with the movie that they dust off their penises.
skwirll has no love in his life, except (presumably) from small arboreal rodents:
He also sounds like someone who probably needs to be reported to the authorities.
posted Nov 22, 2016:
I’m pretty sure the real Albus Dumbledore commented on my review of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It sounds just like him!
posted Jun 09, 2016:
It never ends: this email greeted me first thing this morning. As you can see, this gentleman neglected, in his sputtering rage, to even tell me which review made him so angry. Not that it matters:
Imagine how small and sad your life must be to spend time composing an email like this.
posted Jun 08, 2016:
This was inevitable. I trash Warcraft and the he-man woman haters crawl under from under their rocks:
What a couple of princes!
posted May 31, 2016:
A late response to my review of Eddie the Eagle:
Remember, if you’re tired of mediocre men being treated as heroes onscreen while extraordinary women cannot get their stories told, that means you hate men. I mean, obviously.
posted May 17, 2016:
My review of The Angry Birds Movie got linked at a bunch of virtual cesspits including Reddit, 4chan, and 8chan (which is, yes, twice as awful as 4chan), which brought out the mouth-breathers:
The specificity of this guy’s fantasies! I hope it helps him get off.
Anyone know what grellish means? I don’t know in which direction I’m supposed to be hurt by this…
posted April 30, 2016:
My review of Ratchet & Clank is bringing out the little boys pissing their pants over the notion of a world not dominated by men:
Remember: If you’re tired of movies about men — or even about male alien cat-things and male robots — you’re probably a butch lesbian who wants to oppress and humiliate men.
Let the humiliation begin!
posted April 13, 2016:
My post about the ending of the movie Spring continues to draw vile responses:
I think the username “Dicksrapeyouhard” may actually constitute an actionable threat. (The commenter’s IP address has been noted.) Though I’m much more offended at being called a neoliberal, a term that this person clearly does not know the definition of.
posted February 10, 2016:
I knew my review of Deadpool would bring out the He Man Woman Haters Club, and I have absolutely no patience to deal with them at the moment, so I’ve already closed comments on that review. But not before these charming gentlemen stopped by:
I don’t know what it means that the only coherent bits in this comment are the insults, but surely there is significance there:
And because abuse is always more fun when it comes from multiple directions at once, I woke up to this on Twitter this morning:
I was wondering where my husband got to. Good to know.
posted January 21, 2016:
This might be my favorite idiotic misogynist slur yet (in response to my review of The Revenant):
That’s sort of beautiful, in an ugly way. I presume “camurcu” believes that getting married to “a real man” would somehow get me off this wrongheaded feminist path I’m on and set me on the straight and narrow. I wonder if “camurcu” actually knows any women… or any men, for that matter.
posted December 22, 2015:
Merry Christmas to me! A misogynist elf left this little gift in reply to my review of In the Heart of the Sea:
Translation:
You… you… you… [sputtering] lady, you! You girl! You female who bleeds! If only you didn’t spend so much time being so emotionally overwhelmed by tampon commercials, you would be able to think logically — like a man who doesn’t bleed — about this movie that I am calmly and rationally disagreeing with you about.
posted October 23, 2015:
This was posted in response to my review of Goosebumps. It’s nice to know that the YA demographic is itself capable of creative writing:
This is so creative, in fact, that I’m still trying to divine how thundercunt is intended to be an insult. Is the author suggesting that I am being a woman in too loud and unignorable a way, when I should be quiet and demure and keep my opinion to myself, like a proper lady? I’m not sure thundercunt works as an insult at all, though. It sounds like I’m being called a female force of nature, which is a good thing, as far as I’m concerned.
posted October 02, 2015:
My post examining the ending of Spring now drives a man to concern over my sex life:
Remember, guys: If you disagree with a woman, the best course of action is to disparage her sexually. It will let her know you’re a strong, virile sort of man.
posted September 06, 2015:
In response to my review of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, this charming comment:
A clucking hen with fish gills sounds like a comic-book monster designed by a five-year-old.
posted August 22, 2015:
Woke up to this on Twitter this morning. Lovely start to the day:
Dude on Twitter (now blocked, of course) thinks feminism isn’t modern, and that “frustrated feminist” is an insult. (Of course feminists are frustrated! The world stubbornly insists on remaining unfeminist.) And since when is “young” supposed to hurt a woman? Aren’t we all commanded to remain forever young or face invisibility? Make up your mind, man!
posted August 05, 2015:
I just received this charming email. No indication what prompted it:
There is something very special about this cry of despair. I am confident in guessing that Jonathan is an especially privileged white man, based on his full name and place of work, as revealed by the work email he cleverly used to send this. And it’s clear from his howl that he is made very uncomfortable being asked to consider a perspective anything other than the especially-privileged-white-male one he is used to seeing in the media. And that he is completely unaware that everyone who isn’t an especially privileged white man has somehow managed to cope with this exact situation since forever.
I wonder if anyone has ever written to Roger Ebert or Mark Kermode to complain that, as straight white men, they were not relatable to anyone not standing in straight-white-man shoes.
I shouldn’t gloat, but it’s fun to see white men forced to confront the reality that theirs is not the default perspective on the world.
posted July 21, 2015:
Another fine example of gentlemanliness checks in regarding my post examining the ending of Spring:
Douching is actually incredibly bad for one’s sensitive ladyparts; douches are products designed by the capitalist patriarchy to shame women for the natural functioning of their bodies and get us to spend money we could otherwise blow on feminazi uniforms and custom underarm-hair braiding. So I’m fairly confident in saying that there’s probably no such thing as a feminist douchebag.
And lest there be any mistaking the reality that women can be misogynist, we hear from a charming and supportive lady, in response to my review of How Do You Know:
I presume she got her husband’s permission before logging on to the Internet, reading anything that might infect her delicate and beautiful mind, and expressing an opinion in public.
Jennie’s husband must have been feeling particularly generous, because he also permitted her to comment on my review of Minions:
I know she didn’t mean to do so, but I thank Jennie for pointing out just how male-dominated even cartoon characters are! Tom & Jerry. Alvin and the Chipmunks. When will it all end?
posted July 06, 2015:
In response to my post about the paltry number of female protagonists in U.K. wide releases in the first half of 2015:
I really don’t understand how highlighting the gender disparity onscreen makes me a whore. I really don’t understand how I’m part of the problem. (At least this guy recognizes that there is a problem.) And I really don’t understand how statistical analysis based on what’s up on the screen demonstrates that I’m dumb.
But then, I’m just an irrational girl who emotionally overreacts to everything. Unlike randy savage, who is calm and reasonable and has facts to back up his position.
posted June 12, 2015:
In response to my post examining the ending of Spring:
Another man who thinks that feminist is an insult, and that he is wounding me by calling me one.
posted June 05, 2015:
In response to my review of Spring:
Shrill is one of those words intended to shame women into shutting up, lest a man perceive us to be unpleasant oh noes! What would we do without the good opinion of all men everywhere all the time?
Ain’t gonna happen, dude. Your discomfort is the point.
As for bra-burning: Only a man would suggest something like this. You guys have no freakin’ idea how much the damn things cost. Burn one? Might as well just light a wad of cash on fire.
(FYI, the Spring review and my post examining its ending are doing a wonderful job at the moment of freaking dudes out over the idea that a man is not automatically deserving of an amazing girlfriend just because he’s a dude. It’s almost like these guys hate me pointing out how male ego-stroking isn’t a ton of fun to watch.)
posted May 17, 2015:
Posted to comments following my Where Are the Women? ranking for 2015 films, though this was in response to a comment by reader amanohyo:
Poor Klokinator has never has sex with a feminist, who have been scientifically proven to be better in bed.
posted May 10, 2015:
In response to my review of The Voices:
The fact that feminist is considered an insult in some quarters says it all…
posted April 13, 2015:
In response to my analysis of the ending of Spring:
Spoken like a man who is terrified of women with opinions.
posted April 10, 2015:
In response to my review of The Voices:
As yet, “Kieser Sozay” has been unable to explain how complaining about a certain depiction of women being murdered is equivalent to hating men. Perhaps it’s unfairly denying the liberty of men who wish to murder women?
posted April 08, 2015:
In response to my review of The Voices, from someone who apparently believes he has verbally raped me:
posted April 04, 2015:
In response to my review of Get Hard:
I probably shouldn’t say this, but the crazy power I have to take toys away from angry little boys is pretty sweet. The looks of dismay on their faces when their fun suddenly disappears is beautiful.
Some general love for my work:
He deleted this tweet, but not before it ended up in my in-box. (Power Beaver is now my new superhero identity.)
This one, in reply to my review of Cinderella, is, by comparison, downright old-fashioned and chivalrous:
I wonder if I would shock him if I showed a bit of ankle…
posted April 01, 2015:
In response to my review of Furious 7 (and I suspect there will be many more):
posted March 10, 2015:
In response to my review of Cinderella:
In response to my review of It Follows:
This is absolutely disgusting. Keep doing what you’re doing, MA!
what’s horrifying is how each of those trolls are getting a nice warm feeling inside their empty lives, having gone out of their way to TRY to humiliate a woman, any woman. It’d be pitiful if they ever deserved any pity in the first place.
No, what’s truly horrifying is that some of them aren’t even trolls. Ignorance isn’t blissful in the slightest.
Kyle Baker just tweeted a quote from the Havamal:
That seems backwards. Or maybe not. Aphorisms: not always clear.
Nope. Not backwards.
Anything or anybody that pisses white dudes or trolls this much off has got to be worth reading,lol. All those stupid insults from these troll haters who clearly have some screwed-up issues with women, have made me want to read your reviews to see what pissed them off. Screw them anyway—keep doing what you’re doing, and frankly, feminist film review sites like this one are very much needed
to point out the sexism in films that’s so normalized that it’s not always pointed out how insidious it is. So thanks a lot for having a feminist take on movies, and screw these haters.
If we come across other gendered abuse you previously received on the site, shall we add it in the comments?
If you want. But I’m only going to add to the original post above going forward.
It’s appalling. I may disagree with you on some reviews, but some comments on your Cinderella review are uncalled for. The gendered abuse needs to stop, but some people don’t get it or choose not to.
You have every right to criticize a movie if it’s not to your liking and frankly, your honesty is refreshing.
On an unrelated note, I was glad to learn there was someone else who didn’t like “Avatar: The Last Airbender” either.
I’m pretty sure we’ve all disagreed with MaryAnn at one point or another; I wouldn’t be surprised if *she* hadn’t changed her mind about a movie or two in her life. I know for a fact I would love it if she would take back everything positive she said about Thor. It was, for me, a colossal bore and I would have walked out if it weren’t for the person I was with who wanted to see the whole thing.
Thing is, the gendered abuse by some isn’t ever going to stop. This is the wages of breathing while female.
[ Thing is, the gendered abuse by some isn’t ever going to stop. This is the wages of breathing while female. ]
Somehow, this is the saddest thing I have heard in a long time.
Well, not breathing. As long as we breathe quietly. It’s the minute we open our bitch mouths to do anything other than suck a cock that we get all the abuse we’re asking for.
If that were the case, women who have the temerity to leave their home unchaperoned or unveiled in many places wouldn’t be attacked. Nope, I stick by breathing while female. I live in NYC and am generally pretty damn fortunate in my random luck at being born here; yet, yet…ultimately, like in that Lizzie Borden film, we are all born in flames.
Oh, sure. But I was speaking specifically of the sort of abuse I receive as a result of my work here.
Or any color female, or just being a female existing on this earth sometimes, period.
After my fan rage died down I had to admit that the episodes she was reviewing did indeed suck. I like the new series better, it has a female lead that is the incarnation of healthy self-confidence.
It’s always funny to me when people get mad at MaryAnn for doing her job as a critic. Nothing is more boring to me than when I walk out of a movie with the exact same impression as my friends. I like friendly arguments most of the time.
The stupid thing is that most of the above comments are completely undermined by their ugly language and thoughtless insults. I think you’re right, some people just don’t get it.
This isn’t about disagreement. It’s about shutting women up. Men who say the *exact* same things to do not get abused like this. Often they get no pushback at all.
That too, absolutely.
I don’t think that cohort is as small as you think it is.
Only 1 example for It Follows! The comments underneath your review of that are almost all horrendously misogynist and awful. (Not mine though. My comment is great)
Lol. ;-) Of course! It’s wonderful!
Go check out her review of Scott Pilgrim for more. I think the review of The Lorax also attracted a bunch. Depending on your mood, it can be entertaining.
I don’t always agree with your opinions, but you deserve none of this. Keep doing what you’re doing and let these people wallow in their own narrow-mindedness.
From the review of The Skin I Live In from 2011:
I was thinking about this and how it even ranges from grotesque on up to “benevolent.”
Example: I had what I felt to be a negative experience debating with a friend online. I sent a message saying that while I was unhappy about it, I was sure it would have gone better in person, better understood tone, yada yada. The response was nice, but did include a bunch of statements of reassurance, that I am doing fine, etc…
As much as I appreciated the friend-affirming response, I have to wonder. He didn’t respond to me as his equal, but as someone looking for his approval.
I notice these little things more as I get older.
It’s with added “oh, hey, here’s a way I can get my point across”. (The point, all too often, is “I am not actually fit for civilisation”, but still.)
aaaand… Mike holds the lead.
If it’s the same Mike. I can’t tell.
Either way it’s kind of impressive.
It’s so heartbreaking and frightening that you receive enough of this to merit keeping a record of it here. :(
Just noticed another comment from Cinderella that could be here: http://www.flickfilosopher.com/2015/03/cinderella-movie-review-fifty-shades-of-ash.html#comment-1896661730
Posted it. Thanks.
Drukin the lurker is a piece of work. He calls your reviews “uncalled for” and “unwanted”, yet doesn’t stop to think for a moment that bashing someone online qualifies as “uncalled for” and “unwanted” behaviour?
These people must feel lost when commenting at male reviewers, it seems like most of their arguments are more or less “you’re a woman so what do you know.”
I scrolled through Ichi’s Disqus history. Most of his comments sound like this Bloom County strip:
http://cartoonistsgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=80202
I should not have clicked on that link. What a worm hole. I used to love that strip.
:-(
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/2015/03/the-voices-movie-review-losing-my-cool.html#comment-1956710267
Recent.
Oh, that hit my radar instantly this morning. And now it’s added to the post.
Too bad there’s no way of canceling their internet privileges.
Stumbled on a quoted bit of abuse from way back in your Meet Dave review. (Yes, from your link in the Human Centipede comments.) I gather you erased the original comment you quoted from, and according to Anne-Kari it was someone with Serra in their name: https://www.flickfilosopher.com/2008/07/meet-dave-review.html#comment-912390666
The comment she quoted is still there, and it isn’t abusive. It says that MaryAnn has the right to walk out on a bad movie, because she isn’t a prostitute, and she doesn’t have to give in to every demand “the public” makes.
MaryAnn’s response to the comment, however, was perfect.
“Serra” appears to be a reference to Inara Serra on Firefly.
Oh, shit. This does not bode well for me getting work done today if I’m missing stuff like that. (I thought I had read every comment thoroughly.) OK, I’m deleting my comment above. You want to delete yours?
Thank you for looking!!
Nah, I’m going to edit my post so that people think your deleted comment was incredibly offensive: “How DARE you say that about women and Cthulhu?!” They’ll drive themselves crazy trying to imagine what scandalous thing you wrote.
Excellent!! Now this thread is cluttered. MAJ might want us to be begone.
Just for fun of it, I thought I’d draw a version of Angry Woman Power Beaver the super heroine. (I tried sending it in an email, but my email hasn’t been working consistently as of late). You’re honestly one of my heroes, MaryAnn. Keep the awareness of female representation in movies going!
Do all kinds of gendered abuse get posted here? Or just the special ones?a
Ya know, once again, it is just the fact we are breathing while female. I’ve been called a whore for working on construction sites. Italians of a certain generation have called me a whore for touching them on the arm in a noisy place to get their attention, because, of course, the only reason a woman would need their attention is if she’s selling sex, right?! Not like, the pile drivers and generators and air compressors are all making it impossible to hear each other and some jackass foreman needs to be somewhere other than where he is Right Now for a concrete placement, eh?
So much for vaunted male “logic.”
What logic? Most popular TV shows aimed at young boys depict brainless heroes and imply that intelligence is evil. Look at Lex Luthor vs. Superman, Thor vs. Loki, Captain America vs. Red Skull. The vast majority of male heroes are dumb powerhouses who punch their problems away.
Japanese Anime of the Shounen type are flooded with this trope.
That being said, the love interests to these heroes are just as brainless as they are most of the time.
Never mind “aimed at young boys” – this is nearly universal across Western culture now. Scientists and other smart people are socially awkward and physically incompetent and wear thick glasses and don’t enjoy sports like normal people and you wouldn’t want to be one of them, they work so very hard, you’re so glad you’re a beta. The occasional exceptions to this only emphasise how standard it is elsewhere.
Yet another reason why I love Legend of Korra.
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/02/Bryan-Konietzko-threadworlds-preview
I am *so* looking forward to that.
Ha, stole the words right out of my mouth.
It has to do with genera but overall, media that follows this trend tends to be quite popular.
For young girls it seems that the common “hero” type is either the emotionally unstable and dangerous or the passive and content.
Either way, even if you dislike shows like Korra you have to give them credit for bucking the trend however slightly they do.
How does the Hulk fit into the trope?
Arguably, doing mad-scientist experiments with gamma radiation (at least in the TV and movie versions) is what got Banner into trouble. And in Avengers 2, doing mad-scientist things with Loki’s staff was a Bad Thing for Stark and Banner to do, leading directly to Ultron.
And it’s pretty obvious the Hulk is a powerhouse who tries to punch his problems away.
On the other hand, it’s also true that Stark’s and Banner’s intelligence is as much an asset as a liability, and gets them out of trouble after getting them into it.
All true, but I think the Hulk is an interesting contradiction: Bruce (and David) Banner’s main goal in life is to not be the Hulk, while people in the audience are rooting for him to turn into a monster and smash things. It would be interesting to see a Hulk film that’s treated as a horror movie and makes the audience question its desire to see the horrible monster.
Yeah, the Hulk is basically a werewolf that people want to turn into a werewolf.
There are other comic-book versions of the Hulk in which the Hulk retains Banner’s intelligence and consciousness. That might be interesting to see onscreen.
I think the Hulk is somewhat too aware of this trope for his own good :)
That really depends. There are stories in the comics where Superman is plenty smart (see for instance Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman), analyzing DNA and working on robots and whatnot at the Fortress of Solitude. He’s a scientist’s son and has “super” Kryptonian intellectual capabilities. (And he memorably outwitted Luthor and Zod in Superman II.)
http://www.comicvine.com/superman/4005-1807/forums/how-smart-is-superman-710928/
And, of course, Batman is sometimes called the World’s Greatest Detective, although the movies and TV shows hardly ever emphasize that part of his personality.
And Spider-Man is a science whiz who designed his own web-shooters. Doctor Strange is a neurosurgeon. Hank Pym’s Ant-Man is a scientist-inventor. Mister Fantastic is a science prodigy. Professor X and the Beast are scientific geniuses. Etc…
When I was studying screenwriting in college, the teacher pointed out that movies are a visual medium, and long stretches of dialogue don’t always translate well to the screen. I wonder if the people making films and TV shows are afraid that explanations of scientific ideas or deductive reasoning won’t work onscreen.
There are plenty of movies and TV shows where dialogue and exposition work really well, of course (Sherlock, the CSI series, most of Quentin Tarantino’s movies). It would be great to see more shows that trusted kids to follow complex ideas.
“House of Cards” also does a great job of managing lengthy exposition.
There are lots of examples aimed at adults. The Before Sunrise series is almost entirely dialogue. But are there movies or TV shows for kids that use a similar technique? In the comic books, Spider-Man sometimes defeats a villain with an invention and then explains the scientific principles. Encyclopedia Brown talks at length about how he solved the mystery. There are all kinds of written stories about the value of intelligence. (Bluejay provided a whole list.) I’m wondering why there aren’t more visual examples, outside of Korra.
Peabody and Sherman
Iron Man (Tony Stark) is pretty damned brilliant, as was his father. most “superheroes” are particularly intelligent, sometimes in very different ways… and they appreciate the intelligence of their fellows.
Really? I’m talking about the stereotype that men are calm and rational (as opposed to us hysterical women who are absurdly emotional and overreact to everything). That men are (supposedly) logical and reasonable has long been the justification for their dominance in government, the sciences, and basically almost every human endeavor that isn’t about taking care of babies.
“It’s amazing that we’ve never had a female president. A big part of that is that we have men in this country that are so sexist, that they say things like, ‘We can’t have a woman president. ‘Cause you know what’s going to happen if we elect a woman, right? Once a month she’s going to have her period and have PMS and go crazy. She’ll ruin the country.’ We have men who actually believe that a woman, because of her biology, has her judgment impaired once a month. Well, I’m a man with a penis and testicles; my judgment is impaired every five to seven minutes. And I’ll be honest with you: I wake up some mornings with my judgment impaired.” — Hari Kondabolu
I’ve always assumed that this was an idea that went out of style shortly after Women finally got the vote. It may have more to do with how I was raised and where I went to school, but I never heard anyone using such a stereotype in anything approaching a serious discussion. My grade 5 teacher even used female students to keep order by putting them in groups of rowdy guys. I’d say the stereotype has swung the other way, any more guys are seen as wild cards as far as reliability or maturity goes.
But this is coming from a white male living in Canada, so don’t quote me or anything ;)
Yeah, this all makes it totally obvious that you’re a man! :-)
No one has ever said to you, “What’s wrong, having your period?” No one has ever told you to calm down and stop being hysterical when you’re already perfectly calm and not at all hysterical. No one has ever called you a “crazy bitch” for daring to challenge a man’s perspective on anything.
Just you watch how Hillary Clinton is treated by the American press as she runs for president. I absolutely guarantee you that there will be “serious questions” about a woman’s ability to lead a nation. Never mind that plenty of other nations have had female leaders and didn’t end up in wrack and ruin.
…while I, who will not vote for Hillary Clinton unless there is absolutely no other choice, would far prefer that the press focus on the fact she’s a hawk and that her campaign funding mostly comes from a small and rich pool of donors.
There are valid reasons not to vote for Clinton. Unfortunately, the conversation will probably be dominated by all the stupid reasons.
Presidential elections always make Americans look stupid. Obama was called a socialist and a terrorist sympathizer. Bernie Sanders will be called a socialist and a hippy. The attacks on Hillary may be twice as bad, due to the sexism. But remember: Obama won, even though he was born in Kenya. So it’s possible that most Americans will ignore the mudslinging and quietly cast their votes–or sit back and make popcorn.
He wasn’t born in Kenya—only these stupid “birthers” who couldn’t accept the reality of a black president were claiming that nonsense.
Danielm80 knows that. He was being sarcastic, though sometimes it’s hard to convey sarcasm over the Internet.
Exactly. Like how she dresses. Or how her face looks.
There’s tons of legitimate stuff they could focus on. That doesn’t mean they will.
I don’t want to derail, just adding this as an example: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Top-Comcast-Lobbyist-Hosting-Hillary-Clinton-Fundraiser-134215
*eyesroll*
You’re right, I should just ask how things are instead of forming my own head-canon of reality. Paradigm shifts aren’t achieved from armchairs I guess…
As far as the American press goes, I’ve pretty much stopped taking any content they produce seriously. Hillary Clinton seems about as capable as Obama based on my limited knowledge on the subject, certainly more capable than Trump. Even if she is a complete fool she’ll at least set a new precedent with her possible presidency.
But that’s not the issue. Whatever you consume or don’t, or take seriously or don’t, the media is producing this stuff and lots of people do take it seriously.
I understand what you mean, saw a similar point raised in a multi-grain cheerios commercial of all places. Commercial success at all cost seems to be the flag that big media is waving around these days.
I also have a very clever sister who’s constantly fact checking me so maybe that’s why I find the concept so bizarre.
Which is so not true, since men go off the deep end all the time about certain things—all you have to do is watch the news to see—they don’t have a claim on being “calm & rational” any more than women have a claim on being “emotional and irrational.” That’s such a myth.
“Most popular TV shows aimed at young boys depict brainless heroes and imply that intelligence is evil. Look at Lex Luthor vs. Superman, Thor vs. Loki, Captain America vs. Red Skull. ”
Actually no.
It depicts the misuse of intelligence, just as it depicts the misuse of any force. Superman fights Lex not because Lex is intelligent, but because he uses his intelligence for evil purposes.
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/2015/07/ant-man-movie-review-superhero-reduction.html#comment-2136141959
Pretty low-rent caliber of troll, but, adding it here to the rollcall.
I’m not sure which comment in particular you were linking to, but that guy has been banned and the entire subthread deleted.
Speaking of deleted….
I completely understand why the John Wayne image and the “c**t” comment had up this thread to make your point very clear, but I must confess to growing a little bit beaten down by seeing it every time I scroll down your pieces. It just makes me sad to see it again and again.
A woman as President? Sure, that’s as likely to happen as a woman becoming Prime Minist– Ah, wait.
Now you know how Anita Sarkeesian feels every day.
Who dat?
http://www.duckduckgo.com is your friend.
She’s the official popcorn brand of all Internet flame wars:
http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/992526-popcorn-gifs
If you still haven’t figured out who Anita Sarkeesian is, you might try watching this series of videos:
http://www.houstonpress.com/arts/introspective-new-video-series-asks-gamergate-why-are-you-so-angry-7604301
Some of the arguments he makes are overly simplistic or are broad generalizations, but he makes some really important points about the culture of the Internet.
I don’t enjoy seeing that either, but it perfectly sums up the problem.
Re Jennie Batra: I wonder how many misogynistic female commenters are actually misogynist men posing as female commenters? I don’t doubt that misogynistic women exist, but I think it’s probably also not an uncommon strategy for trolls to pose as women or minorities in an attempt to shield themselves from criticism. Batra’s insults and taunts (including the hoary old “u need to get laid” bit) seem exactly like what a male troll would say, without any nuance or details of personal experience that a woman might perhaps share when talking about women.
Of course on the internet we really only have people’s word that they are what they say they are. Still, I wonder sometimes.
It’s like asking how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. We’ll never really know. But I do know enough women who claim to hate feminism, or hate women, that I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.
Jennie’s comments could be a deliberate feint, of course: Even women disagree with MaryAnn; therefore she’s WRONG. But the comments make so little sense as rational arguments that they feel spontaneous and sincere. So I’m taking them at face value until we know she’s a dog.
I thought that too while reading that post. You don’t see women often claiming that “getting laid” is the answer to everything like men mostly seem to do in comment sections. And, frankly, women commenters usually don’t make comments like that. It sounded more like what a man thought a woman would say, to be honest—that “to serve” comment really made that clear. No wonder it sounded so ridiculous.
I’m sorry Jennie but fiction that puts women on the sidelines is fiction that is only using half it’s character and story potential. Read the Expanse series sometime, it features some of the most human characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading about… and half of them are women.
I know it hurts but the way women and, by extension, men are treated is a festering wound that needs cleaning out. Until the infection is cleared away no amount of apathy or self-willed ignorance is going to make this better. That may sound dramatic but I’ve seen what our culture has done to my sister and the thousands of girls like her. Where are the women? Well, many of them end up in a mental health system that is ill-equipped to deal with their problems. Only in the west do we tell our sisters and daughters and friends to starve themselves in the name of beauty. Only in the west do they listen.
A cartoonist named Dwayne McDuffie came up with something called the Rule of Three:
http://lybio.net/dwayne-mcduffie-on-the-realities-of-the-black-writer-in-the-comic-book-industry/people/
Recently I came across a book in a giveaway pile when someone was moving: Emerson in his Journals. In there, I read (among many other interesting things) the following: “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.”
Don’t focus on them. It’s indicative of prevailing misogyny. But the trolls aren’t the root of the problem. They are a symptom. Just like the films are a symptom that something is wrong with our culture when 50% of humanity are not represented at all in major films. Or are never shown having a conversation in films. Ie women are not shown as talking to one an other about anything. Or if they are it’s about men. I’m glad you are around to ask these questions.
I love the “sorry” at the beginning of the “angry lesbian” comment. I’m not trying to hurt your feelings or anything, but it’s my responsibility to let you know! What a burden for this white man.
I know it’s wrong – so wrong – but when I see a new post in this thread I smile broadly, knowing there will be something entertaining and probably very funny to come. Of course, almost immediately I think, “No no, that’s sad, we don’t *want* there to be more of these.” Still… :)
Urg. Me, too.
I do think the best way to deal with these cretins is to make fun of them…
That’s what good ol’ Socrates did. :D
i don’t know why you block out some of their names. if they’re proud enough to sign their emails or tweets to you containing this language, they should be proud enough to see their names posted for a public shaming.
The only one I blocked was the one that came via email (and hence wasn’t posted publicly anywhere) and included a real name and real email address. Maybe I was being unreasonably fair and generous to that person. But I’m not trying to be vindictive here.
Recently, someone who was abusive to a blogger lost his job at New York Life due to his public (!) postings. They were very threatening.
The email above did not rise to anything like that level. If I had felt endangered, I would not have hesitated to pass on that guy’s info to his employer and to his local law enforcement.
I gathered the blogger wasn’t the one who reported it; instead, her followers were swarming.
Insert as appropriate into this song. “Feel the magic, hear the roar!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwGgwZSgZAI
I’d watch a gender-switched version of that, actually.
I was going to point out that “thundercock” doesn’t sound like an insult at all, but I think the sword imagery in this video does the job for me.
Also, “Thundercock” sounds like the worst metal band in history.
I don’t know — are they? You tell me.
https://www.reverbnation.com/ianunderwood
Can I resign from the human race?
Heh. And they aren’t even the only ones.
https://www.reverbnation.com/thundercocktn
Very evocative song titles.
With metal bands, though, it’s too easy. You know there’s going to be a band out there sporting the stupidest name you can think of.
And this one wants to be P*Funk. But fails miserably.
And, ya know? I’m sick of people shitting on Nick Drake. Yeah, some pretentious people hold him up like a Fisher King; but, I also like the work of the good musicians who admired him like David Sylvian (yeah, even the stuff in Japan). And, anyhow, the guy is dead so calling him names, funny song title though it may be, isn’t cool in my book.
*grumblegrumblegrumble…backtogrindstone*
PS: I love the song “Life in A Northern Town”, a paean to him. So sue me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5uxQElYu68
“Pink Moon” is such a well-constructed song that I still love it after hearing it a hundred times in a car commercial.
This Thundercocks has way better songs. “Smurf Meat Sweat Shop”? Har.
absolutely not! we need decent humans here.
Why would you do that? We have the best beer.
Jezus onna hockey puck!
1986 is asking for their milquetoast wannabes back.
I’m sorry. That just made me laugh. So did Bluejay’s and danielm80’s comments.
Edited to add…I realized that poster is possibly Canadian. (JPod was a CBC series.) Very weird.
So much for Canadian niceness.
HEY! Not ALL Canadians…
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself
Careful, lest you irk Captain Reverse-Racism. His wrath be ironic and chronically misunderstood.
Apropros of your latest posting on this thread: MaryAnn (and anyone else with a brain here), have you seen this article: “Men Explain Lolita to Me”? [EDITED TO SAY: Yes! she has, see below. And I’m obviously living under a rock and not keeping up.] It is an interesting read, musing on the nature of identifying with characters in books and empathy.
She has seen it,* as it happens, but it’s worth posting again. It’s one of the best essays I’ve read this year.
*http://www.flickfilosopher.com/2015/12/from-facebook-mansplaining-male-dominated-pop-culture.html
Thanks. (This is embarrassing.) And, I agree, it is one of the best things I’ve read.
Rebecca Solnit is great. I’m a fan of her books “Men Explain Things to Me” and “Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities.”
Re: Angry Birds. Is that what happened? That would explain the frothy mix of contentless pseudo-intellectualism and just plain contentlessness. You may as well just cull the whole thread. Even our rejoinders weren’t all that clever – we had nothing to work with.
I think she should apply for a grant and keep the thread going as an anthropological study.
Google searches for “grellish” keep turning up this character, “Grell,” who is apparently “a Grim Reaper” with “long, dark-red hair, shark-like teeth, and red-framed glasses which are accessorized with a chain with skulls.” Gender indeterminate. Has a customized “Death Scythe” that works like a chainsaw. “A ruthless, bloodthirsty individual who is even willing to kill their own comrades once they lose interest in them.” “Fond of using double entendres.” Seems like kind of a badass, actually.
http://static.zerochan.net/Grell.Sutcliff.full.800492.jpg
So, I guess “grellish” means you’re like Grell? Because of your red hair and glasses and, um, shark-like teeth? It may have been intended as an insult, but I say take it as a compliment. :-)
I’d take it as a compliment, too. But even if intended as an insult, it doesn’t seem to apply here.
I just skimmed through the comment section of her “Angry Birds” review, sadly, there’s still a lot more abuse that hasn’t been taken into account of or deleted. Some are even much worse than those on this page. Disgusting.
Not sure what you mean by “taken into account.” I read every comment posted here, and I can assure you: I’ve seen the comments you’re referring to.
I did delete lots of comments. I’m not going to delete all of them. They are a horrific illustration of the state of the Internet.
re: June 9, 2016:
Good thing he titled it “a letter from a fan.” Does he know what the word “fan” means?
I suspect he thought he was being funny or ironic.
RE April 28, 2017 (Avatar):
Ouch! :-/
I think it has more to do with a general frenzied mindset in certain fans that “If you don’t like what I like, you’re my sworn enemy,” regardless of the content of the show. Even kids’ fare with the most wholesome messages will have their lunatic “like it or die” fringe. Unfortunately.
But yeah, that seems like an actionable threat. Fuck that asshole.
How do you know where these people are from? Did they announce it like complete tools? or are you just making an educated guess based on uses of “terms” like autist.
I don’t know what you mean by this.
I highly appreshiate your selfcontrol and sence of humor.
So, going through your Avatar review and the comment section, I do have to say that while the abuse you suffer from this tool and about five or six others is absolutely disgusting beyond belief, your ability to engage while asking people to engage you the moment they point out the fallacies of your review beyond a simple debate of simplistic versus detailed animated art style calls into question your credentials as a reviewer and your integrity as one as well.
With seven years worth of people pointing out the problems of your review, and the only time you responded can be boiled down to “you’re making it up and saying it’s better than it was” proves to me that even if I don’t think you deserve abuse, you also don’t deserve a fanbase nor any noteriety as a reviewer or critic.
Your condescending, smug, false maturity that you project within that review is also a point of note because it shows clear hostility in the review rather than as a response to anyone. The fact that you at best sound like you watched only the first three episodes just makes me question how much effort you actually put within your work, and if instead you are just checklisting everything you don’t like while paying only half attention – if that – to what you are meant to be critiquing.
It might be worth looking up the word notoriety.
Hmm, you’re right, I used the wrong word. What I was trying to say is she doesn’t deserve to be a recognized reviewer going by that review because it was very poorly done as if she didn’t actually watch the show based on her inability to make note of anything past episode three or of other characters while insulting fans of the show. It lacks professionalism in all manners – seeking style and flair over critique. I felt like I just read something from a gossip column rather than a professional review.
My god, y’all just keep coming. The review is seven years old, the comments there are closed, and all your criticisms (fair or not) have already been made multiple times by the commenters there (which you claim to have read). And yet you simply must, MUST find a way to pile on, while saying absolutely nothing new, and nothing relevant to the topic of misogynistic abuse.
I absolutely loved A:tLA, but some of you fans just really need to learn how to let things go.
This wasn’t about A:tLA, it was just the most relevent review for me. This was about her style and attitude that very well is standoffish and rude within the review while also calling into her credentials based on that review. What she writes here for her comebacks is consistent with the smug attitude I read in that review which called into question her ability to critique.
My point quite simply is that the idiots posting that bullshit were wrong to post that bullshit, but removing the bullshit garbage and putting into some actual real, non-sexist, nondisgusting words, they are very much right to call out her ability to critique both fairly and professionally. It’s unfortunate to me, that the only time she makes any note of people calling out these things is for the garbage being spewed here rather than any actual discussion she asked for.
I was merely using the A:tLA review to show why I would call into question her abilities to be a professional critic by what she showed of herself in that review. Condescending, hostile, a false sense of maturity, smug, disingenuous in asking for engagement, dismissive, and inability to admit to fault.
If these morons actually learned how to properly critique themselves instead falling on slurs like a six year old just learning the internet, they could have had a point about her. It’s unfortunate they don’t, but I still felt the need to point out that there IS a problem with her attitude and ability to critique.
You clearly haven’t read the entire A:tLA thread, in which early on she engages very civilly and sincerely, and at length, with equally civil and sincere commenters. But after 200+ comments over seven years, with a healthy sprinkling of abusive butthurt fanboys who can’t bear criticism of their favorite thing, she’s understandably lost her patience.
Now she’s got commenters derailing unrelated threads to post multiple insistent comments dissing her attitude and style; who think they’re entitled to call her smug and hostile and condescending on her own website, right off the bat; who think they can dismiss her professional career and her readership because of one review that they didn’t care for – how is she expected to respond? How much more of her time and energy do you think she considers worth spending on responding politely to all these strangers trashing her from the get-go? The NERVE of you. If you ask me, with an “Aww, you’re sweet” you’re getting off a lot easier than you deserve.
Don’t like her style? Shrug it off and go read things you like. The Internet is a big place. Move along.
I’ve read the entire thread. At length, she discussed animation sytles of simplistic versus complicated, dismissed the first person to declare that pointed out Aang’s denial as seeing more depth than was there, ignored everyone from there on out, the only engagement being to say she wasn’t going to continue for seasons 2 and 3 (which is fine because if it isn’t your cup of tea, it just won’t be), and then when anyone asked why she asking for engagment. She ignored points about Zuko and his arc, and never enegaged to prove she watched the entire season as she claimed.
Either way, this isn’t about what she reviewed, but HOW she reviewed in and her attitude when asking for engagment. Her review proceeded to insult her audience and showed no depth of what she reviewed to the point that you can believe that she only watched three of the episodes of the first season rather than the entire season as she claims. Again, it’s the lack of depth in her review.
Her engagement that she asked for is fairly dismssive on almost every aspect of her review which begs the question of why she asked for engagement in the first place.
It’s left me feeling that I need to point out the problems with her ability to be a critic if that’s the kind of level of professionalism she is bringing to the table. It is not just her engagement in the comments, but her inability to due to a proper, indepth review. It is her job to do it properly, not half-assed garbage here. She could hate the whole thing through it, that doesn’t matter. What matters is actually doing the review properly so her audience who is new to the show and reads it can see both her opinion but also give them enough info to make their own choices about it. She does not do this, and it left me feeling that I shouldn’t read any of her reviews because it was done so poorly I can’t trust her to actually properly review anything.
So, again, I repeat, this has nothing to do with liking or not liking what she reviewed, but how terrible her skills look – both as a critic and a person – in how she wrote it. The whole thing is style over substance, and that’s just plain bad.
MaryAnn’s reviews vary in depth and length depending on how much the material moves her to write about it. She didn’t write about A:tLA the way YOU wanted her to write about it, but she perfectly conveyed her opinion on it, which is all she needs to do. Does she really need to handhold you and reassure you, “Well, this is only how *I* feel, but you’re free to read other reviews and check out the show and form your own opinion”? She watched the show on the recommendation of some readers, she was completely unimpressed by it, she wrote a brief review with just as much energy as she wanted to spend on it. Deal with it.
Also, engagement doesn’t require her to back down from her stance or revise her opinion under public pressure. It means inviting commenters to have their say, and she’s done that. She’s fine with disagreement – I’ve expressed dissent with her a number of times, including on A:tLA, and she’s been civil in responding, without either of us changing our minds. But there’s a big difference between saying “I don’t agree with your view, here’s how I saw it” and ATTACKING her for her opinion. You don’t think you’re attacking? Instead of being satisfied with the many already-expressed dissenting points on a now-closed seven-year-old 200-comment thread, you STILL feel the need to get on here and post multiple off-topic comments putting her down. You’re determined to personally tell her “how terrible her skills look – both as a critic and a person.” What you don’t realize is that this is making YOU look terrible, as a commenter and possibly as a person. You’re not using abusive language, but you’re still coming across as a jerk who absolutely MUST put a woman down for daring to voice her honest opinion on the Internet.
I’m done here. Have fun digging your own hole.
No, and you need to stop trying to defend that poor excuse for work. Her job is being a reviewer. As her career, it is her job to provide an actual review of the content that she is reviewing. She did not do this, she provided what can be best construed as a first impression, not a full season review of a series. Her opinion is her own and her thoughts on it is part of a review, but it also provided nothing in terms of letting someone looking at that review to form their opinion.
This has NOTHING to do with her being a woman, and I have made quite sure to put in the way she held herself as a professional. By the way, I have made the same complaint to other reviewers and critics doing the same thing, and many of them are men or at least identify themselves with a “he” and “him”. It does not matter what she is, what she believes in, or who she is. We are talking about her professional work.
The fact you are jumping to the sexist argument when I have made it quite clear that attacks based on her sex and gender is complete bullshit is a sign of white knighting, and is honesty, quite sexist of you. As if being a woman should automatically protect her from criticism for her attitude and work. From my perspective, she is my equal as a person, and that means she’s also equally able to be at fault and fail in her work. From the perspective she created in both the review and conversations, I can mostly find nothing but fault.
She doesn’t write it like a professional – it feels like a sensationalist writing. Looking more for site traffic rather than to provide a review of substance. It also removes any feeling I had to try and read other reviews because of how unprofessional it looked. Her job is not to entertain first, it’s to entertain second and critique first. She does not do that in that review.
It’s like people telling her to watch season 2 and 3, if this my first impression of her work, why should I want to continue? Just like her critique of the show – an understanable one in my opinion for the first three episodes besides her being incorrect about Aang’s denial – my impression of her is made quite poor.
I’m not telling her to get off the internet or to quit her job or shut down her site, I am merely critiquing what that review said about her as professional critic from someone who had not read her work or had a bias towards liking her or not. She was a mere reviewer to me and this is the impression she left me with – an unprofessional, arrogant, condescending, sensationalist covering up her faults with barely witty retorts and ignoring anything that doesn’t go to her agenda.
That is the impression that review left me of her. She might be completely different in other reviews – hell, I might even like them if I looked – but nothing in that review compels to even bother. As a reviewer and critic – and yes, they are different – it is her responsibility to keep a level of quality and professionalism in all of her work no matter what her personal feelings are. She failed in that and people need to stop protecting her for allowing that level of writing quality to be held on the site because that is the quickest way to allow for further poor quality work to get through.
She can do what she wants – she’s going to ban me anyway for criticizing her and her work, but I’d rather give a full thought on how her work came out so that maybe she might actually retain, reclaim, or start doing actual quality work worthy of her profession rather than sounding like every half-baked reviewer on a tumblr blog.
Nah, she won’t ban you unless you start being truly abusive.
Oh, that commenter is indeed being truly abusive, and is now banned.
There’s too much hilariously wrong with your comment, I’m not even going to bother. But you really, really don’t understand how bad you look right now. Oh well. Do whatever you want.
Nope. I’m banning you because you keep saying the same thing over and over again after you have been asked to stop, and after you have been told that you are hijacking a thread because the thread you really want to comment on has been shut down.
You’re gone.
Be careful of this mob SJW mentality. forborr reported me to my employer for a silly tweet. These people are frightened by opposition.
You are done here. You have made that same point multiple times, ignored others who have pointed out that I addressed your concerns in the comments on the review you dislike.
Quit now, or get blocked.
Honestly? I don’t really care if you block me or not. Your attitude is quite poor to criticism even when I’ve tried to keep it fairly civil. A critic who can’t stand to be critiqued in irony at its finest.
Well, I think we all learned a valuable lesson: If a bunch of people recommend a children’s cartoon to you, never, ever watch it. And if you do watch it, always watch at least two entire seasons because hey, who doesn’t have ten or twelve hours to throw away on something they aren’t really interested in? And if you do watch any episodes of the show, under no circumstances post your honest reactions. And if you do post your honest reactions, never honestly respond to the angry, insecure, defensive minority of the fanbase that cannot mentally cope with a single dissenting opinion in an ocean of praise.
So, waste your time pretending to like what other people like, only voice your opinions if they don’t rub people the wrong way, and immediately cave in to any challenges. Fantastic lessons for children of all ages making their way through life. I used to stand up for myself and tell people what I honestly felt, but now I immediately change my opinion to match those of the angry strangers I meet online and life has become so much simpler! Thanks Avatar! (also a big shout out to political correctness)
Seriously, what on Earth do you fans want? For MA to lie to you? The projection is off the charts – condescending smugness, false maturity, clear hostility? You’re calling into question the credentials of a professional reviewer on her own site based on a short, seven-year old review of a children’s cartoon all while using the internet handle “sagewisdom.” The fierceness of your devotion would be comical if it wasn’t so commonplace. What’s the endgame? Every critic on the planet agrees that Avatar is a fantastic show or they get fired? If so, we should probably create a Ministry of Culture to help clarify the rules and prevent the spread of any more dangerous, subversive opinions.
Nowhere did I say she needed to like this or not post her feelings about it, BUT (and this is a big one) at least ensure that you prove you watched the entire season when you say you did and ensure that you at least post correct information. Oh and there’s no reason to act condescending or rude towards people in the review, ignore anyone that corrects her or does try to engage in conversation with her when she asked for it (as long as they aren’t these assholes posted here).
The fact that her attitude was to be dismissive towards anyone correcting her or to tell them that they were looking too deeply into a story that makes it extremely clear what it is conveying, is just troubling. It removes any positivity I would feel from her credentials – it comes off as ameteurish and honestly a bit childish. The fact that she constantly calls into question the ages of people liking it and dismissing it based on the age of a person also gives a sense of false maturity (that is, feeling like now that you’ve reached an age you are now too “old” for something rather than not liking something because you just plain don’t like it).
I’ve made it quite clear the problem I have with her critique and review style. She condescending in that review. She give a false sense of maturity. She ignores those that tried to engage her except for art style among the huge thread. She posted incorrect information and did not correct herself. She sounds obnoxious through the entire review.
She does not have to like it. Hell, she doesn’t even have to give it a shot. I don’t care, it’s her call. But, if she is going to post a review, at least actually do a thorough review, prove you have watched all that you’ve claimed, and at least show an effort. She could have just said, “I watched the first three episodes. They did not engage me, and I do not wish to continue. Others might enjoy this and it might improve, but the opening of this series has not hooked so I will not continue.”
Don’t ask for engagement. Ignore those begging for her to watch more because “it gets better” and if it gets too heated turn off comments. So, stop being childish just because I critiqued her and her writing style in that review (or is it wrong to reveiw the reviewer?) and the way she handled her audience in it.
Again, I’ll note one more time as it tends to get ignored: This is not about her opinion on the show, but the way she wrote it as insulting as possible while providing incorrect information about the subject matter and being disengenuous in her desire for engagement.
Why on Earth would she lie about the number of episodes she watched?
It’s the only way these fans can imagine that anyone would disagree with them. It springs from the same impulse that compels them to order me to watch *another* 12 hours of the show.
Because she didn’t like the show and didn’t want to continue but was obligated to do a review? She provides no evidence at any point that she watched it – I mean, she could have mentioned something like Bato the Water Tribe that was at the end with Aang’s dickishness or whatever just to show she watched the season (Bato isn’t part of the movie either). Her entire review lacks depth – it feels like a first impressions review, not a season one review.
I am absolutely NOT rehashing everything that I HAVE ALREADY COVERED in the comments of that review. That comments thread is closed for a reason, and you are hijacking this comments thread with off-topic discussion. Stop it.
And how, pray tell, is that possible? Here’s a hint: it isn’t. If you are not going to trust that what I saw is true, we have no common ground and you should stop wasting your time here.
This is not about you reviewing, but the style leaving me questions about your credentials as a reviewer. And, I’ll leave it at that as my points are clearly being ignored in the face of criticism towards you (ironic, considering your job). You’re not the first critic I have taken issue with and pointed these problems out with – style over substance – and you won’t be the last.
Aww, you’re sweet.
Well, someone has to tell you without that garbage exactly what problem I’ve found with your writing and what I feel is a failure to be professional.
Still, you don’t deserve any of that bullshit in those comments and those assholes can go fuck themselves once they stop fucking the rest of their families.
These are loathsome people. I have no other words for it. I am sorry you are subjected to such vileness. It seems to come with the territory these days.
what is a “cuck”? a female body part i don’t know about, or is it a portmanteau word for… a crazy… duck? i am mystified.
It’s MRA-speak for cuckold:
http://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/cuck/
Which, in this case, is being used to refer to an… outspoken, feminist woman? Apparently they’re just frothing at the mouth now, and throwing around insults indiscriminately.
I commend you on not soiling your mind with knowledge of their terms. :-)
I was offline for a few days celebrating the Jewish holidays. I’m a little curious how many trollish messages were posted and deleted on the Deadpool thread, but I’m afraid to ask.
I haven’t noticed any to date, actually. Maybe they’re all too busy IRL providing fuel for women’s #MeToo testimonies and calling cops on brown people for being brown.
Not many, so far.
Not much creativity in his comments. Same old same old.
These comments are from more than one person, in case that wasn’t clear. It’s a lot of same-old from multiple people!
No, you were clear. I didn’t make that clear!
Not only are the misogynists wrong, they’re also mind-numbingly boring about it.
True. Undoubtedly they’re the type of people who see themselves as Greg House while quietly ignoring the fact that most other people see them as either Biff Tannen or Nelson Muntz.
I thought the NPC insult was novel, but apparently, it originated on the hivemind of edgy adolescent memes at 4chan then spread to Trump supporters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/us/politics/npc-twitter-ban.html
It’s like watching a flock of sexually frustrated parrots with Tourette syndrome land on your front lawn. In the immortal words of racist-ass Melly Gibsons, “It’s well beyond rage.”
So Sad. I’m a feminist fan of fighting games, and a large chunk of the FGC (developers and players) is soaked in the dregs of 4chan. It’s definitely getting better for feminist geeks and nerds, but as these comments show, we’ve got a long way to go.
Well, most people don’t come up with their own ideas – they see/read/etc. something that appeals, and repeat it.
(More politely, this is known as “re-using effective arguments”.)
Except they’re not effective arguments, they’re just lame ancient insults. If the entire point is to insult, one would think they’d at least relish being as creative as possible. Not that I’d be invested in encouraging them, of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1nYEH6EDwM
Yeah, my inner Cyrano has noted their lack of originality and I’ve often been tempted to comment on that fact. Then I realize that most remarks I could make about that fact can be best classified as “not helping.”
But thanks for posting that scene, Bluejay. That’s one of my favorite scenes from that movie.
Not sure if this helps but I suspect it couldn’t hurt.
Here’s another female critic talking about the blowback from her review of Aquaman. Yep, men are awful.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/female-film-critic_us_5c3ce217e4b01c93e00c7fcf
I really wish I understood what drives people to be like this.
And why bother. Same tiresome 6? insult words repeated ad nauseam?
But as to your suggestion to
They probably already do that. A lot. It passes the time..
Marryann has a severe problem with anything that doesn’t fit into her narrow view of the world one of the problems with Intersectionalists is their inability to see the reality of their own programming. To attack strong female roles and strong female characters that don’t immediately say “the patriarchy” when someone knocks. Marryann is the perfect example of a girlbaby that hasn’t grown her entire life which of course makes it impossible for her to handle things in a mature fashion. Everyone who disagrees with her reviews are trolls which is a great example of how their sick minds work. They really need to open insane asylums to help the hoards of girlbabies out there who get offended at anything and everything they can for attention.
Why wait for your misogyny to be picked up on other threads, when you can contribute directly right here? Smart.
The incel contingent has chimed in.
So you’re arguing that a person who’s maintained a professional website for over 20 years and written hundreds of nuanced reviews expressing her honest thoughts and opinions is immature, myopic, intolerant, and insane?
What would that make a person who scours review aggregators for dissenting opinions just so they can visit websites and call the author a sick-minded girlbaby who belongs in an asylum? A mature, stable, visionary genius?
Imagine this website is a house party that’s been going on for a long time. When someone walking down the street hears a song they hate, runs in, yells that the party sucks and the music is terrible and the owner of the house is stupid and they don’t know how to design a house or throw a party right, how do you expect people to react? What do you expect MA, the person who built the house and threw the party to say?
“You’re right, angry stranger barging into my house, I am stupid. These last three decades of my life have been spent in a fog of ignorance, but your hate filled, condescending tirade has opened my eyes to the truth! Feminism is over! Movies have nothing to do with culture and politics. Everything you love is awesome! I will consult with you before I ever think another thought, and none shall ever dislike something you love for reasons you willfully fail to understand ever again! Please stay at my party forever and bless us with your wisdom.” (Hmmm… some projection of my own here)
None of us go to websites of reviewers we don’t agree with and personally attack the authors, because our beef is not with people, but with ideas, and mudslinging is a huge waste of time and energy that makes the world a shittier place. If some of us are acting like condescending assholes now it’s because you’re behaving like a petulant, sexist troll who has nothing constructive, informative, or mildly interesting to say. If your true enemy is irrationality (it isn’t), then argue with calm logic instead of frantically lashing out with heightened hysteria.
Also, to argue your own point a bit, not being offended by things that offend other people is not a universe-shattering paradox that requires immediate, definitive resolution. You can calmly state, “I understand why you didn’t like that aspect of the film, but it didn’t bother me,” and move on to things you liked. An example: I like the game Bayonetta which (as you probably know) stars a character with ludicrous Barbie proportions who wears her hair as clothes, attacks by becoming increasingly more and more nude, sexualizes violence and torture, and is consistently objectified by the camera. I like the ludicrous over-the-top action. I like her sass, and I think she’s sexy. I have some feminist friends who hate the game and character with a passion, and I understand why they find it offensive, but I still love it. We’ll never agree, and that’s okay. No one will attack you personally for loving Alita as long as you manage to keep your shit together and behave like an adult when you inevitably encounter people who don’t feel the same way you do. If you can’t do that, you deserve to be banned.
So wonderfully meta. Bravo! (Also: you’re banned.)
What meonthissite means, of course, is that the lesson that our culture teaches girls and women — to sit down, shut up, and just take all the abuse and denigration that is handed out to us — is one that never took in me. Mature, sane women, in the eyes of the patriarchy, do not rage against sexism. We bury our anger and sublimate our dissatisfaction.
I wonder if meonthissite has any notion that women were once locked into asylums and prisons for being “difficult” and refusing to accept the status quo. (See: suffragettes.) That women who weren’t “nice” and “quiet” were considered insane. I wonder if meonthissite understands where the word *hysterical* comes from, and why it continues to be used as a way to diminish women and shut us up.
Probably not. Because I’m not the one with a “narrow view of the world.”
I highly recommend the incandescently wrathful graphic novel series Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick (who also wrote the Captain Marvel run that’s a main inspiration for the upcoming film). If you see any fierce, tired-of-this-shit women geeks (and allies) walking around with NC (Non-Compliant) tattoos, this series is why.
So funny and so blatantly obvious it’s just bourgeoisie!
What I found in MA’s nonsense is anti-intersectionality.
2 facts jump out.
The fact that she’s attacking a strong female role, and the fact that she’s attacking a movie where a female is at the lead.
You have absolutely NO idea what that term means. And you and I both know you don’t really care.
Of course, if she said a female-led movie was perfect, you’d attack her for praising a movie JUST because it has a female lead. Go play move-the-goalpost somewhere else. We’re not interested.
What’s intriguing is that he accuses me of being both intersectional AND anti-intersectional. That is some next-level shit.
“Sabretruthtiger — gotta love how these guys always gotta shout about how much “truth” they are slinging — thinks a woman would be jealous of manufactured robot bodies! Or of phony CGI cuteness! As if any adult woman would want to look like an artificial waif! Poor, poor dude really does not understand a damn thing about women. Which shocks me not in the least.”
No he’s right. I never understood why some women get jealous of sexually attractive female characters in media made for men. But they do & it is ALWAYS media made for men that it occurs in.
They’ll apply qualifiers on how the work should appear & hoops that the work has to jump threw to make it suitable, that would have us clambering to scream “sexism” if the same standards were applied to our own work.
You see this jealous manifest all the time, with articles about “realistic superhero costumes” for female characters, where the word realistic really just means “not sexy because we have a problem with men lookkng at sexy images of fictional women.”
And yet if we applied the same logic to our own media well you better believe we would have something to say if the sexy cover illustrations of buff shirtless men & cleavage enhancing bodice clad women were removed from harlequin romance novels, because it’s “not realistic” to be wearing almost nothing on the frozen highlands of Scottland.
No, these double standards are clearly driven by jealousy, a jealousy that you only see manifested by a subset of women.
And you can’t make the argument of objectification, because objectification only refers to treating people as objects, not fictional characters, which are already objects.
Personally I’ve never understood this concept, I like a cheese cake in my media just as I like beef cake & apparently so do most women when the media appeals to them. I’ve never understood that those people suddenly become tutting puritanical church ladies the second the media is directed at a male audience.
So, you think the reason woman want to see realistic depictions of women is because we’re JEALOUS?
Congrats on being a Cool Girl. I’m sure the guys love you for it.
“So, you think the reason woman want to see realistic depictions of women is because we’re JEALOUS?”
What realism? You are talking about a fantasy character, in a work of fiction. If you wanted reality there’s this place where you can have that every day until you are sick of it. It’s called the real world.
If I wanted reality I wouldn’t be going to see a movie about an android girl who kicks the butt of rogue robots in a post apocalyptic future Japan. Same way you don’t pick up a harlequin romance novel for realistic depictions of real people, because if you did the protagonists would all be dead from exposure to the frozen highlands of Scottland while wearing very little.
“Congrats on being a Cool Girl. I’m sure the guys love you for it.”
LOL I didn’t need to like those things because it makes me cool with guys, I like those things because I like those things & I wouldn’t want some man coming along making demands of media because they were offended or jealous of muscular he–man sorts in it.
Of course that would never happen because men don’t get jealous at the physique of fictional male characters.
So yeah, I’m going to go with jealousy of a particular vocal subset of women who think they are in charge of what media other people can create & consume.
I am absolutely not going to spend my precious time giving you a Feminism 101 education on the problems with the representation of women in pop culture. You can do your own Googling.
That’s because there is no problem.
Feminism 101 has problems with representation of women in pop culture, but so what? Ideologues always have a problem with anyone that doesn’t exactly echo back their group ideology.
Doesn’t mean there is a problem, it means YOU have a problem with it because you subscribe to a subjective ideology.
Some of your assertions are incorrect. I know several women who have expressed jealousy over the appearance of women in magazines and movies made specifically for female audiences. It’s very odd that a woman wouldn’t be aware of this.
Not as odd is the fact that you’re unaware that many men are jealous and insecure about the appearance of men in novels, shows, movies, and magazines targeted at women. While not as commonly expressed as the reverse, it happens frequently.
The driving factor in the disparity is the emphasis on physical appearance as a defining quality for women. For a combination of biological, commercial, and social reasons, women are taught/learn to equate their appearance with their value as a person. Many people naturally tend to compare themselves with other people on a social value scale, and for a subset of women, this means comparing appearances. For a subset of men, it means comparing other things… wallets, cars, max lifts, property, the appearance/number of their significant others, mansions, jewelry, yachts etc, but as society becomes more egalitarian, it increasingly means comparing appearances for them as well. I suspect that as more and more women reach positions of power, the physical appearance of men will become more tightly tied to their value in society. I’d love to see the opposite happen, and physical appearance to become one (still important) factor in a long list of considered qualities for all people, but it seems unlikely in the present social, biological, and economic climate.
Your anti-objectification argument is a semantic stretch. Of course it’s possible to objectify a fictional character. One could easily argue that dancers at a strip club and significant others role-playing in the bedroom are fictional characters. Here are some pop culture examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy5THitqPBw
And here’s an example of humanizing some objects, then objectifying the humanized objects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjI2J2SQ528
Speaking for myself, when I say “realistic costume” in an action setting, I mean at least two of the following five things:
1) Practical shoes
2) Practical hair
3) Pants
4) Sports Bra
5) Covered midriff
In a sci-fi/fantasy setting, I’m cool with only two out of five, but when a creator fails to do four or five of these things, and the context isn’t over the top comedy or satire, it comes across as lazy pandering that pulls me out of the experience (Really? This woman is a fighter/knight/wizard/soldier/healer/pilot/hunter? Why are all the dudes around her wearing pants/armor/boots/a shirt that fits?). There are exceptions of course, and occasional objectification isn’t necessarily bad, but in general, in an action setting, women are objectified too much. It’s not as though it isn’t possible to make a cool, sexy costume that only includes two of these.
Objectification sends a clear message to women in the audience: “Do not identify with this character. This character was created to provide sexual pleasure to the straight men in the audience. This product is not for you.” That some women like yourself are able to look past this objectification or even embrace it doesn’t invalidate the feminist claims that it has a harmful effect on the way women are viewed, valued, and judged, particularly in traditionally male spaces.
Romance novels are a whole other ball of wax, and I don’t think you’ll find many people here defending the unrealistic way they portray men. However, romance novels are undervalued and marginalized in society relative to cheesy sci-fi movies made by James Cameron, so that’s what we tend to discuss here. If you feel men are portrayed unfairly and over-objectified in rom-coms like Crazy Rich Asians, it would be more productive to discuss it in the comments under that review. That’s not a bad conversation to start, but the fact that it isn’t happening doesn’t mean that conversations about female objectification don’t have merit.
“Some of your assertions are incorrect.”
Nope. Every single one of them is correct.
” I know several women who have expressed jealousy over the appearance of women in magazines and movies made specifically for female audiences.”
I also know some women like that. But that does nothing to disprove the thesis that that jealousy does not manifest as an attempt to create demands for double standards in the presentation in that media.
“Not as odd is the fact that you’re unaware that many men are jealous and insecure about the appearance of men in novels, shows, movies, and magazines targeted at women. While not as commonly expressed as the reverse, it happens frequently.”
No they aren’t. They don’t get so insecure that they try to build demands for double standards in media presentation.
That’s simply not a thing that men do. But hey don’t take my word for it, feel free to give some examples where men demanded changes in the sexiness of male characters in female created & consumed media, due to personal insecurity.
You simply won’t find articles in which men sit around trying to ‘fix’ male characters, or trying to look like Fabio to demonstrate how they don’t look like Fabio, hence it’s sexism.
“The driving factor in the disparity is the emphasis on physical appearance as a defining quality for women.”
It’s not. The driving factor is our insecurity that we would ever get jealous at the appearance of a female character.
“Your anti-objectification argument is a semantic stretch. Of course it’s possible to objectify a fictional character.”
Let me stop you right there, you clearly don’t know what objectification is, because you cannot objectify a fictional character. Objectification is a description of how one treats a person as an object.
Fictional characters are not people, they are objects, they are just data bound to a physical or digital medium. The one thing they have never been & can never be, is people & so can never be objectified.
“One could easily argue that dancers at a strip club and significant others role-playing in the bedroom are fictional characters.”
One could, but one would be wrong. Those people are people, those people are 100% not fictional. Also, fun fact, you cannot objectify a stripper who is plying her trade, since she or he is doing so under their own autonomy, which would infringe on the Denial of autonomy & Inertness clauses in that concept.
“Speaking for myself, when I say “realistic costume” in an action setting, I mean at least two of the following five things:”
Those following five things are no more or less realistic than any other element of fantastical media, your ability to only accept so many of those is fine, as long as you accept that your inability to accept more doesn’t make the things you cannot accept ‘broken’ nor are you ‘fixing them’ when you demand they change.
“However, romance novels are undervalued and marginalized in society”
Actually no. Believe it or not they are the most widely distributed genre of prose fiction globally in any given year. You think they are marginalised simply because you & I have no interest in them & they are below our notice. But they outsell any other single genre of books.
“…But they do & it is ALWAYS media made for men that it occurs in.”
Again, this is not true. If you said something like, “usually, in my limited experience, it occurs in media made for men,” you would be telling the truth. Not a big deal, I exaggerate sometimes too, it just undermines your argument when you make sweeping generalizations.
Regarding male insecurity, I’m going to be the first person in the history of the internet to recommend you research the incel movement. As you probably already know, they’re at least as jealous, insecure, and entitled as the subset of women you’re referencing and are very vocal in their demands that we change pop cultural representations of men. They aren’t as mainstream or numerous (yet) as the women for many reasons, one of which is that the range of men portrayed in fiction (in widely released films especially) is much larger than the range of women. Another reason is that women are exposed to fiction intended for men much more often than men are exposed to fiction intended for women. People that get served tripe ten times a month for decades are naturally going to complain more than people who only get it a couple times a year.
Once again, your objectification argument sounds like arbitrary semantics. The line between fictional character and person is not clear. Is an actor playing a role a person? Yes. Are they also a fictional character? Yes. Is a person dancing in your living room a person? What if they’re doing it in a video? What if they’re in front of a green screen? What if it’s a rotoscoped image of the person? What if it’s a motion captured CG image of the person? What if it’s another person imitating the dance of the first person? What if the second person is wearing a mask? What if I take a photo of the mask while they’re dancing and you can only see their eyes?
The point at which a representation of a person stops being a person and starts being a fictional character in human brains happens at different levels of social abstraction for different people. For the vast majority of people, every person-like object they see is a simultaneous mixture of both. Perhaps you can explain where you personally draw the line between person and fictional character, but the location of that line is not clear or universal.
Your assertion that it’s impossible to objectify a stripper is also very confusing. What if I film the stripper’s performance on my phone, and cut off the head in the frame, only focusing on his or her body? Are you saying that I am not objectifying that person, and that a person who watches that video is incapable of objectifying the stripper in question? Let’s say the stripper is dressed as Sherlock Holmes and does a skit before stripping, are they a fictional character or a person, wouldn’t they be both? What does a person’s autonomy and level of inertness have to do with objectification? Is objectification analogous to rape, defined by consent? The system of terms you’ve established feels weirdly impractical and unrealistically rigid.
Perhaps I’m out of touch when it comes to romance novels. Twilight and Fifty Shades made headlines, and big rom-coms do get plenty of hype and coverage. I feel as though they still aren’t looked upon with the same respect by mainstream culture as say… violent medieval epics, sports/war films, or sci-fi/fantasy blockbusters, but maybe I’m just in a geeky bubble. I’ll give you that one if you want.
But all this mental gymnastics and semantic silliness is ultimately a distraction from the main point: Women want to see themselves represented as fully realized, multifaceted human beings with dreams and goals and thoughts and flaws, and quirks. Many of the women who are complaining about ludicrously unrealistic costumes are not complaining out of jealousy, but out of the sense that the characters in question are undervalued and underdeveloped in the stories they are a part of and are treated like trophies and plot devices. The characters are being forced by the writers and directors to dress and act in a way that is at odds with the world around them and sometimes even counter to their own character design while the male characters are allowed to behave like human beings. If you don’t like the word broken, fine, call it whatever you like, I call it bad writing and lazy filmmaking that needs improvement.
“Again, this is not true.”
It is.
“Regarding male insecurity, I’m going to be the first person in the history of the internet to recommend you research the incel movement.”
Incels have nothing to with this topic. There is no vast incel movement demanding male characters be less sexy, which is the topic at hand.
“are very vocal in their demands that we change pop cultural representations of men.”
Oh they are very vocal, but no they are making no demands that we change pop culture, they are much to busy throwing a sook about how women won’t sleep with them & how women are slatterns because they want to sleep with men who don’t sit around all day drowning in their own self pity.
But hey feel free to change my mind, all you need to do is supply me with the articles about how Fabio in silk shirts need to be replaced on the front of romance novels.
“one of which is that the range of men portrayed in fiction (in widely released films especially) is much larger than the range of women.”
It’s not. There are all sorts of female body shapes in movies, unless your theory is that Melissa McCarthy & Scarlett Johansson have the same body type, in which case I may question either your eye sight, or sanity.
“Another reason is that women are exposed to fiction”
Stop. No one is exposed to fiction. Fiction isn’t a dodgy old man in a trench coat in the park, whose going to open up his trench coat to flash you his plot.
You can choose to consume any media you wish to, you are not being held captive, strapped in to a chair, with your eyes wired open, forced to watch male directed media.
Simply choose not to watch it.
“Once again, your objectification argument sounds like arbitrary semantics.”
It’s not. Objectification is a specific thing, containing specific traits, a specific thing whose traits do not apply to fictional characters.
“The line between fictional character and person is not clear.”
Yes, it is. One is fictional, the other is not.
“Is an actor playing a role a person? Yes. Are they also a fictional character? Yes.”
The actor is a real person, they are not the fictional character they are portraying.
“Is a person dancing in your living room a person? What if they’re doing it in a video?”
They are a real person & they are a real person who chose to do so while being recorded & so objectification also does not apply. Since as we’ve covered already that would break the denial of autonomy feature of the concept.
“The point at which a representation of a person stops being a person and starts being a fictional character in human brains happens at different levels of social abstraction for different people.”
No it doesn’t. All those examples are covered in the Nussbuam scale. Named after Martha Nussbuam, a new York city feminist philosopher, whose books you should read if the topic interests you.
But here’s the dumbed down version: You cannot objectify a fictional character, because a fictional character is not a person & objectification only applies to people.
“Your assertion that it’s impossible to objectify a stripper is also very confusing. What if I film the stripper’s performance on my phone, and cut off the head in the frame, only focusing on his or her body?”
Still not objectification, as that breaches the denial of autonomy clause in what makes something objectification.
Like I said, if the topic is of interest to you, you want to read Ms ?Nussbaums work on the topic.
Enough. This thread is DONE. I don’t want to have to close the comments on this post but I will if necessary. This discussion does NOT belong here, and it’s only going in circles now. STOP.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t marginalized and undervalued!
You *seriously* do need a course in Feminism 101.
That’s exactly what that means.
If you are the widest distributed & best selling genre of fiction globally, that would be polar opposite of being insignificant or peripheral.
“You *seriously* do need a course in Feminism 101.”
No & neither do you. If anything I’d say you’ve had to much feminism 101 & you need some “rentering the real world 101”, the course load comes with a dictionary, so you can always look up what words actually mean.
As I just said to another commenter, I suggest you take your shit elsewhere. You will get no satisfaction here.
Actually I’m getting lots of satisfaction here. It’s very satisfying watching you squirm as you try to re-order the real world in to a feminist box it doesn’t fit in to.
Women do something amazing, so they stand at the peak of the industry, but because your entire world view is predicated on the pretence of female victimhood, because you are a feminist you have to try to force that in to your feminist belief structure.
You have to pretend that this media made for & by women has to be marginalized, because if it isn’t, well you’d have to admit that society doesn’t really hate women & all of your failures might be the result of who you are & not WHAT you are.
You seem not to understand that a genre that is widely consumed and popular can still be marginalized — disrespected, ignored, scorned, “treated as insignificant or peripheral,” as your definition has it — by the traditional power structures of society. Romance novels ARE popular, yes, but precisely because they’re written for and by women, they (and their readers) are still oftentimes disdained by literary gatekeepers or academia or general (not genre) readers.
http://jennycrusie.com/non-fiction/emotionally-speaking-romance-fiction-in-the-twenty-first-century/
(see point 3)
https://www.sarinabowen.com/blog/2018/6/11/sexism-and-the-romance-stigma
https://womenintheworld.com/2015/07/20/a-peek-at-the-authors-who-write-romance-novels-and-the-stigmas-they-experience/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-cant-romance-novels-get-any-love-180954548/
https://paw.princeton.edu/article/not-your-grandma%E2%80%99s-romance
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soloish/wp/2018/02/12/why-dont-romance-novels-get-the-respect-they-deserve/?utm_term=.dde5147cd798
And you’re still way off-topic in this thread.
“You seem not to understand that a genre that is widely consumed and popular can still be marginalized — disrespected, ignored, scorned”
Marginalised isn’t the same as not respected. Many things are not respected, but why would something successful require respect? Computer games are not respected, but they outsell movies & music combined & are in no way marginalized.
“doesn’t mean computer games are marginalised.
“as your definition has it ”
That’s not MY definition, it is THE definition.
“Romance novels ARE popular, yes, but precisely because they’re written for and by women, they (and their readers) are still oftentimes disdained by literary gatekeepers or academia or general (not genre) readers.”
No, not to get tautological but they are popular because they are popular. Just as video games are popular because they are popular. They are also disdained by academics, but so what?
And she’s now banned.
Oh, now you decide to be honest about your biases!? You buried the lead, Kate. In the future, please open with, “I’m an anti-feminist troll whose mind is an airtight bubble of self-fulfilling prophecies,” and spare us the word salad and bizarre rationalizations. And you had me half-convinced you were a misguided, intellectually curious person living in the real world. How dare you?
Imagine a flat-earther tried to convince you for four hours that astrophysics was a cult, then tossed in at the end, “by the way, I’m also a Scientologist and my father is Hugh Manatee, immortal emperor of the Unicorns.” I feel so betrayed. I can’t believe you’re just another run of the mill troll. I thought you were different… I thought maybe… maybe we… *sniff*… there’s something in my eye! *runs away sobbing*
-Better Love Story Than Alita
“Oh, now you decide to be honest about your biases!? You buried the lead, Kate.”
There’s no burying of the lead. You saying anti feminism is just a different way of saying “you don’t share my opinion” & that’s a given being that we are discussing our difference of opinion.
Your attempt at the moment is simply an attempt at appeal to motive, because I pointed out that words mean things & in this case no, the number one genre of book sold globally, with the top sales is in no way marginalised just because you don’t think they get the mainstream respect one thinks they are owed.
Now would you like another shot at this comment? I’ll even be happy to pretend you didn’t pen such a silly reply & we’ll continue on like we are both adults, having an adult conversation & you didn’t resort to “herp derp, you is an anti-feminist” as a rebuttal.
Banned as a troll. Do not reply to her.
She’s been banned.
And that’s you banned. Goodbye.
In one of your recent comments on another site, you tell another commenter: “you’ve moved on from trying to make argument, to just making appeals to motive.” I’d argue you’re doing the same here — attacking the (presumed) motives of the critics rather than engaging their arguments on the merits.
Comics isn’t and shouldn’t be a male-only entertainment. As a male fan of superhero comics, I do have a problem with the way many superheroines have been depicted historically. (Comics creators seem to be aware of this now and have been trying to correct it, at least in the titles I follow.) I have no problem admiring idealized bodies, male and female, but there’s a difference in how Superman and Batman have full-body uniforms for battle while Wonder Woman has historically had to fight in a bathing suit. Comics creators have had no qualms showing us nearly-nude and sexualized superheroines — but if they give even a HINT that Batman has a penis, that shit is shut down FAST.
The problem isn’t “sexy”; Jane Foster as Thor is sexy, and Captain Marvel in her new uniform is sexy, while still emphasizing their power and badass-ness over their sexual desirability. Which is as it should be, because, y’know, they’re superheroes.
I’m not too familiar with the romance novel genre and I’m sure there are arguments that can be made against those covers, but I’ll say this: the problem isn’t that (straight) men want to look at women and (straight) women want to look at men — the problem is that the male gaze is SO predominant and pervasive in our storytelling, not just in stories “for men” (meaning what, exactly?) but in stories that are supposedly for everyone. (You can read MaryAnn’s essay here for more.) Men being objectified on romance novel covers isn’t nearly as big a problem as women being objectified everywhere else.
In any case, I think this thread has been derailed long enough (my bad too, sorry) because this is supposed to be about gender-abusive comments MaryAnn has received. If you disagree with her review of Alita, you should go to the actual review and comment there.