Oh sweetheart I love you... You're setting off all my hot spots today.
Before I get into this... I want to make clear that I am a feminist at heart and fully believe in equality between the sexes.
If you don't want to read the whole thing... read the next paragraph and then skip to the last two paragraphs on this post
In fact... fuck it... .I'll just quote this directly from a gentleman that I feel sums it up nicely. Background on this. The gentleman is Tucker Max, He is one of the foremost writers of something the media is calling "fratire" essentially he's writing about being a man. He writes about drinking and picking up. He is not a misogynist as many call him, but actually worships women for simply being women. He DOES however, refuse to be emasculated by feminism and is simply talking about being a guy.
"To understand why current culture is at the point where men being men is considered a radical notion, you need to understand how we got here. Feminism came in three "waves"; 1st Wave, which was suffrage (the right to vote), 2nd Wave, which was the 60's and 70's sexual and social revolution fought for inclusion, and 3rd Wave, which is what we have now. It emphasizes freedom of choice for women regardless of what decision they make, and it endorses everything from porn to girly culture.
Of course, First Wave feminism was a substantial human advancement. Aside from universal suffrage, only the rule of law and the scientific method have done more to advance the human condition. Second Wave feminism was also necessary at the time it began. It threw off the stifling societal bonds limiting women's ability to be who they wanted to be and advance in fields they choose. However, Second Wave feminism went too far in some ways. While many women did want to take advantage of the new paths available to them and become scientists or CEO's, many did not, and they didn't enjoy feeling like failures simply because they chose to be stay-at-home moms or strippers or whatever.
The same was true for their sexuality. Because the Second Wave feminists fought for sexual equality against a patriarchal system that objectified them, as a result they sought to hold women to a standard of acting in accord with the gains they had won. But the Third Wave feminists did not want another set of rules, they wanted personal freedom, and some of them preferred the option of alternate sexual mores like bi-sexuality and sluttiness. This is why Third Wave feminism arose; it was a reaction against the oppression of the Second Wave. Plainly put, the Second Wave feminists were Jane Pauley and Gloria Steinem, and the Third Wave feminists were Britney Spears, Suicide Girls and Margaret Cho.
Why does any of this matter? Because feminism did not evolve in a vacuum. It interacted with and affected masculinity. Entire books could be written about this, but in short, men--especially in the media--reacted to Second Wave feminism by emasculating themselves and adopting a PC attitude that apologizes for nothing more than men being men. This attitude peaked in the early 90's (around the same time that Third Wave feminism started). The idea that men had to pay not only for the sins of our fathers, but had to suffer for simply being a man became pervasive in mainstream media.
When any pendulum swings too far to one side, it eventually has to start coming back. The first major player to refuse to buckle to this trend was Howard Stern. The demand for such a voice was so strong that by simply refusing to kowtow to the PC police, he became the "King of All Media." This is where fratire comes in. While Maddox and I are not Howard Stern, we do represent some of the first internet players in this anti-PC revolt, and fratire as a genre represents the non-mainstream literary reaction to the feminization of masculinity.
Masculinity is starting to slowly coming back in vogue, but the fight is only beginning. The fact is, at this point in entertainment history, the Second Wave feminists are the gatekeepers of media. The women who grew up in the 60's are now in charge, and they quite literally run shit. By itself that is not a problem, but these 50-year-old women who hold so many positions of power in media companies have personal preferences that do not reflect many American attitudes. Fratire exists as a genre because people are hungry for someone to tell it like it actually is instead of how these women (and men to some extent) want it to be. There is a large and untapped segment of the American populace that want men to act like men, but the MSM, which is run by Second Wave feminists, doesn't get this yet. They aren't in touch anymore. "
To summarize. Feminism has come a long way. This is still a predominantly male dominated society, and even the women in power now are an older generation and feel the need to show off other women in power. It's not that they're knowingly setting back equality and women's rights... its that the women and men in power THINK They're doing just the OPPOSITE.
By advertising that a woman is now in fire cheif and by mentioning that she's single.. they THINK they're supporting womens rights by showing that she's worked hard and hasn't needed a man to do it etc etc. But waht they're really doing is driving a wedge between the sexes by not giving her the same courtesy they would give a man... and that's to say.. he's the best so he got the job.. end of story.
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