'Manslamming': A Verb, a Gerund

Submitted by Mastodon on Fri, 2015-01-09 01:26

Article here. Excerpt:

'There's a category of words that have sprung up of late to shame men for acting in a manly terrible fashion. There's “mansplaining,” the verb and the noun, which describes—according to Urban Dictionary—the act of “delighting in condescending, inaccurate explanations delivered with rock solid confidence of rightness and that slimy certainty that of course he is right, because he is the man in this conversation.” (See: the book Men Explain Things to Me.) There's “manspreading,” also a verb-and-noun combo, which describes the act of spread-eagle-ing upon a seat, that seat usually being set in a public space, the spread-eagle-er usually being a man. (See the Tumblr Men Taking Up Too Much Space on the Train.)

Terms that put the “man” in “portmanteau” tend to catch on because they describe a behavior that men (usually) adopt unconsciously and that women (usually) find annoying or (sometimes) offensive. They cheekily point out microaggressions-- a term coined by the Harvard professor Chester Pierce in the ‘70s to describe insults inflicted on African-Americans, but extended since then to indict all forms of privilege being wantonly wielded—and ask the subjects of their verbs to check, or at least acknowledge, that privilege. As language, they’re prescriptive as well as descriptive: They both describe a behavior and strongly advise against it. They hint at that the troubling fact that privilege tends to be highly apparent to everyone except the people who enjoy it.

I mention all that because there’s a helpful new word in the man-as-prefix lexicon. Meet “manslamming,” which New York magazine’s Jessica Roy uses to describe the behavior that is, on a sidewalk, refusing to yield to a fellow pedestrian such that a collision inevitably ensues. More broadly, Roy says, it’s “the sidewalk M.O. of men who remain apparently oblivious to the personal space of those around them.” It is (usually) done by men, (usually) at the expense of women. It is (usually) done unconsciously.'

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I've been "bodychecked" and/or had people of both sexes at roughly equal numbers obliviously walk unyieldingly through my obvious path.

But tell me: if it's also their path, which of us has the greater claim of right to the same path? Neither of us. I have been the checker and checkee, yielder and yieldee, and in every case the other person had the same claim of right to our shared path as me. But when making such a case to those who believe as Susan B. Anthony's newspaper's masthead proclaimed*: "Men their rights and nothing more, women their rights and nothing less!", it's clear in these roots of feminism that it isn't about equality but instead it's about creating privilege for women over men. Thus feminists who complain of such things as men h@ving the temerity to continue to walk in a straight line yet even if a woman walks toward them too closely from the opposite direction actually believe women are entitled to have men stand aside as women approach, not unlike how enlisted rank seamen in the Navy are required to flatten themselves against the narrow corridor walls on ships when an officer approaches from the other direction. This was also the kind of thing that black people under apartheid in S. Africa were required to do on public sidewalks at times they were even permitted to walk on them, which were limited at best: stand aside as whites approached, or get off the sidewalk entirely. Not quite so radical as that, but it's the same entitled attitude at work.

What this "manslamming" thing is about is the same as "mansplaining" and "manspreading": a willful attempt on feminists' part to shame men wholesale in an effort to get us to act like cowering servile gits in the face of "wimminkind". It may work on some of us who have drunk the Kool-Aid, but not the rest of us. Nice try, gals, but you'll have to try again. Just know that no matter what you do, trying to shame men for being ourselves may have seemed like it was working (and it did, too) in the '70s and '80s, but not today. We're "hip to your jive" as some used to say in the '60s. The more of these kinds of silly tactics feminists try to use, the more ludicrous they appear, and the more converts to the men's rights movement (which perhaps ought to be termed "the men's rights, self-respect, dignity, and independence movement") will be created.

Keep it up, feminists. You're only adding to the ranks of the MRM with each passing folly.

---
* See under heading "Suffragist" on linked page.

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Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2015-01-10 21:19

"Keep it up, feminists. You're only adding to the ranks of the MRM with each passing folly."

yep! and more and more women are joining the ranks of the MRM!
❤ myself, proudly included! ❤

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Submitted by ErikaLancastor on Sun, 2015-01-11 11:09

... is the same poor excuse of a journalist who wrote a hit piece (of crap) where she flat out lied about the men's rights conference that was held just outside of Detroit last summer. With this new "manslamming" idea of hers, she has really exposed her colours as the bigot she is. Well Done, Ms. Roy! I'm not surprised in the least.

The funny thing is, I find the majority of the time, people who refuse to move out of my path are women. Perhaps she chose the wrong prefix for her fancy new word. Just joking. I don't believe in wholesale shaming of a gender either way. Though, Lord knows, if fembots wanted to play that game, I'm sure we could beat them. Here are a few faux words off the top of my head:

Femsplaining - reducing any situation, regardless of how complex and how many variables, to a clearly fallacious scenario of oppression by "PATRIARCHEEE!"

Femleeching - taking money earmarked for certain purposes and using it for nothing more than paying your employees to "raise awareness" (read: spout hatred against men - white ribbon campaign, I'm looking at you)

OR

taking gratuitous money from donors you don't need to make a project that in no way could cost that much (Anita Sarkeesian, anyone?)

OR

Expecting the government to pay for birth control, tampons, or any product that is made specifically for women. (i.e. Soraya Chemaly, who BTW also thinks the fact that men take less time to go to the washroom is a form of patriarchal oppression - ROFLMAO)

Femfending - The art of defending despicable actions of a female against a male, regardless how heinous, and how clearly guilty and in the wrong said female is.

Oh dear, looks like they may have opened a Pandora's box here!

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Submitted by xtrnl on Mon, 2015-01-12 21:03