Mammoth FAQ
A mammoth, hunted. By leocigale
We Hunted the Mammoth: The FAQ-ening
Q) A mammoth, huh? What’s this blog about?
A) Misogyny, not mammoths.
Specifically, this blog focuses on what I call the “New Misogyny,” an angry antifeminist backlash that has emerged like a boil on the ass of the internet over the last decade or so. These aren’t your traditional misogynists – the social conservatives and religious fundamentalists who make up much of the far right.
These are guys, mostly, who range in age from their teens to their fifties, who have embraced misogyny as an ideology, as a sort of symbolic solution to the frustrations in their lives – whether financial, social, or sexual.
Some of them identify as Men’s Rights Activists, trying to cast their peculiar struggle against what they see as the excess of feminism and the advantages of women as a civil rights issue of sorts. Alongside those who explicitly label themselves MRAs we find a great number of antifeminist and antiwomen activists we might call Men’s Rights-adjacent – like those in the Skeptic and Atheist subcultures who still haven’t gotten over an offhand remark Skepchick founder Rebecca Watson made about a dude in an elevator a couple of years ago.
Others proclaim themselves Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), declaring a sort of independence from women – while spending much of their time on message boards talking endlessly about them.
Still others see themselves as Pickup Artists (PUA), or masters of “Game,” espousing elaborate “scientific” theories of male superiority while trading tips on how best to pressure or manipulate drunk women into bed. This misogynistic wing of the PUA subculture has a considerable overlap with a subset of traditionalist and far-right blogs. Many of those in what has come to be called “the manosphere” — hey, don’t blame me, I didn’t come up with that name — don’t simply embrace misogyny; they also proudly embrace “scientific” racism and other bigotries.
Still, while some of the New Misogynists see themselves as conservatives, even “neo-reactionaries,” many identify themselves as libertarians or even as liberals. Theirs is a backlash that frames itself as a step forward.
That said, there are numerous posts here that don’t have anything to do with MRAs or MGTOWers or PUAs or any of their ilk. Sometimes I like to post cat pics.
Q) Ok, but you still haven’t explained the mammoth thing.
A) This is a reference to a quote I once posted from a dude who felt women weren’t sufficiently appreciative of what men had supposedly done for them over the ages. Here’s the quote, in all of its weird glory:
We men built a nice safe world for you all the the coal-mines of death, roads, railroads, bridges and tall office buildings. Its $1,000,000 spent per death of a man on a large dangerous project on average now you can just 9-5 it and call it a day in air-conditioned and heated safety. Forget about the wars we died in and the sacrifices made just ignore history or is it now hersorty? You are accruing the benefits without ever having to pay the price you still don’t have to sign up for the draft and who will protect you? The Sex and the City girls will fight off the North Koreans with their Manolo Blahniks?
Men gave you this modern world now you take it for granted we hunted the mammoth to feed you we died in burning buildings and were gassed in the trenches but that was just for fun right?
How quick and conveniently you forget who made this possible.
We gave you Leonardo da Vinci, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy not to mention countless others, Jonas Salk saved half the world from death and you just piss on it all.
This quote is such an amazing clusterfuck of misogyny, entitlement and unwarranted self-importance – not to mention historical ignorance – that the bit about mammoths became a catchphrase around here, neatly conveying pretty much everything this blog is against. And so I decided to make it the name of the blog.
Q) Wasn’t this blog called Man Boobz before?
A) Yes. That was a name I came up with on the spur of the moment when I first started this blog. But it was kind of a dopey name. It didn’t really fit what the blog has become, and I got a bit tired of explaining it to people.
Q) What were you thinking?
A) You see, the “Man Boobz” in question are the misogynistic dudes I write about on this blog. The term “boob,” in addition to meaning “breast,” can also mean “a nincompoop.” It’s a … double entendre? Ha ha!
Q) But you call yourself Manboobz, right?
A) No. I did post as Manboobz on a few sites, but just to identify myself as being connected to this blog. I’ve switched to using my real name.
Q) And what is that?
A) David Futrelle. I’m a freelance writer and blogger living in Chicago, and the guy behind the Confused Cats Against Feminism blog. For more on my illustrious career, see the David Futrelle FAQ.
Q) Do you hate men?
A) Nope.
Q) You’re against the Men’s Rights movement. Are you against men having rights?
A) Of course not. As hundreds of posts on this site show pretty clearly, the so-called Men’s Rights Movement is a hateful, reactionary movement driven largely by misogyny and hatred of feminism. It doesn’t help men. It encourages them to scapegoat women and stew in their own bitterness.
Q) Are you a feminist?
A) Well, yeah. Somehow this wasn’t really a big deal to anyone until I started making fun of misogynists online.
Q) So you admit that you’re not an objective journalist?
A) No one is an objective journalist. But I try to be fair and accurate and upfront about my opinions.
Q) If you’re a feminist, why do you let misogynists and other trolls post comments on your blog?
A) The point of this blog is to expose misogynists and the terrible things they say. So if misogynists want to come here and expose themselves with their own words, I say, why not let them? The feminist commenters here generally enjoy batting them around like a cat toy. That said, I ban those who are abusive, and I’m now setting aside some “no-troll, no-MRA” threads for those who want to discuss the issues, or whatever else they want to discuss, without being derailed or dogged by misogynists.
Q) Are you secretly funded by the international feminist conspiracy?
A) No. I’m not funded by any organization. Some readers have very kindly given me donations. You can too, if you wish. Click that button over there on the right.
Q) Do you advocate killing children?
A) No. Misogynists are assholes, and they tend not to like this blog. So they make up ridiculous shit about me all the time. If a misogynist or MRA says something about me, it is most likely completely untrue. Check their sources, if they have any, and you’ll see that their claims are bullshit.
Q) I heard some MRAs call you fat. Are you fat?
A) Yes, I am fat. This is one of the very few true things MRAs ever say about me. For some reason they like to mention this a lot, as if it’s somehow a rebuttal of what I write.
Q) What’s with all the cat pictures?
A) I like cats.
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Comments 418
If only they would go live in a compound somewhere!
Preferably somewhere with no internet connection.
Ugh, yes, definitely the British one. I could never sit through that much of Elam or GWW, never mind both of them together.
David, I have a quick question if you don’t mind. Why do your commenters take issue with people using the words “female” and “male”? I use them on my own blog as simply a different way of saying “woman” and “man”, since I hate unnecessary repetitiveness in a single post.
Is there a major reason why these terms are “bad”, or is it an individual preference thing? Thanks in advance!
So you’ve made a joke site to make snide fun of mra extremists and fringes instead of providing a forum for meaningful discussion for people who see the skyrocketing divorce rates, cheating, suicides, bad court rulings and general widespread misappropriation of values in society . Congratulations. A site so crappy it has no value even as entertainment, just a zone for otherwise HIGHLY similar people to take adhoc opposing views and flamewar each other
Feminism should have ended when women were given the vote and were able to get into university on merit with equal chance of scholarship and the necessary advertisement, as well as access to non-elected government work again based on merit. I’m not against legitimate concerns but this incessant and unnecessary female empowerment aka pussy power tantrum ( ala the media, academia and politico, nothing against grassroots movements for a specific issue of real concern to people), being thrown since has got to stop. It highly distorts reality and is now an extremist pov in and of itself.
Pussy Power Tantrum is the name Of My Band.
Oops, I’ve mistakenly been entertained by this site. Sorry about that.
That’ll show you, katz. I hope you’re suitably chastened.
A cursory look at this website would reveal that these MRAs are not part of some “fringe.”
This isn’t a discussion forum; it’s a place for mocking MRAs and their ilk. So you don’t have an argument I’m afraid.
People who employ a phrase such as “pussy power tantrum” and declare to me when feminism should have ended are definitely my go-to source for determining who is fringe and extremist and who is not.
What do all those words even mean? What’s the “necessary advertisement” for getting into university? What about women’s access to private sector work and to elected office?
Oops, I kind of messed up my cut and paste at the end of that. At least I got the block quote right.
Maybe I didn’t have the necessary advertisement at university.
“skyrocketing divorce rates”
Why is this a problem? Sure, divorce sucks, but does it suck as much as being stuck in an unwanted marriage for both legal and economic reasons?
Also lol at “cheating”. Because cheating on partners is such a new phenomenon.
“Feminism should have ended when (…) were able to get into university on merit with equal chance of scholarship and the necessary advertisement, as well as access to non-elected government work again based on merit.”
When did that happen?
“Congratulations. A site so crappy it has no value even as entertainment”
Says the entertainment…
Tarnished, if you’re still reading:
Have you noticed how often people (misogynists particularly) will refer to men, boys, and … females? It’s dehumanising and if people who aren’t misogynists use it, they’re just playing into the notion of women as less than human.
Male and female should be left as adjectives, not nouns.
Uh, divorce rates aren’t “skyrocketing.” They skyrocketed in the 70s, and have fallen considerably since then. Here’s a chart.
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for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.