that Obama wouldn't have included the novel Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel in his 2024 Summer Reading List?
lol at Ganz being on Obama's list.
Also see: https://twitter.com/PetreRaleigh/status/1823107090035925472
Why the modern male is struggling
I am so fucking tired of hearing about the white cis male struggle when everyone else is dealing with the same shit, but worse.
But no, we have all these fucking articles and books whining about how hard these dudes have it because women won't bring them their slippers and pipe anymore or some shit.
Men actually believe that they feel emotions more deeply and genuinely than women do. There's not a man alive who doesn't think women are beneath him.
Not only gender essentialist, but I get very strange cisheteronormative vibes from a sentiment like that.
How so? Misogyny is not inherent to being a man, but when men are surrounded by a culture that insists they're better than women by virtue of being men, they come to believe it
“Misogyny is not inherent to being a man” seems at odds with “There's not a man alive who doesn't think women are beneath him”
In our society, probably I'd be surprised if it wasn't, but we have a lot of things to change
There's not a man alive who doesn't think women are beneath him.
Please, we can talk about how men are shitty without saying that they are literally, all of them, to a man, irredeemable. Because that's obviously not true, there are plenty of men who see women as their equals. Yes, there's "male socialization" or whatever and men are often taught to be extremely shitty, but their shittiness is not a necessary part of manhood and they can be educated out of it.
In fact, I would argue that saying stuff like this, that "there's not a man alive who doesn't think women are beneath him" actually gives men a pass to be misogynistic assholes. If part of being a man is viewing women as lesser, then we can't hold any man accountable when he views women as lesser. But we can hold them accountable for this, and furthermore, we need to if we ever want to build a better society.
You're right. I overreacted out of frustration, but it's true that misogyny is not a necessary part of manhood, and that men can and should be educated out of it. We CAN hold them accountable, and we do need to, but I'm frustrated that it rarely happens. Most people seem to think that misogyny is not a big deal
I understand your frustration! Patriarchy is extremely shitty and misogyny is so often ignored and downplayed, it's really infuriating.
but their shittiness is not a necessary part of manhood and they can be educated out of it.
So, I think the other person's statement has problems, but I would argue that shittiness is a necessary part of manhood, and the degree that someone is a part of "manhood" is the degree that it is impossible for them to not be shitty. They can be educated out of that shittiness, but it requires educating them out of manhood. That is much of the reason that people call for the destruction of gender, because there is an inherent shittiness to it that it makes all of its members take part in.
I would say something similar about womanhood, if only because womanhood demands the existence of manhood.
I sort of agree in that I very much would like to abolish gender, I don't think it's a super helpful framework to have so heavily embedded in society and in how humans interact with each other. On the other hand, I'm wary of equating manhood with shittiness, because there are (a) non-shitty men and (b) people who actively choose manhood. I'm simply unwilling to say that a trans man is actively choosing to be a shitty human by virtue of choosing to be a man. That doesn't seem right to me, there's something drawing trans men to manhood, and I do not believe it's as simple as wanting to be a misogynist.
there are (a) non-shitty men
If you mean not shitty on the whole, I'd agree. If you mean immaculate, I would disagree. Manhood makes people worse. There are good men, but they are good in spite of being men not because of or with no relation to their manhood.
I'm simply unwilling to say that a trans man is actively choosing to be a shitty human by virtue of choosing to be a man. That doesn't seem right to me, there's something drawing trans men to manhood, and I do not believe it's as simple as wanting to be a misogynist.
You might remember that I said that womanhood is also shitty. I don't think a trans man is choosing to be shittier, but I think they certainly aren't avoiding being shitty any more than cis people are.
I dont doubt that Obama has read books or listened to music but these lists are created by interns ...right ?
I'm 70% sure they are. All of these politicians have teams dedicated towards their social media presence, even the unhinged ones like MTG.
Ofc, we all know that his actual summer playlist is probably like 70% Phil Collins
“The fact that my lists are, you know, pretty incredible, people seem to think, well, he must’ve had some 20-year-old intern who was figuring out this latest cut. No, man! It’s on my iPad right now,” he added.
mixed with 
Edit: quote is from this article
the intern is actually 22 and Obama's the kind of shitbag who thinks that fact makes his deceptive statement morally acceptable. also the song being on the iPad doesn't mean that he listened to it, or that it wasn't placed there after the intern gave him the list
I agree with Matt that this asshole is the biggest villain of the 21st century
I seriously doubt he reads any of this shit.
He really doesn’t strike me as a neolib true believer, I’m almost certain he spends his time reading marxist theory so he knows exactly how to be the biggest lib possible.
The Ministry of Time is actually a pretty light fun fiction read about time travel and British spies and such.
Obama's real reading list has J. Sakai's Settlers on it, someone must have edited your version
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Gender essentialism
