Sing it, Mar Iguana!

Adam B: Which came first, the misogyny or the fear and hatred of men? Not a tough one. Cause and effect, my dear, cause and effect.

Precisely. Which is why the longest war, the one against women, has brought the planet to the brink of destruction.

You do live on planet Earth right? The really pretty one, third planet from the sun? The woman-hating one? If you are oblivious to the history of patriarchy, you are just one more boring, willfully ignorant (the ultimate human failing), geek whining about the girlies not acknowledging his entitlement to get laid like an alpha boy.

Geeks with social skills? Geeks interacting with real live women in friendship? Who knew? Here I’ve been mistakenly thinking they were the ones who worked so long and hard, giving themselves carpel tunnel orange* poor dears, on the technology making it possible for boys to interact only with virtual women, not those messy, imperfect, emotional, scary actual women.

Women have, not for the entirety of human existence but for the last several thousand years, been blamed for everything. That’s EVERYTHING. From the fall of mankind to all mental illness to male impotence, to a big box, mega-church preacher straying from his marriage with gays because his wife let herself go. Got it? Every. Thing.

Don’t take my word for it. I know you won’t. Therefore, I suggest you consult with one of your own kind, a male, and read Jack Holland’s book “Misogyny, The World’s Oldest Prejudice” to get a bead on the history of the oppression and brutalization of half the world’s population by the other half throughout recorded HIStory.

If the notion that women could hate their oppressors saddens you, well, can’t take the blaming, get out of the blog. While the expression of hatred of men by women may make you sad, the hatred of women by men makes women dead. Germaine Greer is right: “Women have very little idea of how much men hate them … men do not themselves know the depth of their hatred.” “Men” like you, for instance.

*It has been found that the puzzling epidemic of carpel tunnel syndrome among “men” and boys is not caused by their many strokes on a keyboard but rather by the other strokes they are making in front of their PC screens. The root of this alarming problem was finally traced when one Cheetos-addicted boy went to the doctor because his wrist hurt and his penis had turned a bright orange. Classes are now available to teach the sufferers how to ergonomically avoid what has come to be known as carpel tunnel orange.

Your having identified my statement as ’sexist’ suggests that you must be some kind of expert on the subject of sexism. Perhaps you would care to explain to the ladies just how a dude who has benefitted his whole life from male privilege escapes internalizing the notion that, since privilege cannot exist without something to be privileged over, women are less than he is?

Meanwhile, I’ll just comment on one of your assertions — “If you are having trouble finding men who are rational human beings, you are looking in the wrong places.” The women reading and commenting on Twisty’s blog are clever enough to figure out where to look, but most of us aren’t looking for men at all. Including the hetero women like me.

The men who wrote those disgusting comments in response to Melissa DeCosta’s letter don’t just inhabit the “wrong places”; they are all around us. Melissa isn’t the only woman to be verbally beaten after daring to express an opinion. Cyberspace seems to be chock full of verbal beatings for women. I have received a couple myself, including one after I protested a joke about rape.

I can understand why you are dismayed at the negative view of men the women commenting here have expressed. Too bad that it makes you sad. I wish it would make you angry, because then maybe you — and other educated, geeky type guys — would actually do something about the fountain of hatred that brought forth those letters aimed at Melissa DeCosta.

And by “doing something” I mean objecting, loudly and on a daily basis, to the verbal beatings, the rape humor, the suggestions that women be put in their place by being sexually assaulted, etc, etc. Until I see “decent guys” doing that in large numbers — larger than the number participating in the verbal assaults — then it’s easier for me to believe in Santa Claus than in geeky good guys.