Do these women actually believe that all men are just waiting to molest every girl/woman they come across? What a sad and twisted way to go through life.

I can't describe this mentality that demands that men be depicted as monsters. Isn't it just possible that Mr. Shaibel is simply not a pedophile? Not everyone (every man) is sexually attracted to prepubescent children.

It's not cynicism, because cynics are at least forming opinions based on their own experiences. And it's not real world experience that compels feminists to believe that all men are bad, so much as opportunism. Feminists adhere to the philosophy because they seek to advance themselves without having to put in the prerequisite work. It's less work to demand advantages by claiming you're oppressed than to actually earn them by doing the prerequisite work.

It becomes absolutely necessary to depict all men as evil, because that makes all women victims deserving of compensatory damages.

Behold the fruits of the fatherless home. Of course these women have never met a man they can respect or trust bc they probably have never seen one up close. If they do marry, they will have one eye on the door and the other on the What Have You Done for Me Lately List.

We have been watching Parks and Rec for some light entertainment the last few weeks and we are now at the point where Ann, a totally superfluous character, has decided that she wants to be a mom and will do so without a husband. Not one line of dialogue has even hinted that perhaps, this is not the best outcome for the child or how difficult it is to raise a child on your own. Nope! It’s all you go girl! No thoughts are spared for the captive human soul that will be born into this dystopia.

So when you ask, “don’t these women know any decent men?” The answer is no, they probably don’t bc they were trained from childhood, most likely by their mothers, to never trust men.

I'm guessing most of these women, earlier in their lives, put blind faith in a man giving them guidance. Later, the man might have made a move or some remark that could have been considered inappropriate. They don't like seeing another female get valuable life lessons without having to pay a price.

The book was written by a man, so that may explain some of their hostility. Walter Tevis, the same guy who wrote The Hustler and The Color of Money, wrote The Queen's Gambit

I've had a number of older men who have looked out for me and mentored me in the sweetest, kindest, most helpful ways - without wanting anything from me but that I go out there and live up to whatever potential I had.

Oh, Amy, your naiveté is endearing. Don't you know that all of those men really wanted to molest you.

It becomes absolutely necessary to depict all men as evil, because that makes all women victims deserving of compensatory damages. ~ Patrick at January 2, 2021 5:23 AM

It also makes feminists the guardians of women's safety, which gives them a position of authority and power.

SNL used to have a parody commercial for an alarm company which advised if you are "a young woman living alone in a ridiculously large house" to get an alarm system or "get murdered" by every man in your life - including Grandpa. I can't find the clip anymore, but it effectively mocked this level of fear mongering in service of selling "safety."

Just a matter of perspective. Chess is definitely an avenue for female empowerment. The Queen is the most mobile, most powerful piece on the board. The King can't move around very much, he's continually under threat, and when he's cornered, it's game over.
You'd think strident feminists would eat this stuff up instead of complaining that they didn't get to see the heroine being victimized.

> that may explain some of
> their hostility.

Hostility is its own reward in this case… And there's nothing going on in show business that's worth getting hostile about.

Here's the thing about teevee shows. Also movies. Also, books, painting, food, music and sexual technique… but for now we're talking Hollywood, though I think the source was a Frenchman: The best critique of a movie is another movie. Specifically, a better one.

Or sandwich, etc.

Let's say the producer makes a movie for these whiners, and it tanks… They're not going to pony up the cash to make him whole, and certainly not to turn a profit.

My experience in Hollywood, as an observer of pop culture and in a truly modest tech career, is that the best retort is: Oh yeah? So do it better… Preferably with less! Less time, less money and less-expensive support. When you can do that, your rate goes up, and other treats appear.

No one on this planet is stopping these people from seeing (or composing) the entertainment which they're so certain they want. Grade-schoolers with smartphones are better equipped than the best cinematographers of the 20th century.

There's no way to satisfy them, though someone will try… Anyone remember ᴀɪʀ ᴀᴍᴇʀɪᴄᴀ?

Real life does not fit the feminist narrative, but then they insist that women who are not feminist suffer from "false consciousness" and are in fact oppressed and harrassed--they just don't know it. Irrefutable theory.
Turning all art into propaganda turns art to shit. The irony is that artists have spent 100 years insisting that art should be transgressive and now the woke want it to conform closely to their views.

Jay asks, "Do these women actually believe that all men are just waiting to molest every girl/woman they come across?"

Yes they do, because they want to believe that they, themselves, are just that hot and irresistible!

More on the last point:

Insufferable feminist Jessica Valenti loves to castigate men for catcalling, whistling, and other impromptu expressions of male appreciation of female pulchritude. Recently however, she admits that she is chagrined that she is aging out of the opportunity to be outraged at such "unwelcome" attention, and that she misses us ravenous beasts directing our male gaze like red-hot lasers, or breast-seeking missiles, in her direction!

"expressions of male appreciation"?

Excuse me?

As I said in a past thread (can't find it right now), there is no shortage of young women in the college town where I live, but somehow, I don't hear men whistling or catcalling at THEM. Maybe because those men were taught basic manners? (Nor do the young women complain about that community standard, amazingly!)

Maybe some women do appreciate catcalls, on the grounds that if the men are strangers, they likely won't see them again anyway. Personally, though, I would have been at least somewhat scared, because what if one of them had tried to follow me home? (Imagine how scary it can be for a girl in school when packs of boys do that - they all KNOW her name and where she lives, after all.)

At any rate, from 1995:

"A Tradition of Rudeness is a Habit that Needs Changing"

https://www.deseret.com/1995/8/13/19187566/a-tradition-of-rudeness-is-a-habit-that-needs-changing

Quote:

...Because etiquette is wildly fond of tradition, all these arguments are supposed to stab Miss Manners to the heart. Well, pooh.

These people don't know their own cultural traditions or professional regulations. The customs they are trying to dignify turn out to be pesky habits or major nuisances that their own people have been trying for years to stamp out. What an insult it is to any society to claim that it has an obnoxious cultural heritage requiring disregarding the interests of some of its own members by other of its own members.

Such a thing is not totally unknown, Miss Manners admits. "Sure, we've always pinched women in the streets. They love it. If they didn't, why would they go out of the house?"

Well, if people have been behaving disgustingly for centuries, then it's high time they changed. It is a miscalculation to count on etiquette's being mindlessly mired in the past to the point of considering everything ancient to be hallowed. Miss Manners isn't quite so tradition-bedazzled that she can't tell a valid ritual from a history of having gotten away with murder...

(snip)

> Maybe because those men
> were taught basic manners?

Lenona, what is the deal with you?

What do you mean?

I merely point out that what is supposedly typical between strangers in some neighborhoods, whether it's wolf whistles, obscene language or pinching women, is not necessarily typical in
MOST neighborhoods - and even if it were, that would be no excuse for it to continue, as Miss Manners said. As I said, just because not all women feel the same way about vulgar behavior by strangers (or by familiar men) doesn't change the fact that rudeness is rudeness - and very often terrifying as well. It's no real hardship for children to grow up and to stop using four-letter words every minute. Or even every day.

Eh, ugly women get sexually harassed and raped, too. Women who are worried about getting harassed are generally women who have been harassed.

Catcalling is definitely a social milieu thing. You don't see a lot of middle to upper class men openly ogling and leering women walking down the street. If you want such "expressions of appreciation" your best bet is to walk through a shady neighborhood.

I'm starting to age out. Can't say I miss it... but then I've got a hubby at home who shows me plenty of expressions of appreciation that somehow don't annoy me like those of strangers.

Catcalling is definitely a social milieu thing. You don't see a lot of middle to upper class men openly ogling and leering women walking down the street. If you want such "expressions of appreciation" your best bet is to walk through a shady neighborhood.
__________________________________

I'd say it's relative. After all, we've all heard of rich people, famous/talented or not, behaving really badly - or worse - in public. (Latest untalented example that I know of: Paris Hilton's brother Conrad, who is now in jail, just as his sister was.) Clearly, they're most likely to threaten people who are of lower status - i.e., in Conrad's words, "peasants."

Not to mention high school star athletes, rich or poor, who get worshipped by the entire community, even after they're caught driving drunk. (Think of the town of Glen Ridge.) What are the odds that coddled teens like that will treat other people with dignity?

Also, I've heard that when it comes to occasions like weddings and funerals, it's the working-class communities that are most likely to insist on things like formal dress codes and other formalities. Maybe because good manners are often all they have?

Finally, I don't really remember what cable TV was like from 1980-1995, since the homes I lived in didn't have it. However, in 1999, I think it was, I was watching "The Sopranos" with my brother and future sister-in-law - and I was horrified by the gutter language.

ME: "Watching this makes me SO GLAD..."

SIL:..."that you didn't grow up in New Jersey?"

I stared in disbelief. "No, glad I didn't grow up around men who talk like that in front of you."

(And, for the record, I'd bet that most of the teen boys I knew didn't turn into Mr. Hydes when the girls weren't around - to a point.)