Post by emilykate on Oct 27, 2010 23:01:32 GMT -5
The patriarchy is like a big balloon – over-inflated, hollow at its core and full of hot air.
Before we proceed, I wish to include a warning: this is a response – if you like, a critique – to an article that is incredibly insulting – to women and, I feel, also to men, and all that is between and beyond gender. If you have reached what I sometimes refer to as my ‘bullsh#^ tolerance quota’ for the day, it may be best not to read the original ‘article’, which also uses the word ‘cunt’ in the offensive sense.
I won’t post it here, but the link is www.menarebetterthanwomen.com/germaine-greer-2/ - yes, another piece by Dick Masterson, the misogynist “Men Are Better Than Women” (I don’t even have the time to go into arguing against that piece of rubbish, but feel free) guy.
This article of was brought to my attention by a friend of mine – he identifies as a male, moderate conservative feminist and has for some time, for reasons never fully explained, expressed a general dislike for Germaine Greer. Feminism has its pluralities. He told me, however, that upon reading this article he figured that, quote, “If Dick Masterson hates this woman, she probably is actually an absolutely brilliant person”.
Once I opened the link and read the article, I felt a need to address a few things, hence this post.
Quote: “Germaine Greer is a woman, allegedly a doctor (though I could not find of what.” Yes, he didn’t actually close the brackets. The grammatical error is totally his. Anyone with the ability to write a blog/maintain a website surely has the ability to do a simple Wikipedia search. It’s not the most accurate or accepted search in the world, but it’s incredibly easy to use and can be handy when you want to know why a household name – such as Germaine Greer – is precede by the title ‘Dr’. It would take you 60 seconds, tops, to discover that, to quote Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germaine_Greer “1968 she received her Ph.D. on the topic of Elizabethan drama with a thesis titled The Ethic of Love and Marriage in Shakespeare's early comedies “ – thus, Dr Germaine Greer has earned the title “Dr”. Interestingly, on Wikipedia Dick Masterson, his book “Men Are Better Than Women” and website of the same name do not even rate one single mention. Hmmm. Wikipedia wondered if I instead meant Dick Anderson, an American footballer (no, I didn’t, but thanks anyway, Wikipedia!). Once Dick Masterson learns how to use Wikipedia, he may also want to consider what the term ‘research' means – because, as it occurs in the common vernacular, ‘research’ usually refers to looking up something – a book, a database, talking to someone who may know more on the subject than you – it doesn’t mean a quick glance inside one’s own mind to see if the info exists within one’s own cranium. It’s safe to say that there is pretty strong consensus on this.
Next: “The surprise is that it isn’t an autobiography. Nor is it a treatise on Australian women in general who are largely regarded as bitches and unimportant the world over.” Actually Dick, if YOU think it, is doesn’t mean that the whole world thinks it. Unless you consider misogyny the whole world (and I guess, to you it probably is. That’s very limiting – but, as my male, moderate conservative feminist friend pointed out – so is small-mindedness).
I won’t quote the whole paragraph – or even sentence – of my next subject of rebuttal (trigger warning attached to that paragraph, being the 9th). To cut to it, without addressing triggering matters, Masterson refers to ‘mythical patriarchy’, suggesting that the patriarchy doesn’t exist. I’m going to keep within a reasonable word limit her and simple suggest that Masterson Wikipedia ‘patriarchy’, too. Apparently, men ‘do everything and make all the decisions’ and that’s just called ‘the Real World’ – I’m sorry, but in my estimation, the Real World is a place Masterson has never been to. And, as he thinks it’s men who ‘do everything and make all the decisions’, he has certainly never seen my household – which consists of men and women in equal measure.
I’m not even going to address Masterson’s attacks on Germaine Greers’s appearance, but sometime after that he writes the following: “The correct and man-answer is, “Let’s ask an expert.””. My friend (the man who is a moderate conservative feminist) wonders then why Masterson keeps referring to himself as a man, given the way he handled the whole not-knowing-how-Germaine-Greer-can-be-a-doctor-debacle – pretty sure he didn’t go ask an ‘expert’ there. My anonymous friend also suggested I write something along the lines of ‘my anonymous friend: 1; Dick Masterson: zero’ – and this time, I will take up his suggestion, and add that Masterson’s risk assessment model has a certain flaw: if I have to make a risk assessment on 'blank' – and let’s say blank = ‘should I have a 6th espresso for the day in the next 5 minutes?’, I actually have the full capacity to make that risk assessment myself, and wouldn’t need to go bother the head of, oh, Vittoria Coffee. Firstly, there may be some business-interest-biased there and secondly, I don't think they have time for petty matter like that and, thirdly and most importantly, I have the full capability to make that risk assessment myself - probably time to grab a fruit juice, or a water. (My anonymous-male-moderate-conservative-feminist-friend points out that that was a risk assessment and decision made all in the one sentence and by a women, and he hopes that Masterson is paying attention and taking notes. I have told my a-m-m-c-f friend that no, he probably isn’t.). I’d love to see the look on Masterson’s face if he followed his own advice to find that his expert (according to his own definition) on blank was, in fact, a woman. Booyah.
At this point I decide I don’t have to bother reading the rest of Masterson’s piece – I’ve read enough.
Lastly, I take it Dick Masterson didn’t really consider the word ‘cunt’ in its reclaimed sense – as an honourific, meaning a woman (can I say, female-identifying/socialies/bodied person) who is truly brilliant. I’m certain that Dick Masterson isn’t aware that “Germaine Greer, who had previously published a magazine article entitled "Lady, Love Your Cunt", discussed the origins, usage and power of the word in the BBC series Balderdash and Piffle. She suggested at the end of the piece that there was something precious about the word, in that it was now one of the few remaining words in English that still retained its power to shock.” – but he could have found that out on Wikipedia, too; see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunt.
I was reminded of a quote from last year’s edition of Dissent whilst reading this ‘article’: “When you equate stupidity, depravity, and annoyance with a part of female-bodied people, you equate stupidity, depravity and annoyance towards female bodies, towards women”.
Take a moment to consider the words ‘stupidity’ and ‘annoyance’.
Pop the patriarchy.
