Seeking a Feminist Boyfriend in the DC Bubble

Flopping Aces ^ | 02-03-15 | Brother Bob

[Starman417]

One of the great things about being married are the many instances where you broaden each other's cultural horizons. Having been married for almost four years now, I'm proud of how much Sister Babe's knowledge base has expanded. She can speak more intelligently about the Philadelphia Eagles' depth at the Tight End position than many Philly residents. She admitted that after enough exposure to some of the music that I listen to, when Black Sabbath comes on the radio it doesn't sound as heavy to her as it used to. She's been around enough WWE Pro Wrestling playing in the background to the point where she even knows most of the jargon. When she asked me whether Michael Chiklis' character on "The Shield" (Detective Mackey) was supposed to be good or bad, my explanation that "He's basically a heel who often wrestles as a face" answered her question.¹ And don't get me started on how much Sister Babe wishes that she knew far less about those two triumvirates of comedic genius, The Trailer Park Boys and Workaholics than she does.

Of course, every relationship is a two way street, and I can tell you more about The Bachelor and The Bachelorette than I ever would have imagined possible. I'm probably more in touch with Top 40 songs on the radio than I've been in years. And when we used to watch the show "Chuck" during its run our differing tastes complemented each other well in picking up the many pop-culture references throughout the show. Sometimes our bad TV partially merges, such as when I referred to one show she used to watch as "Say Yes! Yes! Yes! to the Dress! Dress! Dress!".

One other area where I've benefitted is the fact that Sister Babe had us subscribe to the Sunday edition of The Washington Post. I haven't received the paper myself in over 10 years after an obnoxious move from their subscription department at a former residence of mine. But thanks to Sister Babe I now read their paper over weekend breakfast² and got to read this unintentional comedic gem in their Opinion section, "How to Find a Feminist Boyfriend". Robert Stacy McCain took a brief but excellent swing at this editorial piñata and talked about revisiting, but this story was overcome in the news cycle by the Charlie Hebdo massacre. McCain summed up the story with a tweet from Kyle Smith: How to remain single until you are Maureen Dowd’s age. So McCain opened beautifully with the first words of his article:

Lisa Bonos (@lisabonos) has published a column headlined “How to find a feminist boyfriend” that reads like an Onion parody:

“I find it really attractive how successful you are,” my date said, leaning in for a kiss. Sure, it sounds like a line. But it also sounds like feminism. . . . (No, it’s a line. Trust me.)

Read the whole thing. It's a fun two minute read. An article like this is just begging to be pulled apart thread by thread, so allow me to take you deeper into the mind of a radical feminist. First off, to go back to the quote from McCain that I cited, "I find it really attractive how successful you are”, I'm guessing that she would not be impressed with a date who told her, "I find it really attractive that you're so proud of the fact that you're too stupid to manage a nine dollar monthly expense". But that's what passes for "empowerment" among the radical left.

Satire from The People's Cube? Nope - this is the actual image that accompanied the article in The Post.

Few guys will proudly say no when asked if they’re feminists. Instead it’s a wholehearted yes, a lukewarm maybe or Can you define what you mean by “feminist,” please?

The simple answer is a confident "No". Any woman so far gone as to think that that would be a question that needs to be asked most likely has a rabid, fringe view that no self-respecting man could possibly have. I'll flesh out my last remark throughout the rest of this post. Let's continue with Bonos' definitions of what makes a feminist man:

Is he a feminist if he proclaims, on a first date, that he could see himself taking his wife’s last name? (Maybe his own name is pretty generic.)

No. Even one of my very leftist buddies considered both he and his wife taking & combining each others' names, (Smith-Brown, Brown-Smith, for example), but ultimately any guy who does this is announcing to the world that the rest of his life will be spent in misery under his wife's thumb. Fair or unfair, that's how he'd get judged. And there's no upside to doing so, save for applause in a few radical leftist circles.

If he insists on doing the dishes after you’ve cooked dinner together but proceeds to whip the dish towel at your ass, is that playful or objectifying? (Both.)

The correct response from the woman is to whip a dish towel at his arse when the opportunity presents, and in a playful manner. If his doing that makes you feel objectified then do the damned dishes yourself.

Is he sexist if he cancels an Uber ride because a female driver is on her way to pick the two of you up? (Definitely.)

More accurately he's an idiot, but I'm actually with Bonos on this one. A better question is why would she be dating a Saudi prince

Does he need to believe that men and women, are equals and should be treated as such? (Uh, yes.)

I agree with that statement on the surface, but I think our definitions differ. For example, I have a feeling if Bonos and I were boarding a flight together and she asked me to help put her heavy carry-on in the overhead compartment, if I lightheartedly chuckled "Do it yourself, feminist!" it wouldn't go over too well. The bottom line is we all have differences, and I have no problem deferring to Sister Babe the tasks that she does better than me and vice-versa. It's the zero-sum game mentality of the victim class that's the real issue here.

Does he need to be actively fighting for social, political and economic justice for women — and for all people, really — to identify as a feminist? (Not necessarily. But if he’s doing that, great.)

Too much stupid to comment on here - that remark by itself could easily warrant a post of its own.

[gundog]

Ponytail and hyphenated last name a plus.

[miss marmelstein]

Both sound like cultural idiots.