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.

permalink
report
reply
4 points

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.

permalink
report
parent
reply
26 points

Gender essentialism

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

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

permalink
report
parent
reply
14 points

Not only gender essentialist, but I get very strange cisheteronormative vibes from a sentiment like that.

permalink
report
parent
reply
19 points

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.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

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

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

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.

permalink
report
parent
reply
19 points

I dont doubt that Obama has read books or listened to music but these lists are created by interns …right ?

permalink
report
reply

I’m 70% sure they are. All of these politicians have teams dedicated towards their social media presence, even the unhinged ones like MTG.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Ofc, we all know that his actual summer playlist is probably like 70% Phil Collins

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points
*

“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.

Edit: quote is from this article

permalink
report
reply
4 points
*

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

permalink
report
parent
reply
14 points

All of the titles just ooze overly self-serious jerk off material

permalink
report
reply
7 points
*

The Ministry of Time is actually a pretty light fun fiction read about time travel and British spies and such.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

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.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points
*

Obama’s real reading list has J. Sakai’s Settlers on it, someone must have edited your version

permalink
report
reply