Thursday on Men’s Rights
The Man Who is Thursday has Roissy’s insight, but without the swagger. Read Thursday on who won the sex revolution, how to find a virgin, how social conservatives got it wrong, and why church guys do fine. Here is Thursday on men’s rights:
Men’s rights will never take off for the following reasons:
It is hard for men to play the victim card without looking weak and therefore loserish. Most men would rather just suffer in silence than admit their weakness. … (You just can’t admit that, while your future wife was out shagging a couple alphas, you yourself could barely get laid.)
There are all sorts of men who will chivalrously jump to a women’s defense. …
Alpha males run everything … hence feminists … [can] point out how “men” are the big winners in our society. …
The most talented and articulate men have little incentive to speak out … lends a further loserish cast to the proceedings.
Most beta males are actually pretty happy … a lot … really do prefer XBox 360 to sex. …
Nothing will happen to reform our truly corrupt Western societies until something goes seriously, overwhelmingly wrong. It’s going to get much worse before it gets better, if it ever does.
He’s largely on target, but I think Thursday misses the main factor: no one gains by showing they care about sex-deprived beta males. By sympathizing with creatures who suffer in ways that kids might suffer, people signal their parental nurturing instincts. And beta men look better by acting altruistic toward creatures that women feel sympathy for:
Men reported to indulge in selfless behaviours were found more attractive to women as both potential long-term partners and, to a lesser extent, for “flings”. “Selflessness makes men of otherwise low to moderate attractiveness sexier, but not men who were already considered very attractive,” she said.
But women who sympathized with sex-deprived beta males actually might give them sex, which would not exactly impress the men these women prefer. So since women are built to have little sympathy for sex-starved betas, betas don’t gain by showing sympathy to other betas. And since alphas gain little from showing altruism, literally no one cares.
Hat tip to Rob Wiblin. And for the record, I will make the hard admission of Thursday’s point 1.
Added 5:30p: I don’t really believe in “rights”; I take rights talk to really be complaints by a group about their roles and how they are treated. Many other groups have complained successfully, gaining revised treatment. Father complaints about custody treatment, beta male complains about sex-starvation, and many other male complaints all seem to me legitimate candidates for group complaints. This isn’t to say that such complaints will succeed, however, nor that they should.
Added 27Sept: Today’s post elaborates my position.