The Misogyny-Misandry Death Spiral (Re-Post)

With all that has been going on in the world lately, one common thread seems to be noticeable these days.  Scratch the surface of so many problems, and you will often find some flavor of misogyny lurking under the surface.

First, some definitions:

Misogyny:  hatred and/or hostility towards Women and girls

Misandry:  hatred and/or hostility towards men and boys

Misanthropy:  hatred and/or hostility towards humanity in general, regardless of gender

After the 2024 election in the USA, the 4B Movement (of Women to essentially boycott men) began trending stateside online, though it was already several years old by then in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), its birthplace.  Dig a little deeper into exactly why it originated there, of all countries, and you will see that they actually have a pretty massive and systemic misogyny problem over there.  It's often very subtle of course, and the fellas there always seem so nice and friendly to outside observers from the rest of the world, but beware:  a "kinder, gentler patriarchy" is still a patriarchy.  They are basically a traditional society that has rapidly (and unevenly) modernized, and still has a LOT of old patriarchal baggage to unpack.  And just beneath the surface, it is apparently downright horrifying for so many of the Women of South Korea, so much that so many want nothing to do with men at all if they can help it.  And it really shows most starkly of all in their all-time record low birthrates (lowest in the world currently, with a TFR of as low as 0.80-0.90 children per Woman, less than half the replacement of 2.1) which no amount of pronatalism seems to be able to raise.  

Even their utterly dystopian and Stalinist totalitarian neighbor to the north (the DPRK, or North Korea) somehow manages significantly higher rates of procreation than South Korea these days, so that really says something indeed!

Now zoom out to the world as a whole, particularly on the internet and social media.  Misogyny seems to be reactionary, refractory, and recrudescent in recent years all over the world, with the USA being the most recent ground zero for this ugly trend.  And in very recent years, especially online, you will also notice at least in some circles an equal and opposite reaction (i.e. misandry) per Newton's laws of physics, even though it is not systemic like misogyny is.  But it does appear to unwittingly give ammunition to the latter all the same, unfortunately.  And social media only amplifies both hostilities further, and it ultimately spills over into the offline world as well.  Zoom out even further and look at it on a longer time scale as well, and you will clearly see a vicious cycle and downward spiral occur as follows:

Misogyny begets misandry begets misogyny begets misandry begets misogyny begets misandry begets misogyny begets misandry begets misogyny begets misandry begets misogyny, and so on.

It's enough to turn practically anyone into a full-blown, all-around misanthrope!  At least then, you don't actually have to decide which gender you dislike the most.

This phenomenon is what I call the "Misogyny-Misandry Death Spiral", or MMDS for short.  And the MMDS is a negative-sum (lose-lose) game for all. It leads to nothing but tribalism, polarization, balkanization, and toxicity all around. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, "Hate cannot drive out hate.  Only love can do that".

Divide et impera. Divide and rule. Rinse and repeat. While the oligarchs laugh at the "little people" all the way to the bank.

The results of the 2024 election in the USA are in fact both a cause and a consequence of this vicious death spiral, which threatens to destroy the country, and ultimately the world if left unchecked.

Of course, men could very easily end this spiral right now along with the broader gender war if they truly wanted to, by "accepting the unacceptable" and surrendering to Women.  But unfortunately, there is nowhere near a critical mass willing to do so at this time yet.

The Gender War: A War Men Lost Before The War Began

The 1960s protest folk song "White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land by the late, great Phil Ochs, was written about the Vietnam War.  With lyrics like, "Every battle won is just another grain of sand," and "Oh, we're fighting in a war we lost, before the war began", that were as poignant as they were prescient, it really described that war quite well indeed.  And would also apply by anticipation to the later wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Iran as well.

I can't help but think that such a song also applies a fortiori to the 7000+ year gender war.  You know the War on Women, that we call "patriarchy" to make it sound nicer.  Truly, much like the Americans in Vietnam, it's a war men have already lost before the war began, despite winning nearly every single battle.  Most are just too dumb or ignorant to see it, but more and more are catching on, hence all the angry, violent, and testerical lashing out we are seeing lately from reactionary men.

Men's biggest fear is of course that they will lose. That is, what what losing would really mean?  But at the same time, Women's biggest fear in that regard is actually that Women will win.  That is, what would winning really mean?  Yes, fear of winning!  That goes to show just how deep the toxic patriarchal brainwashing goes.

The mutually beneficial solution, then, is simple.  Men need to accept that they have lost the gender war, and thus surrender to Women.  And Women need to accept they they have won the gender war, and whatever the terms of surrender that are mutually agreed upon.  Only then can humanity's longest war finally end, Goddess willing.

So what are we waiting for?  Let the planetary healing begin!

"White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land", Phil Ochs, 1965 Demo Version 

"White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land", Phil Ochs, 1968 Album Version 

The Misogyny-Misandry Death Spiral

With all that has been going on in the world lately, one common thread seems to be noticeable these days.  Scratch the surface of so many problems, and you will often find some flavor of misogyny lurking under the surface.

First, some definitions:

Misogyny:  hatred and/or hostility towards Women and girls

Misandry:  hatred and/or hostility towards men and boys

Misanthropy:  hatred and/or hostility towards humanity in general, regardless of gender

After the 2024 election in the USA, the 4B Movement (of Women to essentially boycott men) began trending stateside online, though it was already several years old by then in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), its birthplace.  Dig a little deeper into exactly why it originated there, of all countries, and you will see that they actually have a pretty massive and systemic misogyny problem over there.  It's often very subtle of course, and the fellas there always seem so nice and friendly to outside observers from the rest of the world, but beware:  a "kinder, gentler patriarchy" is still a patriarchy.  They are basically a traditional society that has rapidly (and unevenly) modernized, and still has a LOT of old patriarchal baggage to unpack.  And just beneath the surface, it is apparently downright horrifying for so many of the Women of South Korea, so much that so many want nothing to do with men at all if they can help it.  And it really shows most starkly of all in their all-time record low birthrates (lowest in the world currently, with a TFR of as low as 0.80-0.90 children per Woman, less than half the replacement of 2.1) which no amount of pronatalism seems to be able to raise.  

Even their utterly dystopian and Stalinist totalitarian neighbor to the north (the DPRK, or North Korea) somehow manages significantly higher rates of procreation than South Korea these days, so that really says something indeed!

Now zoom out to the world as a whole, particularly on the internet and social media.  Misogyny seems to be reactionary, refractory, and recrudescent in recent years all over the world, with the USA being the most recent ground zero for this ugly trend.  And in very recent years, especially online, you will also notice at least in some circles an equal and opposite reaction (i.e. misandry) per Newton's laws of physics, even though it is not systemic like misogyny is.  But it does appear to unwittingly give ammunition to the latter all the same, unfortunately.  And social media only amplifies both hostilities further, and it ultimately spills over into the offline world as well.  Zoom out even further and look at it on a longer time scale as well, and you will clearly see a vicious cycle and downward spiral occur as follows:

Misogyny begets misandry begets misogyny begets misandry begets misogyny begets misandry begets misogyny begets misandry begets misogyny begets misandry begets misogyny, and so on.

It's enough to turn practically anyone into a full-blown, all-around misanthrope!  At least then, you don't actually have to decide which gender you dislike the most.

This phenomenon is what I call the "Misogyny-Misandry Death Spiral", or MMDS for short.  And the MMDS is a negative-sum (lose-lose) game for all. It leads to nothing but tribalism, polarization, balkanization, and toxicity all around. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, "Hate cannot drive out hate.  Only love can do that".

Divide et impera. Divide and rule. Rinse and repeat. While the oligarchs laugh at the "little people" all the way to the bank.

The results of the 2024 election in the USA are in fact both a cause and a consequence of this vicious death spiral, which threatens to destroy the country, and ultimately the world if left unchecked.

Of course, men could very easily end this spiral right now along with the broader gender war if they truly wanted to, by "accepting the unacceptable" and surrendering to Women.  But unfortunately, there is nowhere near a critical mass willing to do so at this time yet.

The Four Biggest Casualties Of (Gender) War (Re-post)

Every war has casualites, and the 7000 year long gender war (which we call "patriarchy" to make it sound nicer) is certainly no exception.  There are many such casualties, and the four biggest ones are as follows:

1. The first casualty is TRUTH.  And that is not just a clichéd statement, but is practically axiomatic.  If people really knew the truth, the continuity of the war will be called into question.  So the truth is deliberately hidden and replaced with lies, half-truths, and omissions whenever possible.  Eventually it leads to a "post-truth" society and world, in which the truth becomes essentially irrelevant in what passes for discourse.
2. The second casualty is INNOCENCE.  Not as a euphemism for ignorance (for which there is still plenty), but in the most general sense, which includes the capacity for trust.  And that is a result of the first casualty, truth. Not to mention all of the actual and horrific atrocities of the war itself as well.  This results in jadedness, bitterness, and cynicism, which in the case of the gender war seriously poisons the relationship between Women and men, and also vitiates what remains of the sisterhood between Women as well.
3. The third casualty is LOVE.  And not just in the romantic sense, but in the most general sense to include all forms of love, all the way down to and including friendship.  In fact, friendship is probably the biggest casualty of all.  When both primary genders regard the other as being inherently dangerous/evil and needing to be controlled, that kinda precludes all but the most superficial and/or authoritarian relationships between the two.
4. And the fourth and final casualty is HUMANITY, in both senses of the word.

Thus, the gender war, like all wars, ultimately hurts everyone and thus needs to end yesterday.  And the only way to end it (without the entire planet being killed) is for us fellas to, paraphrasing the late Emperor Hirohito, "accept the unacceptable" and surrender to Women.  The sooner we finally cap the game, the better.  So what are we waiting for?

If men stop fighting, there will be no more (gender) war.  If Women stop fighting, there will be no more Women, and thus no more humanity.  The choice couldn't be more obvious. 

The Four Biggest Casualties Of (Gender) War

Every war has casualites, and the 7000 year long gender war (which we call "patriarchy" to make it sound nicer) is certainly no exception.  There are many such casualties, and the four biggest ones are as follows:

1. The first casualty is TRUTH.  And that is not just a clichéd statement, but is practically axiomatic.  If people really knew the truth, the continuity of the war will be called into question.  So the truth is deliberately hidden and replaced with lies, half-truths, and omissions whenever possible.  Eventually it leads to a "post-truth" society and world, in which the truth becomes essentially irrelevant in what passes for discourse.
2. The second casualty is INNOCENCE.  Not as a euphemism for ignorance (for which there is still plenty), but in the most general sense, which includes the capacity for trust.  And that is a result of the first casualty, truth. Not to mention all of the actual and horrific atrocities of the war itself as well.  This results in jadedness, bitterness, and cynicism, which in the case of the gender war seriously poisons the relationship between Women and men, and also vitiates what remains of the sisterhood between Women as well.
3. The third casualty is LOVE.  And not just in the romantic sense, but in the most general sense to include all forms of love, all the way down to and including friendship.  In fact, friendship is probably the biggest casualty of all.  When both primary genders regard the other as being inherently dangerous/evil and needing to be controlled, that kinda precludes all but the most superficial and/or authoritarian relationships between the two.
4. And the fourth and final casualty is HUMANITY, in both senses of the word.

Thus, the gender war, like all wars, ultimately hurts everyone and thus needs to end yesterday.  And the only way to end it (without the entire planet being killed) is for us fellas to, paraphrasing the late Emperor Hirohito, "accept the unacceptable" and surrender to Women.  The sooner we finally cap the game, the better.  So what are we waiting for?

The Three Biggest Casualties of (Gender) War

Every war has casualites, and the 7000 year long gender war (which we call "patriarchy" to make it sound nicer) is certainly no exception.  There are many such casualties, and the three biggest ones are as follows:

1. The first casualty is TRUTH.  And that is not just a clichéd statement, but is practically axiomatic.  If people really knew the truth, the continuity of the war will be called into question.  So the truth is deliberately hidden and replaced with lies, half-truths, and omissions whenever possible.  Eventually it leads to a "post-truth" society and world, in which the truth becomes essentially irrelevant in what passes for discourse.
2. The second casualty is INNOCENCE.  Not as a euphemism for ignorance (for which there is still plenty), but in the most general sense, which includes the capacity for trust.  And that is a result of the first casualty, truth. Not to mention all of the actual and horrific atrocities of the war itself as well.  This results in jadedness, bitterness, and cynicism, which in the case of the gender war seriously poisons the relationship between Women and men, and also vitiates what remains of the sisterhood between Women as well.
3. The final casualty is LOVE.  And not just in the romantic sense, but in the most general sense to include all forms of love, all the way down to and including friendship.  In fact, friendship is probably the biggest casualty of all.  When both primary genders regard the other as being inherently dangerous/evil and needing to be controlled, that kinda precludes all but the most superficial and/or authoritarian relationships between the two.

Thus, the gender war, like all wars, ultimately hurts everyone and thus needs to end yesterday.  And the only way to end it (without the entire planet being killed) is for us fellas to, paraphrasing the late Emperor Hirohito, "accept the unacceptable" and surrender to Women.  The sooner we finally cap the game, the better.  So what are we waiting for?

Would a Sex Strike Actually Work? (Post-2016 Edition)

What do Liberia, South Sudan, Kenya, Colombia, the Philippines, and Ancient Greece have in common?  All of these societies contain at least one example in their history of Women going on sex strike (i.e. withholding sex from men until their collective demands are met) and typically achieving success as a result, often in a matter of weeks or less.   These actions were generally done to bring an end to otherwise intractable and prolonged wars and violence, most notably the Peloponnesian War in Ancient Greece as noted in the famous play Lysistrata.  In Liberia, a modern-day example, it brought an end to their country's 14-year long civil war and ushered in their first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

But what about the longest war in history, i.e. the War on Women?  Also known as "patriarchy" to make it sound nicer, this system is currently self-destructing as we speak, but can its demise be accelerated with a sex strike perhaps?  Would Women be able to take over the world more quickly and readily that way?   Pat Ravasio of Buckyworld seems to think so.  While I have long been rather skeptical of the idea myself, after suspending my disbelief I began to realize that this probably would have a chance at working wonders.  As the aformentioned historical examples have shown, men's demand for sex appears to be relatively "inelastic", that is, even a large increase in the "cost" of sex (which by definition would rise significantly during a massive shortage such as a sex strike) would not affect demand very much, at least in the short run.  While men don't have a higher sex drive than Women (if anything, Women have a higher sex drive), for men there is a much greater sense of urgency thanks to all of that testosterone, and thus men will typically "cave" first.  Thus, men would do whatever it takes to end the shortage/strike and regain easier access, including cleaning up their act and meeting the demands of the Women on strike.  (Women often forget just how much power they really have!)  And while the grand scale of the task of ending patriarchy may be more daunting than the historical examples of using sex strikes to end local conflicts, at this point in history it certainly appears to be worth the old college try.  Even with less than 100% participation, if enough Women go on strike (especially the wives of powerful men in high places), the effects would nonetheless be huge.

So the answer to the question is most likely yes.  That said, it usually takes an enormous amount of provocation to get a critical mass of Women on board for something like that, since Women clearly have needs as well.  But given how so many men are lashing out these days as the patriarchy is now in its death throes, it probably won't take all that much more provocation to end up crossing that critical threshold.  Especially now that "President" Trump (!) has actually become a reality.  Thus, I would not be shocked if The Big One happens within a few years.

Men Won This Battle, But Will Ultmately Lose The War

Much to our chagrin, Donald J. Trump won the 2016 election, and will become President on January 20, 2017.  I and so many others thought that Hillary Clinton would have won for sure.  And she did, in fact, win the popular vote.  But unfortunately, Trump won the Electoral College, crossing the finish line of 270 with likely over 300 electoral votes.  As he himself said, the game is "rigged" alright, just not in the way he said.

So how did he manage to pull off such an unlikely victory?  Well the key "swing" states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin were all part of the Rust Belt, and he managed to tap into the frustrations of disaffected white working-class men--nationwide, but especially in those states.  That was literally all it took.  Combining the legitimate grievances of the working class (who have been practically eaten alive by our oligarchy, plutocracy, kleptocracy, and kyriarchy for decades now) with thinly-veiled racism, misogyny, and xenophobia turned out to be a winning formula.  And as we are seeing now, he is already backpedaling on many of the lies he has told to his base.  All of this will eventually backfire on the men who voted for him.

A Trump presidency is clear and present danger to America, and will seem to set the Women's movement back quite a bit at first.  But ultimately Women will prevail, and this should be the ultimate wake-up call NOT to abandon their efforts.

MAN:  You know, honey, we did win practically every single battle for the past 7000 years.

WOMAN:  Yes, I know, dear.  And it's also irrelevant.