Welcome to the new home of The Masculine Mystique!

Status

Reply

“The Masculine Mystique” is now called “XY Feminist”. I’ll be blogging here on an irregular basis, or contributing to one of my other related projects:

  • The List of Male Privileges – The project that started this whole blog. This list serves as the summary / table of contents for the majority of this blog.
  • Feminist Game Reviews – There’s a ton of sexist and misogynist video games out there, as Feminist Frequency has shown in her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series. So I’m posting reviews for the rare games where you don’t get stuck playing  sexist stereotypes, and where the female characters are not degraded or assaulted. Submissions are also welcome!
  • The Arrow – A blog covering my first attempt to write a radical feminist science fiction novel. I’m looking for suggestions and feedback from anyone interested in the project, so I will be tossing out my ideas about sci-fi and occasionally posting drafts as well.
  • Ad-response stickers – An old project from my college years. After some particularly misogynistic ads went up in a nearby subway station, I made these nifty little stickers so that people could make their objections to the ads known. Unfortunately, this shit happens all the time, so I’ve kept the stickers online (sold at cost) for anyone else who wants them.
  • My Goodreads page, where I post some of the great books that I have read, and occasional reviews of them as well!

I hope you find something useful here, and comments are always welcome.

Of Skunks and Sea Lions

Posted on by
Reply

After Anita Sarkeesian mentioned me on Twitter last week, the trolls and MRA’s came out of the woodwork for a good ol’ fashioned dogpile. Or as feminists on the internet call it, Monday. (Although since I am male, and the number of death threats that I received during the whole furor was precisely zero, see the Male Privilege of Relative Safety)

But among the usual witless h8ters were two especially insidious kinds of trolls: the sea lions, and what I call the skunks.

Continue reading →

The Ugly History of the “World’s Largest Provider of Scholarships for Women”

Posted on by
Reply

Before John Oliver’s takedown of the Miss America scholarship program, few people realized that the Miss America pageant is the world’s largest provider of scholarships for women (even when you take their accounting fraud into account). But fewer still are aware of the of the downright ugly history of the Miss. America pageant itself, and how it got involved in women’s scholarships in the first place.

Continue reading →

Intersectionality and Male Privilege

Posted on by
Reply

Recently, I received this comment from Nar on my List of Male Privileges FAQ page:

 “I am bi-racial (Native American & Black). I am also male, and as I went down your list I found that none of those “male” privileges are afforded to me. I have a strong understanding of feminism and it’s importance. I also understand that there is rampant misogyny and violence against women within both the Native American and Black communities. I am just asking to please be specific when you’re talking about privilege.”
~Nar

Thank you for your comment, Nar. Especially since it lets me dive right into the subject of Intersectionality.

In short, you are only partially correct (and also incorrect) when you say that many of the male privileges on this list are not afforded to you.

Continue reading →

Frozen 2?

Posted on by
Reply

I have several insightful and in-depth posts in the works, but they’re going to take some time to research and fully flesh out. In the meantime, here’s some feminist-themed speculation about everyone’s favorite slightly less sexist than usual Disney princess movie, Frozen.

It’s already a given that Disney will grow Frozen into as big a franchise as humanly possible. By lightening up a bit on the traditionally regressive Disney princess formula (and letting a woman direct an animated feature-length film for the first time in the company’s history), the movie has fired up young women everywhere and saved the company’s earnings for 2014. And for all that Disney lacks in creating new, progressive, risk-taking franchises, it more than makes up for in monetizing existing properties for all that they’re worth. (Expect the Broadway version of Frozen to run for at least a decade.) But that said, do you think Disney has enough creativity and resolve to continue down the path that Frozen has laid out? Can they actually find it within themselves to build a bigger and better Frozen 2?

Continue reading →

Why Semi-Pornulated Halloween Costumes are Still a Problem

Posted on by
1

In my last post, Nadia pointed out that the “adult” women’s Halloween costumes I ranted against were not nearly as revealing as the actual outfits used in pornography:

“…The link you showed me was far from revealing. From your link I thought I was expecting: bikinis, ankle high heels, short shorts that shows a person’s behind, and somehow reveal lots of breasts. You know, half naked clothing.”

She concludes that women shouldn’t be judged by wearing revealing clothing:

“Showing a bit of skin is natural and shouldn’t be seen as something ‘sexy’ or demeaning. Society demonizes women’s bodies and makes us want to be ashamed of expressing our bodies, for ourselves not anyone else.”

And I agree with Nadia on both counts: the costumes that I linked to were mildly pornulated at best, and they were not nearly as bad as the outfits typically associated with mainstream pornography.

But with a major Hat Tip to Twisty, I still believe that they are a big problem, even for women who want to express their bodies through these costumes.

Continue reading →