An Outraged Response to The Case Against Female Self-Esteem

If you have never heard of Matt Forney, then allow me to fill you in. Forney is an author, blogger and, most would say, a sexist pig. In fact, he describes himself on Twitter as an “author, musician and hitchhiker, short-listed for Most Hated Man of 2013.” His most recent published work, a short guide called Big Lovin’: The Guide to Picking Up Fat Chicks is described by him as a “hilarious, satirical guide that teaches you how to pick up [over-weight] women.” While this publication is merely thirty pages long and only available on Kindle, Forney’s blog has recently gone viral due to one particular article entitled The Case Against Female Self-Esteem.

Yep, you read that correctly. Forney’s article, which has exploded online and among bloggers, is all about why women should be insecure. When I first read The Case Against Female Self-Esteem, I honestly thought that it was an ironic joke making fun of misogynistic culture. I Googled the blogger only to find out that this article was not a joke at all, but rather a very real article that had caused many other online writers to publish articles in response.

A Summary of The Case Against Female Self-Esteem

To begin, Forney discusses his personal experiences with female self-esteem saying, “whenever a girl I’m talking to brags about how she’s ‘confident’ and ‘strong,’ I can feel my dick deflating like a punctured tire.” Essentailly, he says that self-esteem in a woman is superfluous to her existence as a natural female and that women have an inflated self-esteem becuase they are praised and told that they are special for no reason from the day they are born– As if young boys are not treated the same way in a culture where masculinity is often praised over femininity for no reason.

1) Most girls have done nothing to deserve self-esteem.

He claims that a college degree does not give any woman any sort of credential. Rather it means that she is a “conformist who thinks that credentials are a substitute for knowledge and experience.” Perhaps he says this because colleges are one of the few elite institutions that are dominated by females with over 60% of college students being women. He goes on to say that likewise, women in the workforce are useless and that “if every man lost his job tomorrow, the country would collapse,” whereas if the same were to happen with women nothing of significance would happen.

2) Insecurity is integral to femininity.

Forney claims that the insecurity is more attractive because it is “the natural state of woman.” In the words of Cher from Clueless…AS IF! His explanation is that because women are naturally weaker than men, women should be trembling in fear of the opposite sex. He even refers to a woman he dated who trembled with nerves on their first date and how he has never found a woman more attractive. Finally, he states that women must be insecure in order for their man to feel masculine and those who do not allow this to happen do not view men as human beings…

3) Women don’t want to have high self-esteem.

According to Forney, “[women] want nothing more than for a man to throw them over his knee, shatter the Berlin Wall around their hearts, and expose the lovestruck, bashful little girl within.” Apparently, those confident feminists that he feels are ruining femininity are secretly insecure, weak little girls inside. Essentially: “At the end of the day, there are no Strong, Independent Women. There are only shrews pleading for a taming.” Forney claims all of this about women, and then goes on to say that the feminist rant about rape culture is simply a way for women to indulge their vulnerability.

Rightful Backlash

After reading Forney’s claims it is not difficult to see why this article has gone viral after being posted in September. In addition, Forney’s blog policy allows him to ban, delete, or censor any comments that he wants. The result is that none of the posts following The Case Against Female Self-Esteem are negative, giving the impression that almost 3,000 readers support his claims. In reality, there are a vast number of enraged responses to his article. Forney actually retweets explicit and violent Twitter posts that attack his writing, relishing in the angry responses. One post even hopefully suggests that the movie Teeth may one day happen to him, but here are a few of the less violent posts:

Forney gave a little shout-out to us collegiate writers on his Twitter:

I asked several people around campus that have read The Case Against Female Self-Esteem for their reactions to the piece. Most people’s comments were something like this: “That is truly unbelievable,” or “He’s just ignorant. It’s not an intelligent argument by any means.” Another girl commented, “Honestly, I don’t think that there are many people out there who believe what he does. He’s just ignorant and a lot of his arguments don’t have much validity and most people know that. I saw it as one guy’s opinion that is really out-there and unfounded.” Some of the funnier reactions were simply “Gahhhh!” or “He must have some serious self-esteem issues if he can’t get it up for a confident woman!” All in all, the majority of people went through a process of emotions in reading Forney’s argument. Most were angry while reading the article, then baffled at what they had just witnessed, then angry with his comments, until finally moving on to conclude that he is simply an ignorant human being. 

In the end, The Case Against Female Self-Esteem is the tip of the iceberg. It is difficult to create any sort of defense for Forney’s article because the rest of his writings have a very consistent tone to them, and the fact that he is frequently banned from Facebook and Twitter for posting innapropriate comments shows that the widespread dislike of his article is not simply a feminist rant.

• feminism
• pop culture
• self esteem
• women