I am sure some of you must have come across the rather delightful character Roosh V in the last few weeks – his outlandish and brutish exclamations have littered everyone’s Facebook walls and Twitter newsfeeds.
Some of you might have even enquired further into this unusual man and come across his blog, which includes a delightful piece on how “Rape Culture is a Political Weapon used Against Western Men.” Other goldies being “Since being Given the Vote Women are Complete Failures” and my personal favourite, “How to Stop Rape” – which suggests that rape should be legalised on private property.
It was when reading Roosh’s primitive blog “Return of Kings” – yes, it is exactly what it says on the tin, a load of medieval bull**** – that I realised something. This blog is just a frightened boy’s angry lamentations that he has to share his candy with the other kids and deal with it.
Roosh and his many thousands of followers are fundamentally afraid. They are afraid of women. They are afraid of empowerment and independence. They are afraid that women will not swoon at their feet. They are afraid of losing their dreams of dominance. They are losing a battle that feminism has been fighting for decades. Women no longer need men – and this is what Roosh and his meninists are hiding from. It’s the bedtime story that leaves them quaking under their duvets, petrified to sleep incase women *gasp* act independently. These men cannot cope with the idea that somehow they might just not be needed. Women can live their lives unhindered without having to be propped up by the patriarchy.
(Photo Credit: RooshVblog.com)
Because here’s the thing. Men like Roosh with their “Neo-masculinity” are actually scared. It’s that time old saying: “We fear what we do not know.” It is this idea of the unknown which fuels Roosh’s hate-crazed rampage against feminism. He sits behind his computer, tap tapping away as he violently trolls the internet with his hateful words. This is a man who wishes to hark back to archaic ideals of masculine dominance. His idea that a woman’s decision to step onto private property can somehow equate to consent is just ludicrous.
But what is frightening is the growing popularity of Roosh’s words. Appearing on “Reggie Yates’ Extreme UK: Men at War” an alarming amount of men sat, listening with an avid intensity, nodding enthusiastically at the poisonous words pouring out of Roosh’s mouth. What are these men looking for exactly? Framing his blog as space where “Men should be masculine and women should be feminine,” Roosh’s words stick as I write them, like some bad smell that just won’t go away, cloying to the curtains. The idea that “Men should stop asking for permission” is perhaps the most frightening of all of Roosh’s calls to arms. These words probably hold the most destructive possibility of all, leaving women vulnerable to the sadistic idea that a woman’s body is a man’s right.
I think we should almost feel sorry for men like Roosh. It is a sad and sorry sight when men cannot keep up with ever-evolving movement of gender equality and are unable to fully appreciate its amazing possibilities. I think we’re going to have to treat meninism old school style. Just like a petulent child that is making a total scene in the supermarket, we need to ignore their yells and indignant screams for superiority and just wait for them to scream themselves hoarse. It normally does the trick.
As for you Roosh, I can’t promise you that the scary she-monsters under your bed aren’t real, but I can promise you that we don’t bite – well, not that often anyway.