The internet is full of great websites for news and blogging. After all, who doesn’t love wasting time on Buzzfeed, Total Sorority Move, College Humor, or (hem hem) Her Campus. Unfortunately, there are also some incredibly narrow minded and offensive sources of information out there. One such website is Return of Kings, a “blog for heterosexual, masculine men.” Return of Kings (or RoK) prides itself on being a place where men can voice their opinions on male superiority and the society-ruining sham that is feminism.
RoK community beliefs include statements such as “A woman’s value significantly depends on her fertility and beauty. A man’s value significantly depends on his resources, intellect, and character” (implying that a woman is only as valuable as her appearance). Also, “…feminism… and social justice warriorism aim to destroy the family unit, decrease the fertility rate, and impoverish the state through large welfare entitlements” (implying that feminists are ruining everyone’s lives).
A few stellar RoK articles include “Never Give A Woman Your Loyalty,” “5 Reasons To Date A Girl With An Eating Disorder,” and “35 Signs The Girl You’re Dating Is A Whore.”
Offended yet? We are! But if you’re a woman or homosexual man, don’t bother writing to the authors or leaving comments. This is a straight men only site- no girls allowed! But don’t worry, they “are not misogynists.”
The article that caught our attention was entitled “5 Reasons Why Girls With Tattoos And Piercings Are Broken” by Matt Forney. You only have to read the title of this article, published on October 13, to absorb its absurdity. If you can’t stand the idea of reading the entire article (it is pretty hard to stomach) don’t worry, we’ve summed up the main points. The five reasons were:
- They’re sluts
- They have no foresight
- They’re selfish
- They’re boring
- They’re mentally ill
Our problems with this article are limitless. First is the double standard of calling women sluts for sleeping with many people, and praising men for the same actions. But that’s an argument for another time. A major flaw in this article is that it assumes that what women do in regards to their appearances is done to impress or please men. Forney started the article by arguing that no man has ever thought his wife or girlfriend would look better with a piercing or tattoo. He seems shocked that despite men’s aversion to women with tattoos (which is not true for all men), women continue to “mutilate themselves.” Forney clearly doesn’t understand how the female brain works. A 2011 poll of 2,000 women found that six out of ten women dress to impress their female peers, not men. The same general theory applies to getting tattoos and piercings. Impressing friends is one factor, but the biggest motivation is simply to please oneself. When women look good, we feel good. Women get piercings and tattoos because they like the way they look, not because they want to impress a man. If any woman is making permanent changes to her body for the sake of some guy, she needs to pause and prioritize.
Now, this does not make tattooed women narcissistic as the article states. It simply means that they are independent. For the first time in history, women have the ability to make the same choices as men. We are not going to let some man with a vendetta against his “piercing-addict” ex-girlfriend change our minds. We noticed that Forney didn’t have anything to say about men with tattoos and piercings. Are we to assume that this is yet another double standard? Women have been actively fighting for our rights for over one hundred years. We aren’t going to let a few small minded men stop us now.
Granted, this article is coming from the man who wrote articles entitled “Why Men Should Not Go To College” (because they will learn nothing and be treated poorly for being male) and “The Myth of Date Rape Spiking” (arguing that date rape is not real). Clearly this man has not yet written anything worth our time.
We at Her Campus truly hope that nothing written on RoK is taken seriously. We also acknowledge the fact that this does not represent the entire male population. We believe, and hope we’re right in assuming, that only a small percentage of men support inequality between the sexes with such vigor. Remember ladies- never let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do because of your gender! Like Taylor says,