misogyny is the new pink
Meet George Ouzounian, whose purported girlfriend’s taste I hold in question.
Melissa Lafsky offers a very insightful analysis. I wonder if her writing or lawyering skills are better.
And a reader’s response to her column says what I was thinking.
In the space of a conversation he claims to be educated (went to college and worked in computer science) and admits that some of his less mentally nimble readers might be failing to appreciate juvenile woman-bashing properly as light ironic humor (offering to assemble an army for his command). He even clarifies that he doesn’t treat his girlfriend the way he writes about women (”I don’t expect her to do the dishes”)…despite which he doesn’t seem to draw any conclusions about potential social and psychological damage to others, because of the pointless, gutless vitriol he spews.
After five minutes of thought, which probably couldn’t be narrated as eloquently as Lafsky’s, I realized I’m neither angered nor intimidated by Ouzounian. He’s bitter about–whatever–and women are an easy target for his personal problem. Why would I waste my ire?
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I’m not taking any sides, but here’s an excerpt from the reader’s response that you linked to:
“…I find it interesting after studying all these logical reasoning questions, that your opponents’ most common response is to attack you personally rather than what you have to say.”
I think it’s best to take the emotions and the insults out of the equation when discussing gender issues, for both sides (unless what you wrote about Ouzounian was intended for comedic purposes).
I have not read Ouzounian’s book so I’m not qualified to make a judgement based on a handful of the most incendiary quotes pulled from a review of the book. Not to trivialize Lafsky’s objections, but to be fair it seems that Lafsky has not read anything beyond the Salon piece either.
Thought experiment: if a feminazi writer, the polar opposite of Ouzounian, started a blog and wrote a book satiring misandry, would it achieve the same success?
I think this is a good place for an Achewood break:
http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06082006
read the one for 6/9 as well (click on the forward arrow from June 08)
I have not read Ouzounian’s book, but I read his website which is linked from the Salon piece.