re: #172 HappyWarrior

Of course I know that. That’s why I find Piers’ reaction so funny. And yeah it’s funny because they prove time and time again they get pissy over nothing. I won’t say liberal outrage is always right but in my experiences our outrages are at least based in something not silly.

I find Piers’ “boorish lad” act so patently ridiculous. Now matter how many times he tweets about Arsenal Football Club, the idea of Piers Morgan as “manly” is as absurd as it is completely unnecessary.

BTW As a result of this Gillette affair, I’ve come across a rather good long read about the “Crisis in masculinity”. The takeaway is:
a) “Crises of masculinity” have actually been happening regularly when one looks back in history.
b) But not that far back, as before the modern age, societies could sometimes be quite flexible in their treatment of gender.
c) The supposedly “as old as time” model of gender roles actually came in with the Industrial Revolution. (Along with ideas about race.)
d) “Crises of masculinity” never end well, because the “crisis” is a result of people trying and failing to embody a concept which was never real in the first place. (See also “Make America Great Again”.) For the same reason, the results are actually anti-man.
e) Therefore, the best way to resolve any “crises of masculinity” would be to recognise that it’s a concept, it’s relatively young in human history, and that it doesn’t reflect actual lived experience.

Interesting stuff. The writer is Pankaj Mishra, who some of you might know from the fact that he wrote something about Jordan Peterson, and Jordan Peterson did not like it…