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05-01-2017, 10:21 AM
(Edited 05-01-2017, 11:11 AM by meridannight.)
I am now finally reading this book, after a long time of it just sitting on my to-do list:
And I have to thank [MENTION=21558]Emiliano[/MENTION], for recommending it to me. Yeah, I agree with what's in here. I have broadly the same understanding and appreciation of masculinity. And I am now realizing, thanks to this book, what damage feminism has done to men and masculinity. Although feminist ideals can never destroy masculinity -- its meaning and power are rooted in the physical experience of being a man, and, thus, indestructible -- it is not a force of good in our society at all. I realize now that this is part of the reason of my hatred of women. I have always been subconsciously aware of this negative effect feminism plays in our world, and I understand now how it also drives (at least partly, if not wholly) my hatred for women in general. For how they completely misapprehend (truthfully, they can never understand it) and erode the nature of men. I was never able to connect the two before. I despise what women collectively have done and do to men and masculinity. **
Donovan is also right about how the modern gay culture creates a divide between gay men and straight men. That is one of the things I've always found utterly sad. Men are men, whether they like men or women, and there is no reason for such separation of their nature. His criticism of the gay culture is not unfounded.
I also found it very interesting how he explained that gay men being perceived more effeminate in general in modern times can be traced back to Justinian and the fact that under his rule the distinction between active and passive sodomy ceased to have a meaning in punishments for it. That is a very interesting and an ingenious deduction to arrive at.
** (Just for clarification, this is coming from me and not Donovan. Donovan is probably not a misogynist like I am, and my such comments shouldn't reflect on the book).
''Do I look civilized to you?''
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Fascinating book with some very interesting insight into how humanities elite* think and train.
*It's me calling them that Hadfield comes across as quite humble.
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IPA Made Easy
A guidebook for the international phonetic alphabet haha...
Hope it would be helpful to learn better English and German.
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meridannight Wrote:** (Just for clarification, this is coming from me and not Donovan. Donovan is probably not a misogynist like I am, and my such comments shouldn't reflect on the book).
Donovan is a misogynist, and he has ties with the alt right and white nationalists. Your timing on reading this book is kind of funny, right before I saw you posted this, I'd actually read this article with Donovan:
http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/jack-don...right.html
My experience reading Androphilia was a lot like my experience reading Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver. They are both interesting books that caused me to view things from a different perspective. They clarified some ideas I'd had, offered fascinating explanations for things, and really just opened my eyes to outside views i hadn't come across before.
I didn't agree with all of the points made in either book, I was at times made very uncomfortable by both books, and I don't particularly like the men who authored either one, but both did something very valuable for me and how I perceive things. Those two books are the ones i recommend the most.
I'm reading a book about South Africa now.
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05-03-2017, 08:01 PM
(Edited 05-03-2017, 08:15 PM by meridannight.)
Emiliano Wrote:Donovan is a misogynist, and he has ties with the alt right and white nationalists. Your timing on reading this book is kind of funny, right before I saw you posted this, I'd actually read this article with Donovan:
http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/jack...alt-right.html
My experience reading Androphilia was a lot like my experience reading Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver. They are both interesting books that caused me to view things from a different perspective. They clarified some ideas I'd had, offered fascinating explanations for things, and really just opened my eyes to outside views i hadn't come across before.
I didn't agree with all of the points made in either book, I was at times made very uncomfortable by both books, and I don't particularly like the men who authored either one, but both did something very valuable for me and how I perceive things. Those two books are the ones i recommend the most.
I had to look up what alt-right means. I still don't understand it. That seems a confusing incoherent mess to me. The stuff about the neopaganism, etc, that's just nonsense. That is repulsive, and doesn't reflect well on him.
Even I don't agree with everything said in Androphilia. I also think he generalizes on gay men a lot, to a point I'm not sure holds. What he says about gay men, I'm sure there are a number of gay men on whom it holds true, there's likely even a large number of such gay men. But I wouldn't generalize past an inconclusive indeterminable fraction of the gay men in that respect.
Also, I never had a 'reversal' of my character/behavior, like he did. I've always been this way, i.e. had these standards on masculinity as he does. I grew up among men like that (not like Donovan, no, but like men he talks about in his book. Men who had such a character and expression of masculinity). I don't have a history of flamboyance or drag, like Donovan does. In my opinion, such reversals are a bit questionable, at best. I don't think a person can really do a 180. Either before or after the ''change'' had to be false.
Be that as it is, however anti-sympathetic a character Donovan comes across, he is right about a number of things. For example, the things he says about victimization within the gay community, that is true. A lot of people, and the community in general have a tendency for that, when there is no need or point to express yourself in those terms.
He is also very right that liking other men does not make a man effeminate. I myself have always thought that men who like other men are, if anything, more masculine, because they like men -- the representatives of masculinity itself. The reverse doesn't make sense to me.
He is right about a lot of things. But the means through which he tries to achieve these ideas/ideals/etc, that is not right.
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And, I can't take this guy seriously anymore. I read the link you posted, [MENTION=21558]Emiliano[/MENTION], and some other info about him, and that stuff is nuts. He's lost his credibility. Who speaks the words is just as important -- if not more important -- as the words themselves.
I'm done with this guy.
''Do I look civilized to you?''
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meridannight Wrote:And, I can't take this guy seriously anymore. I read the link you posted, [MENTION=21558]Emiliano[/MENTION], and some other info about him, and that stuff is nuts. He's lost his credibility. Who speaks the words is just as important -- if not more important -- as the words themselves.
I'm done with this guy.
I knew he was a controversial person when I first read that book. I didn't know about his political/racial ideas until I read that article. I still find his book and his thoughts on gender and sexuality interesting though.
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The Tide series by Anthony J. Melchiorri
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05-04-2017, 03:00 AM
(Edited 05-04-2017, 03:08 AM by meridannight.)
Emiliano Wrote:I knew he was a controversial person when I first read that book. I didn't know about his political/racial ideas until I read that article. I still find his book and his thoughts on gender and sexuality interesting though.
Yeah, he can phrase some of his ideas very well. That much is obvious. Some of his stuff is interesting and he’s not without intelligence. But more important than that, to me, is the kind of person he is. I can’t divorce the words from the person saying them. I don’t function like that. The context of the words is important, and the speaker is part of the context and thus part of the whole meaning of what is being said.
It was not an empty read, I did get something out of it. But he lost his credibility.
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The Man In The High Castle by Philip K Dick
An eye for an eye
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