The Cult of Feminism

I am a White, Middle-Aged, American Male. I would qualify that with proud, but I don’t know if that would be the right word to use. I don’t feel pride in being white, middle-aged, male, and American, at least not in the sense when I feel pride when my daughter does well on a math test at school or did an awesome job in her Cross Country Regional Championship meet. I also don’t feel all that much pride in being American, but that’s a blog entry for another time. I guess the best way to say it is:

I am not ashamed to be a White, Middle-Aged, Male who is from the United States of America.

I say this because apparently I should be not only ashamed to be such, but I should be flogging myself on a daily basis because of it as well. I should be doing this because I believe that Doctor Who should not be played by a woman. I should be doing this because I believe groups like the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts should remain gender specific. I should be doing this because I, as a gamer, am part of a community that apparently harasses women on the Internet. I should be doing this because I do not support the Cult of Feminism.

Now before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I am in full support of women getting equal pay for being equally qualified and doing equal work to that of a man in any job they wish to perform. I most certainly would like to see more women in fields that have been traditionally dominated by men, like games and comics. And I am certainly opposed to anyone or anything that orchestrates an effort to demean, harass, or otherwise threaten women in the workplace. However, the Cult of Feminism is not about equality. It is about tearing down anything that opposes the self-serving agenda of those who are a part of this cult, regardless of the truth or any evidence stacked against them.

The Cult of Feminism, like any other cult we have seen come and go over the last couple of decades is about brainwashing the members into blindly following those who set themselves up as leaders under the guise of trying to guide society to change to the benefit of all involved in the cult. The reality of the situation is that the cult is there purely for the benefit of the leaders, and to allow the leaders to exercise their power over the members and use those members to allow the leaders to begin exerting their control over society. And like those other cults, you are either with them totally or you are against them. There is no middle ground. Face them with facts, and you get cries of “Lies!” “Sock puppets!” and outright denials of any errors or wrongdoing on their part.

You might have heard of Gamergate. It was a hashtag allegedly created by Adam Baldwin from a controversy that was brewing in the annals of the Gaming Industry. What the controversy was actually about depends on who you ask. Indie (Independent) Developers and Gaming Commentary websites claim it was an orchestrated movement designed to harass and threaten women and other minorities in the gaming community. What Gamergate was really about was the reaction of the community in response to collusion among these sites to publish opinion pieces on the same day essentially calling out all white male gamers as misogynists and racists and declaring that “Gamers are dead”. What concerned the community the most was the biased reporting of games that are a result of a “relationship” between the developer of the game and the writer of the review or op-ed piece centering on the game. However, since this collusion between review site and developer were mutually beneficial, obviously neither party was really interested in journalistic integrity and had no desire to see the relationship end. So they deflected the criticism by focusing only on the small subset of the community of true misogynists and racists and orchestrated a campaign that lead everyone to believe that the harassment and threats that these miscreants were spewing out reflected what the greater community as a whole believed, and those who supported Gamergate in particular – even though there were a great number of women and minority groups involved and in support of what Gamergate truly stood for and was trying to highlight. There were concerted efforts across the Internet to shut down any reasoned opposition to what the media was trying to claim and in having a reasoned discussion about the merits of Gamergate. To this day, the campaign against Gamergate continues as major sites, like Wikipedia, have been edited to show a heavy bias in favor of the views of the gaming “journalists” involved in the dispute.

The women and minority groups became so frustrated at the response not only by the gaming media, but the general media as well who began to pick up on the story, that they created the hashtag #NotYourShield to show solidarity in the fact that they did not want to be used by the media and devs to further those groups’ own agendas. Of course this posed a problem for the Cult of Feminism because the mentality of the cult is such that any minority, or oppressed group, would have to support their Righteous Cause, otherwise those ideals are could be seen as fallible. Therefore those in the #NotYourShield group were seen as, and called, self-haters.

 

We can see more examples of this practically every day, with this recent fiasco with the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the #MeToo movement. Now there certainly can be no doubt that many women have been the victims of harassment and assault through the years, and thanks to the #MeToo movement we finally see society empowering women to finally speak out about their ordeals, and we have seen troubling information come out as a result on just how widespread this has been in segments of the media, Hollywood, and yes, the Games and Comic book industries. However, something troubled me about all this, and the point was driven home by a news blurb about a Senator who had to leave a restaurant because of the harassment he received from a group of people supporting Christine Blasey Ford’s position and statements. One of the protesters was holding a sign that read “we believe the victims.” I find that sentiment very troubling. You see, I was not at that party 38 years ago where Ford claimed it was Kavanaugh that assaulted her, so I don’t know what happened. Apparently, there are quite a few people who were at that party who can’t remember the details either. So all we have to go on are the testimonies of the people involved and the evidence surrounding the incident. As such, I prefer to live by the statement of “I believe the facts.” Far too many innocent people have been hurt or lost years of their lives because facts were ignored in favor of unreliable eyewitness accounts, or through the belief in someone’s righteousness. Unfortunately, the Cult of Feminism doesn’t care too much about facts.

The Cult of Feminism isn’t about gender equality; it is about pushing an agenda. Gender equality is allowing Girls to join the Boy scouts, and Boys to join the Girl Scouts. Gender equality is about allowing women to play and compete in male only sports leagues, and men to do the same in female only sports leagues. Gender equality is being able to criticize a woman's (or Feminist) work or ideas when warranted without it being labeled misogyny. But we don’t have that now, do we? It’s about taking something that traditionally has appealed to the heterosexual white male and stripping away the core things that made whatever it was appeal to the white male. However, don’t dare do that to things that appeal to a female, or any minority group, because that would be insensitive. I guess White Men are simply devoid of emotion and feelings, or if we have them, they are certainly not worth consideration in the slightest, at least compared to the consideration for every other classification of human on the planet.

There’s been a lot of (deserved) criticism leveled at the most recent Star Wars Saga film (The Last Jedi). However, because of the strong leaning towards feminist ideals in the movie, the Cult of Feminism sees any criticism of the movie as an attack on women and should be dismissed out of hand because is it simply the white (Nerd) male upset that their patriarchal views have been demolished. However, what the Cult fails to realize is that the traditional Star Wars male fan doesn’t have an issue with women playing a dominate roll in the movie. They conveniently forget that the Rebellion of the original trilogy was under the command of two very strong women. That concept carried over (or at least it tried) into the Prequel Trilogy, which suffered its own issues unrelated to feministic ideals. I’ve outlined the core issues with the movie in my previous blog posts – none of it has to do with SJWs, and all of it has to do with poor writing. It happens sometimes, I am sure that if Stephen King were attempt to write a romantic comedy, that novel would turn out to be pretty crappy too. But because the Cult of Feminism is trying to push an agenda, the facts don’t really matter.

It’s the same concept with Doctor Who, the longest running science-Fiction television program in history. Recently, in the newest season, the title character is played by a woman when throughout the show’s nearly sixty year history, that role was traditionally given to an elder gentleman. In no other manner was this given any sort of precedent in the show’s history, except for the modern era when the arch-nemesis of the Doctor was also played by a woman for the first time. One of the former actors to the role made a comment that he was saddened to see this as a loss of a role model for boys (this is taken out of a longer statement that showed support for the change and the actress who had been given the role). He was absolutely vilified for that one part of the comment. Peter Davison left his Twitter account behind after being raked over the coals in social media because of his comment. I find it ironic that people who disliked the comment said that the new Doctor can still be a role model for boys, but if you turn that around on them, and say that for the past 60 years, the male Doctor could have been a role model for girls, and having that continue would not change, that belief causes you to suddenly be sexist. Enter the Cult and its Agenda. It’s funny how girls don’t seem to have any role models, although I could probably think of dozens among sports, movies, and television, that somehow it was necessary and “about time” that the Doctor be changed into a woman.

To paraphrase Colin Baker (another actor who played the role), I find that to be absolutely rubbish. Like the wheel, some things simply do not need to be reinvented. But yet, if it involves a white male, it is not desirable and must be changed for the greater good. There was nothing wrong with the Doctor being a male for the last 60 years, and wouldn’t be anything wrong with it continuing for the next 60. Personally speaking, if people felt such a need to see a female Time Lord/Lady, then I would be very much in support of bringing back Romana (a female version of the Doctor introduced during the '80's) and giving that character her own show. That would be gender equality. That probably would be the one thing to bring me back into the fandom of Doctor Who I left behind in the 90’s and with the current iteration of the program. No old dinosaur bones about it! But again, it’s not about equality – it’s about tearing down the while male whenever and wherever possible, and don’t any of us dare make an attempt to speak out about it. Funny how the Cult of Feminism claims that the white male is nothing but a misogynistic pig who loves nothing more than to harass and threaten women on Twitter until they delete their accounts, yet they have proven to have no problem doing the same thing in pushing their Agenda. That was never more evident over the summer when a member of the Cult who worked for a gaming company insulted one of the company's fans, and attempted to unleash an internet mob on him because he disagreed with something she had posted on Twitter in relation to her work. But that’s OK, he and Peter are just white males – not important at all.

I support the ideals of equality in this world, for all people. But I will not support changes to institutions that traditionally appeal to your ordinary, average, every day white male just because it doesn’t appeal to anyone else. That’s bullshit. We have every right to enjoy our forms of entertainment unmolested by Cultist Agendas just like every minority person has a right to earn the same dollar for the same work as everyone else, and enjoy their forms of entertainment without being harassed for who they are. I am part of a gaming community (two really, counting Extra Life), that comprises a virtual melting pot of people of all types - women, men, minorities, transgendered, et al. The amount of harassment that many of community members receive simply for being who they are while they are doing something they love to do is simply astounding, and at times can be overwhelming. However, we also must realize that these are "people" on the fringe of society and the Internet has given them leave to do what they do almost with impunity. It in no way reflects what the vast majority of people I have had the pleasure of interacting with do or believe. But again, facts aren't of the primary importance when one is attempting to push an agenda - regardless of which extreme side of the fence one is on regarding any particular issue.


As a white, middle-aged, American male, I can never know the experiences of being a women who has been harassed on the Internet. I can never know the experiences of being an African American who has been on the receiving end of racism. I can never know what it is like to be a member of the LBGT community who has been treated like a pariah because the gender they were born with is not the gender their inner spirit tells them they are. I can only speak of the things I have experienced as a white male who was routinely picked on and bullied at school on nearly a daily basis. I can only speak about being so painfully shy as a kid that I would have to hide behind pieces of furniture at school whenever someone was walking down the same hallway as me. I can only speak on things that I remember happening to me as a child that I would rather forget that have had a psychological impact on my entire life, whether I want to admit it or not. My experiences and feelings are not any less valid than anyone else's experiences and feelings just because I am a white, middle-aged, American male. Perhaps we should spend more time listening to and understanding each other's experiences and feelings rather than blindly giving credence to the cultist fringe agenda of those who are too self-serving to think of others.

I started this piece by saying I can't claim to be proud of what I am. But now at the end, I think I have to take that back, because while I am not female, black, gay, or transgendered, the experiences I went through have (I hope) made me empathetic to those who have been put down or harassed because of what they are on the outside instead of the person they are on the inside. I am proud of who and what I am because it has made me a person who wants to help others in any way I can - my efforts through Extra Life being one small example. It has made me be a person who fully believes that everyone (except those that would do harm to others) has the right to be who they want to be and to enjoy the things that make them what they are.