Lately I've been noticing a trend, and I want to know if you guys have noticed it as well. Now that women are making strides in higher education and have highly successful careers in things like law and medicine, I've found that the new M.O. of misogynists is to say that a fancy degree is not indicative of intelligence. Having a degree now only indicates how many hoops you are willing to jump through. I get why this is happening. Misogynists devalue the things women do, and traditionally it's been easy to devalue things like caregiving. But women are now doing things that misogynists value. So to deal with the cognitive dissonance, they have to start devaluing the things women are accomplishing. Usually this is done by moving the goal posts. For example, Ann Coulter says that biology is no longer a science because so many women are biologists. And now we've got college-age douchebag boys saying that really smart people don't study. Nevermind that these are patently stupid things to believe and that these beliefs will end up hurting men too. What's important is the momentary boost of self-esteem the misogynist gets from putting down really awesome women.
This particular form of toxic masculinity also ties nicely into the anti-intelligence salt-of-the-earth thing Republicans have going on. That's an interesting intersection.
Although, while some misogynists are busy devaluing a college education, others are screaming bloody murder about reverse discrimination. Men can no longer drift aimlessly through their youth and and accidentally wind up in a high paying job! The sky is falling!
1.17.2011
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