In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Don’t Forget the Angry White Men

Jill

klan
It’s so much easier when the Angry White Men just wear their nightclothes all the time.

Otherwise known as self-important, racist, sexist assholes.

The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.

His last name and religion don’t matter. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.

It’s guys like this who give white men everywhere a bad name. But he’s not sexist or racist, he swears! He just hates when black people act all uppity and when Mexicans don’t speak English, and he knows that his wife is kinda dumb and needs to be under his control:

He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.

He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.

Just like him, I’m sure, who has gotten everything in life solely through hard work and playing by the rules. Super convenient that all the rules tilt the game in his favor.

But this isn’t about all those other folks. It’s about how much he hates Hillary Clinton:

He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she is who she is. It’s the liberal victim groups she panders to, the “poor me” attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.
…
He hopes that she will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum.

But no, it has nothing to do with the fact that she’s a woman. It’s just that her physical appearance and her voice disgust him.

Excuse me if I lack patience for “progressive” arguments that these are the guys we should be pandering to.

42 thoughts on Don’t Forget the Angry White Men

  2. Sadly, based on my conversations with people from this site it doesn’t seem much different from a title of angry feminists, except apparently many are more open about their stereotyping, bigotry, and demagoguery.

  3. Wow. So being an Angry White (Mmmmm-ANLY!) Man (with the MIGHTY MANLY THUNDERCOCK!) means being a bigoted, petulant ass?

    Offhand, sorry about the “thundercock” bit, it’s been popping into my head since I heard read WND’s “Soy will make your son’s penis tiny and make him gay.”

    What can I say, it’s just fun to say shit like that.

  4. He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.

    My wife knows that I am more emotional than rational and guides the family in a rational manner. Does that make my wife (who is neither angry, white nor a man) an angry white man? She does like an awful lot of the stuff white people like.

    he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race.

    Ooo ooo ooo! Does that mean that when I get annoyed at my fellow members of the tribe (of the neo-con persuasion) for being proudly dually loyal and otherwise exhibiting “behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of” our religion (even as, if you point that out, they’ll label you an anti-Semite or self-hating Jew) I am an angry white man?

    But no, it has nothing to do with the fact that she’s a woman. It’s just that her physical appearance and her voice disgust him.

    While being a woman, HRC has likely not been encouraged to develop her speaking skills in the same way men generally are, the voice issue has little to do with HRC being a woman. Her accent, as grating as I and many others find it, is indeed one of the accents typical of parts of the midwest and plains. If she does win the primary, she wouldn’t be the first candidate who sounds like she does.

    The question is why the “angry white man” is complaining about this — doesn’t he realize that an angry white man is more likely to sound like HRC does than would some coastal weenie liberal like me?

    Truly, the sexism/racism/hate on display is so bizarre that it would be funny if it weren’t frighteningly real.

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  6. “sorry about the “thundercock” bit”

    If it’s any consolation, ‘thundercock’ is one of the more hilarious things I’ve read all day.

  7. Oh, come on, guys. That thing was hilarious! The delusions of grandeur! The belief that taking care of your own children by paying for their health and education makes you a saint! I could go on.

    These people are angry because their privilege is being threatened, and that it’s on its way to become irrelevant. To which I say, “Sack up, boys. Progress isn’t going to wait for you, so you might as well catch up with civilization.” Because really, they can’t make the world turn backwards and restore their exclusive privilege and power. They have to share a little bit of the pie now. They’re always going to have to share it. They can’t make women go back to the kitchen, or black people go back to the fields, or immigrants go back to where they came from. It’s just not going to happen.

  8. Wow, that is possibly the biggest piece of stupid tripe that I’ve seen this year so far.

    The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.

    Because as we know, racist sexist idiots who believe in stereotypes as truth and only care about themselves are EVERYWHERE.

    His common traits are that he isn’t looking for anything from anyone — just the promise to be able to make his own way on a level playing field. In many cases, he is an independent businessman and employs several people. He pays more than his share of taxes and works hard.

    But like an idiot, he buys into the idea that the rich people in this country are rich because they worked harder than him, as opposed to because of government tax breaks and handouts for huge corporations and exploitation of everyone else. Because he’s managed to scrape by and get all proud of himself, he believes in the free market and his captain-of-industry aspirational heros so much that he can’t bear to think that maybe the government ought to be leveling the playing field instead of making the rich richer.

    “Press ‘one’ for English” is a curse-word to him.

    Because then he has to use his finger to do something, and he’s been forced to use 0.0001 units of caloric energy so that people who don’t speak English can use whatever automated telephone system he’s dialing into! Horrors!

    The victimhood syndrome buzzwords — “disenfranchised,” “marginalized” and “voiceless” — don’t resonate with him.

    Because if he admitted that Oppression Actually Happens, he’d have to face the fact that he’s actually getting screwed over by the system in many ways too, and then he wouldn’t be able to puff his chest up quite so big. He’d actually have to do something about it.

    He’s used to picking up the tab, whether it’s the company Christmas party, three sets of braces, three college educations or a beautiful wedding.

    As long as he can rationalize that he’s buying something that he can own, that he can boast about or that reflects on his qualities as a Man / Father / Husband, as opposed to you know, God forbid, helping some stranger.

    He is willing to lay down his life to defend the freedom and safety of others, and the thought of killing someone who needs killing really doesn’t bother him.

    Especially because he’s able to tell at a glance who needs killing and who doesn’t!

    The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim.

    Which are all bad unmanly things that would impair his ability to really be a real man, in case you missed the point here.

    Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.

    In other words, it was all of those Hurricane victims’ fault that they died, had to live in unimaginable conditions inside the Superdome, or generally got screwed over.

    His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.

    Because he lives the American dream: discarding any cultural, linguistic, or ethnic identity and background you have, and getting your ass down to Walmart to buy some guns and a new grill and some other shit!

    If they’re looking for someone to walk all over, they’ve got the wrong guy. He stands up straight, opens doors for women and says “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am.”

    Just to be clear, the latter statement is what gets said to uppity women, at least when he’s being outwardly polite. The former is for any white man richer or more powerful than he is, because he wants to be that guy.

    He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race.

    Because the whole idea of “observer bias” never occurs to him, and neither does the origin of stereotypes.

    When his job site becomes flooded with illegal workers who don’t pay taxes and his wages drop like a stone, he gets righteously angry.

    Because he’s totally aware of which undocumented workers are and aren’t paying taxes. He only gets mad at the latter, and not at anyone who’s actually playing the labor market by hiring undocumented workers for ridiculously low wages, or the economic disparities that make this possible. He just wants some authority to make some rules that’ll keep his ass high and dry.

    He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.

    Yeah… because none of the above sounds emotional at all. His wife knows that he’s basically a ball of wounded pride, illusions of importance, and a deep-seated need to feel like he’s done well for himself and his family, and because she loves him and them (yes, an emotion) she basically goes along with it so he won’t start fuming like a toddler, or she convinces herself to think the same way.

  9. Nothing wrong with being an angry white male, its just a damn shame guys like these tend to represent that group. I’m an angry white male but for reasons that dont much resemble this guys other than one. Though I speak several languages, through study not upbringing, I have no problem with making English the official language of this country. That would of course not solve his problem of being upset when he calls someone and he gets the “1 for English” if he is calling a business, I’ve never really understood why people get mad about that, especially people like him who I would guess is a capitalist, should the companies not cater to their customers in his mind?

    I don’t know who exactly you are supposed to be pandering to and that word carries a bad connotation for me but if there was a group you could pander to to wondrous results, it would be the angry white males who are not bigots, there are a lot of them out there who just are not aware on a conscious level of many things within the feminist movement or have been fooled into thinking feminism is something its not.

  11. You know, if you add up all of the women, gay men, metrosexuals, people of colour, and other supposed special interest groups, you’d find that they far outnumber the rednecks. The Democrats haven’t yet figured out this strategy, I don’t think.

  12. It’s usually fun to do a rebuttal, awesomely done in the way that Holly brilliantly did (…marry me!). But, sometimes it’s also best to just say:

    “Oh, shut the fuck up.”

    That rant reminds me of an episode of American Dad:

    Stan: So, you like paddleboats?
    Bret: Damn right. I think it’s ’cause they remind me of a simpler, better time when white males had all the power, instead of just most of it.
    Stan: I know, I hate how we only have most of the power. The problem is the liberals’ generous social programs.
    Bret: Exactly, they turned us into a nation of wimpy-
    Stan: Flag-burning-
    Together: Foreigner lovers!

    Ahhh, how I love American Dad.

  13. Wow. I have to agree with L-K. That article was such a piece of garbage for so many reasons. I have literally been rendered speechless.

    One thing I will say; it is so much easier to say that people who require social assistance are stupid than to evaluate the structural and institutional barriers present in the big picture. My, how smart and industrious you are in your place of unacknowledged, unearned privilege and power. Douchebaggery.

    I think I’ll follow suit and offer my applause to Holly because, frankly, I can’t even begin to respond to this.

  14. jamesPi , as with so many things, I agree with you and disagree with you at the same time.

    Disagree:

    Though I speak several languages, through study not upbringing, I have no problem with making English the official language of this country.

    I would have a problem with that, because of voting. Here in California, we usually have at least two or three propositions on the ballot that voters must decide on. These propositions make changes to the state’s constitution.

    I am a native English speaker, and I usually have to read the damn things at least two or three times before I understand them, and even then I’ve gotten caught out (so much for “three strikes is only for serious felonies”). If it’s hard for me to understand the propositions, I hate to think how difficult it would be for someone whose second language is English to understand them. So, at a minimum, government and elections documents should still be printed in multiple languages.

    Agree:

    I’ve never really understood why people get mad about that, especially people like him who I would guess is a capitalist, should the companies not cater to their customers in his mind?

    It’s because he realizes that companies are no longer catering solely to him, and that knowledge enrages him.

  15. “I would have a problem with that, because of voting.”

    I have a problem with it on account of most government forms. Even if you can get through an average day with no problem, speaking English to all and sundry, there’s no reason to insist a person be able to fill out or comprehend potentially confusing (to native English speakers, even) forms accurately in a second language when most of them are so easily translated by someone familiar with the document and the language in question.

    There’s really no legitimate reason not to supply, say, DMV forms in any language for which there’s a demand. An immigrant being unclear on how far they must pull over to let an ambulance pass or when they must stop for a school bus or what medical conditions might render them ineligible for a license is counterproductive at best and frankly dangerous at worst.

  16. good point Mne, I wont go over all my reasons for favoring an official language as that would derail the thread but ….You live in Cali? What part? I spent a few years in the monterey bay area, beautiful country. Gov’t and election documents should be printed in multiple languages? How many exactly? At what point does a language group qualify for this status? You would have to account not just for state-wide or national stats but regional and town concentrations too, there is quite a large number of say, Farsi, speakers in Los Angeles and DC but not in Caribou Maine though there are a few, do we provide Farsi ballots to voters in Maine? I can understand the appeal of that but I also think an official language would have more benefits than cons, initially yes it would disenfranchise some and people will have to have many options for a few more years or decades but not indefinitely. Heck it doesn’t even have to be English, I don’t really care what you make it. A shame many people who propose the official language thing seem to be xenophobes.

  17. us-english.org has a good write-up on this and it covers all the exceptions that would have to be and have been made, interesting and quick site to read.

  18. I’m so over this angry white man thing. Give me a break. As a prototypical WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) man, you get every single break in the world in any situation.

    Unless you’re applying for a “female” job (that’s sarcasm folks), men automatically have the advantage in any job interview. You’re assumed to be stronger, smarter, more logical, more creative, etc., etc. in just about any situation. That’s the way it is!

    Face it, the only angry white men should be the ones who have totally failed at everything they’ve touched since they entered the game with every single advantage you can think of. (Remind you of anyone? Like, say, GWB!)

    Yes, I’m a man and I’m angry…at the idiots who don’t earn their success (of any level) by their abilities, dedications, flexibility, compassion, tolerance, and so on!

  19. It’s because he realizes that companies are no longer catering solely to him, and that knowledge enrages him.

    It is ridiculous the degree to which some people think they should be catered to. I had someone argue with me that having a sign saying in several languages that there is information available on request in those languages was unfair to English speakers unless it had an English heading.

  20. hmm just to have a little fun, if WASP men get every break in the world, why do they die younger, serve more time in jail for the same crime, graduate from any level of school at lower rates (in aggregate), and so on compared to their female counterparts? . I too find the angry white males like this one to be just a weeeee bit crazy but damn Jim, you bring it to a whole ‘notha level, good stuff.

  22. You live in Cali? What part? I spent a few years in the monterey bay area, beautiful country.

    Los Angeles. I can’t say I love it, but at least I don’t have to deal with -70 below Chicago winters anymore.

    Gov’t and election documents should be printed in multiple languages? How many exactly? At what point does a language group qualify for this status?

    You’d have to talk to the state of California and find out how they’re already doing it. Looking at the sample ballot that I can print online, I could have chosen a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, or Vietnamese language ballot. I was a little surprised that there’s no Armenian-language one, but that’s just the geographic area I live in.

    My question for you is, if English is the official language, does that mean that only government business must be conducted in English, or will private businesses also be required to only do business in English? And who’s going to explain to Louisiana that they have to drop one of their two official languages?

  23. if WASP men get every break in the world, why do they die younger, serve more time in jail for the same crime, graduate from any level of school at lower rates (in aggregate), and so on compared to their female counterparts?

    Because privilege like that enjoyed by straight white men makes actual maturity difficult if not impossible. The more a SWM embraces his entitlement, the more like a toddler he becomes (or remains). And toddlers don’t do too well in the real world.

  24. This Angry White Man doesn’t seem to recognize that “anger” is an emotion. Oh, but anger is a “manly” emotion, not like his wife’s inferior girly emotions.

    If he’s not a victim, what’s he so angry about?

    He’s angry that his privilege is slowly, slowly slipping away. That he insists he wants a level playing field is laughable. He’s angry precisely BECAUSE we now have a more even playing field than we did in his grandfather’s time.
    He’s angry because he now has to compete with women and minorities, rather than “earning” everything just because he’s a white guy.

  25. He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race.

    I’m going to go out on a limb here and speculate that when Angry White Man wrote this sentence, he wasn’t thinking of white people listening to Celine Dion or parking their Lexus SUVs across two spaces at the grocery store.

    So basically his attitude can be boiled down to, “I am annoyed and disappointed when MINORITIES exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes” — and he’s apparently not about to undertake the brain work necessary to deduce that not all members of a given minority fall into those stereotypes. But he’s not a racist, no, sir!

  26. I wonder what would happen if a thundercock met a stick of vagynomite?

    The universe implodes. The end. But we all get like one really, really good orgasm before that.

    I think.

  27. Hello, short-time reader and first-time poster here ^^

    I seem to be the only one who thought the article was satire. I thought paragraphs like “He’s the kind of guy who can put an addition on his house with a couple of friends, drill an oil well, weld a new bumper for his truck, design a factory and publish books.”, and ” He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.” (not to mention the women/rational thing) were dead giveaways.

    On the other hand, when you consider the Charlotte Allen article and Aspen’s reputation…

    Now I’m scared.

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  30. Geez! If these guys didn’t give themselves a pat on the back for being ‘such hard-working, good-ol’ American’ men, well, then who would? Amazing how stuck in the middle ages (or even the 1950’s) some supposed progressives are. I’ve never understood how someone who’s so blatantly sexist/racist/classist could even begin to utter the word progressive.

    It’s quite nauseating, actually.

  31. These people are angry because their privilege is being threatened, and that it’s on its way to become irrelevant.

    Prezactly. Pieces like this tell you far more about the author then it does about anything else. I feel kinda sorry for him, really, he’s worse in everything he complains about then anyone he complaining about.

  32. Though I speak several languages, through study not upbringing, I have no problem with making English the official language of this country.

    I would not only on philosophical grounds as I believe that would violate the spirit of what real freedom (Not the rabid-right version) the Constitution and the Bill of Rights grants us….but I fear the potential consequences of such an act based on my personal experiences.

    During my college years in a certain rural Ohio town….I was harassed on the street by the town locals on several occasions merely for having conversations in Mandarin Chinese with International Chinese students out in public.

    If “Native Americans” (aka Whites) feel in their overentitlement to randomly go up to a POC and demand they “Speak English”, they will get a nasty response from me. The US of A is a free country and as a citizen, I’ll speak whatever damn language I please….so kindly fuck off.

  33. As for the general topic, I have a story about an encounter when I was walking from Boston to Harvard University along Mass Ave. Somewhere past Central Square, I came across a bunch of angry White boys who upon spotting me, started loudly complaining that the influx of Asians at Harvard were stealing places they were rightfully entitled to as “real Americans”. Tiring of this overindulgent whining, I retorted “Maybe if you spent more time studying and participating in extracurriculars and less time complaining about Asians…you wouldn’t be whining like a bunch of losers”. Though I was half-expecting to get jumped, they all just shot glaringly dirty looks and stormed off in a huff.

  34. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in…

    Just how many of your grandparents or great-grands can be Indians, Mexicans or Puerto Ricans before you get disqualified?

  35. mne,
    Check out the website I mentioned, it answers your question. There are already states with English as the official language. The website is a good one, just make sure to go to that exact link as there are some out there that are definitely the kind of idiots you think about when the “English as our official language!” thing comes up.
    Another way to think about it is, by not providing easily accessible and (hopefully) free services for all citizens or people here legally (or illegally if we want to do that) to learn English we leave them in a position to be exploited. Not speaking English in this country can have a profound effect on ones financial well-being. Of course thats the private side of things, the website will go over the gov’t side of things. Enjoy.

  36. exholt,
    Sorry you had to go through that. As a white guy with a deep tan and a scruffy appearance (beard and such) I often get some strange looks when I speak a language other than English as I specialize in mideast/indoeuropean languages. Really was an eye-opening experience as I can pass for an Iranian (in the eyes of most westerners) if I really want to and its quite a thing to experience the world that way.
    English as the official language needn’t be a “rabid-right” political stance though there are many of those types who would/do support it. If you could take a glance over at the website I put up earlier in the thread it might help understand where I’m coming from as I’m not terribly well-spoken.

  37. eh, last thing for ya mne in response to post #22. You mentioned a few languages there but why not more of the 207 languages spoken in Calinfornia? You’re in La? Ever heard of tehrangeles? Why not one in Farsi?

    On the overall topic, there are a lot of white men who think like this guy does, only to a much lesser degree. What a lot of them want, especially the ones in my age group, are a completely level playing field. They don’t see their privilege nor understand it, they only see stats like the ones I mentioned earlier in jest (life expectancy, education, incarceration), they see college scholarships offered to groups theyre not a part of and adovacy groups, both private and publc, again for groups they don’t belong to. I see their anger at this, based in their misunderstanding of the advantages they do have, a lot more now that I’m in the South. Poor white southern males are in a bad position in any way we measure it and they get frustrated. They dont get the opportunity to read these kinds of sites or talk to people outside of their immediate family and friends so in 20 years a lot of them turn into the guy this thread is about. Hopefully the movement will continue move out further and further and touch even more people than it already has.

  39. Geez! If these guys didn’t give themselves a pat on the back for being ’such hard-working, good-ol’ American’ men, well, then who would? Amazing how stuck in the middle ages (or even the 1950’s) some supposed progressives are. I’ve never understood how someone who’s so blatantly sexist/racist/classist could even begin to utter the word progressive.

    I have occasionally been labeled as a bit heretical, but I think it might also be important to mention that some of those men do in fact identify as “progressive”.

  40. @Caravelle: i read it as satire, too. i’ve been trying to look up other gary hubbell articles to see what his general perspective is…

    http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20080112/ASPENWEEKLY06/676314754 (this one refers to tofu-sucking vegans!)
    http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20071222/ASPENWEEKLY06/645317194 (but here he considers himself an environmentalist)
    http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20071124/ASPENWEEKLY06/71123032 (comes across as anti-immigrant here, worries about global warming, and straight-up says a hillary clinton presidency would be a “disaster” because she’d spend too much on “victims” and take away the right to bear arms)

    so, seems like he might have been serious after all. gross.

  42. I am really sorry, BUT GODDAMMIT I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR A FUCKING HOUR FOR THE DATING OF MESO-AMERICAN, PRE-COLUMBIAN STONE FACES OF WHITE PEOPLE AND I GET A SITE FOR AMERICAN FEMINISTS!!!

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