None of these quotes (all from The Unmade Bed by Stephen Marche) are representative of what the book’s about, but they do reveal, perhaps unintentionally, Marche’s subtitle, “The messy truth about men and women in the 21st century”.
“Eventually, David Granger, the editor-in-chief of Esquire, read something I’d written for the Toronto Star and called to ask me if I wanted a column in his magazine.” p42
It’s stuff like that that sends me into a rage. Thinking back to the twenty or thirty queries I sent out, each with five to ten pieces … And I didn’t even get a reply. Except for one, in which I was told that one had to work as a reporter for ten years or so before one is offered a column. (Apparently not.) Marche doesn’t recognize that if the Star piece had been written by Stephanie Marche, Granger would most likely not have contacted him. It’s quite possible Granger wouldn’t even have read the piece. Quite possibly because it would never have appeared in the Star in the first place. The ‘Jane/John’ studies go back decades (what ‘John’ writes it taken more seriously and given higher value than what ‘Jane’ writes, even though they’re identical) and was just recently validated by the Martin and Nicole thing (https://www.elle.com.au/culture/news/male-and-female-email-signature-sexism-experiment-8328/).
“Every fourteen-year-old boy with an Internet connection has seen a woman anally penetrated with a baseball bat.” p110
Seriously? Well, no wonder then. There’s no way women are ever going to be taken seriously, for their abilities and aspirations. Not until pornography is illegal (which is, really, a no-brainer, given hate speech laws). Until then, women, don’t waste your time. (And, men, why aren’t you trying to get it illegalized? Do you not see the damage it’s doing to you as well? Y’all can’t even have pleasurable consensual sex with a real woman anymore.) And, women, I guess it’s fair to say that every time you meet a man, assume something like that is going through his mind. And act accordingly. (And men, don’t you even think of complaining about that.)
“Virtually every feminist scholar and female critic of any kind has to endure outright threats of physical harm.” p152
And y’all wonder why we hate you. Get a clue.
“The typical eleventh grade boy writes at the same level as an eighth grade girl.” p164
How is it then that they become our supervisors?? Ah. Because they can’t see any one of without picturing us giving some dick a blowjob. And it’s because they play by different rules, rules whereby it’s okay to exaggerate, to lie, to cheat, to bribe, to threaten.
