Shaming

This is what I mean about nerd-sharming. (Though I only agree with about 50% of the piece.)

I live in a world where feminists throwing weaponized shame at nerds is an obvious and inescapable part of daily life. Whether we’re “mouth-breathers”, “pimpled”, “scrawny”, “blubbery”, “sperglord”, “neckbeard”, “virgins”, “living in our parents’ basements”, “man-children” or whatever the insult du jour is, it’s always, always, ALWAYS a self-identified feminist saying it. Sometimes they say it obliquely, referring to a subgroup like “bronies” or “atheists” or “fedoras” while making sure everyone else in nerddom knows it’s about them too.

Amanda Marcotte is one of the worst, also, for this. She really hates nerdy men. It’s a lot easier and less risky to punch down, I guess.

But since when did it become ok to shit on the downtrodden?

And the idea that there is more harassment committed by nerds — as some feminists now believe — is fucking absurd. Being a member of a frat is associated with something like a 300% increased chance of that person having raped someone. Nope, I ain’t fucking making that statistic up. And I’ve actually seen male lawyers commit sexual harassment right in front of me.  Never have seen a nerd — who is usually too shy to talk to a woman anyway — do that (though I believe it happens, just not as often).

Indeed, harassment is very real and common, but re-defining harassment to include, “Someone I didn’t like because he doesn’t fit my idea of man and was in my general vicinity and might have even looked at me” doesn’t help feminism, doesn’t help women and it ends up hurting a lot of other people.