Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Philip Weiss Sets a New Low in Humorless Douchebaggery

Remember Philip Weiss's absurd New York Magazine article from a few weeks back, "The Affairs of Men," where he argued that men are wired to be non-monogamous? Oh, and maybe women are kind of that way too, but really, it's the men who need and deserve a twentysomething waitress on the side? He got eviscerated in feminist blogs for his knuckleheaded use of evolutionary psychology, his presentation of his stray lusts as entitlement, his ignorance of privilege, his contempt for strong women, his implication that women don't harbor equivalent desires. And then there's the fact that he says nothing new - and says it badly.

I have to admit, though, that as I wrote my own takedown of him, I wondered whether some snippets of his piece might have been ironic or tongue-in-cheek. Well, Weiss was on Stephen Colbert last night, and he put all such doubts to rest. The man is deaf to irony. He may have a sense of humor but if so it's as vestigial as the human appendix. Watch:



Just for instance, look how Weiss's mouth doesn't even twitch when Colbert says: "For women, sex is just part of the nesting instinct. There's nothing really sexual about it. They respond to our pheromones and they wish to breed."

Note to Mr. Weiss: Twentysomething waitresses like a sense of humor. So do fortysomething college instructors.

Weiss sort of concedes that women, too, might have unruly desires, but it's always an afterthought. I guess he's right - when it comes to self-important fiftysomething journalists, we're not much tempted.

4 comments:

SunflowerP said...

"Weiss sort of concedes that women, too, might have unruly desires, but it's always an afterthought. I guess he's right - when it comes to self-important fiftysomething journalists, we're not much tempted."

Hee-hee-hee-ha-ha-ho-ho-ho-ho!!!!

"Self-important" being the key factor there, for me at any rate.

Sunflower

Sungold said...

Yeah, if he were any more inflated with self-importance, he'd explode.

Fiftysomething is not a factor for me at *all* - I'm partial to men a couple years older than me - but I'm pretty sure the average twentysomething gal wouldn't consider his age a selling point. (Of course there are exceptions, but they'd still have to get past his whiny entitlement.)

ThePoliticalCat said...

I wonder how he explains the growing number of childfree women. Plus, he's as pheromonally impaired (visual basis judgment ONLY, I'm afraid) as a human could possibly be. Maybe that's why he's touting the viewpoint: hoping somebody, anybody, will throw a mercy fuck his way.

Sungold said...

Well, I guess if you uncritically embrace the crudest ev psych (as Weiss appears to do), you explain the "growing number of childfree women" as a reaction to the obvious unfitness of Weiss and his many buddies - for just about anything other than bloviating. Rather than putting up with "unfit" partners, maybe they'd rather go without? I *don't* believe that myself, of course; I'm just trying to trace his ideas to their logical conclusion. Pheromonally impaired, indeed!

And yeah, if you read the original article, it really does sound like he's begging for a mercy fuck. If I were his wife, though, I *so* wouldn't oblige. Ugh.