EVERY angry, marginal, experimental subculture seems to have male members overrepresented… EXCEPT (perhaps) the gender ideology social contagion. Perhaps that is because it prioritizes subjective feelings (making them the foundational fact upon which all society and knowledge must be based)… and because it promotes the rejection of the adolescent body. When I read Eliza Mondegreen’s posts I’m struck by how much transmasc/NB material is really just a discomfort with having a woman’s body and sexuality.
But other than that, every hopeless and antisocial and marginal subculture I can think of is packed with men: greasers, homeboys, hardcore fans…
These kinds of inquiries can be extremely useful in peeling back cultural narratives, and exposing deepest realities that academics and policymakers refuse to acknowledge.
I see, in your horribly brilliant article, Nina, that you make no mention at all of the connection between male depression and the triumph of vicious feminism in our age. Surely the emergence in this era of a whole generation of young women with, at best, neurotically separatist attitudes, and at worst, provenly psychotic attitudes towards men, masculinity and manhood cannot be excluded when considering this dense, dark subject? Men do not exist in a psychic vacuum: existentially they may confront challenges which are said to pertain exclusively to manhood (as do women confronted by womanhood), but these have never before proved so insuperable for so many young men as now seems to be the case. You mention four forms of alienation but you do not mention the fifth, which is alienation from feminine love and respect. So much has been destroyed by feminism that it is difficult to know where to begin when searching for a means to begin to put this catastrophe right; but one greatly salubrious force would be for women of all ages - but especially younger women - to start standing up for the beauty of masculinity, start voicing their love of it; start, in short, expressly to reject the poison of feminism and to help expel it from both the body politic and the realm of sexual desire. Feminism makes men weak. This may not be its express aim but it is its subtle devastating effect. Yes, there will always be those weak men who fail to pull themselves out of the nosedive of depression - they haunt every age - but the vast majority of men will survive the challenge of nihilism IF they can find a loving and lovable woman. Nietzsche, btw, was, as you probably know, not a lover of French Romanticism: he believed ‘romantics’ who revelled in despair and who found their only identity IN despair ultimately lacked ‘la force’. Energy, vigour, bollox - call it what you will. In his philosophy of ‘selbstuberwindung’ he expressly declared that the coming uberman will draw despair into himself and use it as fuel to feed a burning passion for transcendence. Forgive this overlong divagation (written in contest with predictive text on my IPhone!) but I found your article very inspiring and felt a need to reply quickly, albeit with these sketchy thoughts. Btw you might like my book ‘The Misanthropist’s Secret Love Life’ which deals with many such issues. Like everything in Mr Bezos’s universe it is available on Amazon. But I’d be happy to send you a free copy to a PO Box or whatever anonymous address you use for such contacts. Kind Regards. James Murphy
Dear James, it's good of you to take the time to respond. You're correct of course that I didn't address what some call "the Longhouse", or contemporary feminism. I critiqued what was already then the prototype of the girlboss and the consumerist dimensions of feminism in 2009's "One-Dimensional Woman" and there is more in my more recent book "What Do Men Want?" regarding what I see as the highly cynical attempts to put men and women in competition and to destroy positive relations between them. I also addressed this theme in some of my essays for Compact: https://www.compactmag.com/contributor/nina-power/
I look forward to giving that essay a good read in tomorrow's overwhelming sunlight, Nina. All power to your arm. Have a lovely Sunday. 😎 (and Saturday evening, senz'altro!)
This is devastating and beautiful. You hold male sorrow with such clarity and compassion, without tipping into sentimentality or apology. What really stuck with me was how male pain is everywhere and nowhere...caught between lefty denial and right wing dismissal. The way you framed DSBM as a kind of sonic mirror, not trying to fix anything but just reflecting the rawness - it made me want to go check out some bands to see for myself.
i’m assuming your an atheist like me, although i’m a woefully undereducated one, but i still love this response from Norm, even if i struggle with plenty other quotes of his about religion
now that sounds very interesting :) am new to subbing to your stack, but i def need to jump into your archive soon
would you happen to have a post to do with being an insensitivity reader cause i could really do with one, although i need one who know irish law more so hah
Bizarrely, I actually have an LLB. It was a joke about my unfortunate encounters with the civil law, but there's no reason you'd know anything about that!
EVERY angry, marginal, experimental subculture seems to have male members overrepresented… EXCEPT (perhaps) the gender ideology social contagion. Perhaps that is because it prioritizes subjective feelings (making them the foundational fact upon which all society and knowledge must be based)… and because it promotes the rejection of the adolescent body. When I read Eliza Mondegreen’s posts I’m struck by how much transmasc/NB material is really just a discomfort with having a woman’s body and sexuality.
But other than that, every hopeless and antisocial and marginal subculture I can think of is packed with men: greasers, homeboys, hardcore fans…
These kinds of inquiries can be extremely useful in peeling back cultural narratives, and exposing deepest realities that academics and policymakers refuse to acknowledge.
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/the-primacy-of-subjectivity
The opioid crisis it is true seems limited to America, but in this case Canada belongs as well.
I see, in your horribly brilliant article, Nina, that you make no mention at all of the connection between male depression and the triumph of vicious feminism in our age. Surely the emergence in this era of a whole generation of young women with, at best, neurotically separatist attitudes, and at worst, provenly psychotic attitudes towards men, masculinity and manhood cannot be excluded when considering this dense, dark subject? Men do not exist in a psychic vacuum: existentially they may confront challenges which are said to pertain exclusively to manhood (as do women confronted by womanhood), but these have never before proved so insuperable for so many young men as now seems to be the case. You mention four forms of alienation but you do not mention the fifth, which is alienation from feminine love and respect. So much has been destroyed by feminism that it is difficult to know where to begin when searching for a means to begin to put this catastrophe right; but one greatly salubrious force would be for women of all ages - but especially younger women - to start standing up for the beauty of masculinity, start voicing their love of it; start, in short, expressly to reject the poison of feminism and to help expel it from both the body politic and the realm of sexual desire. Feminism makes men weak. This may not be its express aim but it is its subtle devastating effect. Yes, there will always be those weak men who fail to pull themselves out of the nosedive of depression - they haunt every age - but the vast majority of men will survive the challenge of nihilism IF they can find a loving and lovable woman. Nietzsche, btw, was, as you probably know, not a lover of French Romanticism: he believed ‘romantics’ who revelled in despair and who found their only identity IN despair ultimately lacked ‘la force’. Energy, vigour, bollox - call it what you will. In his philosophy of ‘selbstuberwindung’ he expressly declared that the coming uberman will draw despair into himself and use it as fuel to feed a burning passion for transcendence. Forgive this overlong divagation (written in contest with predictive text on my IPhone!) but I found your article very inspiring and felt a need to reply quickly, albeit with these sketchy thoughts. Btw you might like my book ‘The Misanthropist’s Secret Love Life’ which deals with many such issues. Like everything in Mr Bezos’s universe it is available on Amazon. But I’d be happy to send you a free copy to a PO Box or whatever anonymous address you use for such contacts. Kind Regards. James Murphy
Dear James, it's good of you to take the time to respond. You're correct of course that I didn't address what some call "the Longhouse", or contemporary feminism. I critiqued what was already then the prototype of the girlboss and the consumerist dimensions of feminism in 2009's "One-Dimensional Woman" and there is more in my more recent book "What Do Men Want?" regarding what I see as the highly cynical attempts to put men and women in competition and to destroy positive relations between them. I also addressed this theme in some of my essays for Compact: https://www.compactmag.com/contributor/nina-power/
I look forward to giving that essay a good read in tomorrow's overwhelming sunlight, Nina. All power to your arm. Have a lovely Sunday. 😎 (and Saturday evening, senz'altro!)
And to you!
This is devastating and beautiful. You hold male sorrow with such clarity and compassion, without tipping into sentimentality or apology. What really stuck with me was how male pain is everywhere and nowhere...caught between lefty denial and right wing dismissal. The way you framed DSBM as a kind of sonic mirror, not trying to fix anything but just reflecting the rawness - it made me want to go check out some bands to see for myself.
i’m assuming your an atheist like me, although i’m a woefully undereducated one, but i still love this response from Norm, even if i struggle with plenty other quotes of his about religion
can’t seen to get the photo up in the comment, sorry if i’ve double posted it
Saw it on your restack. I'm not an atheist (now). I was probably a sort of weird deist/pantheist before!
now that sounds very interesting :) am new to subbing to your stack, but i def need to jump into your archive soon
would you happen to have a post to do with being an insensitivity reader cause i could really do with one, although i need one who know irish law more so hah
There's a brief description here https://insensitivityreaders.com/2025/01/09/insensitivity-readers/
My expertise is definitely NOT the law! Good luck though!
oh yeah i hadn't thought you'd know law, let alone irish. but thank you for the link, and you're posts i've read so far :)
Bizarrely, I actually have an LLB. It was a joke about my unfortunate encounters with the civil law, but there's no reason you'd know anything about that!