inverted gender

I’m not sure if this is a submission for an inverted post or just a statement.

Let’s just go for the latter. I agree. It’s silly to bully people just because you don’t agree with them or don’t call yourselves the same thing. Particularly when the beliefs held by feminists and non-/anti-feminists can vary so wildly, and I suspect that there is often more common ground than people might think if they didn’t constantly try and put each other on the defensive.

In response to you making your own blog, and to anyone else who wants to do that kind of thing, then of course! I don’t own the concept, so according to my lawyers I can’t stop you.

There are some other blogs who do their own similar things, such as @inverted-race and @themodernmisandrist (and maybe more that I’ve forgotten), so there’s no need to ask for permission… it’s just a blog!

I like to see the types of criticisms (or sometimes, but tagged the same, insults) made about this blog: usually they’re “but it doesn’t mean the same when it’s inverted” or “it’s cissexist to say that male or female are opposite” (that second one isn’t as popular as it used to be, though).

And for the former, fair enough. The same for people who think that this blog is misogynistic- some of the posts certainly are, and maybe they think that’s the only reason someone would run this blog.

Alternatively, I reblog (and tag) the assumptions made about the kind of person who runs this blog, again for my own interest.

I don’t argue with people because it would take a long time, and I doubt I’d change their mind: it’s unlikely that saying “I’m not [bigoted]” to someone on here has actually convinced them!

And, more importantly, most of this blog isn’t my words or opinions. That means that someone insulting this blog, or a post, is filling in the blanks as to the kind of person that I am. The more incorrect they are, the more I know their assumptions don’t hold water. It’s the same reason I don’t answer questions about my background.

So I find the kinds of things that people say (and the arguments they make) interesting, and sometimes I see that they make good points, but even those who outright insult this blog and the person they think is behind it don’t bother me so much. We’re both strangers on the Internet, I don’t wish them anything bad, and I trust the judgements of someone who knows me far more

It depends on what I can find and/or what gets submitted. As this blog takes posts from tumblr, which has a high percentage of female/feminist content, there are going to be a greater number of male-critical or outright anti-male posts, or at least more concentrated.Likewise, there will be more feminist and “patriarchy theory”/“everything is actually rooted in misogyny” posts, which can quite fun to invert.

There’s also the culture of “it’s okay to encourage hatred towards X group”, or “by definition, hatred of X group is a joke so it’s fine”.Which means that finding posts in the “#misandry” tag that are celebrations of misandry is low-hanging fruit. Most posts in the “#misogyny” tag are criticisms of misogyny. Aside from demographics, people are less likely to tag their misogyny as much, so it can take longer to find.

(Alternatively, there’s the blog @themodernmisandrist​, which as the name suggests is much more focused on misogyny-to-misandry swaps, and also generally takes content from a different part and culture of the Internet)

And, when they are posted on here, the misogyny-to-misandry inversions often have people commenting “this is what’s on tumblr anyway” or just fewer notes, presumably because fewer people see it as making “a point”. But still! The fact that there are often fewer posts means it’s less likely that one of them will take off: I can never be sure which ones will explode.

Ideally I would like to have more of an even mix between the two types (and between (anti-/)MRA and (anti-/)feminist posts, which are a little easier to find, and between female- and male- positive posts, which are always nice regardless).

If you find a post that you think would work well on this blog, or of the type that this blog could use more of, please do submit either the original post or your pre-made inversion! Just also include the original post as well, otherwise it won’t be used (unless I can find it myself). Alternatively, you could send the URL and the post number of the original post in an askbox message.

Thank you to those who have submitted and suggested posts! Particularly the more varied ones

Of course! If you want to use the askbox function to submit, then all I need is the blog name and the post number to find it

I don’t have the benefit of seeing how often those comments are made in the original post, as I don’t get the activity feed made, but it is surprising how often it can happen. The “dehumanize” post, for example, only really took off after the “but what about the women?” addition, making it far more popular than the original post ever was.

It doesn’t always happen, though. Most reblogs of the “boys, romanticize yourselves” post are positive, or reblogged without added comment. There are some nasty comments, but those are usually countered by people criticizing the negativity. There are always going to be immature and hateful people, but there a lot more people who were happy to let other people be happy.

The most recent ridiculously popular post is this one, which I haven’t reblogged many comments for, but have almost entirely been positive (or pointing out what this source blog is). I can never really know which posts will take off hugely and which ones will be ignored, but this is one of the former, which makes me feel quite bad that these aren’t genuine tweets. Even if that isn’t what this blog is for.

At least the hashtag shown there is in use... and the sheer number of people agreeing with the sentiment and showing support for male victims of emotional abuse is incredibly uplifting.

The same for the images in this post, which I think is one of the first posts on this blog that really took off. Again, an overwhelmingly positive and supportive attitude in the notes.

To trick more people into appreciating pigeons?

Aside from that this blog isn’t trying to do good (or the opposite). It’s not run with a grand ambition of changing things or anything like that. It’s just something I find interesting, to see what posts make me feel uncomfortable or provoke a stronger reaction in me than the original might.If other people find it interesting too then I’m flattered that it’s not just me. If they don’t, that’s understandable and I certainly don’t think they’re terrible people for not liking it.

Obviously I do have my own opinions! I don’t think there are many that I’ve thought “this post is only acceptable before/after inversion”. Usually I think that both versions of the post are either fair or nasty or just reaching. But sometimes changing them makes me think that it sounds worse, or more reasonable, even when the sentiment is the same.

Some people might take that as proof that only one version makes sense (whether because of social structures or what have you). Some might think differently. It all depends on the person, and although I certainly do have my own opinions, it’s why I don’t make my own comments on the posts, not even in the tags. I don’t want people to influence people; I’d rather see what they think. Sometimes I agree with the comments, sometimes I don’t (and sometimes I’m admittedly amused by them!).

I’m not a cold, logical robot, but I try to at least keep the posts themselves uninfluenced the best I can. That might give the impression that I fully approve of everything this blog posts (or so I’m guessing, judging by some of the messages I receive), but oh well.I’ll give my opinions on any particular post if asked specifically, though. In fact, I can’t be stopped.

I certainly agree that women and men face different struggles, and have done throughout history: unlike race and sexuality, women and men have been roughly half each of the population all over the world, since humans first existed. There’s been a lot of time for gender roles, expectations and stereotypes to form, and a lot of time for people to both thrive and be hurt by them.

But “oppression” is a strong word that is overused. In places like the USA, I don’t think women are oppressed (nor men). Not when women have the right to an education, to healthcare, to work, vote, own businesses, choose who they marry, who they divorce, whether they want children, receive support for raising children, be protected by the law, be protected from genital mutilation, own weapons, own land, earn money, spend money, drive, run for positions in government… etc.

That’s not to say that sexism and misogyny don’t exist, but “oppressed” (and “patriarchy”) seems to me insulting, not only towards the women in the world who don’t have such rights, but to the changes that have been made to allow those rights to be commonplace and maybe taken for granted. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and there will always be criminals and bigots, but it’s nowhere near a system of oppression.

For this reason, some of the posts made on here have the details changed, e.g. “women who work instead of looking after the kids are selfish” might be changed to “men who stay at home with the kids instead of working are lazy”. The expectations are different: women have historically been homemakers, men have historically been breadwinners.Which doesn’t mean that it’s how it should be, just that it’s how a lot of people see things, even now, and even if they’re not conscious of it. Women who would rather focus on their career and men who would rather focus on their children may be seen as being “right”.

These things take time to change, the more people feel comfortable to do what they want rather than what they feel they should. Talking about how things should be gender-neutral is nowhere near as effective as people going out and doing it and proving that the world doesn’t collapse into flames.

Which is a little off-topic, I know

A lot of the posts on there, though, are more simply along the lines of “[gender] are bad and I hate them” or “this [wo/man] was really mean to me, this proves that they all are shit”. These are just changed as they are, because the sentiment is the same.

Regardless of arguments about social structures, people are shaped by their experiences. Someone abused and hurt by a particular gender may well be cautious or even hostile towards other people of the same gender. But aside from anything else, it’s silly to say that it’s reasonable to feel that way towards men, but bigoted to feel that way towards women.

Encouraging people to feel animosity towards a certain gender (on this site, it’s usually towards men, but it applies to women as well) is harmful, and I don’t mean just because it’s bad for those who are hated. One thing I really don’t like about this current wave of feminism is encouraging women and girls (particularly those with limited experience of the world) to hate and fear men. They’re told that if they reject a man they will probably be killed. They’re told that they’re likely to be raped. They’re told that if they enter a certain fields of work they will be harassed or patronized or hated.

There are shitty people in the world, yes, in all demographics. But there are wonderful people, and ultimately normal, unremarkable, good people. Normal people rarely make the news. They are busy thinking about their own families, friends, careers and loved ones, too busy to think about making a stranger’s life miserable. Most people in the world laugh at jokes and read magazines and wear sweaters and have headaches and eat oranges and accidentally break mugs like you or me.

We don’t hear about the thousands of planes that take off and land without incident, or the millions of car journeys that end safely. And we don’t think about the people we walk by every day who don’t attack, harass or annoy us, which is most of them, and which is the expected way to behave. It’s only the very very few people who do, and get people going home and writing angry blog posts about the guy who catcalled them, or the woman who made inappropriate comments to them, and it gets condensed down to So Many People Of This Gender Are Terrible.

And people read about those bad experiences, and only those experiences, and it seems like it must be the majority. So they tell other people, and believe overestimated statistics, and everyone gets more afraid.That’s what I don’t like about this wave of feminism. It’s not empowering. It’s like it wants women and girls to be frightened, and live in fear of men and not live out full lives or do the jobs they want to do. It gets people into a state where one bad comment can destroy them and validate everything bad they’ve ever heard.

All of which is a way of emphasizing that… it shouldn’t be brushed off as “well, historically [wo/men] have done x y and z” or “but all these crimes are committed by [wo/men] so we should assume they’re all bad”. It’s ridiculous to defend it as being fine when directed towards one gender and not the other, particularly when based on someone else’s experiences.

Either it’s fine both ways or it’s fine neither way. I’d much rather it be the latter. Life’s too short. That’s my take on the whole thing, anyway.

It’s a real parody.

Thank you! I forgot to update it recently, and this reminded me. I’ve since replaced the original source with an archive link, so it should last for those who want to see/visit/reblog the OP

Positivity is always great, and I fully encourage putting more of it into the world. No matter which demographic it’s aimed at supporting. So long as it’s not trying to tear anyone else down, of course, or pit people against each other.

We’re on this planet for short enough as it is, so we might as well make it as pleasant as we can. Be good. Be happy

At the moment I’ve not been so active, and mainly running this on submissions and suggestions. I’d like more of a balance, but it depends on what I can find.

In short, please do send in any misogynistic/feminist-hating posts that you think would work well as an inversion! Either ready-inverted or just the original post itself (please do include the source post’s URL though!). The submit page is here.

I think it’s due to this website’s culture and demographics, but people are less likely to flaunt (and tag!) their misogyny than they are their misandry, so it’s not as easy pickings.

Referring to this post.

I agree with you, regarding both versions of that post. I assume the original post was written by somebody who wanted to settle down, while their partner/s didn’t. Everyone’s different, and so is every relationship. And sometimes people take it to extremes with how casual or involved they are.But yes, in general it’s something for people to discuss. I doubt it was something more serious than OP expressing their frustration

I wanted something that displayed text, tags and sources… as well as being able to see several posts at once, but really that’s what the archive is for! It is quite small, I agree with that.

Since then I’ve not looked into themes, so if anyone has suggestions for a good, text-heavy, simple (and free!) theme then please send them in or reply here! It’s probably time for an upgrade

I can sympathize.

This post.

It’s still quite a personal thing to comment on somebody’s body, particularly if they’re uncomfortable with it. Some people don’t care about what’s said about their body as much as others, but I wouldn’t say it’s a weird thing to take a comment like that as some kind of criticism, particularly if it’s something they’re already self-conscious about.

Or maybe I’m being too in-depth with this (probably!). The phrasing also suggests that it’s meant to be a negative thing, or a go-to insult. And it’s also just generally stacked towards OP’s favor, regardless of what’s being criticized! The implication that this woman(/man) is being a bully and doing all sorts of nasty things to deserve such a comment in the first place.

Not a problem! There’s a submit link under the blog description at the top of the main blog display (squashed between “ask” and “FAQ”). Alternatively, you can go directly there using this link

Which reminds me: I’ve changed the tagging system when submitting posts. Instead of picking from the limited selection, I’ve just used the tag selection as yet another reminder for people to please include sources in submissions! Who knows if it will work?

(I’m still very grateful for submissions, but if I don’t have the source post, and can’t find the source post through searching, then I won’t be able to use it!)

Referring to this post. Maybe, but I’d say the overall tone of the joke is the same. Although the reply, being a reply, sounds a bit “Well, actually, how dare you”. Which I’m sure this blog can probably come across as being, too.