“I was liking all of Maxine Waters’s tweets and lost track of time.”
February 9, 2018 7:19 PM   Subscribe

He calls me into his office and closes the door… to promote me. He promotes me again and again. I am wild with ecstasy. New Erotica for Feminists (SLMcSweeny’s)
posted by supercrayon (35 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is the very model of "You're Not Helping."

Both-sidesism sucks, pandering sucks. This is "Conservative humor" at its nadir, Pajamas Media sophistry with McSweeny's style standards. Utter, burnable rubbish.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:30 PM on February 9, 2018 [9 favorites]


I didn't read it that way at all. It felt very much from within the circle.
posted by prefpara at 7:35 PM on February 9, 2018 [14 favorites]


yeah, I'm down for making fun of my fellow SJWs, but this reminds me of those "Porn for Women" books that's just a bunch of pics of male models doing housework
posted by Countess Elena at 7:47 PM on February 9, 2018 [8 favorites]


I was hoping for a feminist firefighter scenario and was sorely disappointed :-(
posted by The Toad at 7:53 PM on February 9, 2018


He makes no effort to come inside because that would be weird and alarming. I smile and give him a reasonable tip for his normal behavior as I shut the door.

Come on, in my fantasies I am a way better tipper than that.
posted by Sequence at 7:55 PM on February 9, 2018 [14 favorites]


and spend all night fantasizing about his insightful commentary around non-linear plot structure.


That made me laugh but I’m problematic.
posted by Annika Cicada at 8:01 PM on February 9, 2018 [6 favorites]


Erotica usually involves some kind of sexual act? Unless woke guys make you horny this isn't really erotica.

I've often thought of Oglaf as feminist erotica.
posted by adept256 at 8:23 PM on February 9, 2018 [11 favorites]


Oglaf is feminist sex comedy, the actual sex is often hilariously wrong and nor erotic really, because that's the point.

It's better than this, for sure.
posted by emjaybee at 8:32 PM on February 9, 2018 [4 favorites]


MetaFilter: this isn't really erotica
posted by The Toad at 8:40 PM on February 9, 2018 [16 favorites]


This gave me a smile, thanks.
posted by salvia at 8:58 PM on February 9, 2018 [2 favorites]


This is the very model of "You're Not Helping."

Both-sidesism sucks, pandering sucks. This is "Conservative humor" at its nadir, Pajamas Media sophistry with McSweeny's style standards. Utter, burnable rubbish.


No, it's just not very funny.
posted by Sebmojo at 9:28 PM on February 9, 2018 [3 favorites]


Well, this certainly disproves the stereotype of the killjoy feminist. And believe it or not, sapiosexual is a (Tumblr) thing. :/
posted by koavf at 9:53 PM on February 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


Mrs Coventry (not her real name) thought this was hilarious. And we learned of Aparna Nancherla from it, which was entertaining. Oglaf looks like something she'd like, too, if she hasn't seen it yet.
posted by Coventry at 10:10 PM on February 9, 2018


Actually, Oglaf's probably too crude and violent. I love it, though.
posted by Coventry at 10:28 PM on February 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


this many comments and nobody mentions RBG's sex gavel? I am very sad.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 10:29 PM on February 9, 2018 [8 favorites]


Both-sidesism sucks, pandering sucks.

I thought both-sideism was claiming that a systemic problem that usually targets an oppressed group wasn’t really a problem because n examples of circumstances being reversed exist? And pandering is saying what you know a target audience wants to hear without truly believing or understanding the claim being made?

These just read like examples of respect and mutuality being described using language and rhetorical structures most often employed by writers of erotica. Worth a chuckle, but I’m not seeing how this qualifies as “conservative.”
posted by eustacescrubb at 11:02 PM on February 9, 2018 [31 favorites]


These just read like examples of respect and mutuality being described using language and rhetorical structures most often employed by writers of erotica. Worth a chuckle, but I’m not seeing how this qualifies as “conservative.”

Same. I found it funny.

Seems Slap*Happy read it as making fun of feminists rather than being written by women? I didn't read it that way anyhow.
posted by frumiousb at 11:12 PM on February 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


This is "Conservative humor" at its nadir

You can just say conservative humor.
posted by JauntyFedora at 11:31 PM on February 9, 2018 [4 favorites]


frumiousb: “Seems Slap*Happy read it as making fun of feminists rather than being written by women?“

Those really aren’t mutually exclusive categories.

McSweeney’s is busy becoming about as funny as the New Yorker, I see. Or was it already? It’s been a few years.

eustacescrubb: “These just read like examples of respect and mutuality being described using language and rhetorical structures most often employed by writers of erotica. Worth a chuckle, but I’m not seeing how this qualifies as ‘conservative.’”

That’s a relatively good description of what’s going on here - the idea being that “examples of respect and mutuality” are what feminists crave sexually, I guess? And that being funny, since _normal people_ have sexual cravings for things like, uh, actual sex? Or is the joke on erotica writers, for being predictable? Pretty sure it’s the feminists, but maybe?

Either way, yeah, it does seem rather conservative to mock either feminists or erotica writers. But it’s more just overwhelmingly boring.

ivan ivanych samovar: “I am very sad.”

Yeah, this attempt at comedy had that effect on a lot of us, I think.
posted by koeselitz at 12:17 AM on February 10, 2018 [2 favorites]


This makes me want to write “Erotica for McSweeney’s Erotica Writers.”

I dreamt that I wrote a meta-reference to a meta-reference to a 50’s magazine advertising slogan for a defunct brand of beer. It gained sentience and climbed atop me, semiotically rearranging my cultural bias, while humming the beer brand’s radio jingle ironically. I awoke drenched in sweat, aroused, and really craving a cold beer for some reason.
posted by panglos at 12:50 AM on February 10, 2018 [24 favorites]


Eh. Not "Conservative humor", but definite quotes around "erotica". More of a "don't expect anything sexual, just hope for basic equality" sort of a stale, "nothing sexier than housework" sort of flat joke (or just bitter snark).

Still, I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the line "I don my naughtiest jabot and my sex gavel."
posted by JiBB at 2:14 AM on February 10, 2018 [5 favorites]


I thought it was pretty funny, but I also thought it was kinda sexy when the guy I was out on a date with apologized for interrupting me and admitted he was wrong about the thing he was saying.
posted by thivaia at 5:51 AM on February 10, 2018 [13 favorites]


I thought it was funny too. It's funny to have ordinary interactions permitted to just be ordinary interactions. So many of my encounters throughout life had "you're-female-and-therefore" attached to them for my conversational partners . . .
posted by Peach at 6:33 AM on February 10, 2018 [1 favorite]


I both thought it was kind of funny, and it got my back up. It's exactly like Countess Elena said -- porn for women is men doing housework. Where the joke is both that women/feminists do want men to do housework/respect them but that they don't want sex.

I'm an easy audience for humor, so I laughed, but the implicit premise that if you want respect, that puts sex out of the question? Is tiring and depressing.
posted by LizardBreath at 6:33 AM on February 10, 2018 [1 favorite]


I thought it was funny except for "calorie-free wine".

My suspension of disbelief only goes so far.
posted by allegedly at 6:46 AM on February 10, 2018


Yeah I also thought it was moderately funny becasue being a woman seems to always be about sex or being talked over and I liked using structures of desire to be about construction workers admiring my books (which are what I most admire about myself). Like it wasn't genius, but I chuckled.

I also wonder how male/female and funny/not-funny match up.
posted by dame at 7:42 AM on February 10, 2018 [2 favorites]


I don't see how this is making fun of feminists?

I read it as a commentary on how far away we are from the ideal of gender equality. Contrast the unrealistic sexual fantasies that structure porn for men with these equally unrealistic fantasies. I read it like, "it sure would be nice to even be able to fantasize about the plumber wanting to have sex with me, but I'm stuck with having to fantasize about just being safe, respected, and having my interests taken seriously."
posted by meese at 7:46 AM on February 10, 2018 [10 favorites]


The sexy thing is having the sexy things be _completely separate_ from these situations. It will happen on its own.
posted by amtho at 8:04 AM on February 10, 2018 [3 favorites]


The fact that no one's sure what the joke is, is so very...McSweeney's.

I'm still not sure whether their obliqueness is the point, or is unintentional, or what.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 2:41 PM on February 10, 2018 [1 favorite]


Could the "joke" be "Hetero cis-men actually treating women as humans worthy of respect seems like non-standard behavior to a similar degree as stereotypical hetero cis-male sex fantasies"?
That's what I got out of it, but I've been overthinking a lot of things in the last couple years.
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 3:55 PM on February 10, 2018 [3 favorites]


The fact that no one's sure what the joke is, is so very...McSweeney's.

It's a solid premise for a bit, but it's only so-so in the execution. Clickhole or the Onion would have done it better.
posted by Sebmojo at 7:01 PM on February 10, 2018


Metafilter: your favorite above-average execution of an amusing premise sucks.
posted by GrammarMoses at 6:40 AM on February 11, 2018


Peeps don't have a sense of HUMOR! If it is damaging or intentionally hurtful, I understand. But y'all need to laugh and dance more. The time is getting late, as they say. Whoever they are. I will get flack for this but, but...
posted by DJZouke at 6:20 PM on February 11, 2018


I really have no clue how anyone is arguing that McSweeney's is a conservative site. This article could basically be cribbed from sarcastic, holier-than-thou comments on this site. If you don't think it's funny, that's fine but some of these criticisms could hardly be more off-base.
posted by koavf at 12:24 AM on February 12, 2018


That said, McSweeney's used to be a lot funnier when Dave Eggers was involved.
posted by DJZouke at 4:31 AM on February 12, 2018


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