This post is in response to a comment over at Emily Nagoski's Sex Nerd blog. Emily is an outstanding sex researcher who is also an avowed feminist, but she tends to be more reasonable than most academic feminists because she actually studies sexual behavior and response.
The issue she raised (and then proceeded to seethe loudly about) was the problem of Islamic immigrant men sexually harassing European women. While I agree that it is a problem that needs to be addressed, I also suggested that Emily's solution -- shaming and imprisonment -- would neither correct their behavior or improve their respect for women. Quite the opposite. But a good ass-kicking would probably get right to the root of the problem and provide a corrective action plan. When asked to elaborate by a commentor, I did, and here it is (slightly expanded):
The pragmatic problem is that the men are disrespecting the women in a rude, vulgar, and dangerous way. Not their sexist attitudes, or their lack of empathy, the problem is the behavior.
Feminism rests in part on the premise that we live in a well-structured enough culture and society that civil discourse and compelling arguments, in the form of laws, regulation, and cultural institutions, are sufficient to compel behavior. That's a syncretic perspective that grew out of the Enlightenment, Humanism, and indirectly from the Industrial Revolution: the rule of law that regulates our behavior applies equally and impartially to all adult human beings in the society. But it also favors a more feminine strategy of compromise and negotiation, relying on an intact and functioning cultural architecture to provide incentives and disincentives to regulate behavior.
For most issues, that's plenty. But for truly criminal issues, or even issues of culturally relevant anti-social behavior in which the miscreant has knowingly violated the social and cultural mores, they have already voluntarily removed themselves from that matrix. If they are not invested in the cultural matrix, then shaming has no power (and Emily's observation of their secretive behavior demonstrate that they know that their behavior is indeed unacceptable...to their own people.) and imprisonment will do little to alter their future behavior. For these men a class about respecting women isn't going to do jack. Absent their own compelling cultural matrix, they're in a strange place where the women act (from a cultural perspective) like "loose" women, and there is little consequence for their behavior. Add in high testosterone levels and a sexually repressive agricultural culture, and it's not surprising to see them pushing the limits of propriety. Shaming and imprisonment don't alter the behavior, they just increase the challenge -- and potential l rewards for success in terms of status.
But a masculine solution -- an informal, good ol' fashioned ass-kicking -- has a multitude of benefits. Firstly, it leaves a lasting impression. Every man remembers getting his ass kicked (and the circumstances surrounding it) for the rest of his life. Secondly, it tells them <i>in purely masculine terms</i> that their behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. It's not some boring class taught by a government-paid social worker where they will challenge each other to see how much they can ignore it, it's a direct confrontation of their masculinity by other masculine forces. Thirdly, there's far less paperwork and a much more immediate result.
I see it as a failing of feminism not to take into account the nature of masculinity in its attempts to restructure society. Just as gossip works as a subtle social control in a group -- a channel favored by women -- controlled instances of applied violence are used by men as a subtle social control. The problem is that feminism equates all violence with anti-social, anti-female behavior and doesn't appreciate the very pragmatic reality known among Men's Mysteries the world over: the only way to handle testosterone is with an even greater application of testosterone. Not with shaming. Not with imprisonment. But with the simple masculine elegance of an ass-kicking.
Feminism exists as a result of the Industrial Revolution (and birth control pills). It does not and cannot exist in an Agricultural society, not as a full-fledged ideology, because the agricultural economy does not favor the conditions that allow women to earn their own income and raise children independently of men -- two fundamental requirements of the feminist movement. Feminism is a product of urbanized industrial civilization, and these immigrants are products of a rural agricultural culture. This kind of cultural clash is inevitable. This kind of sexual harassment is also inevitable until the immigrants sufficiently acculturate to invest in the European urban culture. And this kind of rough behavior from over-grown boys who think they can get away with it needs to be addressed by men in the traditional rural agricultural manner: an ass kicking.
Urban culture frowns on casual violence and well it should. Technology and eroded culture institutions have made it possible for one pissed-off teen to do a lot of damage in our society, and we rightly discourage that kind of behavior.
But in doing so, we also keep the informal social control of a good ass-kicking from happening as often as it should. As men, we know plenty of guys who have used that to their advantage, relying on the lack of informal or formal consequences to permit gross social and legal violations. There isn't a man out there who doesn't know someone who would positively benefit from a well-applied ass kicking. indeed, the number of assholes and douchebags would decline significantly (or at least their offences would become less heinous) if there were more asskickings.
Because the fact of the matter is that when we, as men, allowed women (and feminism in particular) to dictate to us what we could and couldn't do in terms of our own masculinity, they opened the door to douchebaggery and assholishness on an epic scale. If the behavior of men is egregious to women, then there are traditional masculine responses that could be employed outside of state sanctioned violence or imprisonment, but feminism ignores them because they "encourage all violence" and according to some all violence leads to violence against women, by some crazy calculus I don't understand.
Violence is a masculine art. Not that it can't credibly be practiced by women, but violence is an aberration of feminine culture. While in a civilized society it is assumed that the state has a monopoly on violence, the pragmatic fact is that our codes of laws are great for establishing absolute standards of adult behavior -- but in terms of boys growing into young men they are insufficient on their own to achieve this without the additional input from men in their family and community. And part of that maturing process is learning how to both take an ass-kicking and appreciating the larger spiritual purpose of an ass-kicking. Lectures don't shame a man into changing his behavior, but getting his ass kicked in front of his friends does the job quickly and efficiently.
When feminism destroyed the patriarchy it also destroyed the role of the father or other masculine role-model in this process. In encouraging disrespect towards all masculinity, it eroded the vitally important social control mechanism that men have developed to build good men for the last 100,000 years. In seeking to legitimately protect the innocent from domestic violence, it unleashed the forces of the Puerarchy it finds so distasteful. And shaming and imprisonment just don't work to build better men. It just builds Betas and criminals. Once good men became afraid of the legal consequences of delivering an ass-kicking (and by this I mean a very controlled level of violence very carefully applied) then they stopped, except in extreme circumstances. It's still a terrible risk.
But there may well come a time when you, as a man, are presented with an opportunity to consider kicking someone's ass who righteously deserves it. You may fear your own ass getting kicked in return, of course -- there is always a risk to this. But as a Red Pill man understand that you have a responsibility in your community (and to men at large) to help moderate the behavior of your friends and fellow men. And sometimes it's worth risking getting your ass kicked or even arrest to make an important point to a persistent douchebag.
And then that gets into the issue of just what a "good man" is. Emily has her idea of what it is. Next time, we'll discuss mine.
