Femi-nerd is just what it sounds like a feminist nerd. This doesn’t seem to be a foreign concept to most. Feminists should be everywhere and in every facet of culture. So what does it mean to be a femi-nerd? Well that’s what we want to define.
I recently watched a video that was looking at ten options of WWE Superstars who could fill the void left by Roman Reigns in light of his leukemia diagnosis. There is a wealth of male superstars who could fill that void, but maybe we are looking in the wrong place.
Smackdown Women’s champion, Becky Lynch is fast becoming the most popular superstar not only in the women’s division but all of the WWE. Her feud with Ronda Rousey was the hottest thing going into Survivor Series until the match was de-railed by a concussion and broken nose courtesy of Nia Jax. So why when we are looking for the next “top guy” to replace Roman Reigns are we not considering the next “top guy” be a woman?
First, let’s look at the reaction that Becky Lynch is getting from the fans. In her feud with Charlotte, despite her role being cast by creative in that feud as the heel, Becky was clearly the fan favorite. Her scrappy nature and underdog status who had to scratch and claw for everything that she got cemented her as a face in the eyes of the audience. She was relentless woman from Limerick. And let’s be honest, American audiences do like scrappy Irish.
Lynch turned her back on her best friend in the business to win the Smackdown Women’s Championship for a second time almost two years after being the inaugural champ. For anyone else, this would have been a heel turn of massive proportions. Just think about the chair shot from Seth Rollins to his Shield brothers, Dean Ambrose and Reigns, or the recent heel turn of Dean Ambrose attacking Seth Rollins on the same night that Reigns announced his leukemia diagnosis. But this didn’t happen with Lynch. Instead, the fans agreed with her. Lynch was right. Charlotte had stolen the spotlight from Lynch time after time. It was Becky’s title shot at SummerSlam that Charlotte weaseled her way into and then pinned Lynch to win the title in a triple threat match after breaking up the submission that Lynch had Carmella, the champion at the time, in.
The led to one of the best feuds of the year in Becky versus Charlotte, which culminated in a hellacious Last Man Standing match at WWE Evolution, the first WWE all-women’s PPV. In an evening where each match on the card was solid, this was easily match of the night, surpassing the Rousey-Nikki Bella match which would main event the PPV. With her defeat of Charlotte, Lynch dubbed herself “The Man” in references to Charlotte’s father old adage, “To be The Man, you have to beat The Man.”
Now Lynch turned her sights to the champion versus champion match at Survivor Series against Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey. Leading up to the match, Lynch was straight fire on Twitter with Rousey showing signs of just not getting it. First, Rousey made the moniker of “The Man” about gender calling out Lynch for “wanting to be a man” and “penis envy.” It’s clear that Rousey didn’t understand that this was never about gender. Rousey also hurled insults about Lynch being “The Millennial Man,” using criticism hurled at men in the millennial generation for not being “masculine” enough and fitting into traditional gender roles, but Rousey’s missteps is really a topic for a whole other blog. The point is that being THE Man is not the same as being a man. Being “The Man” is about being the best, and there is no real female equivalent in wrestling as women wrestlers were viewed as being inferior to their male counterparts. So instead of just being “The Woman,” Lynch bucked traditional gender roles to adopt the moniker. It was a bold statement.
Then the Monday before Survivor Series, while leading an invasion of Raw, Becky Lynch took a straight punch to face which left her bloodied. But Becky fought on and stood tall at the top of the stairs in the crowd. I think this says it all.
This was arguably Becky Lynch’s “Stone Cold moment.” She is the hottest thing in WWE right now. So isn’t time for the next “Top Guy,” the face of the company, to be a woman? Some might point to Rousey’s crossover appeal as a former UFC champ to put her in that spot, but Rousey’s cracks have shown in the feud with Lynch. You want the next Top Guy to be the face of the company, this fan thinks that you don’t need to look past The Man, Becky Lynch.
So over the last week and half or so since Avengers: Infinity War hit the big screen, I’ve seen multiple people (usually males) making the same argument: MCU Thanos is stupider than comic Thanos in his motivation. I’ve participated in a couple of Facebook threads arguing that this is not the case, but it’s probably time to lay it all out in a single blog.
First, it may help to give brief overview of Thanos’ motivation for collecting the Infinity Stones in both mediums. In both the comic arc and the film, Thanos wants to collect the Infinity Stones and use the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out about half of the universe’s population. The difference between the two versions really lies in his motivation for doing so. In the comic arc written by Jim Starlin in the early 1990s related to the Infinity Stones, Thanos’ motivation is to prove his love to Mistress Death. In the film, Thanos’ motivation is ultimately maintaining a balance of the universe in the use of the available resources in order to make life “better” for those left.
Here’s where we get into some spoiler territory in terms of MCU Thanos’ motivation. In the film, we see the destroyed planet of Titan, Thanos’ homeland. What we find out about the destruction of the planet is that it was a direct result of the mismanagement of finite resources. Thanos suggested that a portion of the population be executed using a lottery type system in order to preserve the resources and sustain life for those who are left. Obviously the idea of a random genocide was disregarded by those on his planet, and the idea was written off as madness. However, life on the planet was destroyed as Thanos predicted. This fulfilled prophecy is what motivates him to enact this plan on a universal scale as a means of maintaining life and balance in the universe.
In contrast, comic Thanos has found himself in love with Mistress Death. Mistress Death seeks a balance in the universe between life and death as such she tasks Thanos with killing half of the universe’s population because the number of the living exceeds the number who are dying in the lead up to the Infinity Gauntlet arc. However, this task is given to Thanos through an intermediary. In his quest to fulfill this task, Thanos discovers the Infinity Stones and goes about collecting them. Once he has done this, he return to Mistress Death but is still unable to directly converse with her as an equal and feels as though his affection is being rejected rather than understanding that he is now her superior. With the Infinity Gauntlet complete and angry at this rejection of his affection, he proceeds to leave love tokens for Mistress Death in the form of shrines, one of which he traps Nebula on the verge of death as beautiful piece of art. Still feeling rejected by Death, he continues to rage and cause destruction until Mephisto (a character not in the MCU) suggests that Death has not responded to his affections because he hasn’t completed his task. With a snap of his fingers, Thanos wipes out the half of the universe’s population.
Now this is where there are some comic fans who argue that MCU Thanos is stupid because his motivation is insufficient without the added plot point of pursuit of and rejection by Mistress Death. This is where I strongly disagree for a couple of reasons.
First off, they are writing off Thanos’ madness as stupidity. This just isn’t accurate. Just because you may or may not agree with someone’s rationale does not make it stupid in the same way that disagreeing with the facts does not make something fake news. Stupidity by definition is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit, and/or sense. Now, as flawed as the logic is in MCU’s Thanos’ plan, there is still reason to it therefore it cannot, by definition, be stupid. In contrast, the definition of madness indicates a frenzied or chaotic state or extreme foolish behavior. There is nothing in the definition of madness indicating that there is an absence of logic. In fact, in Hamlet, Polonius observes of Hamlet when he is acting crazy that “Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't.”
The argument for the stupidity of Thanos seems to hinge on the fact that he doesn’t use the Infinity Stones to solve the problem in another way. The question is consistently asked as to why Thanos doesn’t just make more resources to compensate for the universe’s population. There are a couple of reasons why this might not be the case.
One is that as a finite being, Thanos would have difficulty understanding the infinite power of the stones. The possession of all six Infinity Stones makes Thanos a cosmic entity of infinite power. The ability of the finite to understand the infinite is impossible. This is why humanity can never truly and fully understand the nature of God. Thanos has already decided on the best course of action to “save” the universe from itself, so the idea that he would suddenly know to use the power of the stones to create more resources to sustain the universe is not a given.
The second point expands on this point. With more resources to support the population of the universe already living, one does not necessarily solve the problem. Unless population growth is curbed, more and more resources would be necessary in order to sustain the growth. Ultimately, either limits on procreation would need to be enacted or culling of the herd so to speak would need to take place. However, as Thanos is a finite being, he likely sees the universe in finite terms. Even if he was able to produce more resources to sustain life using the Infinity Gauntlet, the growth of the universe would eventually be too much.
I know at this point that I probably sound like I am advocating for genocide. I do see the ethical implications of the act, but what I want to do is look at this purely from a utilitarian perspective. What course of action ultimately creates the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. In his experience, when Thanos enacted this plan of killing half the population on other worlds, those worlds flourished. He has no reason to believe that he should do otherwise for the entire universe.
The final argument that must be looked at in terms of MCU Thanos versus comic Thanos is the current state of the world. In the last few years, there have been a number of mass killings by straight, white, cisgender men laced with misogyny. Most of these have been perpetrated by men who have labeled them as incels or involuntary celibates. There is a prevalent belief among this group of men that they are somehow “owed” sex from women and that the lack of sex is somehow a violation of their rights as men. The plot point of Thanos killing off half of the universe because he is pursuing and was rejected by Mistress Death seems to come straight out of the manifestos of some of those who have orchestrated these mass shootings in response to their own rejection by women. While he is ultimately the villain of the story, Marvel Studios was able to shape the story in a way that makes sense without giving any sort of extra motivation to this line of thinking. While not speaking specifically in terms of Avengers: Infinity War, comedian Jim Jefferies gave a humorous but enlightening overview of this issue in a recent episode of The Jim Jefferies Show on Comedy Central:
So to wrap all of this up, I find that the motivation of Thanos in the MCU take on the Infinity Gauntlet saga to be far more compelling than the comic take. In the comics, I did tend to think that the motivation of Thanos in regards to being rejected in love as poor storytelling. Even then, I felt that there was a tinge of misogyny to the plot in essentially placing the blame for Thanos’ decision to murder innocent people on the fact that he didn’t get the girl.
Women’s wrestling has made leaps and bounds in the last year
and a half. There certainly has been a resurgence and evolution of the former
Divas division. Women superstars have participated in the first ever Women’s
Hell in a Cell, Money in the Bank ladder match, Royal Rumble, and Wrestlemania
Battle Royale. Last summer saw a women’s tournament which led to the addition
of more women competitors to the NXT roster. The women are certainly getting
their due.
I would even argue that the storylines for women have
improved. There is still obviously room to grow, but we are getting better
after the Women’s Revolution storylines that centered around Ric Flair and
other male competitors. Of course, there is still some hold over of previous
issues. Many of the storylines still tend towards the “women all secretly hate
one another” or a Mean Girls style angle,
but we are seeing a wider variety of women in prominent roles. Women like Nia
Jax and Ember Moon show girls and women that all body types can be successful
in the WWE.
I am excited to see where the women’s division goes in terms
of talent and storylines. I, sometimes, wonder if some of the changes that I would
like to see in the division would happen if there were more women on the
creative teams. I honestly don’t know if there are any women who really have
the power to shape the stories that the WWE tells with this division. Surely,
Stephanie McMahon has some influence, but ultimately, the final call lies with
Vince McMahon, a 72 year old man who still relies on old tropes and ideas about
how women interact with one another. It is getting better, but there is still a
long way to go.
As a global entity, the WWE has fans all over the world.
This can require a certain balancing act as not every society is the same in
regards to the rights of women. Yet, WWE had a milestone match when Sasha Banks
and Alexa Bliss competed in United Arab Emirates in a first ever match of its
kind. Now, their usual ring attire was exchanged for full body suits that
covered their arms and legs completely, but this was a step in the right
direction.
This brings me to the current issue of the Greatest Royal
Rumble. The event will take place in Saudi Arabia, a country that has even more
restrictions when it comes to the rights of women. Not only will women superstars
not be allowed to compete at this event, Saudi women cannot even attend unless
they are in the company of a male family member. This is problematic for a
company who is trying to promote the evolution of women’s professional
wrestling as being on par with the men.
WWE has tried to skirt around this issue as much as possible
by hyping up the men’s matches on the card, but it hasn’t escaped the notice of
many fans, particularly female fans. I know that this decision is ultimately
Vince McMahon’s, and he is a businessman. There is a lot of potential money to
be made in Saudi Arabia. It’s the same reason that US government continually
looks the other way when it comes to the rights of women there. The belief that
men and women should have equal rights only go as far as their pocketbook. The WWE certainly had an opportunity to take a stand and practice what they are preaching in terms of female empowerment and failed miserably.
Despite being a fan and wondering if WWE will finally take the
Universal title off of Brock Lesnar (like they should have done forever ago), I
will not be watching the Greatest Royal Rumble event. I feel like it is a slap
in the face to the women’s division. It certainly makes the Women’s Evolution
seem disingenuous and that female fans are not as important to the company as
the almighty dollar. If the powers that be at the WWE truly believe in evolution of women's wrestling, they should have put their money where their mouth is and made the decision not to perform in a country that would not afford their female fans and performers the same rights as their male talent and fans.
I thought long and hard about sharing what I am about to
share. It seems like something that so many women have gone through that I am
just another voice in the greater chorus, but I realized that, even though it’s
not something that I hide, I’m not forthcoming with the story either. When I
saw the hashtag “Me too” going around on Facebook, I posted, but I didn’t
really share my story. The truth is that it isn’t really just one incident but
a series of incidences that so many women have also experienced.
When I was in middle school, I was a chunky, smart girl with
glasses. I was also a joke to the popular guys in my class. They thought it was
funny to pretend to like me. They would say crude things to me about my boobs
(I was a DD cup by the time I was in 6th grade) and make comments
about how I probably stuffed my bra. They made me feel self-conscious about how
I looked and all I wanted to do was hide my figure under the baggiest clothes I
could find. Even if someone had honestly expressed interest in me, I wouldn’t
know it because I had become so skeptical about any guy showing me any
attention. I let their behavior towards me affect who I would be and didn’t
date until I was senior in high school.
The next incident that shaped who I would be happened in college.
I was a freshman and went out to the local bar. It was a place that was right
by campus so everyone always went there to hang out and dance on Wednesday and
Saturday nights. The place had a dance floor, and I loved to dance. This was
1998 so really the style of dance was more about grinding your body against
other people. I was a sweaty mess from dancing in a large group of people. As I
was leaving the dance floor, a football player grabbed my breasts and said
“Nice tits.” I turned around and hit him. I was then asked to leave, and he
faced no consequences for his actions which also included being drunk underage.
I was sober at the time. Now, I do have to say that this guy was also in my
Intermediate Composition class and did apologize for his behavior, but I just
accepted his apology as pretended as if everything was ok and that it was no
big deal. This was just more of my conditioning to accept any way that men
chose to behave towards me. It was just the way that it was.
Now on to the age of 22, I was a recent college graduate and
living back at home with my parents and had only had sex once before I began
dating a guy who had an alcohol problem. He would drink heavily, and he was an
angry drunk. Sometimes he would drink to the point of blacking out. It was one
such evening when we were out at one of the clubs in my hometown, and he was
clearly too drunk to drive home. It had been a nice summer evening, and my
parents’ house where I lived was only about four blocks from the club, so I had
walked down there to meet him. At the end of the night, he was too drunk to
drive home, so I took his keys and drove him to my place. My dad was working
third shift, and my mom was in bed asleep by the time we got there. We went up
to my bedroom to go to sleep; however, he had other plans. He began to kiss and
grope at me. He was very drunk and rather rough. I told him that I thought we
should just go to sleep, but he really wouldn’t take no for an answer. He tried
to have sex and held me down in my own bed. I can’t say that I was raped, but
this was really only because he was so drunk that he could not maintain an
erection. At this point, he passed out in my bed while I cried myself to sleep.
The next morning I had bruises on my arms and legs. He had no recollection of what
had happened the night before.
It was at that moment that I should have broken up with him,
but I stayed. I had convinced myself that this wasn’t a big deal. He had been
drunk, and if he was sober, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place. I
told myself that it was all my fault because I brought him home when he was
drunk. What else should I expect in terms of his behavior? Hadn’t I already
learned how drunk guys acted? As much as I tried to be ok, from that night on
any time that he would try to kiss me or touch me, my body would immediately
tense up. He became angry with me for my coldness and frigid behavior. I still
hadn’t told him what happened, but I kept apologizing that I was so tense. He
eventually broke up with me because every time he tried to be intimate I would
become so tense.
I am aware that there are some women and even men who have
experienced far worse than what I have relayed. I think that reality is what
kept me from sharing. I’ve come to realize though that these smaller incidences
are all part of the bigger problem.
