Comes now the news that the woman behind the popular and acclaimed “Tropes vs Women” video series has been forced to cancel an appearance at Utah State University. Anita Sarkeesian received rather extensive death threats, and police said they couldn’t screen for firearms at the event because of Utah open-carry laws.
Setting aside the extent to which the Beehive State chooses to coddle ammosexuals and gunsuckers at the expense of public safety, this is basically a capitulation to terrorism. Some limpdick in a basement made threats to shut down something he found objectionable. That’s terrorism. Full stop. And it all came about because apparently somebody is terrified that a model of masculinity built on homophobic insults in Call of Duty groupchat and 4chan boards might not stand up to modern standards of, you know, mature society.
And really, that’s what we’re dealing with here. Arrested adolescence in a bunch of boys who never evolved past the He Man Woman Haters Club in the basement. Guys who are actively resisting the need to grow up to get along in the modern world. In its way, it’s of a piece with the rest of the Peter Pan syndrome that afflicts way too much of modern society and which I’ve spent plenty of space here decrying. And this is why.
Because you have to grow up. You can’t live your entire life stuck at 14. That’s called Lord of the Flies and that tends to be the usual result when you leave a bunch of spotty student boys to their own devices. And for the pubescent-minded scum that are flogging this movement in the name of fighting off adulthood, I’m sure that’s the dream.
But it’s 2014. And society is for grown-ups, regardless of age. You can be a grownup at 12 or you can stave it off your entire life. But it’s long past time for our society to stop indulging people who won’t grow up.