As an avid internet surfer, I stumbled upon this blog article by someone named Roosh V the other day. I shared it on Twitter saying that “this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read” and about a week later, Roosh V (the blogger himself) retweeted my post. Although he personally didn’t respond to my tweet, all of his followers did. One person tweeted “I think the first reason applies to her” — the first reason being “There aren’t many attractive women. Most are sloppy, ugly, fat, and don’t care about looking good for men.”
In case you haven’t heard of him, Daryush Valizadeh, also known as Roosh V, is a 35 year old male blogger from Maryland who prides himself as being an antifeminist and a pickup line “artist.” He claims that “socialism, feminism, and cultural Marxism cause societies to decline because they destroy the family unit.”
While I’m almost positive he does this all for attention, I can’t help but cringe. If you explore his blog, you’ll find that he has a number of “Community Beliefs.” His fifth rule is that “a woman’s value significantly depends on her fertility and beauty. A man’s value significantly depends on his resources, intellect, and character.” How enlightening is that? He also won’t answer a question sent in by a girl unless she includes “a link to her picture (both face and body must be visible).”
I want to clarify that feminism is not about hating men. Nor is it about shaming other women about their choices on makeup, or just being feminine. Feminism is about attaining political, social and economic equality to men. While I personally am not offended that Roosh’s twitter followers continue to angrily respond to my tweets, I want people to become aware of the hate towards feminism.
There needs to be more people advocating for feminism, rather than simply standing by, otherwise there will be no change. With all of this being said, I think the best way for feminists to stop the spread of this misogynistic blogger is to be more aware that there are people actively working against the equality of women.