Letters to the Editor
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Bitches
all of you piss and moan way too much. I can't believe you're getting all worked up about a silly book. OH MY GOD! MADDOX SAID WOMEN SHOULD BE OBEDIENT TO MEN!?! BONER JOKES!?! All of you act like he is seriously advocating the beating of women and their subsequent enslavement. And God forbid anyone find his writing funny and entertaining...we're only supposed to laugh at knock-knock jokes and lame ass puns right?
And for the record, women NEVER had it as bad as blacks in America. Women get 70 cents on the dollar, whereas blacks got 0 cents on the dollar. Women get raped, blacks got lynched, burned and murdered. Women get men to open the door for them, blacks got doors slammed in their face.
You're all a bunch of petty and bored idiots who whine too much. We can't all be the effete intellectuals who buy Oprah's books like you tools, thumbing our noses at people who don't buy into your 'sophisticated' brand of humor.
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It's a man's world
The slavery laws in America that oppressed black slaves were based on the marriage laws regarding the status of women. In order to oppress blacks, the legal status of women was used as a boilerplate.
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For every Alphabet of Manliness you don't buy, I'm going to buy three.
Holy shit, this is funny. This makes up for all those months that Maddox went without updating his site.
Since most of the Maddox detractors have never actually read a word he has written (not even the ones in this article, apparently), here are some quotes that might be helpful:
"I get more traffic than Burger King, Papa Johns, Pepsi and Domino's--huge corporations spend millions on promoting and advertising their meticulously engineered image every year, yet some middle class guy with a small dick and a hairy back commands more power on the Internet than they do. These corporate sites have promotions, games, and discounts, yet more people come to this site every day and read stupid bullshit about how big my balls are. On top of that, I've spent a grand total of $0.00 promoting my site." (http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=owned)
I can guarantee that everyone slamming Maddox in these letters *wishes* they could get a million unique hits per day, fans begging for merchandise, chicks emailing marriage proposals, and book offers that lead to a #1 seller on Amazon before the book is even published, just for posting their stupid opinions and psychobabble on the internet.
While they're busy contemplating the philisophical implications of his fart jokes, or even just insulting his mom and dad, he's laughing all the way to the bank.. I'm just laughing -- half of these letters could be straight from the hilarious 'hate mail' section of his web site. Thanks, Salon, for giving this guy the media attention he deserves.
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monk
Not assuming. I just asked a "what if..." question.
Lighten up :)
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I can't believe she actually said this
But can I be a humorless feminist for a moment by suggesting that the lesson here seems to be that women are a group it's still OK -- and funny! -- to say mean and derogatory things about?
Um -- cough cough -- brainless vapid hussies -- that wasn't mean and derogatory?
Humorless? No, Rebecca, I think you're absolutely hilarious! You should go on the road with Kathy Griffin.
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Just this
I'm an over-the-top feminist and I haven't read Maddox's page because I will have to be in a certain mood: thick-skinned with a couple of beers under my belt, maybe, and ready for satire. And then I'll probably laugh my feminist ass off. Because extreme stereotypes are funny, and most of the men reading the page are LAUGHING at the stereotype, as well as the part of themselves that identifies with the stereotype. I think that's healthy. I have to laugh at the over-the-top feminist part of myself sometimes or I'm in danger of taking myself too seriously. And that, I've learned the hard way, is definitely NOT healthy.
Imagine this: Hard core fundamentalist Christians laughing at www.bettybowers.com, and thus themselves. It'd do us all good.
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Maddox
I've read Maddox's site on and off for a few years now, and I happen to think he's a very funny, and a very good, writer.
Truly skillful humor writers can't hold back for fear of offending a particular group-THAT'S what makes them funny.
While I'm pretty sure Maddox will never be asked to host the Oscars, I think his millions of fans go to his website because they know they'll get a laugh-it's just not that profound.
What is awesome is the fact that Maddox managed to publish an already successful first book without having to navigate the traditional publishing industry "who do you know" maze-his READERS shot that book to #1. This type of scenario will ultimately redfine that industry as more talented "unknowns" acquire a fan base online and get a legitimate shot at seeing their products on the shelves at Borders.
Go Maddox!
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humorless?
Rebecca Traister a humorless feminist? By her own admission, no less?
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
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good point
Excellent point, Janet. Most of the press--including Salon--focuses on the manliness theme and, more broadly, the whole "fratire" phenomenon. What's lost in the hype is how Maddox built his own word-of-mouth marketing apparatus before he ever signed a book deal. His website has done more to promote his book than any publisher ever could.
I remember in the mid-nineties when wisdom was the Internet would radically change the publishing industry. Then, for the next ten years, the publishing industry continued along, business as usual,with few exceptions.
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How to handle Maddox
In the end, there's one very good way to handle people like Maddox. They're the boors who make a joke about your ethnicity or religion or gender, etc., and when you get offended (as intended), Maddox and his fellow boors grin and say lighten up, it's only a joke!
So, here's what you do. First, you give them a chance to apologize. If they don't, you break their jaw, nose, or any other target you wish to strike. No need to engage in debates about political correctness, irony, or what makes a joke funny. You break their nose, they shut up immediately, and they think long and hard before cracking offensive jokes again. It's that simple.
As a side benefit for Maddox and his fellow immature males, this sort of reaction gives them a chance to prove to themselves and the world just how masculine they really are.