New Toys Target Men Who Hate Women

Posted by Amanda Marcotte, Pandagon at 3:30 PM on November 30, 2007.

This post, written by Amanda Marcotte, originally appeared on Pandagon

Shakes is running a long series on the various items available for purchase by men who hate women and think that's just so funny. It's interesting, though I haven't linked it before because I didn't have much to say about it. But today's series entry just can't pass without comment.

(click for larger version)

In case the toy wasn't hostile-seeming enough at first glance, the manufacturers give you an option to engage in a little playful rape, which is the toy victim's fault, of course.

You'll note from the packaging that Lusty Linda can utter "8 lusty sayings," which fall into one of two categories--"good mood" or "bad mood," controlled by the click of a switch. Says one site (screen cap) that sells Lusty Linda, "too bad all women did not have such a switch." Ho ho ho!

In her "good mood," Lusty Linda says things like "Oh so good, do that again" and "Yes!" In her "bad mood," Lusty Linda says things like "Ow!" and "Help! Help!" (Though she never loses her grin!) Talk about art imitating life. I don't know about the rest of you gals, but nothing puts me in a "bad mood" like being raped! Trust Lusty Linda to speak the truth.

What I find fascinating about this stuff is that the male audience for these toys are probably the same kinds of guys who dwell bitterly over the way Andrea Dworkin pointed out that our society constructs heterosexual intercourse as rape. They pretend that they dwell over this because it shows how supposedly crazy she was, but in actuality, I think they're bitter because she had their number. Dworkin didn't believe that all sex was rape by definition, but men who think this shit is funny certainly do. If you think that screaming for help only differs from ordinary sex because your selected fuckhole is just being whiny tonight, I'm pretty convinced you have no fucking clue what sex with a woman who genuinely is into it would even be like.

And this has shit all to do with any anti-humor or even anti-dirty humor bent to my personality. I'm eagerly attending the Air Sex contest tonight, with high hopes they'll let us take pictures. But jokes about the absurdity of sex and non-jokes about how your stupid penis is a stupid weapon to be used against the hated half of the human race are utterly different things. For one thing, only the former has a good deal of potential to be funny. The latter just tends to speak of the inadequacies of the men attracted to such tropes.

Tagged as: sexism, toys, lusty linda

Amanda Marcotte co-writes the popular blog Pandagon.