The Impotent and the Potent, Part 4—In Which the Android Sings

(continued from "In Which Zarathustra Spake")

One big problem with adherents of reactionary worldviews like that of Return of Kings is that their definition of themselves comes with a definition of others. Men must be masculine according to certain rules and women must be feminine according to certain rules. Norms of their choosing are to be imposed.

There is no room in this for a boy who decides to wear a dress to school. I remember watching Robert Smith of The Cure describe on Later . . . with Jools Holland the ridicule he faced when he did just that. I found the anecdote fascinating and respected him all the more because of his bravery. A world without Robert Smith, without The Cure, without men who wear mascara, is a poorer one. The same could be said for many of the world’s great artists, scientists and thinkers--as well as nonfamous folk--who don’t conform to their time’s or culture’s idea of masculinity or femininity and who in many cases bestowed their particular beauty on the world precisely because of that refusal.

 

To return to Nietzsche, while he spoke of the Übermensch, Kaufmann says he also spoke of the Normalmensch, the sick creature that results from conformity. I’m no follower of Nietzsche--his thought isn’t a system to be followed anyway--but I do believe that individuals are happier in a pluralistic climate and that pluralistic societies are healthier as a whole. America isn’t at the forefront of creating more open and inclusive societies, but it is making progress, and that’s what puts The Fear in male chauvinists. Their egos can’t handle a world that doesn’t spin around their phallus.

Sometimes, people such as myself who make a point of visibly griping are criticized for devoting too much attention to numbskulls, thereby generating interest in their causes and even making the feeble and unknown into the strong and famous. I have a nagging feeling that such criticism may be just in this case. The worst of the manosphere is unworthy of attention.

And yet, if someone doesn’t speak against the numbskulls, they will overrun the marketplace. In thinking about this, I keep coming back to alternative soul artist Janelle Monáe. From what I know of her life, her talent, and her values, she seems to be particularly skilled at self-creation of the sort Nietzsche might approve, going so far as to reinvent and portray herself as an android. Her song “Cold War,” suggests there is a fight to be fought, at the very least through moral example:

 

 

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