It's very strange that you're that repulsed by a human body part, especially when it's exposed to carry out its function. It's not like some guy whipping it out on the subway and waving it around, jesus.

Surprise misogyny!

That's what they're for.

*BARF*

Dude, gross. Quoting Hugo Schwyzer in a Shift article? You could find a thousand other people better qualified and less of a self-important, hypocrite dickbag who have made the SAME POINT to quote.

I am horrified at how many of these I had never heard. Where? How? WHY? Fiona Apple, NOOOOOO what did you do?!

Dude, SERIOUSLY? It appears I have hit a wall.  The only thing I am judging is the kind of person who use the “nice guy” stereotype and the “friend zone” to hide behind their overwhelming entitlement to women. And if you want to hold that against me, and the thousands of other people who feel like that, that speaks volumes. Your only argument left is accusing me of the same thing that I had a problem with in the first place, and if you think that's the first time I've seen that, you're wrong. It's exactly like when someone accused of racism then turns around and says “that's racist of you to say to me!” Yeahhh, nope. Since I've already wasted time talking to someone who isn't willing to listen, I'll copy/paste the same thing I just said to someone else in the comments on the original article. “Now, I don't usually make these things personal (meaning ONLY ABOUT ME and my personal experiences), because well, mainly I don't need to. You seem to keep trying to make this sound like this is about my own experiences, and call them “warped” to try and create distance. But for the record, I haven't experienced any 'unrequited love' or 'friend zone' stuff since high school. But I have heard, read about, and witnessed many other peoples' stories, and not just people who are confirming my already decided worldview. These are lived experiences that you can deny all you like, but it's not going to make our voices go away.” It seems to me that your emotional dependence on the “friend zone” idea is making it hard for you to consider objectively.

This is so ludicrous, I cannot believe YOU believe it, and have just run out of ways to defend friendzoning. I can only assume you mean I'm “stereotyping” by telling you that I (and thousands of others) are going to side-eye you when you promote the idea of the friend zone? Otherwise it makes like, negative amounts of sense. If that's correct, it's friggin ridiculous. I, a woman, am telling YOU, a man (I checked, I didn't assume) that your promotion of a sexist, male-entitled, misogynistic concept that is OVERFLOWING with stereotypes (the “nice guy” stereotype being one of the most important bits of the whole thing) is sexist, male-entitled, and misogynistic, and somehow you translate that to me defending a stereotype? I do not think that word means what you think it means. The awesome thing for you is that you can defend friendzoning your whole life because we live in a patriarchal society, so that works in your favor. Every single person in your life could think you're sexist because you heart the friend zone idea, and it wouldn't matter at all. It does not identify you as any kind of stereotype, overall, within general society. So rest easy, since you seem to have too much of a personal connection to this to want to understand anything I'm trying to tell you here. So keep defending it, I guess?  If I misunderstood what you meant, obviously feel free to correct me. I didn't know how else to read it.

As per your first sentence: http://whoneedsfeminism.tumblr.com/ A handy reference. I don't know how you managed to pick out “you may not like it the fact the men pursue women for relationships” from everything I said. I don't know if you're willfully trying to reshape the things I've said to prove your point, or you really just cannot tolerate any talk of male privilege and you believe that it reshapes ANY male experiences to the point where you refuse to see male privilege at all. Now, I don't usually make these things personal (meaning ONLY ABOUT ME and my personal experiences), because well, mainly I don't need to. You seem to keep trying to make this sound like this is about my own experiences, and call them “warped” to try and create distance. But for the record, I haven't experienced any 'unrequited love' or 'friend zone' stuff since high school. But I have heard, read about, and witnessed many other peoples' stories, and not just people who are confirming my already decided worldview. These are lived experiences that you can deny all you like, but it's not going to make our voices go away. Anyone insisting that “no really, I phrase things as women mostly do this because they DO” is definitely not going to be swayed by anything I have to say, but refuting and dismissing sexist notions like these is still an important thing to do, I think. As I said before (somewhere in these posts), none of us actually know the stories behind any of these photos. When taken out of context, things can be made to look any way we want them to. Those men could be boyfriends, husbands, friends (who AREN'T interested in the woman), family members, etc etc etc. Of course some of them, or all of them, COULD be men 'in the friend zone', but that doesn't change the problem with the friend zone itself.  And you've got that twisted, too. I was never talking about specific people here, and that's the whole point. As I responded to another comment on this article, another problematic part of the 'friend zone' is that it generalizes what is actually a very personal and individual experience for people. The 'friend zone' concept is what I have a problem with, not every individual who has unrequited feelings. The entitlement that is carried within the concept is the problem. I am positive that not every person who's been on the unrequited side of things has felt entitlement.  If you truly believe that “men do not generally lead women on because women do not generally pursue men”, again, I'm not sure what world you're living in. In the real world, this is definitely not the case. If you mean “traditionally”, sure, but societal progress and (gasp) feminism has made that an incorrect statement (at least in this country) in 2012.

Third time posting in the wrong part of the thread. SUPERFAIL This is exactly the problem when you come up with a gross generalization of what is actually a complicated and individual experience for each person. Of course you may have never felt entitled, you may have never inadvertently acted entitled either. But if you buy into the friend zone idea because you feel like you sympathize with other people who have shared your experience, you're opening a lot of doors you may not want opened.

Not everyone who feel like they've been in the friend zone has been cool about it. For plenty of people, it's all about entitlement, whether they're able to acknowledge that or not, and if you go around identifying with a concept that reeks of male privilege, you will have people giving you the side-eye whether or not you think you deserve it.