If you write it, they will repost

Veteran blogger Matt Forney’s recent post, “The Case Against Female Self-Esteem,” has caused quite an uproar across social media.

So, of course, it’s been reposted like crazy.

The post argues women shouldn’t have self-esteem and society as a whole should discourage any inkling of female self-love.

His argument is based on three points: women have never done anything to deserve self-esteem, insecurity is the basis for femininity in the first place and women fundamentally don’t want self-esteem.

Read it, and your blood will boil.

Reposting is a blogger’s fantasy.

Every time someone reposts this blog, the author is, I’m sure, giddy with excitement.

He wasn’t looking for praise when he wrote the blog. He was looking for attention. And the Facebook community has given him plenty of it.

So much so that in the time since it was first posted, the author conducted a full redesign of his website.

Everyone should be laughing at this guy. He is so blunt and so outlandish that it should be comical how insensitive and narrow-minded he is.

But that hasn’t been the case so far. The response has been anger, frustration and a little bit of fear.

People are scared because Forney appears (emphasis on the word appears) to be using pretty decent logic.

He does what normal people do to get readers to follow his argument, complete with three steps and plenty of anecdotes.

The problem is that the foundation of his argument is based on ridiculousness.

He is assuming that the “facts” he is using are true. If they were true, this would be a logical paper discussing women’s confidence.

None of it is based in fact, though, and therefore should be looked at as —actually, it shouldn’t be looked at.

First of all, he makes the assumption that men earn their self-esteem through hard work while women gain confidence through being told they should have some.

The author fails to appreciate the fact that, generally, men are the ones who are given assumed self-esteem and confidence while it is women who have to do things to earn those same feelings.

He also makes the grave mistake of speaking for women as a whole.

For him to say women don’t want self-esteem is a pretty bold step considering this guy is probably not the kind of person most women want to explain themselves to.

Throughout the piece, Forney blatantly explains why women’s self-esteem shouldn’t be a part of our society, but he also subtly and subconsciously tells women and girls that this is the way the world is, which, in effect, causes their self-esteem to naturally decrease.

If, for even a moment, anyone takes this guy seriously, he is accomplishing exactly what he set out to do.

­— azoot@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Austin Zoot on Twitter @austinzoot12.