Well, it’s official. The Associated Press hates women and thinks the slutty, old women who smoke deserve to die. It’s all right here in their report on the tragic death of Jennifer Rosoff.
NEW YORK (AP) — A 35-year-old media executive on a first date plunged to her death Thursday after the railing on her 17th-floor New York City balcony gave way, police said.
Jennifer Rosoff went outside for a cigarette around 12:50 a.m. when she either sat on the railing or leaned on it. Her date told her that she probably shouldn’t do it, and then moments later, she apparently fell backward and landed on construction scaffolding at the first floor, authorities said. Police spoke to the man and no foul play was suspected.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/woman-killed-17-story-fall-nyc-balcony
While we can take it for a given that misogyny is pervasive in our culture, it’s rare to see it expressed so clearly and blatantly. AP is shameless! Utterly shameless, and they deserve to have the full wrath of Feminist Victims Everywhere™ brought down on their heads!
How dare the AP report that
1. She was 35 and single.
2. She was a smoker.
3. She invited a man back to her apartment late at night on a first date.
4. The man warned her not to lean against the balcony, but she did it anyway.
The implication being that this smoking slut totally had it coming. A reader is left with the distinct impression that if Rosoff hadn’t invited her date inside, hadn’t gone outside to smoke a cigarette, and hadn’t defied the advice of the wise and logical man she was with, she would still be alive. According to the AP story’s subtext, the problem wasn’t that Rosoff’s balcony railing was shoddy and unsafe—it was that Rosoff defied gender norms by being unmarried at 35, by being sexually liberal, and by insisting on making her own decisions instead of deferring to men’s logic.
Now, for all those tempted to bang their heads off the nearest balcony railing, please put out your Marlboro first, make sure you have procreated and married (order not important), try not to be a slut and for the love of god, if some guy tells you maybe you SHOULDN’T do that, give him a parting shot in the kidneys as you plunge towards your death.
You can rest assured that we will never hold you responsible for your own death and we will make certain everyone knows that guy who cautioned you is a big, mean, logical asshole who should just shut the hell up already.
Just to show you how much AP hates women, let’s look at some reports about dead men. Do they include the man’s age? Do they imply he might have done something a teeny bit stupid or risky to contribute to his own death? Do they follow any kind of, oh, you know, routine format?
BURKE, Vt. (AP) — Vermont State Police say a man died after he broke into a home by smashing a glass window and was severely cut as he climbed through it.
Police responded to a report on Wednesday of a dead man on the kitchen floor of the unoccupied home in Burke.
They identified the man as 73-year-old Duwayne Masure, of Sutton.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/man-breaks-vt-home-cut-self-window-dies
Well this one doesn’t. Score one point for Team AP Hates Women! No mention of age or contributing factors at all. Absolutely no implication that smashing windows is perhaps not the cleverest strategy for preserving one’s life.
Right?
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — A Montana man died in a rock climbing accident as he tried to climb to the top of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, authorities said.
Mason Robison, 38, of Columbia Falls, Mont., was killed after a rock dislodged and severed his rope as he and a partner were about 2,300 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor, Yosemite spokeswoman Kari Cobb said Monday.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/montana-man-dies-yosemite-climbing-accident
Another point for Team AP Hates Women! No mention of anyone’s age here, nor is there the tiniest hint that people who dangle 2,300 feet above a canyon floor might be risking their lives.
ILWACO, Wash. (AP) — A 55-year-old Seattle area man has died after his inflatable raft capsized in the ocean in southwest Washington.
Pacific County Sheriff Scott Johnson said Sunday that John Beaumeir of Woodinville was rafting with a friend in the surf off of Benson Beach at Cape Disappointment State Park when their raft capsized several times in the rough waters.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/man-dies-when-raft-capsizes-washington-coast
It’s a hat trick and Team AP hates Women definitely wins this one! No mention of anyone’s age and no implication that “rough waters” may have been a contributing factor.
L.V. Anderson herself, who wrote the screed at Slate, wonders if she might be over-reacting just a tiny bit?
You may accuse me of overreacting, but the minor details that journalists choose to include or exclude from their reporting are one of many subtle ways that oppressive gender norms are perpetuated. Do I think the AP reporter assigned to this piece (incidentally, a woman) intended to undermine the reader’s sympathy for Rosoff and suggest she was asking for it? Of course not. But the fact that totally irrelevant details about Rosoff’s love life and cigarette habit made it into the lede and nut graf of an ostensibly unbiased news article—and that no editor stopped to ask, “Hmm, why is this information here?”—just goes to show how deeply ingrained sexist attitudes can be, even among professionals who pride themselves on their objectivity.
Over-reacting? This is not over-reacting. This is straightforward MAKING SHIT UP ON THE SPOT. And oppressive gender norms? The idea that Jennifer’s date suggested she might want to be careful around the railing is an OPPRESSIVE GENDER NORM?
Jennifer would be alive had she given her male companion’s words any weight. That’s pretty oppressive right there. Lends new meaning to “give me liberty or give me death”, no?
Feminist doctrine: TAKE DEATH! Death is way better than listening to any stupid man and his oppressive cautioning. Fuck him! Die righteous!
In a way, it’s kind of beautiful. Could it be more clear? Feminists would rather you die than take the advice of a man. Especially a man you barely know. A man with his mouth open can only mean one thing: “oppressive gender norm”. He was “mansplaining” the potential dangers of balconies, and of course you should never, ever listen to a mansplainer, even if he’s right.
http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/11/a-cultural-history-of-mansplaining/264380/
Ever notice how the feminists’ use of the term mansplaining is inversely proportionate to their willingness to participate in logical debate?
http://femsplaining.tumblr.com/post/50853561351/siryouarebeingmocked-oppressorr
Yes, sir, I have noticed that. But it’s tough to even broach the subject of logic when you are dealing with straight up fantasy. The Associated Press does not hate women. In the alternative, the Associated Press hates men and women equally.
Every time I think to myself, they cannot possibly get one more knot in those panties, the feminist brigade proves me wrong. Hmmm. That could explain why Lindy West continues to have her drivel published.
You can get a lot of knots in panties that big.
Lots of love,
JB
Had to steal this one from the Slymepit.com. Too hilarious!
http://slymepit.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=334&start=8925
judgybitch 
Guess he didn’t get the memo women are going to do whatever you tell them not to.
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The sexism against men in the below story is off the charts. I should contact slate/LVAnderson to get her take on it.
1000 Ways to Die: Fire In The Hole
Posted on: August 15, 2011 | Views: 7,693 | Comment
The head of a prison’s Aryan brotherhood gets a nasty surprise when he tries to have a V40 mini-grenade smuggled to him in the butt of a new inmate
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Out of the park. Again.
Shared. Again.
JB for president.
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Sounds like a classic ‘Pride before Fall’ story to me. It might just be that the NY writer was better? The juicy details leading up to the point when one falls off a balcony make for better storytelling…
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I am getting a bit confused here. I thought that feminists had reclaimed the word Slut, such that an imputation of sexual promiscuity was a matter of feminine pride – but it appears that if you die in the process that ceases to be the case.
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I thought it was incredibly sweet of LV to assume that any woman alone with a man after a first date planned to fuck him because woman = slut, apparently.
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Suz, we could do worse and probably will.
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I’ll bet it was men who made the pavement she landed on too!
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If men would stop protecting modern women from their own irresponsibility, feminism would be all over in a few years.
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Oh no, obviously he DID know she wasn’t going to do it. That’s why he told her to do it. Because he knew she would ignore him, and fall to her death. This was basically murder, but he’ll get away with it because patriarchy.
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I messed up my dids and didnts but you know what I mean.
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I do!
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I’ll bet a man shoddily built that railing, too, just to further oppress her.
Not that I’m stereotyping…
I mean, it could have been a woman who built that railing.
Except for it almost certainly wasn’t.
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I don’t know, jb. He was in her apartment with her at midnight. 2+2=my guess is they weren’t playing patty cake.
Not that it really matters. At 35 she was a big girl capable of making her own decisions. I don’t think it is too constructive or proper to folly into criticizing this woman too much. She’s dead as a result of a tragedy.
We’re making fun of the writer of the slate article here, not the woman who died tragically.
Railings are supposed to keep people from falling, its what they do. Its perfectly reasonable for her to think that it would perform as intended. I hate to think of how many times I’d have fallen a long damn way if a railing had failed in its purpose in similar fashion.
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In my home town, many a graphic event has played out with the following script:
“Hold my beer and watch this!”
“Don’t be a dumbass.”
*Man does it anyway. Death or dismemberment promptly occurs.*
Let’s be fair. In the course of human history, a good number of accidents could have been avoided by men, had they heeded the words of some concerned and dissenting female, or other.
Tragic stupidity is not a gender-specific trait.
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Dammit JB, you owe me a monitor for that Bang Head Here image.
But anyway, I noticed a pattern here:
Climbing accident.
Challenging rough seas.
Truly these are Die Like a Man™ customers.
I personally plan to go in a way that will take rescuers weeks to find the body, if it’s found at all.
But die falling off a balcony because I’m an idiot? Not a part of my plans.
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It’s worse than that! Who came up with gravity? Isaac Newton. A man! If feminists had come up with gravity, we’d be safely floating around.
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Learning to spin well seems to be a valuable tool for those willing to get ahead regardless of costs to others. Surely, the payoff is good, even if conscience feels dirty. But who am I to judge “professional journalists” of modern age?
I prefer learning how to cross-examine my sources over drawing attention to their questionable quality. I admit though, it takes constant effort not to employ their methods oneself, once one becomes familiar with them.
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Ever wondered why self-report surveys (and self reports in general, like a resume or CV for example) are a bad source of information? Observation of actual “real life” decisions usually paints a less pleasing picture…
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what sex was the reporter…the article doesnt say
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Hot young women smoking are very sexy. Hot mature women smoking is something quite disgusting. And at certain age… the smell, the fingers, the teeth, the skin… No way! Hot women who smoke should quite at 30.
A good female friend of mine, very beautiful woman, chain smoker since she was 15, could get all the men she wanted all her life, now she is 45, she still extremely beautiful, but… she still a heavy smoker and she complains why she cannot get all the men she wants as she used to do.
There is a feeling of eternity that hot women have. I undestand it because if there is a thing on Earth which works “under aespecie aeternitatis” it is female beauty at its top. It seems to be more eternal, than any other thing on Earth, organic or inorganic. Even more eternal than the concept of God. But that is only “the genious of spices” which operates via female beauty and goes to generation to a new one. But does not care about women as individuals. But women, at a certain peak of her beauty, they cannot undestand it, and they think that “genious of the spieces” is themselves. Rude awakening at middle 40s.
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The original AP reporter was a woman.
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Spieces.
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In my country, by the seaside, every summer we have a lot of “events” related to the season “sport” called “balconing”. It is a very masculine sport perpetrated mainly by young drunk British tourists. And consists in jumping at 6 PM or so, totally drunk, from the balcony of the hotel to the swiming pool down there.
Several people killed every summer. But the “sport” still fashionable.
Maybe women are bitches but men are retards.
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6 AM.
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The rest of us read these short reports and see nothing in the form of blame directed at the victim, yet this idiot does. Why? Did she just wake up one morning and decide she needed to get angry about something? I think the report structure a nerve because she herself is not happy about the way her life has turned out, i.e. being single in her 30s, working in media but unable to get a man to stay for longer than a week. If you’re constantly on the defensive about something, chances are everything will look like a personal attack.
If anything, the report puts the man in a bad light, suggesting he may have done the pushing. But this is quickly followed by the explanation that the police is not considering foul play, so I prefer to read it as “we’ve considered it, the cops considered it,, but to the best of our knowledge, this was not a crime”.
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I get the heebie jeebies just reading that. Poor woman. I also feel sorry for the poor man who had to see her fall. Just awful.
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I think Jennifer Rosoff’s story struck a nerve. She was a real-life epitome of the Sex in the City feminist-approved professional and romantic lifestyle. Based on her age, she grew up with SitC as an aspirational model for her life. Yet the circumstances of her death provide a stark reminder of the soul-emptiness of that kind of life for women. There’s a Charles Foster Kane quality to her story. Rosoff had all the trappings of her achievements, including an expensive upper-floor NYC apartment with balcony she was showing off to her date. But what did she really have for herself when she fell off her balcony? No husband, no children, not even a serious relationship with a man to call her own – at age 35. In place of all that, she was entertaining a first date in her apartment for whatever at 1 in the morning. At age 35.
Rosoff’s empty life, capped by her pathetic death, is a cautionary tale for women that only needs AP generically formatted facts to be told. It doesn’t require spin. Feminists, especially the women of Rosoff’s demographic who live as she did, need her story spun to maintain their narrative myth.
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Excellent comment, Eric. I think you’re absolutely correct.
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This is “sprinter shaming” and “nuliparus woman” shaming.
It so bad as “the single and forty man, he should be a weird” shaming.
At least, a working single woman with no hubby and no children cannot use a hubby as a human ATM. And does not take alimony, child support, half of hubby’s shit after divorce, etc. mainly, because she is not even married and not even has children.
You cannot blame on women for one thing and the right opposite thing.
It is not extreme conservafeminism being a housewife who does not work? (hubby does) Maybe we have to re-read “The manipulated male”, by Esther Vilar.
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He’s lucky he hasn’t fallen victim to the “there must be someone we can blame ” mentality that is so common after senseless tragedies like this.
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So, a week ago Slate’s L.V. Anderson claims the AP is sexist because it published too much info about the 35-year-old single woman on a first date who fell 17 stories to her death while smoking on her balcony and ignoring her mansplaining date’s advice to not lean on the railing.
Now, Amanda Hess upbraids the NY Times for publishing too little detail about a possible sexual harassment case.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/08/05/colin_mcginn_sexual_harassment_case_the_new_york_times_should_publish_the.html
The Slate style guide must say that if the details embarrass a woman, don’t print them, but if they embarrass a man, do.
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Great work JB 🙂
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