By Abby O'Reilly | 31 December 2007, 23:03

A man known as Melvin Polatnick has written a blog titled ‘Horny men are not selective,’ in which he claims “a man will screw any female that is available,” and that most men prefer a “less than attractive sexual partner,” as they believe “she would be better in bed.”

These comments are hardly groundbreaking. This is a prevailing gender stereotype, and is one that I, to a certain extent, can confirm. Some of my male friends have slept with women they have not found sexually attractive just because they could. Similarly, however, some of my female friends have also confessed to having sex with men they have not fancied in order to satisfy their needs.

What Polatnick implies, however, is that this is true of all men. Although I have a suspicion that he is judging the male of the species by his own standards, and offering these “instructions” to us lady folk in the hope that he will be able to get “laid.” His pearls of wisdom include the comment that:

“Some guys will even screw a man if they get horny enough. So instead of a woman spending all that time in front of a mirror dolling herself up, she should use that time thinking of ways to let a horny guy know that she is ready for a hot session in her bedroom. But when she meets that horny guy she must tell him that it’s not conversation or dinner that she wants, but only hot loving. I am sure that if she follows my instructions she will have a variety of men in her bedroom, and in a short time she will have to replace a worn out mattress…Deep down inside all women realize that a horny man will screw them whether they look good or not, but they refuse to accept that truth. Women like to think of themselves as being more important to men than just a way of releasing their sexual passions. But the fact remains that a horny man will screw a woman even if she has never bathed in her life. Some of the bag ladies you see on the street will confirm that fact.”

Maybe this is satirical, written to highlight the way the male point of view has been misrepresented, but sadly I think this may just be wishful thinking. What Polatnick suggests is that all men view women as nothing more than vehicles through which they can get rid of their erections, which I think is unfair to a large portion of the male population who would probably think Polatnick was an ass. Men can be subject to unfair labelling in the same way as we can, but why Polatnick would choose to promote this idea with a sense of pride and confidence remains a mystery. And why he assumes that women would not see men as a way to achieve gratification and nothing more again consolidates the idea that he is endorsing redundant beliefs about the sexes.

Polatnick clearly has an inflated sense of self-importance emanating from the fact that he believes that as a man we will all be pruning our feathers and flocking to him in the hope that we will be privy to the contents of his underpants, when in actual fact this is the power he wants men to have rather than the reality. We’re not seen as disposable by all men, in the same way as all men are not seen as disposable by women, and not only was this blog grossly outdated, but it reads like a eulogy for a misogynistic time that Polatnick does not want to admit has begun to pass (and of which he is an annoying remnant).

Photo by Gavin James, shared under a Creative Commons License