I remember when Joe Rogan had hair. First, playing the aloof electrician on the ‘90s sitcom Newsradio, then hosting the reality show Fear Factor where he encouraged contestants to eat maggots and jump out of planes for a cash prize. He was always bulky, but he got bigger, training in mixed martial arts, and then shaving his head down to a cue ball. In 2002, he became a UFC sports commentator and he developed a popular stand-up career. After moving back to Los Angeles from Colorado, he started a podcast The Joe Rogan Experience. This is where I started to understand Rogan for more than just his brawn.
This April, Rogan tweeted, "My issue with feminists is purely the ones that are clearly anti-male so much so that MRA or Male Rights Advocate becomes an insult." Apparently, he was accused by a SJW feminist of being a Men's Rights Advocate, a label he definitely did not like. "Overall, it's incredibly foolish to pretend men have been more oppressed than women," Rogan responded to a commenter.
But apparently, I'm a bad feminist, because I respect Joe Rogan.
The feminist populace doesn't like Rogan, or he just has not even come into their radar. Why would he? On the surface, Rogan personifies bro culture. His podcast is sponsored by dietary supplements used by other work-out buffs like himself, he loves mixed martial arts and is known for his distain for politically correct candor and fascist thought-policing. Like the animal kingdom's ultimate alpha male, the silverback gorilla, Rogan is confrontational, loud and unforgiving and he laughs beta male feminists off with a back-handed thud. I get why feminists wouldn't bother to look beyond the bro in him.
"The only reason why feminism exists is because there is an imbalance," Rogan later said on his podcast, fleshing out his statement. "If there wasn't an imbalance then there wouldn't be this need to be extreme to one side… Doesn't mean that the Men's Right's guys are right when they say stupid shit like, men get raped more than women. Yeah, you get raped by one another you dumb fuck. It's such a dumb thing to say. It's such a disingenuous argument. Are you really worried about getting raped, dude? Because I do not worry about it, ever."
When I listen to The Joe Rogan Experience, I get a glimpse into how deeply misunderstood feminism is by certain men and I don't blame them. Feminist ideology has always been contentious: a tangle of identity politics crisscrossing over one another all trying to unify under the umbrella of "feminism". It's constantly in flux and like any political identity, it's personal and disjoined. Come on, even fascism isn't that organized. Furthermore, male feminist scholars like Michael Kimmel like to school the "less evolved" guys out there, by pointing out that "men don't think gender is about them" and that is political as well as a problem.
One quick Google search through the Rogan archives and there are plenty of clips where Rogan and guests discuss current gender issues free of political correctness. As a feminist, I'm more interested in hearing what men like Rogan think, rather than a bunch of self-proclaimed male feminists who are just regurgitating the rhetoric they think I want to hear. No one learns being pandered to.
Rogan is more than just a loud mouth, alpha male, who loves UFC as much as his morning dose of pot. He's a new breed of masculine. One that identifies as "politically homeless" and isn't afraid of being curious, argumentative or even wrong.
"There are people who are trying to limit the words we use, the English language, but not the intent," Rogan recently said on his show. "Not the thought behind the words, not the philosophy or way of looking at life, which for most of us, is constantly evolving as we get older. We have fuck-ups and mistakes and say things we wish we could take back. It's not just about the words themselves, but the intent."
Rogan may face backlash for not praising Caitlyn Jenner or calling out a bullshit comedian in the middle of his act, but the intent is there: questioning culture is not offensive.
