A Montreal site called MIDNIGHT POUTINE got a lady to read my book and that worried me, especially after the word “sexist” jumped off the page. However, it looks like she actually read the whole thing because she got the big picture. For the record, the sex stories in the book are raunchy and involve “filthy whores” (their words for themselves by the way) because that’s a helluva lot more interesting than what happened to my relationship with Stéphanie Chabot in 1990 and why we ultimately stopped loving each other. Anyhizzles, here’s an intelligent feminist’s review devoid of knee-jerk reactions…
Of Vice and Men: the Gavin McInnes Story
Posted by Caitlin / APRIL 17, 2012
While reading Gavin McInnes’s “How to Piss in Public”, I often felt like I needed to wash my hands because of the amount of testosterone that seeps out it. To call Gavin McInnes sexist is a gross (and I mean that in every sense of the word) understatement and one that would probably prompt him to whip his dick out and shake it in that statement’s face.
It is therefore useless for me to point out that, in his non-fiction, 24/7 party life of an auto-biography filled with teenage stints that make Jackass seem like a pre-schooler’s day out, McInnes inherently keeps women at the rank of “horny sluts” with “blowjob lips”. That is until he meets the woman of his dreams, of course, and he finally turns into a real man who goes through a Cinderella transformation complete with pink fairy dust. Touching.
Regardless of how white my knuckles got from clenching his book due to female frustration, there is no denying that it is an amazingly entertaining read that starts a fire in the belly. And that, in the end, seems to be his point. This man, whom some have called the King of Hipsterdom, has shown, along with a hefty dose of his genitals, a whole lot of guts.
He started Vice magazine because he decided that he was sick of just getting high and drunk and really wanted to sink his teeth into something. He created his own life by never turning anything down and seizing every opportunity on his path. Now I don’t mean to get all after school special on anyone, but it’s exciting to read about a project that started with people saying whatever they wanted about whatever they wanted and it then turning into an attitude (not to mention a multi-million dollar corporation) that allegedly shaped a generation.
For example, Gavin McInnes’s DOs and DON’Ts brought mean spirited humour front and centre and created a great pressure release for all of us who wished we owned a crowbar when we see cutesy girls dressed as fluorescent pixies with fake flowers in their hair and animal balloons tied to their wrists. It’s okay to be mean, people should quit hating on haters.
Although it might not always be rosy, we all need to have the truth hurled at us from time to time and here, McInnes proves to be a master hurler. The honesty with which he faces all of his encounters with the world is commendable, although it did make me sick to my stomach a few times.
In the end, I’m grateful he lived through the party and tells its tale with hindsight because our generation, thirsty for the limelight and hungry for stories to tell, could sure use some perspective at times. There is an after. Thank God. But McInnes reminds us that it’s important to feel like we’ve waded through a river of shit, joy, tears, laughter, booze, drugs, sex and stupidity to earn the sunshine on the other side.
If, as he claims, he created this generation, then he has finally stepped up as a responsible post-Maury paternity results dad to guide us.
I consider myself somewhat of a feminist (being female, I kind of feel like it’s required), but I was never at any point offended by his book. The sex scenes turned me on more than pissed me off (but maybe that’s more a reflection of my own sensibilities than anything else) and from what I’ve learned from the many males I’ve known, this is just how they talk about shit. He never came across as malicious or hateful to the women in the book. Maybe I’ve just lost the ability to be offended by words like “slut.”
I liked this review, though. I think it’s weird that she’d be offended to the point of white knuckle clenching, but I liked her attitude at the end.