A Raging Inferno of Misogyny
A Raging Inferno of Misogyny
Jan 15 2025, 10:31 PM
Since January 7th, several wildfires have ravaged Los Angeles County in California, brushing up on heavily populated metropolitan areas. Many phenomena have compounded to cause the perfect firestorm. Climate change has lengthened California’s wildfire season, a lack of rain has made vegetation bone-dry, and recently, Santa Ana winds whipped across the region, gusting at 80mph in some places.
With such conditions, a wildfire was inevitable. All it took were a few sparks to ignite fires which threatened densely populated locations in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Pasadena, Santa Monica, Hollywood Hills, Pacific Palisades. It’s being said that these wildfires could be the costliest in the United States’ history.
There is much scrutiny over the response to the fires, with hydrants running dry and recent LAFD budget cuts receiving attention. It is worth noting that due to the intense winds, airborne firefighting techniques were not able to be deployed until they’d died down.
However, some netizens have come up with a different scapegoat - LAFD fire chief Kristin Crowley.
Men who I can only describe as trolls bitter at their lack of life achievements have come crawling out of the woodwork to assign blame to her. Crowley is a lesbian woman, something the trolls have latched onto to label her as a “DEI hire”. They spread the idea that she was appointed as fire chief not because of her achievements and qualifications, but because the LAFD wanted a more diverse crew.
They’ve also taken note of two other women in the LAFD who have achieved notable ranks: Jaime Brown, and Kristine Larson, the latter of whom heads the department’s Equity and Human Resources Bureau. Interestingly, not much has been said about the nine men who are listed under the “organization” section of the LAFD’s website.
Women - one of them a lesbian - who’ve attained high ranks in the fire department! How scandalous!
The bitter male brainrot kicked into overdrive. They’ve taken to whining about “how will a woman carry a 300lb man out of a burning building?” and using AI to generate photos of “DEI hire” firefighters. Interestingly, these AI depictions are all of women.
![[Image: https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.ama...4x1146.png]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F378046f2-99a3-4491-bea3-a7ebc458c99c_1194x1146.png)
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![[Image: https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.ama...2x1144.png]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d9d107c-fa73-47e8-bc30-16bd5940725b_1182x1144.png)
[url=https://x.com/LionelMedia/status/1877821682498314471]https://x.com/LionelMedia/status/1877821682498314471 / https://archive.fo/5b3Tl
Mind you, their scrutiny of fire chiefs is only reserved for the Los Angeles Fire Department. That’s the department for the city of Los Angeles. These fires have crossed over the boundaries of several other cities in the area, some of which I listed earlier: Santa Monica, Pasadena, and more. These cities all have their own fire departments - and this is in addition to the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which administers both cities and unincorporated communities in the county.
The chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department is a man, Anthony C. Marrone. Sierra Madre’s chief is Brent Barlett, a man. Pasadena’s chief is Chad Augustin, a man. Santa Monica? Male, of course - his name is Matthew Hollock. (I’m unable to find any information on who the current fire chief in Malibu is.)
CAL FIRE, a statewide fire agency, is responsible for maintaining vegetation and using engineering which can prevent wildfires, or at least mitigate the risk of one occurring. Currently, the government is catching a lot of flak for their maintenance of dry brush in the areas which caught fire, but there’s not much mention of the male CAL FIRE chief and director, Joe Tyler, in that criticism.
And yet Kristin Crowley is the only one of these people drawing much ire. The men who mock her cannot hide behind the guise of “criticism”, because they are failing to criticize other fire agencies throughout the county and state.
Sure, maybe some people will try to say they’re going after Crowley because she’s just the most vocal of these fire chiefs. But if this is the case, why are her sex and sexuality such a big deal? Crowley is not a good scapegoat to use if they want to make some claim that she’s just an incompetent DEI hire, who was only brought on board because of her sex and sexuality.
Crowley is extremely qualified for her position. She served the fire department for 22 years, climbing up the rank ladder during that time. Among her many accomplishments are directing youth camps and commanding two battalions. The male chiefs I mentioned above have not been accused of having their positions handed to them on a silver platter, although they likely had an easier time advancing through the ranks on account of being male.
Overall, female firefighters have to wade through much more shit in order to attain a higher rank. Fire stations often have a reputation as being a “boy’s club”, or having a “frat house” culture, the LAFD being among them. When a woman tries to become a firefighter, the men perceive this as a threat, and do anything in their power to get her to quit.
Female firefighters have reported harassment ranging from misogynistic “jokes” to theft of equipment and clothing. In British Columbia, it was alleged that someone put a condom “filled with fluid” inside a female firefighter’s locker, and that another committed suicide due to harassment from the males. Something commonly mentioned across these stories is that the female firefighters had their protective gear and oxygen tanks tampered with, and the males would shut off the water to their hoses.
Homophobic abuse is also an issue rampant within fire departments. A firefighter in Alabama stated that he had homophobic slurs texted to him and was singled out for demanding physical tasks. Attitudes like this even infected a fire department in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, which is famous for being a “gay mecca”. There, a gay firefighter had his locker broken into and his car keyed, as his colleagues threw around homophobic slurs.
I don’t know if these are things that Kristin Crowley has personally dealt with. If she has, I would take that to mean that she is even more qualified for her position than any man. She’s certainly much more qualified than the men harassing her online, who suddenly play pretend at being experts when they can exercise their misogyny and homophobia.
If anything, this goes to show that tragedy means nothing to men. People are losing their homes, and some have even died, but to men who are insecure about their own inadequacy, it’s just an excuse to blame the nearest woman.
“Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman.” - Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns
Iota Aurigae
Jan 15 2025, 10:31 PM #1https://rainyseason.substack.com/p/a-raging-inferno-of-misogyny
Since January 7th, several wildfires have ravaged Los Angeles County in California, brushing up on heavily populated metropolitan areas. Many phenomena have compounded to cause the perfect firestorm. Climate change has lengthened California’s wildfire season, a lack of rain has made vegetation bone-dry, and recently, Santa Ana winds whipped across the region, gusting at 80mph in some places.
With such conditions, a wildfire was inevitable. All it took were a few sparks to ignite fires which threatened densely populated locations in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Pasadena, Santa Monica, Hollywood Hills, Pacific Palisades. It’s being said that these wildfires could be the costliest in the United States’ history.
There is much scrutiny over the response to the fires, with hydrants running dry and recent LAFD budget cuts receiving attention. It is worth noting that due to the intense winds, airborne firefighting techniques were not able to be deployed until they’d died down.
However, some netizens have come up with a different scapegoat - LAFD fire chief Kristin Crowley.
Men who I can only describe as trolls bitter at their lack of life achievements have come crawling out of the woodwork to assign blame to her. Crowley is a lesbian woman, something the trolls have latched onto to label her as a “DEI hire”. They spread the idea that she was appointed as fire chief not because of her achievements and qualifications, but because the LAFD wanted a more diverse crew.
They’ve also taken note of two other women in the LAFD who have achieved notable ranks: Jaime Brown, and Kristine Larson, the latter of whom heads the department’s Equity and Human Resources Bureau. Interestingly, not much has been said about the nine men who are listed under the “organization” section of the LAFD’s website.
Women - one of them a lesbian - who’ve attained high ranks in the fire department! How scandalous!
The bitter male brainrot kicked into overdrive. They’ve taken to whining about “how will a woman carry a 300lb man out of a burning building?” and using AI to generate photos of “DEI hire” firefighters. Interestingly, these AI depictions are all of women.
[/url]
[url=https://x.com/LionelMedia/status/1877821682498314471]https://x.com/LionelMedia/status/1877821682498314471 / https://archive.fo/5b3Tl
Mind you, their scrutiny of fire chiefs is only reserved for the Los Angeles Fire Department. That’s the department for the city of Los Angeles. These fires have crossed over the boundaries of several other cities in the area, some of which I listed earlier: Santa Monica, Pasadena, and more. These cities all have their own fire departments - and this is in addition to the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which administers both cities and unincorporated communities in the county.
The chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department is a man, Anthony C. Marrone. Sierra Madre’s chief is Brent Barlett, a man. Pasadena’s chief is Chad Augustin, a man. Santa Monica? Male, of course - his name is Matthew Hollock. (I’m unable to find any information on who the current fire chief in Malibu is.)
CAL FIRE, a statewide fire agency, is responsible for maintaining vegetation and using engineering which can prevent wildfires, or at least mitigate the risk of one occurring. Currently, the government is catching a lot of flak for their maintenance of dry brush in the areas which caught fire, but there’s not much mention of the male CAL FIRE chief and director, Joe Tyler, in that criticism.
And yet Kristin Crowley is the only one of these people drawing much ire. The men who mock her cannot hide behind the guise of “criticism”, because they are failing to criticize other fire agencies throughout the county and state.
Sure, maybe some people will try to say they’re going after Crowley because she’s just the most vocal of these fire chiefs. But if this is the case, why are her sex and sexuality such a big deal? Crowley is not a good scapegoat to use if they want to make some claim that she’s just an incompetent DEI hire, who was only brought on board because of her sex and sexuality.
Crowley is extremely qualified for her position. She served the fire department for 22 years, climbing up the rank ladder during that time. Among her many accomplishments are directing youth camps and commanding two battalions. The male chiefs I mentioned above have not been accused of having their positions handed to them on a silver platter, although they likely had an easier time advancing through the ranks on account of being male.
Overall, female firefighters have to wade through much more shit in order to attain a higher rank. Fire stations often have a reputation as being a “boy’s club”, or having a “frat house” culture, the LAFD being among them. When a woman tries to become a firefighter, the men perceive this as a threat, and do anything in their power to get her to quit.
Female firefighters have reported harassment ranging from misogynistic “jokes” to theft of equipment and clothing. In British Columbia, it was alleged that someone put a condom “filled with fluid” inside a female firefighter’s locker, and that another committed suicide due to harassment from the males. Something commonly mentioned across these stories is that the female firefighters had their protective gear and oxygen tanks tampered with, and the males would shut off the water to their hoses.
Homophobic abuse is also an issue rampant within fire departments. A firefighter in Alabama stated that he had homophobic slurs texted to him and was singled out for demanding physical tasks. Attitudes like this even infected a fire department in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, which is famous for being a “gay mecca”. There, a gay firefighter had his locker broken into and his car keyed, as his colleagues threw around homophobic slurs.
I don’t know if these are things that Kristin Crowley has personally dealt with. If she has, I would take that to mean that she is even more qualified for her position than any man. She’s certainly much more qualified than the men harassing her online, who suddenly play pretend at being experts when they can exercise their misogyny and homophobia.
If anything, this goes to show that tragedy means nothing to men. People are losing their homes, and some have even died, but to men who are insecure about their own inadequacy, it’s just an excuse to blame the nearest woman.
“Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman.” - Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns
