The Angry Sistas taking over Facebook

I’ve known a couple of ‘wastemen’ in my time. It’s difficult not to. They tend to launch themselves at you when you’re just minding your own business on the street with chat up lines like ‘You’re the buffest ting I’ve seen since I got out of jail.’

When Darwin developed his hunter gatherer theory on evolution. He clearly forgot about the Wasteman – the man who hunts women and gathers children but doesn’t provide – the man not in the history books because he has no official name, just several aliases – one for every manor. Like Samuel L Jackson in The Long Kiss Goodnight, he's Frank and Ernest – in New York he's Frank and in Chicago he's Ernest.


My ex was a classic ‘wasteman’. I used to carry a box of eggs in the glove compartment of my car and each time I passed his gleaming black BMW (we lived close by) Kapow! Splat! Boom! Just one of those days that a girl goes through, when I’m angry in side, and I’m gonna take it out on you. What on earth did he do to deserve that – oh, only lie , cheat, slap me in the face, try to bully me into taking out a £10,000 loan for him, you know – the usual.

At least this is the usual sort of man represented on the 'women against wastemen' page. Its two thousand members upload a gallery of ‘wastemen’ from convicted rapist Mike Tyson to cheating husband Harvey. There is a name and shame section where men are unceremoniously outed for their ‘waste’ behaviour amid lots of female cackling and heckling. But laughter aside, there’s obviously a lot of pain here. Some people are nominating their dads, which as one post comments is 'some deep shit'.


When I saw this group, my heart soared. Here finally was a much needed real-time forum for sistas old and young to share their pain about men. Started by a intelligent sista studying at Manchester University. She describes her aim as empowering women to deal with ‘wasteman syndrome’. Its silly but also as deep as you want to take it with some message posts from truly traumatised women and legions of offended men (and women) who find the group very negative.

After all, as one brave brother posted (he was immediately surrounded and manhandled to the ground), 2000 sistas devoted to a positive cause could change the world, but 2000 sistas devoted to negativity will just further negativity.

Okay yeah – but no- but I think that misses the point. This isn’t a ‘cause’ –if you want a cause you can join the Mother Daughter Project Uganda or Remember Lindsay Hawker. 'Women against the Wasteman' is mass scab itching in all its bloody glory, nothing more, nothing less.
There’s got to be a place for women and especially Sistahs to do that. Its okay. Some of our experiences are so bad you have to laugh or cry and this group is utterly hilarious – no bad thing.

Besides which, the men haven’t maintained the higher moral ground for long either. Hot on the heels of Women against the Wasteman is 'Men Against Wastegash' – The Big Brother contestant renowned for her shallow ideals Charley Uchea coming in for some stick there, unsurprisingly.

Of course the more we complain, the more stories we have to tell, the more the joke is on us. Wastemen wouldn’t exist if the demand wasn’t there. There are plenty of Nicemen, but guess what – no group dedicated to them. We get so caught up with being victims – we forget our own role in ‘waste’ relationships – chasing down the bad men – raising our sons to be ‘waste’ – having kids for men who aren’t worth it. You know what they say, behind every ‘waste’ man…..