As “activists,” Men’s Rights Activists seem to be good at only two things: harassing people, and flooding comment sections of websites with their endlessly repeated half-dozen talking points. On Reddit, for example, the local MRAs have been quite the little imperialists, invading a number of gender-related subreddits (like r/equality and r/egalitarian) and turning them essentially into r/mensrights-lite, which has effectively meant killing them. (The recently started r/masculism – an attempt to do Men’s Rights on Reddit without all the misogyny – doesn’t have a chance.)
Well, now the MRA invaders on Reddit seem to have set their sights on a much bigger target: the TwoXChromosomes subreddit. Yep, they’re trying to turn Reddit’s central hangout for the ladies into a boys club.
2XC– an explicitly female-oriented forum on a site (Reddit) heavily dominated by dudes — has always been a strange place. Though I am myself, obviously, a dude, I used to read it fairly regularly, finding it a welcome respite from all the “sammich” jokes and other idiot misogyny so pervasive elsewhere on Reddit. At the time, 2XC had a (completely unwarranted) reputation amongst the Reddit crowd as an evil place full of feminazi man-haters.
Then something started happening to 2XC. That thing was dudes. And not just any dudes – MRA dudes. Regulars on r/mensrights started linking to threads in 2XC and invading en masse, downvoting anything vaguely feminist and spewing forth their standard litanies of complaint. Some of these invaders decided to stay. And so, these sporadic raiding parties turned into a sort of occupation.
No, 2XC – despite the growing number of MRA residents, including a few female MRAs – has not turned into another r/mensrights. But at times, especially when the discussion turns to some MRA pet issue, the place looks a lot like dude central.
Case in point: this 2XC thread, expertly dissected by NauticalLittleNet in ShitRedditSays. The story: a woman posts a picture of her Halloween costume on Reddit and is bugged by a rude, creepy comment referring to her breasts (something that happens approximately ten zillion times a day on Reddit). So she posts the pic again to 2XC, hoping for sympathy. Instead, she’s treated to a barrage of comments mocking her for her alleged “persecution complex.” As NauticalLittleNet shows, the overwhelming majority of the obnoxious comments (all of which garnered numerous upvotes) were from dudes, many of them MRAs.
Naturally, this sort of thing – which happens pretty regularly on 2XC – has totally changed the dynamic of the subreddit from something that was sort of a haven for Reddit women to just another subreddit overflowing with obnoxious dudery.
As a Redditor called emmster noted recently in r/feminist, some women in 2XC have basically stopped posting anything vaguely feminist for fear of being jumped on by argumentative dudes:
I’ll be getting downvoted to Hell in the comments, but get PMs that are supportive from women who feel too afraid of the judgment and vitriol to jump in. I don’t love knowing there are women afraid to voice their opinions in a space that’s for women.
Honestly, I think the sustained r/MensRights invasion is what’s taking the largest toll. It’s like they can’t stand the idea that women have a space that’s active and popular, and they have to come ruin it.
And it doesn’t help that, as Donna_Juanita noted in the same discussion, some of the 2XC mods have essentially bent over backwards to accommodate the MRA invaders and to clamp down on feminists allegedly causing “drama.”
In ShitRedditSays, emmster offers a broader take on what’s happened to 2XC
Since young men are a majority on the site as a whole, and a pretty hefty number of them haven’t had the “There Are Places I Am Not Necessarily Welcome to Pontificate on My Opinion” realization, the space becomes less of a place for women, and more of a place to talk about women. Which is a pretty big distinction. And a tricky thing to keep from happening without raising the ire of the entitled, ignorant young dude contingent.
As a reddit friend of mine put it, it all started with the “Hey Ladies, What Do You Think of My Dick?” posts. When a bunch of guys started posting questions, trying to “understand women,” which of course is a flawed goal, because women, being people, have a variety of opinions and preferences, and cannot actually be understood as a group. Some of them were actually questioning preferences on penis size, hence the name of the phenomenon.
My hypothesis is that eventually, it will be nothing but men talking to men about what they think about women.
Not that there is a shortage of such spaces on Reddit, or in the world in general.
By the way, that picture above is not actually a picture of 2XC regulars. It’s a picture of the Huutajat Men’s Shouting Choir. Which is a real thing in the world. Here they are in action:
@Holly Pervocracy
“Apparently NWO’s only objection to slavery is that it’s being done to the wrong people.”
And your objection is losing that power you already have. Must be nice knowing Big Daddy packs a powerful punch, and he’s in your corner.
As usual, NWO is a complete idiot.
So…men essentially control the entire website, and then feel the need to take over the one spot that isn’t set aside for them. Those MRAs are soooo repressed, let me tell you.
Indeed we are. Which is part of the reason your diseased fantasies have no chance of ever becoming anything more.
If the alternative is enslaving my kids, I am happy to continue as we are now, with them happy and free to wear what they want.
So [redacted] NWO.
*I did my own redaction this time, imagine the worst, wannabe slave owner!
You do know that “Big Daddy” is largely made up of men already, right?
@NWO The only person I see here making men an enemy is you.
You know you don’t have to donate to a charity, right?
Hell, there are also tree-only charities. When are us oppressed Animalia going to rise up and put those weeping willows and sycamore figs in their place?
You know this doesn’t exist, right? This isn’t one of those “matters of opinion” things. There’s no Title IX police force. There’s no badge design, no uniform, no hiring, no people who are members of the Title IX Police. That is not a thing that Earth has.
There are campus police, yes, but they’re in charge of generally maintaining order on campus. And they’ll arrest people for sexual assault, yes, but that’s not about Title IX, that’s about state law and campus regulations and standard human morality. And since sexual assault occasionally does happen, really it does, I swear, this is a necessary function.
How the fuck did you get from “campus police enforce that whole thing where rape is illegal” to “Title IX police can throw you out of your bed and drag you to a kangaroo court?”
Oh right, by being a giant rape-apologizing rape-cheering rapist groupie whose fondest wish is to someday have a rapist’s autograph.
Are you artfully dissecting the reasons I’d object to being made a slave?!?!?
You’re right, though; it is about power. I really don’t want to give up the heady power of not being a slave.
It occurs to me that in NWO’s fevered mind, “the police can arrest you for rape” and “the police can arrest you for no good reason” are exactly the same thing.
I guess that does resolve that.
Wow, NWOslave, this is a new low, even for you.
Congratulations?
NWO, I’m not going to engage with your irrational bullshit. I have lots of male friends, by the way. I have no problem engaging with them, as they are intelligent and rational.
@10G
“I mean seriously, the hell? All of your arguments are based on pure venom and vitriol and not on common sense or creating any sort of healing for ANYBODY who has been abused by anyone.”
Healing? Surely you jest! In the name of equality, shouldn’t you be lobbying Big Daddy to reinstate a mans right of innocense? Speak to me about healing when my rights are in tact.
Look at it this way. Say you had a son and a daughter. The daughter was given extra in education, politics, health…everything in all realms of society. She recieved lesser punishment for stealing from the cookie jar. Her word was taken at face value when her and her brother had a skuffle. She was presumed innocent while he was given preponderance of evidence.
When they grew up, the boy, now a man said, “Hey, how come you gave her everything, less punishment and always believed her. Do you hate me?” The response was, “No one hates you just because we helped her, it isn’t a zero sum game.”
Okay NWO, what would be equality to you? 😀
If we’re going to fix things, you have to tell us what your society will look like for us to work towards it XD You whine a lot but you don’t seem to have any solutions xD
Shut up. Just shut up.
You literally believe in slavery. Why the frell should anybody take your opinions about justice seriously?
Specifically… no vague “EQUALITY NAAOOOOOOO!” shouts that you always do xD You sound like your own straw feminists a lot… xD
If you want feminists to do everything for you, you need to tell us specifically what we can do, and how to do it…. xD
“And your objection is losing that power you already have. Must be nice knowing Big Daddy packs a powerful punch, and he’s in your corner.”
Seriously, what the hell are you on about?
Ami, he’s already been pretty clear that he’s not interested in equality.
NWO, the things you are talking about aren’t from Earth. They aren’t things that happen. THIS IS NOT REAL LIFE. You are using facts from some other planet I have not heard of to make political points that would be… actually, most of them would still be despicable on that planet.
Do you understand that, on any level? Do you understand, somewhere deep inside, that you are not talking about this reality?
Talking gender politics with you is like talking math with someone who will not compromise on his base assumption that 1+1=3, and dismisses all talk of 2 with “Two, huh? I see they’ve gotten to you.”
He’s made it very clear in this thread what he thinks the world should look like: a female slave for every man.
@Spearhafoc I just got here xD NWO wants to enslave ppl now? xD
No, just women.
There are days I like Brandon so much more than NWO.
Holly Pervocracy | November 1, 2011 at 10:14 pm
NWO, the things you are talking about aren’t from Earth. They aren’t things that happen. THIS IS NOT REAL LIFE. You are using facts from some other planet I have not heard of to make political points that would be… actually, most of them would still be despicable on that planet.
Sure it is! THIS IS TOTALLY REAL LIFE. IT’S REALER THAN REAL XD
NWO knows our lives better than we know our lives! He’s always telling us that we’re lying, or that we’re making up or misinterpreting our experiences, how the government gives us a billion thigns and how I have the power to destroy him right now (it’s a wonder I don’t xD ) plus that I trample straight cis men! 😀 Thousands!
So I think we should sit back and let NWO tell us how REALER life works 😀
NWOslave, females are 51% percent of the human population. That means that in your perfect system, there will be a small percentage of females who do not have a man to be enslaved by.
Are some men to get an extra slave? Are the surplus women to be killed? What’s your solution to the fraction of women who aren’t under your jackboot?
Oh, yeah. Read the whole thread. It’s unspeakable.
Honestly, I don’t know if this is your game anymore. You’re good with the rapier, needling people who are trying to put a pretty face on their hate until they can’t take it.
NWO isn’t even pretending anymore. He’s just let it all out in a flood of venom and bile. There is no more subtlety here.