So some MRAs are rallying around Herman Cain – not in spite of the sexual harassment allegations against him, but because of them.
On The Spearhead, W. R. Price notes that Cain has gotten a flood of new donations since the scandal broke. His conclusion:
The support for the conservative candidate suggests that the decades-old trend of male helplessness in the face of female accusations may be coming to an end.
Other Spearheaders are a bit more blunt:
It is refreshing to see a man (politician or otherwise) in the spotlight stand up and defend himself against a P.C. hatchet-job such as “sexual harrassment” when so many before him did the whiney-baby kiss-up “I was wrong” pandering while bowing before the golden hoochie.
Meanwhile, white and nerdy on Omega Virgin Revolt (yes, that’s a real blog) has actually put his money where his mouth is, sending along a donation to Cain.
I usually don’t bother with voting. Everyone running for most offices is either a liberal feminist or a conservative feminist. To me that is no difference. However, if Herman Cain is still in the running by the time my state’s primary happens (and if he is the Republican nominee) I will vote for him.
Herman Cain is now dealing with at least three women who are claiming that he sexually harassed them. Public figures who were accused of sexual harassment in the past didn’t take on their accusers directly, but Herman Cain did. He pointed out how what is happening to him is a false accusation. As a result of this Cain has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations in the last few days. One of those donations was my donation.
This may not seem like much, but this small act as made Cain more anti-feminist than all of the other candidates for president.
Notice that in white and nerdy’s version of the controversy, Cain has “pointed out” that he’s being falsely accused. Actually, what Cain has done is to deny that he harassed anyone. At this point, we don’t actually know enough to judge definitively whether the allegations are true — though the fact that the National Restaurant Association paid out tens of thousands of dollars to settle the cases makes me a bit skeptical of Cain’s denials. But apparently, in W&N’s brain, there’s not even a chance he’s guilty of anything other than standing up to the dirty feminazis.
One of the commenters on Omega Virgin Revolt is even more enthusiastic about Cain than the blogger himself. Jack writes:
If Cain becomes president, we might actually see an end to the incessant pandering to women by the mindless political class. It’s about time that a politician stood up and declared that women have responsibilities in life and are not entitled to a free ride. Cain might actually do that.
Over on Reddit, meanwhile, OffensiveBrute doesn’t defend Cain so much as he defends not giving a shit about sexual harassment:
I say even if Cain is guilty, who the hell cares? Sexual harassment is illegal, but not immoral. well not the kind that Cain is accused of anyway.
Skooma714 offers a similar take:
He didn’t even touch them. They probably hear shit like that on the DC Metro everyday.
They probably are over it. They want to get some paper and attention.
And, yes, both of these comments garnered some upvotes.
Of course, not every MRA out there is rallying around Cain. On Reddit, there are plenty of MRAs who are suspending judgment on the allegations, or who dislike Cain because he’s, you know, a right wing asshole. Over on The Spearhead, the only ones who seem to have an issue with Cain are those who, well, let’s just say that they probably also think burning crosses make great lawn decorations:
Black men are notorious for their sexual escapades, their testosterone being greater than that of White Men – as is their level of rape accusation. He may be innocent but he may just as well be guilty of a real indescretion.
I am happy to report that this comment got a lot of downvotes there; not every Spearheader is a raving Stormfronter. Of course, it says something about the general political and social backwardness of the site that those Spearheaders who are defending Cain from the crudest Klan-tastic racist attacks are doing so basically because they think he’s a credit to his race:
If the Blacks in America were like Herman Cain, this country would be measurably better for it and most of us would be hating on someone else.
But don’t worry: On The Spearhead they can still all agree on one central point – that women are evil, lying whores. As Keyster put it, in one of the most-highly upvoted comments in the thread:
What this indicates is that people are fed up with political correctness and the feminist/sexual grievance industry. …
In the new Femocracy you can’t date them, you can’t marry them and you can’t even work among them, without risking untold trouble for life. Is it any wonder men are distancing themselves from women, if not abandoning them altogether? How’s a man to know whether she has a “false accusation bomb” strapped to her waist or not? If you’re a man among women stay alert, you’re outside the Green Zone.
Will MRAs end up rallying around Cain in the way they rallied around Julian Assange and Dominique Strauss-Kahn? Or will something – his political views, his race? – prevent them from jumping on the Cain train? I guess we’ll just have to see.
Ultimately it’s seems pointless to even try to debate this issue with Brandon, since the premise of his argument presupposes that anyone disagreeing with it is lying or delusional. Believe whatever bullshit you want, dude. I’ll be over here not giving a damn.
“…[it] seems…”
Huh. I don’t think I’ve fucked up a post in quite that way before.
Checking in on my 10BILLION-TO-ONE blog challenge, inpsired by Slavey’s garbage “donation gender gap” theory.
Brandon admits that MRAs are a much more hateful group than feminism, bowing out of the challenge entirely. I’ll accept that as a Nolo contendere plea.
Still no reposnse from Antz or other lazy MRAs.
I’d like to hear Brandon’s explanation as to why I, an out-of-the-closet asexual, have male feminist friends.
I’m sure it’s because they think if they get you drunk enough you’ll sleep with them, as per the apparent MRA theory that non-straight girls will suddenly become straight if they’re drunk enough.
Well, that may work if I wasn’t their designated driver…
Brandon’s pick-up line:
Him: “Wanna fuck?”
Her: “No, thanks”
Him: “Mind lying down while I have one?”
yknow, in my experience, if anything being a male feminist is more likely to help you hook up with women who dont think of themselves as feminist, because they tend to be impressed by things that feminist women correctly regard as just basic human decency. Of course, you can’t just say you’re a feminist, you actually have to respect their needs and desires, which pretty much shoots a hole in brandon’s theory.
Who cares about road safety when you’re a man who wants to get laid by creeping on your drunk friends? Your brain is clearly not in Brandon mode yet. Try to switch off your conscience and your sense of logic and maybe it will make more sense.
Sharculese wins today’s logic prize.
Brandon:
I’m not sure how to describe this reasoning. Circular? He’s not exactly assuming his conclusion, but he does seem to take as a premise something that’s part of his point. I guess it’s the “conspiracy to deny the orangeness of the sky” thing, which is more of an Occam’s razor violation.
(And to be honest, there is sometimes blatant cookie-seeking at Feministe. Not all comments from male feminists at Feministe are simplistic, but if I see a simplistic comment from a male feminist, it’s almost as good an indicator I’m reading Feministe as the site design and the favicon.)
Rutee:
I’m more amused that he thinks we’ll be shocked and appalled by the idea of a woman submitting to a man when I’m pretty sure that even if none of us are women who submit to men, quite a few of us know some.
Brandon wrote, “And you just described at least half of male feminists. If you don’t think that a large majority of male feminists are just in it to get laid, you are probably delusional.”
Somehow I never thought of Feministe or Tiger Beatdown as a great place to meet a man desperate for a lay…
There is cookie-seeking on feminist sites, but it’s really not cookies of the sexual variety that people are after. Emotional validation, sure, or even attention in general, but sex? If someone wants that surely they’d want to seek out people who’re at least vaguely likely to be close enough to them to meet in person.
He’s also really desperate to let us know that he’s had sex. It reinforces his image as an amoral overman.
>>In sexistland, apparantly, bisexuals can never ever have friends that we don’t fuck.
Geez. I wish. 😉
Those who give charity have the right to decide how they do it. If they want to give by regular, direct donation to a registered charity rather than dropping a couple of dollars into some guy’s cup or buying him coffee why is that anyone else’s concern? If they choose to give time and skills, rather than cash why does that make them any less generous than someone who gives money directly to a stranger who asks for it? just because they don’t give away their small change doesn’t mean they don’t do anything.
I can see why some women wouldn’t want to get close enough to a strange man to give him money for fear of being attacked And of course, in the culture we live in chances are that if the was she would be held responsible for having trusted him in the first place.
Philippa, I’ve found there’s a surprisingly strong contingent who thinks that their type of charity is the only “real” type. Like I actually had a conversation with someone who thought that if you really cared about a cause, you had to volunteer–if you just donate money, you don’t actually care about it. Never mind that most charities’ volunteer positions are limited and often extremely competitive, or that you might be interested in a cause that you’re actually not qualified for (ie, Doctors Without Borders).
Katz:
Some people do feel like that, I know, but I think it’s fine to do what you can, when you can. Not everyone can volunteer for MSF, not everyone has the time or the training and all agencies still need money. I tend, if I’m well enough, to volunteer for two years and then work and donate cash. My husband supports me so I can do that, so the donation comes from both of us. It plays havoc with our standard of living but it’s worth it. At least we think so.
I don’t, I have had friends who were senior citizens and I am in my early twenties. XD
Mags: Holy crap, I posted a reply to you in the wrong thread! (showing off my high iq…) Just in case you didn’t catch it there, if you could email [email protected], we can talk from there.
@katz, @philippa: As someone running a nonprofit, I have to say that (for my own organization, anyway) both volunteers and money are much needed and appreciated, cash donations are much much much harder to come by. Money donations rule!
Bee:
I’m not sure how to reply to this. Except maybe: ouch.
I’m starting to feel that maybe I should have stayed in my job and just given money. Life would certainly have been a lot easier now that I’m too sick to work and will be for months.
“I apologize on behalf of all men” for hunting Mammoth to extinction. Also, elevators. Also, too, milking machines.
Apology accepted. Allow me to apologize on behalf of all women for the Spice Girls. In our defense, we had no idea they were going to do that.
One of the most toe-curling moments in recent political history was when Tony Blair apologized to the Irish on behalf of the British people for the potato famine.
That’s the 1847 potato famine.
Now I’ve seen Blair blamed for a great many things, especially after Iraq, but not even the most demented conspiracy theorist would suggest that he could possibly be responsible for something that occurred more than a century before he was even born.
Was it as PM or as Tony Blair?
I think there might be some weight to “Officially Appologize” as a government for actions that said government took at one time. It’s a way of recognizing that (hopefully) the government, as a body, learned from its mistake.