The National Coalition For Men – formerly the National Coalition of Free Men – describes itself as “the oldest Men’s Rights organization in North America.” It has been around, in some form or another, since 1977. The group has a board of advisors, which includes academics and mental health professionals and bestselling author Warren Farrell. It has a number of local chapters. Its website is professional-looking; they even have an elegant little logo.
The group appears, at first glance, to be a real and reasonable advocacy group.
But it doesn’t take long to find evidence that the group is infected with the same hateful extremism that is endemic in the Men’s Rights movement.
Take this bizarre and creepy image – and its equally bizarre and creepy caption – that I found illustrating a recent press release about Senator Patrick Leahy and the Violence Against Women Act.
As far as I can figure it, the Joker is supposed to represent Leahy’s supposed feminist puppetmasters; regardless, it is a jarring image depicting violence against an elected official as somehow humorous.
The article (picture and all) has gotten 14 Facebook “likes” and no comments; evidently none of the MRAs reading the article were bothered enough by the illustration to publicly challenge it.
How exactly does posting a picture of the Joker threatening an elected official with a knife advance the cause of Men’s Rights?
Do the group’s advisors — including Warren Farrell and well-known domestic violence researcher Martin Fiebert — know that the group’s website features this repugnant image? Do they care?
I would encourage readers here to investigate the NCFM site in more detail. I wonder what other evidence of hate might be found. (If you do find more, please make screenshots, and post what you find in the comments below, with a link to the page on NCFM’s website.)
EDITED: I originally referred to the images as photoshopped, but evidently it’s from The Dark Knight. Oops. Corrected.
Off topic, but just to let you know that Chateau Heartiste has decided that “Women are less principled than men”.
http://heartiste.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/women-are-less-principled-than-men/
Most of the “evidence” for this is taken from his own previous blog posts, since, as, he notes “…to date, little science has been done to examine the evidence for the Chateau and common man wisdom that men and women hold different moral values’.
Cue insightful reader comments such as “Women shouldn’t vote” and “the liberal male is an abomination and is responsible for the continued proliferation of collectivism, statism, and neoliberal feminazism”.#
“Neoliberal feminazism”?!
What planet do these people live on?
I don’t know the name, but I do know that it is a MANLY planet, populated by huge herds of mammoths for MANLY MEN to hunt and present to their submissive women (or functional female equivalent) to make into a MANLY meal.
EWME’s post is a particularly pure form of the reasoning “It’s okay for MRAs to do anything so long as you can find a feminist (or, in a pinch, woman) who’s done something just as bad.” I kinda feel bad pointing out every time it happens because I know it gets so repetitive. Considering they think of feminists as Hell-Demons From Hell, it’s the lowest possible moral standard to hold themselves to.
If feminists felt we were justified in doing anything so long as a MRA had done it, you… you wouldn’t like it.
But no, we’re actually not going to start doing that, because the vast majority of us actually want less violence and hatred in the world, not just to ensure the correct people are on the receiving end. (And the correct people–in the case of Patrick Leahy and NWO’s prison-rape cheering, just for the examples in this thread–seems to include a whole lot of men.)
So although I’d be justified by MRA-logic in saying “MRAs should all get their mouths cut open and be replaced with fluffy man-bots,” I won’t, because saying that just makes me feel gross and it wouldn’t fix anything.
It’s already been pointed out multiple times that we’re not talking about criminal court, but the administrative body of the college. They don’t even USE the word “guilty” or “innocent,” you half-wit. And, as I’ve already shown in the previous thread, 75% of the men who ARE found “responsible” for a sexual assault on campus ARE NOT EVEN DISCIPLINED FOR IT.
Yeah, we’ve already covered this, you moron. It’s a college drama class final project. And every Tarantino wannabe in film school is a violent thug. The guy who made “Funny Games?” Clearly a murderer. As is the guy who made “Hostel” and “The Human Centipede.”
It’s comical to see the lengths in which they will find a way to blame women for every single thing under the sun. A grown man raping 10 year old boys? Women’s fault.
I wanted to add one more thing before the trolls chime in about violence and the arts. The “piece” that David has posted here walks a pretty damned fine line because it names a sitting senator and obliquely refers to either Feinstein or Boxer. My guess is that this is still legally covered under free speech. The main issue is, you guys want to point at a college level art project and say that it speaks for the entire feminist movement just because those kids dug up a forty year old reference. But at the same time you ignore the above work and continue to argue that the MRM never threatens or harasses people. You’re absurd.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep!!!!!!!!!
Alert!!!
Major creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy alert for for the spearhead right now, where middle aged men are declaring their love of having sex with teenage girls…..
NWO, once again, proves his misandry by showing his support of prison rape, a crime which overwhelmingly affects men. Some men’s rights activist he is.
Jill the Spinster:
I just went to look at that, and here’s a quote:
“Having a society in which teen sexuality is blared from every TV screen (e.g. Miley Cyrus) is only going to encourage men to see girls as sexually available.”
Damn you, Miley Cyrus for making men have sex with underage girls! Don’t you know men are simple creatures that can’t control their base urges?!
What exactly do they think the reason is for his sexual objectification of young girls in the media? Could it be that the writer is, in fact, criticizing patriarchy? Or are they suggesting that sexualization in the media is the fault of feminists? The mind boggles.
Here’s a comment from “Commander Shepard”:
“It’s natural for men to be attracted to younger women and likewise for young women to be attracted to older men”
Dream on, Commander. I always loved the Mass Effect games, but I must admit I never pictured Commander Sheperd as a middle-aged man lusting after 14-year-old girls. Funny that.
I wonder how long the trolls are going to hang on this one and drag it into every discussion. “Well, you’re wrong because VIDEO!!!!!!” It’s going to get really tedious in a very short period of time.
What’s that saying? Never argue with a stupid person, they’ll drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. In the Trollish Rules of Debate, a video like that is the ultimate (and logical) argument ender for anything.
I think the problem is only partly that Slavey et al don’t know the difference between college administrative tribunals and criminal courts, and partly that they don’t know what “preponderance of evidence” means. Slavey, for instance, seems to think “preponderance” means “said by a woman.”
Miley Cyrus is blaring teen sexuality??? She’s squeaky clean! She’s Hannah Montana! She works for Disney! The only sexualized thing she’s done is own a female body and put clothes on it and most of the time those clothes look like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Billy_ray_and_miley_cyrus_at_kids_awards.jpg
She’s not blaring anything. If you want to look at her and go “wow, I can discern that she has body parts under her clothes,” that is allll you.
…But I’d love to know how Miley Cyrus should dress and act to not blare her sexuality. 🙂
Holly: Well, she did do pole-dancing that one time, and there was that one pic where you could see she had a *gasp* back.
Oh for God’s sake. Here’s the video:
(The “pole dancing” is from 1:15 to 1:50 if you do not wish to listen to an entire Miley Cyrus song.)
It definitely falls into the category of “you can tell she has a body under her clothes and sometimes she even moves that body, oh my god it moved.” And such short pants! I think we all know that a girl is basically lying on the floor writhing and moaning for the attentions of middle-aged dairy repairmen if you can tell she has legs. Those are almost as dirty as her back.
But the skeeviest part of the Spearhead complaints here is that she’s doing what she usually does–performing as a teenager in a very “children’s entertainment” context. She’s at the Kid’s Choice Awards, her backup dancers are dressed as high-schoolers, and her lyrics are clearly aimed at middle-schoolers and carefully expunged of any phrase more dangerous than a reference to moving her hips. It’s like getting turned on by goddamn Spongebob Squarepants.
It’s like getting turned on by Spongebob Squarepants and then blaming him for being such a foxy little minx.
Holly, to be fair, Spongebob is topless ALL of the time. And he keeps himself in shape (square), not like that slob Patrick. And have you seen the size of his . . . eyes? 😛
#bodyshaming #triplecreepy
Also, I forgot to say: “rub-a-duuuub-dub, I’d sponge HIM down any day of the week.”
And seriously? THAT’s the pole-dancing video? There’s no dancing! There is just POLE ADJACENCY. That’s like calling me a pole dancer cause I used to go to firehouses with my parents–shameless harlot that I am.
Well perhaps you haven’t heard the happy news. Men still have the right of, “presumption of innocense.” I’ve been hard at work since April 4th of this year to ensure you maintain that right. I’d say that classifies as violence. Had that little State goodie gone thru, all boys/men in the school system would’ve been under, “presumption of guilt.”
owlslave do you even get what a burden of proof is? if you have to prove it, the presumption is on the other side. seriously, this is so dumb it makes me a little bit angry.
That’s not even dancing. She’s just standing against it while occasionally bending her knees.
I think Miley did post some Myspace-style photos of herself on line at some point where portions of her bra were visible. Of course, I’d think the obvious solution here would be that these adult men could just not seek out those pictures, but that’s probably somehow infringing on their rights.
I hate to hold Miley (or anyone else) to too high a standard of “okay, you can dance next to a pole, but if you spin around it then the MRAs have a point and you really are a foxy little minx.” Because some teenagers do act in sexualized ways.
They do this:
A) Because they think it’s cool/adult/rebellious
B) Because they’re desperate for attention and affection, and sexual interest is close enough when you’re a lonely teenager
C) Because they’re horny, but not yet fully aware of how to appropriately express and fulfill their desires
D) Because they’re trying to pick up teenage boys.
There is no E) Because they really want adult men to sexually exploit them just because that’s their favorite thing.
To clarify, I wouldn’t care if she were actually pole dancing. It’s just that I’ve never seen the video before and I can’t believe that so much outraged got sparked because she stood next to a pole and sang.
And while the MRAs obsess over a college drama project, in the real world this continues to happen:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-police-on-scene-of-possible-shooting-at-bedford-park-fedex-building-20111117,0,6967651.story
Yet another mass shooting by a man trying to get at his partner, just like the jackass in Seal Beach who slaughtered several people because his wife was going to get more time with the son that he already had shared custody of.
But yes, let’s fixate on fictional portrayals of violence.
It’s true. I have all three power upgrades on my drill bit and now I PWN all Brute Slicers. Thought I still prefer the machine gun. Still you may want to place yourself next to a hacked security system or toss some auto turrents when Big Sister shows up because she’s pretty damned agile.
I could be wrong (and, to be honest, I haven’t been following the VAWA reauthorization), but I think that the OCR’s preponderance of evidence standard as articulated in its DCL still stands under Title IX. So yeah, sorry, the milkslave. But, you know, happily (for you and other rape boosters), most rapes aren’t reported, most reported rapes on campus aren’t punished, and some colleges don’t seem to be following the DCL’s guidelines, so … yay, team rape?
NC4OM: Re. your goal to make rape punishable by the death penalty, I think you said that some cut-and-dried cases could be tried, and then all the rapists would get scared and stop raping, right?
I mean, you gotta be joking, but I just have to point out that there’s no way it would work out like that. Most rape victims don’t come forward, and those who do come forward do not see their rapist go to trial, because people who rape pick victims who are vulnerable and lack credibility. If only clear-cut rape cases were tried, rapists who choose victims from the homeless, addicted, immigrant, disabled, LGBTQ, and other vulnerable communities, or who prey on people who are intoxicated, would know they could do so with impunity. So yeah. Really bad idea, and not just because the death penalty itself is a really bad idea.
Aw! Now I’m going to have that image in my head every time I use my Big Daddy drill rush.
/Iz sad gamer. 🙁
@Evilwhitemale
I know! Right?! I mean look at this!
Or…! Or…!
Or…! Or…!
@Blitzgal
Cue the MRAs who will excuse his violence and blame it on the wife in 3…2…1….