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.
David, that site really chokes me up. It’s one thing to look at DV statistics, but seeing the pictures of the victims, reading about their lives, makes it so much more real.
Resident Evil Apocalypse was in the desert with the killer crows, right?
Did anyone figure out how a helicopter was going to have enough fuel to fly from Vegas to Alaska?
Zhinxy:
I really can’t see how he comes to the “evil wimminz must be controlled” or their empathy and compassion will ruin everything” conclusion. I don’t agree with the New Scientist article he draws on because it all looks a bit stereotypical to me, but even if it was true I can’t see why the “female” characteristics he talks about would ever be a bad thing. His sources don’t make value judgements about “masculine” and “feminine” virtues anyway and yet he goes on this rant about how feelings, emotions, compassion and mercy are reallyreally bad things that should be suppressed and/or ignored. It doesn’t do justice to either his sources or his intellect.
It really makes no sense at all.
@10G: I am totally derailing to say that I’m adding “go milk a turtle” to my list of non-gendered insults. 😀
Sorry, his source was Psychology today, not New Scientist.
Sorry, his source was Psychology today, not New Scientist.
Oh, Psychology today. When will you realize the sort of people you are encouraging with your looking kinda like a respectable magazine! Go in the corner and think about it, Psychology today…
I suspect Psychology Today knows damn well what sort of people they’re encouraging.
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.
QFT. I’m just amazed that this constitutes or led to outrage. Hell, she was bobbing up and down on a moving cart; the pole looked more like a safety feature to me than anything else.
With all the outrage over pole-proximity I kinda wish I knew any Polish jokes. :p
They are assuming a teenager has complete control over all aspects of production, presentation, costume, choreography, camera angles, marketing, etc.
Moar kitties!
Now THAT is some hot pole dancing action!
What the hell was on that branch? Looked like the cat thought it was delicious.
I was my teenage best friend’s Confirmation sponsor. After the mass we got drunk and poledanced on a neighborhood stop sign. Mostly clothed.
My point is Miley Cyrus isn’t even Catholic.
I think it might be called red vine, or something? I’ve only ever seen it on a Maru the box cat video
Catholics have all the fun!
Zhinxy,
Looking at some of it’s recent articles I’d say you were right about that.
EvoPsych today is a scary place.
Dracula,
Catnip?
ozymandias42 | November 17, 2011 at 6:25 pm
I love that roissy article, because even if you take his premises as given, his conclusions don’t follow. You can’t look at data that says women are more generous, prone to reciporcal acts of kindness and empathetic, and less likely to take pleasure in revenge, and conclude this means that women are somehow unethical.
Actually you can… me and Zhinxy have noticed this in some of the MRAs (and a particular comic anti-feminist troll in our past) which is that “pure” emotions are ones that are selfish and about “animal pleasure”… like lust! That’s pure… it’s understandable, and it’s sad that society tries to control it… but a lot of the “men are like this, women are like that” types seem to act as if pure physical attraction makes sense, but any other kinds of attraction are weird and unnatural… I think this is the same way for Roissy… women are more unethical b/c being generous, and empathetic and kind is some weird inhuman, unnatural, anti-instinctive thing that isn’t clear-cut, direct and honest, so therefore it makes us unethical.
What does Roissy think about parent-child love?
I can just hear the wailing and see the rending of garments of all the anti-game haters and feminists reading this study. May your suffering burden you this holiday season with the cursed tidings of a full-blown mental breakdown!
Uh oh, AVfM is apparently lumped in w/ feminists now XD
Can you imagine a Venn diagram that includes both me and Elam? xD
I wouldn’t be even there if you it was “humans” because I’m a Cybertronian angel Kryptonian cat bunny (I added an extra strand of DNA recently) or “alive things” cuz I dunno how alive I am according to some of our trolls xD I might just be a pink computer program xD
Magpie | November 18, 2011 at 2:39 am
What does Roissy think about parent-child love?
He tries not to. That L word is a feminist invention and it burns when he looks at it. (or types it)
Hmm.. according to Zhinxy Roissy DOES believe in lurve o_O And like love love not just sex… and he’s loved many women…
if that’s true, why doesn’t he want his followers to experience this? o_O
Zhinxy,
It always was and it gets even scarier when morons like Heartiste get hold of this kind of populist site, think it makes them an expert and start spouting these kinds of crackpot theories on the strength of it. True, they didn’t state it outright but it wouldn’t be difficult for an MRA to spin it that way if they felt so inclined. They must have seen the implications.