When you think they can’t get any creepier, they do. Here’s a disturbing new Men’s Rights meme-in-formation I’ve recently run across.
In a late-December rant about anti-porn feminist Gale Dines, the self-proclaimed “Male Renaissance Agitator” who calls himself Fidelbogen wrote:
In olden days of rough village justice she’d have gotten the scold’s bridle, or the the ducking stool, or the stocks. And quite right.
A couple of days later, regular A Voice for Men commenter DruidV, perhaps inspired by Fidebogen’s post, made a strikingly similar suggestion on that site:
I urge all Men here to have a look at wiki’s description of what was commonly known as a scold’s bridle, or the Branks. For whatever foolish reason, this item was done away with some time ago. This invention to end Men’s suffering, needs to be brought back into public acceptance and application, post haste, imo.
So let’s take a look at the Wikipedia page he linked to and see just what exactly this “Scold’s Bridle” was:
A scold’s bridle, sometimes called “the branks”, as well as “brank’s bridle” was a punishment device used primarily on women, as a form of torture and public humiliation.[1] It was an iron muzzle in an iron framework that enclosed the head. The bridle-bit (or curb-plate) was about 2 inches long and 1 inch broad, projected into the mouth and pressed down on top of the tongue[2]. The “curb-plate” was frequently studded with spikes, so that if the tongue moved, it inflicted pain and made speaking impossible.[3] Wives that were seen as witches, shrews and scolds, were forced to wear a brank’s bridle, which had been locked on the head of the woman and sometimes had a ring and chain attached to it so her husband could parade her around town and the town’s people could scold her and treat her with contempt; at times smearing excrement on her and beating her, sometimes to death.
Emphasis mine.
I will be charitable and assume that both Fidelbogen and DruidV were joking. That is, they don’t literally want to strap women’s heads into ghastly torture devices, smear them with shit and beat them to death. They just think that the very notion is hilarious.
Whether the suggestions were made seriously or not, they’re still pretty hateful. Given that Fidelbogen was recently taken aboard as a regular writer for A Voice for Men, and that DruidV’s comment on that site got mostly upvotes (and no criticism) from the regulars there, would it be fair to call A Voice for Men the “underbelly of a hate movement?”
I’m not sure why that particular phrase popped into my head, but somehow it seems all too appropriate.
Do you guys think David Meller masturbates to “Mary Poppins?”
Truly there have always been MRA’ers
I have no idea why that errant apostrophe is there instead of before the “s”. Dumb apostrophe! It must be feminist.
There’s a terrifying story about the scold’s bridle in one of Datlow/Windling’s fairy tale retelling anthologies.
Uhg.
I agree with Amused as a medievalist in my hopefully future life. Who does a lot of focusing on the heretics and whatnot. Still, as in the minds of MRAhistorians, the whole witch huntin thing was probably just guys gettin’ a little confused before they had the scientific proof and definition of women’s innate weakness and going a little overboard, they probably aren’t gonna buy the distinction between “wife, heretic, and/or witch” that easily anyway.
(MEN WERE PERSECUTED AS HERETICS AND WITCHES TOO! in b4. Also true, but that’s not the point at the moment, now is it?)
innate MORAL weakness and evil, meant to read.
That’s…actually pretty encouraging. Restores at least a little of my faith in human nature.
It makes sense, too. If you want to publicly shame someone, why use an elaborate and probably expensive bit of ironmongery like the one above, when a perfectly good, multi-purpose set of stocks or a ducking stool is available?
On that note, in re. the “beating to death” part – didn’t they usually station a constable or something near someone who was in the stocks so they didn’t get too badly injured by people taking advantage of their helplessness?
“didn’t they usually station a constable or something near someone who was in the stocks so they didn’t get too badly injured by people taking advantage of their helplessness?”
Sometimes, yes. Really depended on who you were and what you were there for.
And sometimes, like today, a bit of “corrective rape” especially – YES MRAS LOOK LOOK WHAT I’M SAYING for males in the stocks, was considered but not stated to be part of the punishment.
Yes, it wasn’t just throwing things at their heads. You could come up behind people and they couldn’t see you, that was part of the fun, even if the constable was keeping you from the worst of it.
Why am my comments (two hours ago) being moderated? There is nothing controversial or offensive in either my joining other posters–including yourself–in denouncing the torture of women (even proto-feminists) and certainly nothing controversial in discussing whether honey is good or bad for attracting flies!
…why do I get the horrible, horrible feeling that if you hadn’t included that “especially for males” bit, they would have considered it a plus?
Here’s the thing. You MRAs were the ones being mocked for turning a violent man with severe emotional problems into your movement’s hero.
@vacuumslayer: Damn it, that’s my favorite movie. I feel so unclean.
He also seems to primarily object on the grounds that it wouldn’t be an effective way of making submissive little love slaves. He gets really cagey when he’s asked how he would feel about abuse if it led to the results he’s looking for.
*He gets really cagey when he’s asked how he would feel about abuse if it led to the results he’s looking for.”{*
DING DING DING!
…why do I get the horrible, horrible feeling that if you hadn’t included that “especially for males” bit, they would have considered it a plus?
…
I try to be charitable. I really do. *ahem*
I think these guys could use a good pro-domme. I know one in the LES, New York City. She’s one of the best. Top Wall Street execs pay her $250/hour or more to be beaten and made to lick boots. Bootlicking of one’s masters is a common fantasy around the MRA circles, so for them, scheduling some pro-domming sessions is really a win-win all around.
zhinxi, Viscaria, et al@January 6, 2012:
I have used words like ‘brutality”, “unspeakable”, ‘appalling” and “vicious” denouncing the torture of women–even of feminists–over the past year!
In addition, I point out to readers how inappropriate and unsuitable torture is for obtaining the means desired to further discourage expressions of misbehavior that I consider barbaric!
“getting really cagey when asked how he would feel if abuse led to results that he was looking for…”
For feminist scholars, you two don’t seem to read very well, do you?
I’m pretty sure you’re lying about that because you’re a dirty, unclean, unladylike feminist. Feminists don’t like “Mary Poppins,” silly!
Yikes – I’ve been to the Kelvingrove Museum. How did I miss that thing????
Vanessa Emma Goldman, I understand that you are justifiably angry at Fidelbogen and DruidV but calling for their torture and imprisonment because of the incredibly offensive things they say is wrong.
I wonder where ToySoldier has been all this time. Did he find another site to troll in his unique passive-aggressive way?
TS has his own blog to wank in. Traffic must be down.
I can see why MRA’s love this idea, by the way. Oh, to be legally permitted to torture women! I don’t think they’ve noticed yet that you needed to be married to the woman in question. Or maybe there’s another post coming about how unmarried women should be distibuted to worthy men via a lottery system, so that they can then torture them if the women in question have the gall the say anything other than “you’re so amazing”?
I tried to read an entry. What could be said in a 3 sentences he says in 3 paragraphs.
Concision is your friend, aspiring whingers.