I’ve been following the Men’s Rights Movement for some time, and I’ve never been quite sure exactly what the major injustices faced by men are. I haven’t really noticed much to speak of in my own life, but evidently there are some and they are really, really bad.
Luckily, in recent days A Voice for Men has begun to clarify the issue for me. For example, AVfM Radio’s new theme song points out two of the worst injustices of all:
- Men having to hold doors open for ladies.
- Ladies wanting to marry us.
But these are not the only important men’s issues out there. In a recent post titled “A hard rains gonna fall: how hard is up to you” (clearly a reference to the famous song by Carly Simon), AVfM head dude Paul Elam spells out the most important issues of all in a set of bullet points. To save the beleaguered men of the world some important man-time I will summarize them for you here. Bullet-time!
- Thomas Ball’s suicide isn’t mentioned on Wikipedia because feminism.
- The Obama administration urged colleges to use the same standard of proof used in most non-criminal cases in their non-criminal disciplinary proceedings dealing with rape cases. Because feminism.
- Australia. Something about Australia. Ok, here’s the deal: Australia is very, very far away from me, like literally on the other side of the planet, and my eyes sometimes glaze over when reading about it. I’m sure whatever Elam is mad about is really bad. It might involve Koalas. Feminist Koalas. But that’s just speculation on my part.
- In India, where women are routinely harassed in public and groped on train cars, there are a tiny number of women-only train cars set up to cut down on the groping.
- In Sweden, a small group of feminists did a theatrical production based on/dealing with the writings of Valarie Solanas. It was performed in some schools.
- “Men constitute the lion’s share of combat deaths[11], workplace deaths[12], suicide deaths[13], and are afflicted with almost every known human malady and disease more frequently and more severely than women.” Obviously, the feminists are to blame, for their staunch opposition to women serving in the armed forces, and for their secret program of giving men girl germs.
- There are agencies dealing with women’s health issues. Clearly, men need to have just as many of their own agencies to deal with such male health issues as not being pregnant.
I hope my summary of these issues has been fair. As Elam has pointed out on a number of occasions, I am fat, so really nothing I do or say has any value. Plus, of course, I am a mangina. Just, you know, FYI.
In any case, these injustices have Elam plenty mad:
I am truly curious as to what festering, morally atrophied deviation of humanity could look at anything approaching this level of discrimination and suffering without becoming angry.
So mad that his metaphors all get up in each other’s business:
Whether it becomes a wave of social change, or a violent tempest of indignation and fury, the pendulum will continue to swing.
So there you have it. Naturally, Elam’s readers are grateful for his efforts to bring justice to the world by yelling about it online and trying to get people really, really mad at certain specific ladies without explicitly advocating violence against them. That’s pretty much how Martin Luther King did it, only with fewer references to “bitches” and “cunts” and not so many threaty remarks.
As Alfred E puts it:
Well said Mr Elam. May the harpies finally get a clue about their complete lack of compassion for men and boys all the while living in a gold box carted around by the prince.
Justice and compassion for all, except you harpies in your gold boxes! And also the rest of the bitches, cunts and manginas.
NOTE: That bit about Carly Simon above was a joke. Obviously the song in question was written by The Bangles.
Oops, wrong URL that’s the refrigerator trope which can include male sidekicks.
But Gail Simon’s WOMEN in refrigerators
Also, in case the inevitable “Why are you posting here on a Friday night?” question comes up, I am literally hiding from an Avon party. Even arguing with MRAL is preferable to trying on 12 kinds of makeup and pretending to like it.
If you guys want to see nameless faceless hordes of women killed in the name of being “equally represented”… well, I have a different definition of what that means. And it’s not being treated as useless, worthless, disposable- especially if you’re not a prime specimen of manliness. I have jack shit in common with Tom Cruise or whatever- I’m ugly, not good at fighting, not witty, and generally worthless. So, I identify with the redshirts. I’d rather identify with no one.
I can top you Molly, I am quite literally at this moment when not typing stuff reading about defense attorney tips on how to avoid a conviction on driving on a suspended license.
And one of them is making me really pissed off.
@Crumbelievable Sorry, was being sarcastic and guess it didn’t come across. I was actually quoting Antz/Zatak, but substituted “proof” for whatever he had in that quote. Thought it was obvious, especially since I said I was channeling him. Score: Internet 1, Cloudia 0!
Why aren’t there female bosses with female henchmen, then? Sure, Catwoman had male henchmen in that old 60s Batman TV show, but when she and the other villains had a powwow you realized she was the ONLY girl in the room. Practically the only girl on the show, give or take Capt. Gordon’s daughter.
MRAL, even though most of the posters on here think you are a jerk (because well frankly you ARE) even you have worth. Especially since a part of your being a jerk has to do with you being 20.
Now if you were the same age as DKM, NWO and Brandon, then yes, you would be worthless. But you are not. So stop thinking of yourself as worthless.
Personally, I’d say not having much in common with Tom Cruise is a *good* thing…
You can dedicate time in a movie to establishing the bona fides of the protagonist with respect to killin’. Not so much the mob.
Incidentally, dude, haven’t you been realli truli just about to leave for the past four or five threads now?
VOIP said…”When he starts insulting me again, no more conversation.”
In some cases he’s already done that. You might want to take that into account. A man attempts to shame me for having sexual preferences just because those preferences happen to feed his personal insecurity? That’s the point at which I write him off. We have already passed that point.
Here’s another example of why some of us have written him off.
“Also, the heroes are usually pretty consistent in terms of appearance- with some exceptions, he’s tall, between like 28 and 50, ruggedly handsome, and usually white. I am only one of those things. Therefore, I have to assume I am a goon, and don’t matter.”
Hmm, how many of these supposedly deeply valued women whose presence means that women as a class are more highly valued than men are over 50, or even over 35? How many of them are not beautiful? How many of them are fat? Because according to the logic at work here, I would have to conclude that young, thin, pretty women are somewhat important (not important enough to let them talk or do anything interesting, of course, but symbolically important), and all other women just don’t exist at all.
MRAL’s entire philosophy of life, the universe, and everything is so deeply self-centered that it’s just not worth bothering to engage with him any further.
To hear MRAL talk, you’d think there was a time when women *used* to be mooks, as opposed to them almost never being so. It’s only fairly recently that I feel like there’s been an array of female movie heroines period… and if MRAL feels left out because there isn’t one just like him, he can get back to me when he finds a fat female villain or heroine *I* can identify with.
““And who in this century follows the men-walk-on-the-right-side-of-the-street rule?”
I actually knew a guy who still did that back in the 90s! So not this century, but close. Apparently he was convinced that his body would and should protect mine from random cars skidding off the road onto the sidewalk because he was more than a foot taller than me, and as he was huge compared to me it was polite to try to prevent this.
I did point out how illogical this was, and that even a dude who’s 6ft5 isn’t going to be able to stop a car just by standing there, but he was obsessed with Wolverine at the time and perhaps not quite clear on the whole “your bones are not filled with adamantium” thing.
I’m not sure whether it wins or not, but I’m presently reading miscellaneous blogs while attempting to perform amateur chiropracty on myself, with mixed results. Excitement!
@CassandraSays: having had my knee bashed by a car five years ago, my first instinct when walking with a dude near a road is to pull him as far away from the road as possible. 😛
Apropos of cars, my mom and I saw the immediate aftermath of an accident involving a bus and a pedestrian. It’s fucking scary to think about being on either side of that situation!
Something MRAL isn’t capable of thinking about: I was in a theatre program at a four year university years ago (doing a master’s in playwriting), and all the faculty were male (except the part-time dance instructor they gave an office in the basement). The majority of the students majoring in the acting track were women; they NEVER had a single play that featured all women (they didn’t even, as some places have been known to do, ever do a gender-bender, i.e. cast all women). They went crazy all the time trying to find enough male actors.
You know, dumbass (MRAL), women working in television and film would get paid for working, even if they’re cast as red shirts. The reality is that MALE actors will find more job opportunities than women, more paying jobs, because of that factor–not to mention that when they are older and not skinny, there will be more roles for them (I know you are apparently unable to see anything except action adventure and apparently romantic comedies but there are a shitload more character roles for men than women).
But you cannot even begin to imagine ANY world in which women face discrimination because of your lack of empathy and VISION: you cannot see past your piddling little privileged first worl problems.
Wasn’t she an Amazon in the comics? I didn’t read a lot of stories with her in it, but she felt like a completely different character with the same name.
Not so much “Harley Quinned” as “New 52 Harley Quinned”.
I doubt extras make a bundle. Also, I think women face some discrimination. So do men. I feel like the message sent to men by society- disposability.
People will be all ready to jump all over me and tell me how WRONG I am, so I point you to comments in the very thread re. subjectivity. The message I get, as a man, is that I am worthless, especially because I am not a so-called “alpha male” or whatever. You all know I have low self-esteem problems, and I’m sure I still would if I was female, but I don’t think it would be nearly as bad.
If you’re a female, don’t fucking presume to speak for me.
“If you’re a female, don’t fucking presume to speak for me.”
The irony, it burns.
Hey, remember when MRAL stopped trolling?
Me neither.
“You can identify with Simon Pegg, MRAL!”
You take that back right now! Simon Pegg is made of awesome, not sexism and bitter rage.
“If you’re a female, don’t fucking presume to speak for me.”
The irony, it burns.
Right. But he somehow knows he’d be less screwed up if he were a woman. Oh, sorry, “a female.”
Absolutely beyond hope.
@MRAL
But it’s not just the female commenters disagreeing. Sure, the fact that you have severely low self esteem affects how you relate to the characters, and I don’t know how long you’ve struggled with it. If there’s never been a time where you’ve pretended to be, or aspired to be, like the hero from one of your favorite toons or movies then I would be mad surprised and unbelievably saddened for you. But the fact is the majority of male children and teens relate strongly to the heroes of media, and try to emulate them or pretend to be like them, whereas female children and teens are forced to relate to a man, or to relate to the damsel in distress, or at best, the female sidekick.
*starts a round robin chant*:
MRAL GO HOME
MRAL GO HOME
MRAL GO HOME
MRAL GO HOME
MRAL GO HOME
MRAL GO HOME
MRAL GO HOME
WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE ANYMORE
WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE ANYMORE
WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE ANYMORE
WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE ANYMORE
WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE ANYMORE
It’s not our job to help you with your self-esteem problems–get thee back to the therapist.
And considering how many times you’ve told us what women should think, the idea of “don’t speak for me” coming out of your snotty little mouth is hilarious.
Fucking double-standard hypocritical asshole.
Like I said earlier, your feelings of worthlessness are beyond gender at this point. You can’t feel less than other *men* because of your gender, because they are *also* men! You might feel worthless for class reasons or attractiveness reasons, but you’re both still guys.
This is like me saying I feel worthless because another woman is richer than me. No, dude, it’s actually about the money, cuz we both have vaginas!