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.
Lauralot, I think it’s because the female mooks would also be disposable, hence relateable. Since movies are real, this would mean that women have PROBLEMS too.
I don’t know.
That’s the core issue here, MRALs refusal to acknowledge that women in the real world do in fact have problems, struggles with self esteem, ordinary rather boring lives for the most part, etc.
MRAL– Have a good time at Arisia! I think you’ll enjoy it.
In the meantime, now that you’ve established you don’t identify with manly-man heroes (a sentiment I’m sure shared by many here) perhaps it would be helpful if you talked about what you do want to see in fiction. More ass-kicking female leads a la “Kill Bill”? Ensemble stories with lots of different kinds of characters a la “Game of Thrones”? Are heroes like Peter Parker or Frodo non-alpha-male enough to be appealing to you?
Personally, growing up, it bugged me that women were seldom portrayed as really smart, or if they were it was seen as weird and unattractive. I also tended to identify with the villains. I drew a comic for six years based on these two obsessions. Ask the Foglios about it, they’ll tell you.
Frodo was good. After all, he failed in the end. Haha. Even people like Tyrion are hard to identify with because I am not witty, and really not that smart despite having a high IQ.
This is true. Oh so true.
Yes, I also liked Peter Parker, especially as played by Tobey Maguire.
Would Omar from The Wire count? Not an action show by any means, of course, but he’s the closest thing to an action star the show has.
There are also a number of gay superheroes and other comic book characters (Batwoman, Apollo and Mightnighter, Renee Montoya, Scandal Savage, etc).
Omar Little is, was, and always will be made of awesome.
You want a non-proactive hero? Two words: Scott Pilgrim.
Michael Williams is fuckin great! I haven’t been able to start the fourth season cos I’m still getting over Stringer Bell’s death
@Spearhafoc, I was mostly thinking of film, but you’re right, those are all good examples. I think there are also some badass gay characters in True Blood and some other TV shows. I do think it’s generally an area where most media is very backwards though.
In terms of protagonists who’re not tall, imposing, powerful, etc., what about Simon Pegg? He’s made a career out of being the loveable loser who fucks things up for most of the movie and then finally gets his shit together only after his fucking things up almost ruins his life. Plus you can’t even pull the “nice guys don’t get laid!” card with him – in one movie he ends up with Thandie Newton.*
* One of the most beautiful women in the world, in my opinion, and an awesome actress who I wish got more work. Hey there racism in the movie industry.
okay, this is a bridge too far.
Where are all these grrl protagonists? When I grew up (Ninja Turtle era) most shows had a token female, if that. Maybe that’s why I liked X-Men as a kid. Lots of women who were really no-nonsense even if they were sexed up as superheroines tend to be. (As I recall, Jubilee and Kitty Pryde, the younger folks, were a little less sexualized than the older female characters. Keep in mind I haven’t read X-Men anything since I was 12, and that was the mid-90s. Stuff changes.)
True Story: I complained in a public way about a lack of female characters to identify with–how we’re supposed to identify with “the girl” because she has the same bits as we do in theory. My favorite TMNT characters were Splinter and Leonardo. I had other kids (girls) telling me I HAD TO have April as my favorite because, girl. Personally I just wished there would be some smart, serious female character in the turtleverse. But that’s too much to hope for. Either I have to wish I’m a guy or I have to wish I have no personality. No one ever expects a little boy to identify with a female character, but for girls? We just about have to.
Well, I got an email from a very clueless guy who thought he agreed with me. “Yeah!” he said. “That’s so sexist to assume that women can’t just identify with the male characters!”
But that’s the assumption. I’ve heard it said about Harry Potter–girls find no issue with relating to a male character. But boys (or more importantly, society) take issue with relating to a female character. It isn’t true–there were plenty of little boys who loved Dora the Explorer, but I guess too many parents thought it was turning their little boys gay???? Yeah, I don’t know. So then they made Diego. Because, god forbid a boy want to be a female character, even though girl’s are routinely left with no choice but to play the male character. And yeah, I do like playing the male character too, but it’s way easier to imagine that I’m someone who is like me on a very basic level. Especially after I hit puberty and shit.
Let’s see, non-traditional male leads… For books, there’s Harry Dresden (not nearly as handsome in the books as in the tv show) and John Taylor from the Nightside books – he ended up with Suzie Shooter (aka Shotgun Suzie or Oh, shit, it’s her – RUN!!!). I’m sure there are more, but I’m all kinds of fuzzy right now.
The whole “I feel resentful and picked upon because there are now too many strong female characters” thing is yet another reason why I’m out of patience with MRAL and just want him to go away. Yet again we have a completely self-centered perspective in which the fact that more strong female characters (still not a majority by any means, but more than when I was a kid*) is MISANDRY and we’re just going to ignore the fact that little girls might like having characters to see themselves in, and how having that might be good for their self-esteem. Nope, their self-esteem is irrelevant (and, as we’ve heard from him so many times, actually too high) – the purpose of mass media should be to make MRAL feel better about himself. Who cares about a mere 50% of the population and the impact mass media has on them?
Sorry, Katz, I know you want everyone to but I’m not willing to give him another chance. He’s had plenty of chances already, and the more we hear from him the more selfish he sounds.
*When I was a kid we had Jodie Foster. Seriously, she was pretty much it. I still love her to this day for the movies she made in the 70s – without her a lot of young girls would have felt a lot less free to dream big.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, MRAL, go and watch a couple of seasons of “Misfits”.
Cassandra, when the hell did I say that I Crowley had a problem with “strong female characters”? That’s nothing but a strawman. I have issue with the fact that there are many strong female characters and yet the tendency to have everyone inconsequential be male continues. I feel as though I don’t matter, and I do think I would find my own situation better if that message was not broadcast throughout society.
Crowley? As in Aleister? Are you planning to sic demons on us now?
It’s been explained to you why the mooks are always men. If you’re too stubborn and self-centered to acknowledge that, that’s your problem, not a problem with either media analysis or the media itself.
Also, the idea that the tendency for many movies to have no female characters other than the pretty princess is “misandry” or based on the idea that men are expendable is so stupid it’s positively Spearhead-worthy.
MRAL: Bad guy hires a bunch of mooks. None are women. This is not because the director/writer/etc are saying men are expendable. It is saying that either they are making the active choice to say that women are not believable in the part OR that they fear the audience would say the same thing. So either those in charge of the movie are misogynists (because they are saying women cannot be believable in a hired thug role) AND/OR they are saying that the audience wouldn’t believe it. Both are examples of misogyny
EVEN MORE misogynistic is when the mooks are somehow clumsy/clueless/etc. Because what the people in charge of the movie are saying is that even though these guys that the bad guy chose are useless in their jobs…. that no woman could beat those guys out for the job. Now, how can anyone say this is not misogyny? .
Right, they think the audience, as a whole, considers men expendable, as a general understanding. Moreso than women, at least. I’m sure they aren’t explicitly trying to say this, but in conjunction with society, that’s what they say. Women are more valuable. Misandry. And it’s hurt my own and MANY other boys’ lives.
My perception is as valid as yours, and is worth just as much as a female’s, and is just as “right.” Feminists think they can have the Supreme Say on this. They can’t.
Occam’s razor also, LJ, especially when the female is the hero or she’s a “badass helper” (as they usually are these days). The implication is not that women can’t kick ass- they all can, and only a select few men (of a very rigid appearance and personality) can keep up with them, and the rest are worthless useless Lilith men, and I am forced to identify with them. I cannot imagine doing differently- not possible.
No, you think that it means that society considers men expendable and therefore MISANDRY because you have mental health issues (which you acknowledge yourself, but for some reason you’ve chosen to stew in your own unhappiness rather than getting treatment). You need to go get that treatment, instead of taking out your frustrations with this imaginary state of affairs on random women on the internet.
Which once again you still haven’t actually apologized for.
MRAL, seriously. Step away from the computer, and get some help. You’re making it impossible for people to believe you’re posting here in good faith, and you’re letting your self esteem issues allow you to think the worst of the feminists here.