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.
Actually, I’m sick of this. I don’t need to sit here and take abuse. I’m gone. Bye everyone.
Get some goddamn help, MRAL. No one here is abusing you. Your self esteem and hatred are your own problems and we can’t fix them for you.
He really does not know what abuse looks like at all, does he?
Bye! See ya! Via con huevos! Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. Stick the flounce, baby.
MRAL, most PEOPLE don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Get over yourself.
No, Bostonian, he has no clue what actual abuse looks like.
Fucking sexual attraction, man – how does it work?
(Hint – not the way it apparently does for MRAL, at least not for most people.)
The thing is, if I had said what I really wanted to, David would have indeed moderated me, maybe even banned me.
I have been moderated before on this website.
What I really wanted to say would have indeed been abusive, and mean.
But I decided to stick with statements of fact, and not let things get to me.
MRAL: I’d be happy to believe you if you’d actually fucking go away for awhile. Every other thread you announce you’re leaving, but you never seem to get around to fucking leaving.
I hope MRAL sticks the flounce, but in case he doesn’t – dude, there are professional models who have died of eating disorders. Models having eating disorders is so common it’s a freaking stereotype! People routinely make tasteless jokes about how models probably just consume a stick of celery per day! How on earth is it even possible to be so blinded by your self-obsession that you could argue that women who are considered conventionally attractive could not possibly be insecure about their appearance?
It really doesn’t matter how many times you say you don’t see women as subhuman when you keep coming out with things like, “But it’s not like they feel actual human emotions! Only I have those!”
The idea that MRAL thinks this is me being really really mean to him is hilarious.
I’m not going to be as mean as I actually want to because some people here very politely asked me not to. But trust me, kiddo, what you’re getting here is the gentle, polite version of what I think of you. And you know what? Lots of women you meet in real life are probably thinking exactly the same things. And it’s your own fault.
He really does not know what abuse looks like at all, does he?
It couldn’t possibly be as bad as what MRAL experiences, because nothing is as bad as what MRAL experiences. Obviously, being a 19-year-old dude of average height is the worst thing ever! Women claiming silly things like “actually being abused” are worse than the unending horror of being 5’8” are probably just entitled bitches.
MRAL, I want it noted for the record that I (and many others) really tried to be nice to you. I talked publicly about some really nasty stuff my own brain does to me and encouraged you to get help. But instead of getting help, you just keep coming back here to whine about how everyone else has it better than you, in the process insulting a lot of people, and that shit wears out people’s sympathy pretty damn fast.
Go to therapy. Get help. Stop blaming women for your problems. And stop coming back here to beg for negative attention, for your own sake if not for ours, because you know damn well it’s just making your life worse.
“It is misandry that most fighting roles in movies (such as soldiers or goons) are played by men”
It is. Males are constantly treated like expendable chess pieces by the culture at large. It’s part of the patriarchy thing, while you do get the advantage of actually being allowed to do stuff, you’re expected to participate in something that could lead to your own destruction and curling into a little ball and crying, or allowing a woman to defend you are seen as moral failings. I don’t have to turn in my feminist card to think that having a different set of sexual organs means different baggage might be heaped on your head. It doesn’t justify being a douche to people who don’t deserve it though…
SOME ADVICE TO MRAL: (sprinkles a little sympathy) I know that its no fun to be dogpiled by a bunch of people so do yourself a favor and just leave. Its ok just don’t look back and if you do don’t comment.
.
MRAL: Are you saying I misrepresent you? Somehow I don’t think you can support that. Mind you the claims you’ve made, you not defended. Despite that you are complaining that people aren’t agreeing with you.
You’ve been around enough to know how the game works. You make a claim, people challenge it. Support it, or give it up, it’s all the same to me.
MRAL: No one has said that seeing men as expendable doesn’t suck. What they have said is that erasing women from the picture sucks too.
You are saying that women being playthings, or nonexistent isn’t as bad as being one of thousands of men in an army, a gang, any other, “heroic” ensemble.
Then you whine that women see it differently, and won’t agree with you.
It’s the last part that’s got you acting like we gave you a wedgie. That’s why you are being dismissed. Not for disagreeing, but for whining that it’s not fair people don’t agree with you.
Since we’re being honest and taking the gloves off a little…you know what goes through my head every time I see guys saying the kind of stuff that MRAL (and Meller, and NWO, and most MRAs) say about women, where you can tell just how much anger and resentment they feel towards women as a group?
These men are like sharks in terms of how they approach and interact with women. Every time I meet one in real life I react as if I was merrily swimming away in the ocean and then I suddenly spotted a giant ominous looking fin approaching. Their fundamental way of relating to women is cold and predatory, and that’s why women don’t want to have sex with them. Because we’re not stupid, and our self-preservation instincts immediately kick in.
We should make a comedy sketch about it, in which a guy like that walks around approaching women and every time he does the woman’s eyes widen in alarm and the theme from Jaws plays in the background.
After I read their comments, I am not really kidding about arming my daughters. In multiple senses of that word.
(Like, for example, the celebrity themselves. Shockingly enough they do tend to have internet access.)
http://jezebel.com/5678927/justin-longs-affability-ends-an-internet-flamewar
I knew Justin Long in college. He really is this awesome.
MRAL (as if you couldn’t guess even if I’d forgotten to attribute it):
Sorry, but this is complete horseshit. As I said above, I’ve been debating online for 17 years next month, and I have never seen anyone get cut as much slack as you’ve been round here. Hell, I’ve come forward to defend you myself in my time, as have many, many other people.
People are angry with you now because they genuinely thought you’d turned a corner and had started to grow up. And now that it seems that all you were doing was buying a little time to cultivate a gobbet of phlegm so that it’s the size of a football, and then spitting it right back in our faces. And are then acting surprised that this hasn’t gone down too well.
If you “try to have a debate in good faith”, why do you continually refer to “females” and “wimmin” after you’ve been told many, many times by dozens of people (including most of the regulars here) that we find it patronizing, offensive and very possibly indicative of innate misogyny on your part? And that’s just one example among many: almost any random post of yours drips with barely disguised contempt, either for people here or for assorted random celebrities that you’ve randomly picked out in order to vent your spleen.
For me, debating in good faith means showing the other people respect even if I profoundly disagree with them. And basic politeness is a minimal element of showing that respect.
(Incidentally, I also work with celebrities, and I agree with everything CassandraSays has said: the public image is often wholly different from the private one. In fact, I’m good friends with a celebrity who has a reputation of being “reclusive” – in actual fact, he’s just very shy, genuinely hates being interviewed by people he doesn’t know, and chooses his friends very carefully.)
And, as you’ve been told time and time again, your perception is inescapably flawed by your youth and lack of experience, not least your lack of contact with women in the real world. You’ve had numerous first-person accounts by women (and indeed men: I have a wife and daughter, and am therefore acutely aware of the additional bullshit that they have to deal with) that directly contradict your “perception”. Are these people all liars?
I genuinely thought that you weren’t a terrible person until the last few weeks, and said so many times. But after the stunts you’ve pulled in recent days, I’m coming close to changing my mind.
If it’s clear that a percentage of people that’s somewhere between “a big majority” and “damn near everyone” has a certain mental impression of you, and that impression is that you’re a selfish, immature, backstabbing asshole, then you have two choices:
1. Is this a fair description of me?
2. If I think that this isn’t a fair description of me, then why are so many perfectly intelligent people from such a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities jumping to such a hurtful conclusion?
And then, if you have any sense at all, you’ll re-read a recent exchange with a forensically critical eye, and hopefully you’ll realise that the problem isn’t some mass group delusion: the problem is with you. Or, more specifically, what you’ve been saying, and how you’ve been saying it.
And only you can address this.
@MRAL
Despite what you may think, no one here wishes you ill. The reason you feel dog piled on is because a) Your views on women are diametrically opposed to all the commenters here (feminist or no, because even those who don’t ID as feminist are generally in agreement with feminism, and none are anti-feminist) but the trolls and b) because you refer to women in a very contemptuous manner because you either have a piss poor understanding of English, or because you are extremely resentful and dismissive of women. Please speak to a professional and get help for your depressive mind set. I would also suggest you speak to a therapist about your issues with women because it seems to be linked (or at least exacerbated) by your depressive mindset. Further, find a community of like-minded people (preferably not like-minded in their resentment of women) and spend time interacting with them, because your current mind state is not conducive to having a lot of people arguing and disagreeing with you. I sincerely hope your life turns around for you, but you need to leave this blog. Your interactions with the commentariat here are poisoning the blog and poisoning you.
By the time date stamps here and on the most recent thread, MRAL managed to stay away for about 25 hours.
So much for the promise that he’s gone.
And without even acknowledging what’s gone on here in the wake of his last meltdown.
Does he think people don’t remember?
Remembering is mean and cruel and totally unfair and anyway, he was high. The idea that his actions will have consequences is not one he can wrap his head around.
@Hippodameia: Hey there! *hugs you*
I know, I found his excuse (“I only meant that thread), and yeah, he was high, hilarious.
He’s babbling aout how nobody ever said anything mean about Megan Fox’s thumbs ever, he just knows it–and he’s totes wrong as usual.
“‘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.”
WTF? You’re actually saying that the men’s health issues are “not being pregnant”? (I believe there were some cancers or something which were mostly or exclusively suffered by men, which could be actually be dealth with a men’s health agency, but hey…)
And those three things you mencioned first are well very important and, yes, they could also be dealth with men’s health agencies, employment authorities and, well, the army.
(Don’t you really worry that there is a major imbalance of men’s helath agencies compared to women’s? You know, if the government deals with women’s health they should deal with men’s health too, without taking resources from women’s health and vice-versa.)
P.S.: I’m not by any means defending Paul Elam; but you’re ridiculing perfectly legitimate issues.
Jose… WTF are you trying to say?
Because I can’t figure it out.