While Reddit’s reluctant, long-overdue banning of subreddits devoted to sexualized pictures of children drew applause from many Redditors, there has, of course, been a considerable backlash from pedophiles, ephibophiles, and other assorted apologists. ShitRedditSays has already started covering this, and I’ll be doing some posts of my own.
So far the most appalling thing I’ve run across (thanks to ScrappyB for pointing it out in the comments here) comes from the BeatingWomen subreddit — which is, unfortunately, a real thing. Some people, you see, are suggesting that maybe Reddit shouldn’t be hosting a forum devoted to sharing images and videos of women being brutalized, so that Redditors can cackle over their victimization, make rape jokes, and whatever else they do there.
The idea that r/beatingwomen “might be next “ roused one racist, misogynist jailbait enthusiast to post this little manifesto.
He’s not trolling. If you look at his comment history you’ll see he’s completely sincere. (Actually, don’t look at his comment history. It’s horrifying. I’m not going to link to it.)
In case any one is wondering, r/beatingwomen is the subreddit that r/mensrights mod AnnArchist (a guy, despite the name) posted to on several occasions, because he considers r/beatingwomen-style “humor” to be hilarious.
Can’t we just get beyond Thunderdome?
/hasnooriginaljokes
Anecdotal, but IME this tends to happen in groups where the person making the jokes is in the minority in their group e.g. the one white friend in a group of black friends being given a pass to call them “nigga”, but again this depends entirely on how the person is perceived. I’ve had a couple of friends that I’ve been cool with hearing criminal/terrorist jokes from, but it’s a very select group, and I am only comfortable with them making those jokes about me, not about my people in general.
Sandra:
Exposing and/or mocking noxious ideas/actions/etc is a fairly well-accepted way to deal with that sort of shit. And it can be effective.
ShitRedditSays and Something Awful used exposure to get Reddit to shut down its subreddits filled with sexualized and in some cases (apparently) clearly pornographic pictures of preteen girls.
Progressive groups use exposure to fight hate groups — see the Southern Poverty Law Center and Right Wing WAtch, for example. Back in the 1950s, progressives exposed some of the goofier rituals of the Ku Klux Klan and helped to turn it into a laughingstock in many people’s minds, which made it easier to fight.
The blog Yo Is That Racist used mockery to challenge racism, whether subtle or overt.
Feminist blogs use exposure to fight against misogyny — eg, the “Mooreandme” campaign on twitter.
You know who hates this kind of exposure and/or mockery more than anyone? The assholes being exposed and mocked. If all I — we — are doing here is amplifying the misogynist signal, why does this site make the misogynists we talk about here so very angry?
NEVERRR!!!
/was over it until he heard Patrick Warburton going around saying “It’s thunderdome.”
we don’t need another hero!
Well I’m happy to say this. You love the misogyny. You enjoy reading it. Daily by the fucken looks of it. Gripes knows why. You enjoy commenting on the misogyny and will happily read about paedophilia in a fun way, so long as no evilz against the paedophiles who boast about RAPING CHILDREN and BEATING WOMEN is spoken about in a retaliatory manner in your camp. Well done!. What a great bunch of
ok troll
I guess reading feminist sites also makes you love misogyny since they talk about it all the time and give examples of it.
…. the fuck, Sandra? Have… have you even read this blog?
“so long as no evilz against the paedophiles who boast about RAPING CHILDREN and BEATING WOMEN is spoken about in a retaliatory manner in your camp.”
There is no response to this. You are simply wrong. It’s like accusing fire of being too wet.
Right? I mean it’s not like Feministe (or Pandagon either IIRC) are any more tolerant of violent rhetoric either.
Also, I love how the comment just cuts off. It’s like WordPress hung up on her for us.
Do you agree or disagree that reading feminist sites makes you misogynist as well?
The writers talk about it all the time and aren’t inciting violence against the people saying that stuff. They must like misogyny by your logic right?
And why aren’t the comment sections filled with people saying “hey thanks, David, I never thought of it from the ‘women are evil bitches’ angle before!” Instead, there is a commentariat made up mostly of feminists, and almost entirely of people supporting the basic goals of feminism.
Besides, not everything is about activism. I do think making fun of the Manosphere helps to discredit it, but I don’t know if another way might be faster or better or something. But really, I don’t care; that’s not the only reason I come here. It’s also, you know, fun, and I care about the people here.
I know! right?
Sandra sounds like she is a feminist so I am guessing that she does read feminists sites (how else would she find this place?) that pretty much have similar content of pointing out and combating misogynist things. I think she just is angry because a man is doing it. XD
I think I should say I don’t believe the feminist=manhater crap before anyone assumes anything. Its pretty clear though that Sandra doesn’t like men being involved in feminism because she thinks they can never want true equality from this comment:
http://manboobz.com/2012/02/13/reddits-post-pedogeddon-backlash-part-one-rbeatingwomen-weighs-in-on-the-pedo-ban/comment-page-3/#comment-124390
I’m assuming that she also thinks this about david from her comments about him
“dominating the women here”.
Also this is not calling what she thinks a great injustice to teh menz because its not. XD
just thought I’d clear that up
*moving on*
So Sandra, how do you manage to be a feminist without talking about misogyny? Is it only ok when you threaten to retaliate violence? Or maybe you can only speak of it theorically?
Let me sum up: we should treat our enemies with violence and all men are the enemy… By that fucked logic, you have the moral right of shooting my little brother, my math teacher, my father, my boyfriend, about half of my friends (uncluding those who belong to oppressed groups, like gays, poc,…)
Guess what? I disagree. (even though some can be misogynists somtimes)
The people i’ve met in real life who say “I’ll kill that paedophile!” – saying that is all they do, they don’t actually attack the bastard, nor do they offer any other kind of help or support.
I’m also in for the betting 5 bucks that Sandra is an MRA posing as a feminist to… I dunno, maybe discourage readership to manboobz, make feminists look bad or just troll. O_o
http://manboobz.com/2012/01/03/manosphere-dudes-lets-set-up-fake-feminist-blogs-to-take-down-feminism/
@ersatzmoons
Yeah thats what I was thinking. Her comments don’t make much sense the more you think about it. Especially about the not talking about misogyny bit, that struck me as odd for a feminist to say.
Though its kinda hilarious that mras seem to admit that they are misogynist all the time. So much for an movement about equality.
* a movement supposedly about “equality”
There recently was a post of a young woman saying that her father tried to make her believe MRA-like logic and thanking David because Manboobz helped her understand that being female didn’t mean she was a sub-human. (That’s basically it, I believe)
How did that happen, Sandra?
FWIW, I think Sandra’s sincere and not an MRA in disguise.
For one thing, whenever MRAs pretend to be feminists they do it really, really incompetently. Weren’t there some people here who got odd and unconvincing emails allegedly from feminists trying to “warn” them about me?
It’s too depressing to think about paedos and woman-beaters, so here’s a happy thing. the government gave my mate a set-top-box today, so now I can teach him to watch Dr Who 🙂
Just want to say this as a Black person: If you want to make racist jokes…just don’t. Granted, what David and Holly said makes sense, and there are friends with whom I’m cool with making certain jokes with.
Here’s the thing, though: They best friends recognize my right to be offended, and I try to do the same. Even if I’m in a safe space, it would be much better not to say some things.
Also, as a personal note, I don’t like the N-word, even in a joking manner. It’s one of the things I dislike about the TV show, “The Boondocks” (as pointed and funny as it is at times), and even then, there are other problematic elements. I could type out why I don’t using the N-word…but I using a DSi right now, and my hands are cramped.
Just my 2 cents.
Oh, and Patrick Bateman is not a role model. I can see simply based on the “business card” sequence I saw on YouTube.
MY GRAMMAR! IT BURNS!
Man, I can’t wait for when I have a computer of my own. Proofreading on a DSi web browser is like trying to open an Ostrich egg with a cheap ballpoint pen.
Hi Sandra!
I see you got really mad. I don’t really care if you are mad or not and nobody here really does either, so long as you don’t make threats of violence. Clearly you have not read much around here because many people have gotten very emotional about MRA stuff in the comments section, and they haven’t been censured for it. I spoke for the group and the site because I have been reading and commenting for months here and agree with David about the no violence thing. I wanted to make sure you knew it was seen as unacceptable here. Here are some reasons why I agree about threats of violence:
1. They can be triggering or upsetting, sometimes even more so than the original material
2. They frequently turn into “pissing contests” about who is the most upset, or who can come up with the most grotesque fantasy, which derails the thread
3. David frequently condemns people in the manosphere for threatening violence so it would be hypocritical to allow it here
4. It’s not always clear when someone is merely upset vs. actually willing to commit violent acts
5. Members of the manosphere read Manboobz and might use these threats to discredit the site
6. Violent retaliation or vigilante-ism isn’t acceptable, period, and we ought not encourage the idea that it is by allowing fantasies of such on the site
7. The idea that violence is acceptable against those who “deserve it” feeds into things like domestic violence, since the perpetrators believe that their victims “deserve” what they have done to them
8. Violent retributive fantasies make it seem like societal problems like child molestation or domestic violence are simple and easy to understand, and that their solution is equally as simple and easy
Now you know! I hope you think about that and have a good night.