So Alexander Ryking is a Tumblr blogger and one of Tumblr’s community “editors” for politics. He thinks of himself as a liberal.
He is also a raging misogynist who regularly calls women “cunts” and tells feminists to “kill yourselves you feminazi twats.”
In recent days he’s turned his douchebag-o-meter up to 11. As a result, there’s now a petition up on Change.org to have him removed as a politics editor on Tumblr. It’s already gotten more than 3000 signatures, with several hundred new signatures added in the time it’s taken me to write this post.
Here’s unknowable woman, a frequent target of his cyber-wrath, with more details on his recent meltdown. (Read the post on her Tumblr blog for links to the evidence of his douchebaggery.)
Alexander Ryking, who has a history of attempting to silence women bloggers (he told Jess of STFUConservatives and the other “feminazis” to “go kill themselves” several months ago, and has also been rude to women of color but I haven’t been on Tumblr long enough to have personally witnessed that), defended The Amazing’s Atheist’s violent rape threats on Reddit by tagging his posts with “I support TAA.”
I and many, many other Tumblr users were disgusted by this, so we decided to tag our criticisms of Ryking that night with “Ryking’s banana republic”—a reference to his co-opting of [social justice] concepts, NOT a homophobic dig, and the person who coined it was a queer man anyway. Someone also wrote a few jokingly romantic lines about Ryking’s blind defense of TAA and new atheism, and Ryking interpreted this as homophobic and misandric…it wasn’t, but because I reblogged it, Ryking insists that I am now a homophobe, which is hilarious given my own sexual identity but whatever.
We also responded to some of his posts with pictures of extreme close-ups of our eyes.
Seriously. That is what this guy is calling “abuse.”
We did NOT threaten him, make personal attacks against his sexuality, tell him to go kill himself, send him rude messages, or commit any other acts that could reasonably be interpreted as the “cyberbullying” Ryking claims it is. I did temporarily change my URL to rykingsbananarepublic and I make no apologies for that. Why should I? Why shouldn’t a group of feminists and their allies be allowed to respond creatively to misogyny? The only actual cyberbullying that has taken place was TAA’s initial rape threats on Reddit; I wouldn’t even go so far as to claim Ryking’s tweets to me and other Twitter users are cyberbullying, though I leave it up to the other people who were insulted by him to label their experiences as bullying or not.
Anyway, a few nights later, I tweeted something in defense of Whitney Houston’s legacy, and suddenly there was Ryking going ballistic. He found me on Twitter, called me a cunt right off the bat, and insisted that I claimed Whitney Houston’s death was “more important than the death of 5,000 Syrians” (I didn’t! Here is what I actually said!). I had never exchanged tweets with this man before, and was confused about his sudden interest in my thoughts about Whitney Houston and Syria. Naturally, I responded, told him how wrong he was, and the next day I screencapped some of the things he said and posted them … I never expected that post to get the amount of notes it did, but I think that just goes to show how widespread the dislike for him is.
Ryking, for his part, has responded to the widespread criticism by striking the pose of a victim, and pretending that it is somehow all related to race. Apparently, the evil feminazis are impugning his white manhood, though he’s not white.
So-called feminists have subjected me to white-bashing comments (even though I’m Hispanic) and sexist attacks impugning my manhood (slash-fiction scenes featuring me and heterosexual men; being called faggot; being told to man-up; insults about my body;) by people who don’t realize I’m gay. After nearly two decades online, I learned early on that when you’re attacked, you defend yourself by attacking right back and just as viciously, if not more so. And that’s what exactly what I’ve done. …
What’s really at issue here is not my rude behavior but that you and others like you want to punish any man who refuses to conform to your rancid, misandrist orthodoxy by discounting everything he says and using his gender and race as the excuse for doing so. …
You don’t want me stripped of my editorial privilege based on my behavior but because I reject your sick, bigoted, misandrist (per)version of feminism.
Yep, apparently the dude who loves to call women “cunts” is the final arbiter of what is and what isn’t “true feminism.” Who knew?
I signed the petition. How about you?
*every arrangement, not any arrangement.
Do I need to establish my OPPRESSION CREDENTIALS?
– As I’ve said, middle lower class, with enough to get by on but not much more
– 9 hour days, 4-5 days a week. It’s hard work.
– I’m not entirely able-bodied; an accident has left me with a slight limp.
I find the above to be in really bad taste, but since the marker of validity around here seems to be how victimized you can claim to be, well, whatever.
WHICH PART OF THIS MAKES YOU A WOMAN?
Cripes.
Also, what makes you think a woman working 9 hour days with a limp would be better off than you are?
Misandry – Hatred of men. Can you honestly tell me nobody has ever hated men?
Okay- maybe in my place, in an AGGREGATE SENSE, a woman would be slightly worse off. But there would be areas in which she is better off.
Some people hate abled people.
Does that mean it’s better to be disabled than abled, and that disabled people are privileged over abled ones?
“Do I need to establish my OPPRESSION CREDENTIALS?”
The fact that you use those words shows that you don’t take oppression as seriously as you think you do.
Oppression Credentials? Dude, being a minority is not a fucking credit card.
Systemic hatred of men, Nathan? NOT A THING.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT PRIVILEGE MEANS.
And please understand, it’s not an insult. You didn’t choose to be male, and everyone gets that. We’re not implying you’re rich or that you’re evil because you’re male.
Only what you just said: that all things being equal, a woman in your place would be worse off.
You realise that this is an ongoing conversation right? We’re not just arguing against the last post you wrote, we’re arguing against the stance that you came in on and continue to backpedal away from and hoping we won’t notice.
What specific areas would she be better off in?
Nathan, because you amuse me, where–besides publishing and the draft and sometimes custody–do women have the advantage?
Do tell, pipsqueak.
@Nathan:
FFS, nobody here is playing oppression olympics! Even if you were a gay black woman, you’d only have a modicum of expertise in talking about anything besides your own experience. Ultimately you have to look at what’s going on in the real world, no matter who you are. We’re calling you privileged because you seem to think you are inherently an expert in how various social justice movements are faring, and your account conflicts with reality.
Wait, WTF?!?
I fall in the upper middle class area, I am more privileged than you in terms of class. If I was to come in and tell you how the economy is really tough for everyone and that you need to stop talking about the shit that you go through because I go through shit too and you don’t see me whining about it, that would make me a big ol’ donkey-sized dick and you would have every right to stomp my ass.
Well, I want to emphasize that in some places she (that is, the she me) would be better off. And this is where insidious forms of misandry come in. Overall, sure, to the extent that you can quantify it, she would be “worse” off, but I never denied that misogyny wasn’t a bigger problem. Only that misandry is also a thing. Also, most women are privileged over me in ways I would personally consider more desirable. Let’s see the upper-middle class rich snotty white girl feminists acknowledge that for once.
Women in publishing, some facts:
Source: http://andyrossagency.wordpress.com/tag/female-authors/
“No, dipshit, sexism is sexism. Misandry is not a thing, much like reverse racism is not a thing.”
Speaking of reverse racism, do MRAs ever complain about how much white people are oppressed? Or are those idiots different? Both ideas seem to stem from the same place of privelege and a complete ignorance about the way the world works.
“deep SEATED.” not “deep seeded.” unless you are a parakeet. Thank you.
Privilege*
Insidious Misandry would be a great name for a band only it will never happen because NOT A THING.
Where is she better off? Huh?
Crumbelievable, some MRAs do whine about that, but they usually just use their dogwhistles like “thugs” and such to get their point across. Although there are some that think Stormfront is too lenient on white women or some such garbage.
Nathan is SO TOTALLY MRAL.
And I have a high IQ.
Oh yeah, where?
That IS very MRALish.
@Crumb
It’s one of the many joys of interacting with NWO. His “the white christian males are the last oppressed group” shtick is so fucking awesome