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?
Nice catch, Polliwog.
For a while I thought that word had gotten out that we had a vacancy for a Whiny Little Shit Troll, but I agree that this is MRAL.
Stop crawling back here, you stupid little asshole.
Okay, dudez, you do realize that MRAL was known on other forums as well? A Voice for Men, The Spearhead, etc. He wasn’t a huge poster, but was known as kind of a dissenter. And yes, we called him MRAL too. Haven’t seen him in a while, but whatever.
And this has been the shittiest conversation ever. Goodbye all.
Try sticking the flounce this time.
Much like MRAL, he can’t go away and stay away.
Is this the second time he’s flounced? Please stay gone!
Meh, since everyone here refers to him as MRAL I can see how even a casual reader would catch the reference, and I know David and a couple of others have found quotes of MRAL standing up to Elam. The similarities are too damn eerie to dismiss though so I’m still not convinced that it’s not an MRAL sock.
Watching MRAL flail harder really only brings to mind one quote.
You are a man. Therefore, you are the privileged gender.
I have privilege too, and some of it is related to being a woman, for example the privilege that if I try to ask a woman for directions at 2:00 AM at a bus stop she will not feel the need to pepper spray me or appease me politely while planning an escape. I might be at risk for rape and violence in the hands of men, but even more so are other men- one can assume the higher risk of being murdered if you’re male must have a common factor related to people’s attitudes towards men, not just their attitudes towards women.
Misandry is a thing and it’s not -just- stealth misogyny wearing a different hat. It is often attached to the attempt to enforce a rigid binary gender system, and neither is misogyny or misandry necessarily a cultural institution, sometimes its simply a description of an individual’s attitude.
Indeed, as certain crazy mormon sects have demonstrated very succinctly, misandry serves supporting patriarchy- only a few men are going to make it to the top in such a system and deliberately seeking to disadvantage some of the men is as important to sustaining that particular model of a few old monsters at the top, just as cowing women matters to them.
This is how humanism is the umbrella over feminism, as far as describing the common relationship with things like the right of non-landowners to vote, the right of racial minorities to be considered and treated equal. Just like how all of humanism is not feminism, all of gender equality (or even gender irrelevancy) is not just about dismantling things to stop women from having the short end of the stick, but a sort of global quest for awesomeness. I am a feminist. I am happy to be one, but I don’t feel it helps anyone to complete ignore other awful gendered stuff is occurring.
Everyone, he’s not privileged at all, he’s only a white, cis, hetero, mostly able bodied, western, fairly economically well off even within the standards of a developed country, anglophile, citizen man. Nope, no privilege there at all!
I dunno, I’d rather have the privilege of not being at such huge risk for rape that terror of a stranger approaching you at 2:00 AM is actually pretty reasonable. (And no one gets pepper sprayed for just that. What a strawman.)
Only a few men–AND NONE OF THE WOMEN.
FLDS may such for men and boys, but at least they have a chance of being the lucky cult leader. Women don’t even get that.
Wahaha! So men are disadvantaged by the fact that they hold a near monopoly on crime, are they?
Um, no. Sorry, the dark mirrors of privilege that specifically empower the majority of men are not misandry.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but you are referring to, for instance, the greater difficulty a male rape survivor may face in having his story heard, because all men want it, right? That specific narrative privileges the majority of men and plays into the disenfranchisement of women. That a non-zero number of men suffer for it does not make it misandry; that myth continues to benefit men as a class. It truly does suck for the men it hurts, but that doesn’t make it a systematic disadvantage for men as a whole.
Even if we forget for 10 seconds that those men are getting a better deal than women in the same situation (I’m not, but you are), that doesn’t actually prove your point. That plays into what I said on page one; that when discussing another axis of kyriarchy, the oppression may manifest differently by gender in addition to just being worse for women. That isn’t actually evidence of misandry (The disadvantaging of men as a class) being its own thing. It just means that, per this example, Classism isn’t exactly the same for men and women. When you go back to examining poor women and poor men, the poor men will still be better off. Because misandry doesn’t really exist as its own force.
And it specifically hurts women to pretend that the stuff that backhands some men is anywhere near as prevalent, powerful, or far reaching.
Also, I just realized this- Holly Pervocracy said it’s “not my fault” that I was born male, as if it’s some kind of disease or negative aspect of me. I’d fucking choose to be male again, because I like my body. Fuck your sneaky psychological guilt-tripping.
-10 points for failing to stick the flounce MARL.
Awww, poor MRAL. Stop trying to twist what Holly said. I doubt very highly that’s what she meant by it, and I think you know that as well.
If you really need to pretzel logic that to fit your inferiority complex, be my guest, but puh-leeze, what a reach.
Dude chill, its ok to be male, its ok to be white, its ok to be het, ect. Holly isn’t trying to trick you, your assuming bad intentions.
Also I doubt you honestly care but having a male body doesn’t make you male.
*”male body”
MRAL, we don’t really require more proof that you’re an asshole. Why don’t you get back to failing your classes?
Awww, am I being a Her Holy Highness to you? Am I spitting on you?
Do you have a high IQ?
MRAL/Nathan/whoever:
THERAPY. GET YOU SOME. (Hint: It’s NOT ON THIS BOARD).
Holly, you ALPHA FUCK BITCH!!!111 How dare you!
I’m not assuming bad intentions, they’re right there. As for the MRAL thing, I really don’t know what I can do to prove anything to you. I do know MRAL. He’s a college student in Massachusetts. He apparently has some personal issues. I am and/or have none of those things. Well, I have my own issues, but they’re not his.
Yeah, Holly, I bet you think men are disposable too!
How do you know so much about him nathan?
If you really want to prove you’re not MRAL, leave and don’t come back.