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?
The stupid? Don’t think so. Anyone with two brain cells can see that men face contempt in society, and if you choose to come up with convoluted explanations so you can keep your little gender oppression all to yourself, well, whatever.
I shouldn’t have included that “martyr” paragraph directed at Cassandra. Mea culpa.
” Anyone with two brain cells can see that men face contempt in society, and if you choose to come up with convoluted explanations so you can keep your little gender oppression all to yourself, well, whatever.”
I’m just reposting this so that everyone can savor the delicious irony.
Nathan I would argue that that isn’t the result of misandry, but society’s (rightful) fear of child predators. Most pedophiles tend to be men, so it’s not hatred of men that causes that assumption, it’s just looking at the news and jumping to conclusions. We hear more stories in the news about female teachers abusing teenage boys too, the more stories we hear about that, I think the more people will start making assumptions about them too.
Also I think you’re pushing it a bit to be honest, I’ve never heard of this rampant assumption that men are afraid of going into childcare because they’re worried people will assume they are pedos. Maybe men don’t go into childcare because it pays shit and doesn’t have very much status (if one believes the studies that say men choose careers based on status and money) If men are actually discriminated against when entering childcare professions, and there are people trying to keep them out due to their own prejudice, then yes that is discrimination and it needs to be stopped.
Then you got all those conservative and MRA shits who accuse feminists of trying to feminize men when they encourage men to be “nurturing” and take a more active role in their children’s lives and even by entering childcare professions. There’s still the idea that it’s women’s work thus not as important/less prestigious.
@Kirby- Then what exactly are you complaining about, if- as you say- you hear the word misogyny “quite often” and the word misandry just occasionally? Seems about right to me, so who are these mysterious people who utilize the word to “show that men are just as badly off as women”? Do not cite the MRAs, they are a crazy fringe.
@Nathan:
“Do not cite the MRAs, they are a crazy fringe.”
O_O huh…
Well, they’re the ones raising a huge fuss over how oppressed men are. So if you take them out, then… Nobody I guess. Take out the racists and you won’t have anyone complaining how oppressed white people are.
“Then what exactly are you complaining about, if- as you say- you hear the word misogyny “quite often” and the word misandry just occasionally? Seems about right to me…”
O______O Aren’t you the one complaining that misandry isn’t a recognized term? And I’m the one responding… to… you? Ow… my head.
Quackers- fair enough- then how about the more innocuous perception that men are simply incompetent when it comes to childcare?
And Cassandra, since I’ve already stated two, three, no I think four times that misogyny is a problem- not just a problem, but a greater problem than misandry- I don’t see the irony.
Of course you don’t see it. That doesn’t mean that is isn’t there.
(Side note – this dude reminds me of my friend’s ex. I’m so glad she didn’t marry him.)
And Dracula, I repeat: prejudice against non-conforming women can, by your logic, not be called misogyny because it is not something that affects women as a whole.
This suggests that misogyny and gender policing are the same thing. Which is something I would argue against, actually. So no, you’re not using my reasoning, you’re twisting it.
@Nathan:
“then how about the more innocuous perception that men are simply incompetent when it comes to childcare?”
GENDER ROLES! Like I’ve been saying this entire time!!! ARGH!!! You don’t get to start saying everything we’re saying like we’re the ones arguing against it! That’s not how it works!!!
@Kirby, come on, don’t be willfully obtuse. You said that we live in a culture when “misandry” is often used to imply a false equivalence to misogyny, and therefore it’s a loaded term. Well, sure, maybe, if you visit Manboobz a lot and hang around all the MRA forums. Outside of them, though, I don’t see the word “misandry” being invoked at all, much less to shut down discussions about women’s issues.
That’s a real great attitude to have towards women who are trying to step up and aquire these dangerous jobs. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t with the MRM as usual.
They don’t want women to take difficult jobs. They want women to admit their inferiority and accept that their proper place in life is serving men and apologizing constantly for existing.
I was leafing through Ms. magazine at the checkout stand today. There’s an article about how women in the military should be allowed into the same combat positions as men, and an article about how exciting it was that science might be on the verge of developing a male birth control pill. It’s almost as if feminists care about issues that affect men.
Right, Kirby, and most misogyny is directed at women who fail to conform to their own gender roles. An ideal woman will still face misogyny, but not as much. Does this then invalidate all the misogyny she does not experience?
@Nathan:
“You said that we live in a culture when “misandry” is often used to imply a false equivalence to misogyny, and therefore it’s a loaded term.”
Here’s what I said: “we live in a society where ‘misandry’ has cropped up as a reaction against the use of the word ‘misogyny’ by people who wish to show that men are just as badly off as women. In other words, false equivalence.”
And earlier, I explicitly mentioned the MRAs as the ones who are doing this. Granted its not the clearest wording possible, but you aren’t reading very carefully.
“Right, Kirby, and most misogyny is directed at women who fail to conform to their own gender roles.”
Ah, at least now it’s clearer how specifically Nathan doesn’t understand the terms he’s throwing around.
Okay, Dracula, well then:
– Prejudice/bile against career women? Not misogyny, it’s gender policing. (I guess that MRA who refers to such women as “lawyerc*nts” is not a misogynist).
– Prejudice/bile against outspoken women? Not misogyny, it’s gender policing.
– Prejudice against feminist women? Not misogyny, it’s gender policing.
If you believe this, fine, but most feminists I’ve read would disagree with you.
@Cassandra:
yyyyup.
@Nathan:
“Right, Kirby, and most misogyny is directed at women who fail to conform to their own gender roles.”
This is wrong. Most misogyny is directed at women. Full stop. Rape jokes and “make me a sammich” and “women can’t drive/are stupid” is aimed at all women. The “well behaved” ones don’t get a pass.
You’re going to have to go into more detail, Cassandra, because I’m really not going to respond to basic assertations with no justification.
Sorry, Nathan, but you’re currently manifesting a level of complete incomprehension of the terminology that’s way beyond what I can explain to you before I need to go to sleep. I’m not sure which feminist books you read, but you may want to try reading them again and asking questions when you get to the complicated bits.
@kirby: It is not wrong. Aside from said jokes (and there are a hell of a lot of off-color jokes aimed at men as well), and the threat of sexual assault (this is the one place where I will concede a point), virtually all misogyny is reserved for certain deviations from the norm.
Gender policing is the act of enforcing prejudice, not prejudice itself. If women conform to societal expectations, they are still held to be the inferior gender. The same is not true of men. Seriously, how are you not getting this?
This… is going nowhere… Nathan, what are you arguing for, skipping any more attempts at turning our own arguments against us?
@Nathan
Yeah it’s gender roles and sexism. Which doesn’t always necessarily stem from an outright hatred of the opposite sex. For example you hear the claim that women are more emotional from men all the time, but I wouldn’t say that they hate women when they say that. It’s just a stereotype. It’s only when women are outright denied rights because of those assumptions. So when women were denied the vote because they were thought to be too emotional or weak minded to understand politics, that’s misogyny. Likewise if men are denied the right to enter the childcare profession that would be misandry. To my knowledge they aren’t though. Either way I don’t really understand why this is being debated because everyone here is in agreement that assumptions made about people based on their sex or gender, and discriminating against them because of those assumptions is wrong.
@Shaenon
Yeah…pretty much. It’s like they won’t care about having to support a wife, go to war or work dirty jobs if women kept their mouths shut and admit they are inferior to men. Not gonna happen.
I read an article on the Ms. website about the male pill and it was positive, unlike AVfM’s paranoid delusions of all us feminists freaking out about our loss of sexual power or whatever the hell they go on about. It’s like reading shit from a very asinine alien race, I can’t forsee why anyone (besides conservaturds) would be against another form of birth control.
I predict women will be allowed in combat positions soon enough. But then MRAs will just claim men are oppressed when female soldiers come forward if they’ve been raped.
If MRA really believed the stuff that they say they believe they’d be thrilled to have a male pill on the market. No more worrying about becoming a father against your will! No more potential child support payments for kids you didn’t plan on having! Isn’t this awesome?
Well, no, since that wouldn’t leave them with anything to blame women for. Plus contraception is lady stuff, why should men have to worry about it?
@Quackers:
Women are currently being allowed to take more forward positions in more dangerous combat zones. I think I saw it on the news, so sadly I don’t have the link (it might have been on the Colbert Report)… But it’s happening. And you can bet your boots that MRAs are complaining that women will endanger their male comrades.
and really…what is the equivalent of lawyer cunt or career bitch for dudes in childcare or expressing interest in childcare? pedoteach? come on Nathan…you know there’s a difference…
Whatever I have to go to bed, gotta be up in 3 hours…night all.