[TW for the comments to this post; discussions of rape and abuse.]
The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization devoted to tracking and exposing hate groups, has just published a detailed report on the misogyny and violent rhetoric so pervasive in the Men’s Rights Movement — as well as the actual violence inspired by this sort of hatred of women. It’s a piece you all should read, even though few of the details will be new to long-time readers of this blog.
Arthur Goldwag, an expert on conspiracy-mongers and the far right, argues (I think correctly) that the Men’s Rights movement is largely a backlash against the many successes of feminism over the last several decades:
It’s not much of a surprise that significant numbers of men in Western societies feel threatened by dramatic changes in their roles and that of the family in recent decades. Similar backlashes, after all, came in response to the civil rights movement, the gay rights movement, and other major societal revolutions. What is something of a shock is the verbal and physical violence of that reaction.
[Thomas] Ball’s suicide brought attention to an underworld of misogynists, woman-haters whose fury goes well beyond criticism of the family court system, domestic violence laws, and false rape accusations.
The Men’s Rights Movement, as it exists today, is not a civil rights movement; it is a regressive, hateful reaction against a civil rights movement — that is, feminism.
Those who truly care about the rights of men, and who are not motivated by a hatred of women or feminism, need to repudiate the hate and the violent rhetoric of the Men’s Rights Movement as it exists today. Only then can there be a Men’s Rights Movement worthy of the name.
EDITED TO ADD: The SPLC has also put up a guide to some of the more hateful sites in the manosphere. Longtime readers will be familiar with most of them.
EDITED TO ADD AGAIN: And a piece debunking some Men’s Rights Myths.
EDITED TO ADD AGAIN, AGAIN: The discussion of the SPLC report on the Men’s Rights Subreddit is surprisingly reasonable, so far. (I mean, compared to what I expected. Meanwhile, over in this thread, the Men’s Rightsers are behaving as they usually do.)
And, if you click on the link for the full report you’ll find another article, “Men’s Rights Movement Spreads False Claims about Women” by Mark Potok and Evelyn Schlatter, as well as a list of misogynist web sites, which includes AVfM, Roosh, the Spearhead, and the r/MensRights sub-reddit. Best of all David, ManBoobz gets a citation as a web site described as “a humorous pro-feminist blog … that keeps a close eye on these and many other woman-hating sites”.
Good for the SPLC.
Linky links for those extra articles. The MBz citation is in the header for the first of these:
Misogyny: The Sites
Men’s Rights Movement Spreads False Claims about Women
So how soon can we expect an explanation for why the Southern Poverty Law Center is all a part of the international feminist conspiracy?
“So how soon can we expect an explanation for why the Southern Poverty Law Center is all a part of the international feminist conspiracy?”
The $PLC is far worse than any feminist organization.
Magnesium: Given that 90-99% of MRAs are also racists, they probably already think so. The other 10%, of course, hate the SPLC because they go after abortion clinic bombers.
Hey, MRAs, you’re officially a hate group now. Good job, and good on the SPLC for doing the report.
*wow*
I love the SPLC to the max (they brought down the Aryan Nations in northern Idaho).
And am impressed by fact that MBZ has been pointing to all the named sites and MRA dudez all along–go, David!
I should put popcorn on the shopping list for when the manosphere explodes over this reporting.
I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the MRA response to this bit of excellence. Anybody want to start a poll to see how long it takes for someone in the manosphere to imply that these people deserve to have violent things done to them? I call between two hours and two hours ten minutes.
Half of me is glad that this is getting attention from people with real power to expose and bring down hate groups.
Half of me is, shamefully, heating up a big ol’ pot of popcorn.
A surprisingly reasonable discussion of the article in r/mensrights:
http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/qnxyb/til_southern_poverty_law_center_thinks/
This. Is. So. Awesome.
Also: I wonder how this will affect the people who consider themselves to be “moderate” MRAs. I wonder if being “officially” declared a hate group will have any sort of polarizing effect on the r/mensrights guys, for instance.
It seems like this could create a rift between people actually re-evaluating their beliefs and who they associate with, and people just digging further into “it’s an equal rights movement!” denial.
Oh, I get it. “Surprisingly reasonable” in that they’re slightly less horrible than normal? XD
Seriously, there’s a dude in there who is saying he’s done supporting the SPLC. He knows what they do, he follows their work, and he has that little self-reflection.
I’m not really surprised. SPLC makes it their mission to track down hate groups. As harmless as the MRM is in general, it’s still a group that advocates hate and violence, it just lacks the courage of its convictions to do so openly.
Right the fuck on!
http://wtfdidtheysay.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/2397_bpfobu.jpg
It’s about time that a mainstream social justice organization started paying attention to these guys. I’ve been wondering when the ACLU will get involved.
“Anybody want to start a poll to see how long it takes for someone in the manosphere to imply that these people deserve to have violent things done to them?”
Most of the people involved are men, so I’m expecting less violent threats this time and more whining about manginas and traitors.
@Cassandra
Yep, the most extreme vitriol and rape threats are only reserved for women!
I wonder how much it disturbs them inside knowing there are men out there who don’t despise women or the gains women have made in society
Men’s rights is such a terrible name. Anyone who supports justice of any kind would obviously be against problems that some people legitimately face (false accusations, punitive alimony, etc.)
The problem is that so many of the MRAs are complete nutjobs that they hurt the cause of real justice.
Rutee, “surprisingly reasonable” compared to the sort of crap I expected them to say. Though it’s worth noting that many of the worst MR regulars haven’t weighed in yet.
Yep.
The author of the SPLC piece, who is a guy, hasn’t gotten any nasty personal comments directed towards him yet that I’ve seen.
Contrast that with r/mensrights’ treatment of Rebecca Watson in this thread today.
http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/qn5kh/rebecca_watson_about_my_refusal_to_debate_you/
@CassandraSays
Yes, that’s a very good point. Since there are no obvious women to point fingers at (as far as I can tell), the fact that the one discussion is ‘surprisingly reasonable’ makes perfect sense.
ninja’d by David, of all people! The shame, it burns…
Aw, MarkyMark got a mention. I loved SPLC’s description of him and some of the others.
This is the kind of shit that I guarantee you no one will say about Arthur Goldwag.