So it turns out that the heartbreaking yet highly implausible story of attempted spermburgling that got the Men’s Rights subreddit so riled up on the first of the month … was in fact fake.
Mr. ineedhelpnow1234 himself wrote me a note today alerting me to a post on his blog explaining the whole thing, and why he did it. Some highlights:
I wanted to reveal just how twisted these men can be in the pursuit of their agenda so I came up with a story they could not resist. …
The spermjacker trope is irresistible to “men’s rights” activists because they believe they are perfect Darwinian examples of masculinity and as a result are irresistible to the hormonally irrational schemers that make up womankind. Narcissism and misogyny collide to make a toxic brew.
Oh, and I added the twist that this man punched his girlfriend so hard in the stomach that she bruised. Surely such fierce proponents of “gender equality” would not support violence against women. Right?
Well, we all know how that turned out. Ineedhelpnow1234/the blogger Eschatology continued:
The “men’s rights” movement is morally bankrupt. It is made up of people who support hitting women. It is made up of people who refuse to say it is wrong to hit women. It is made up of people who are so paranoid of women that they think people actually talk like this:
You fucking bastard, how dare you punch me for what I’m entitled to! Call me the minute you get this god damn message or I’ll call the fucking police and end your future. CALL MEEEE.
Attention MRA’s: You have all exposed yourselves as rotten human beings and you have discredited your movement (again). …
I wrote this story by stitching together nearly every cliche I have ever come across in the “men’s rights” movement. I tried to see if the MRAs had any line they would not cross. Apparently they do not. Looks like the SPLC made a good call.
Heck, even after they got called out for supporting the (imaginary) puncher, both here and on Jezebel, and were roundly mocked for believing such an utterly ridiculous tall tale, this is about as close as any Men’s Rights redditor got to criticizing the punch that never was:
He panicked and hit her. Sure he should have just have restrained her and took the condom out of her hands but we’re human and its not like he continually beat her into a pulp.
Yep, no big deal, “its not like he continually beat her into a pulp.”
The comment containing that line got 11 upvotes, and zero downvotes.
The Men’s Rights Movement, beyond the pale — but also beyond parody.
EDITED TO ADD: The Men’s Rights regulars respond to the big reveal here. They are apparently determined to learn absolutely nothing from the whole episode. At the moment this is the most highly upvoted comment:
EDITED TO ADD AGAIN: Ineedhelpnow1234/Eschatology posted about this in the TwoXChromosomes subreddit, Naturally, a small horde of r/mensrightsers invaded the thread and pooped all over it.
*waits for mra apologia in this thread*
HAHAHA. These guys don’t know when to quit, do they? They really don’t mind making themselves look bad and kinda dumb. Stupid and mean is no way to go through life, guys.
In before Zarat claims how right he was.
It doesn’t matter to them if what they think is evil, criminal, violent or not, they don’t care. There is no reasoning with people so fuel by solipsism and hatred.
Eschatology is all sorts of awesome
Goddess bless they’re fucking pathetic.
Fifth!!!
I’m still baffled as to how the CALL MEEEE!!! comment didn’t tip them off.
Cassandra, it’s not like they have comprehension skills. They’re so blinded by “wimmins iz evil,” that they don’t think critically.
I actually told my friend about the whole thing yesterday. When I got to CALL MEEEE!!! he burst out laughing.
Feminists – doing evil unto men by only hanging out with the smart ones since Seneca Falls.
People, it is a shallow victory. Remember, all glory is fleeting. The men’s rights movement continues to march on, growing bigger. It influences debate and policy. Trolling the gullible MRA’s is not an accomplishment.
I’m prolly gonna be in the minority here, but Ineedhelpnow1234/the blogger Eschatology made a bad call.
The obviously fake story will weave its way into the MRA’s tiny brains and become another example of that thing we all totally know happens all the time (i.e., sperm stealing, child support fraud, justice system bias). They’ll remember the story, but not the denouement.
And frankly? It’s not like we need made-up examples of shitty things MRAs do. Or need to create stories in order to compel them to say incredibly stupid things. Just look at anything they say. Literally anything they say is incredibly stupid and misogynistic, and they are ready to at least make a vague threat of violence given the smallest excuse.
It’s kind of funny that some MRAs so readily bought into a ludicrous story simply because it fed into their ridiculous views, but if you’ve read any of Christopher in Oregon’s tales, you already knew they would…
I’m a little uneasy about the comments that compare the sperm stealing to rape.
I was also intrigued by the comments of one or two other MRA’s saying that they should have asked for more evidence as they do when women claim rape.
Maybe not but, but it is schadenfreudey goodness. Are there any non-gullible MRAs?
Exactly. And despite him making that reveal for fear they’d add that as another example they could use, you’re right, they’ll remember the story, not that it was then revealed to be fake.
Also, I’ve seen all of three news stories told over and over again of women stealing sperm, but they did it sneakily, without the man realizing it and then sued them for child custody. which was just horrendous all the way around. But hardly something that happens on even a semi-regular basis.
Drinking game: A shot for every MRA who says something like “OK, so this wasn’t real, but if it was, what was the guy supposed to do?”
The part I like the most is the word “spermburgling.”
Katz, I think that would lead to alcohol poisoning.
I guess MRA’s could also extrapolate that some feminists are liars.
What are those evil feminists in your head lying about now, Mags? That MRAs don’t give a shit about gender equality? That they’re OK with violence against women?
it’s actually kind of adorable how despite your record of consummate failure, you morons still believe this
Vast majority of men (and mra’s) against violence against women. The genius of feminism is poisening the political culture into believe that most men are violent and rapists.
Mags, that’s utter bullshit, and even you know it.
“I guess MRA’s could also extrapolate that some feminists are liars.”
There are feminists who lie?! I thought they were bound by the Oath Rod, like Aes Sedai! This changes everything.
I mean really, If they’re only just discovering this, they have a lot of learning to do about people, period. People of all stripes have lied to make points. MRAs have openly discussed starting Straw Feminist blogs. Call me when something new happens.
I absolutely believe the vast majority of men are against violence against women — and just needless violence, regardless of target. I don’t know about MRAs. I believe you’re against it, Magz, but I don’t know if your buddies are.
Ah, Ms. Sharculese, people like David and the SPLC wouldn’t be attacking MRA’s but for their growing power. You know it. I know it. David knows it. You can denigrate as you please, but in the end it is irrelevant.
While Mags is right that most men are against violence, most MRAs are not. Thankfully, MRAs are a fringe element outside the internet.
“…most MRAs are not [against violence]…”
Based on nothing more than your bias against MRAs.
“The genius of feminism is poisening the political culture into believe that most men are violent and rapists.”
For someone who knows so much about feminism, you sure have a difficulty acknowledging the numerous instances in which your misconceptions about it have been corrected by people on this very blog, Mags.
And by knows so much, I mean “apparently not a lot so I’m not actually surprised by the rest of this paragraph.”
Not grammatical, but you get my point.
Mags, keep telling yourself that MRAs are powerful, maybe it’ll happen someday. I may grow wings and fly. You never know.
Based on I can fucking read their words and realize that they don’t like women.
Hellkell, tell your fabled analysis to the propogandists infuriated that federal money is not yet forthcoming to fund their hate speach from the reenactment of of VAWA.
Is this a reaction to Agent Orange (an elderly Pompano Beach man) lying about being a man, a rabid MRA man, snaking into a private thread on a site limited to women, and copying the stuff he didn’t like, then trumpeting it around like a male elephant in musth? I don’t know Eschatology, but the karma thing keeps happening to these MRAs lately.
WTF, Mags? Was that English? Got a link clarifying your gibberish?
What VAWA-funded hate speech is that?
Hmm. I would consider anyone who sabotaged birth control – whether an abusive boyfriend is poking holes in condoms or an obsessive girlfriend secretly stops taking the Pill – to be committing rape by deception. The partner consented to sex on the understanding that it was protected; they wouldn’t have consented if they’d known it was not.
Stealing a used condom out of the garbage in hopes of using it for a kind of half-assed in vitro? Still a terrible thing to do on the slim chance it works, but rape? More of a stretch.
Tulgey, I guess we can start with the Duluth Model…
No. It doesn’t.
Indeed; we are only mortal, after all.
I see nothing indicating the Duluth Model is ‘hate speech’. I mean, not that you give a shit, you happily endorse it by MRAs, but your fictions are apparently extending further and further.
I’m not seeing anything on theduluthmodel.org that comes anywhere near hate speech.
it’s telling that these are the things you point to instead of any actual achievements or successes. (since you don’t have any, and all)
people pointing out that you’re hateful whiners isn’t evidence of anything except that people have noticed that you’re a bunch of hateful whiners
but seriously, keep thumping your chest and demanding admittance to the big kids club. like i said, it’s actually kind of adorable.
Rutee, go sell in on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere.
Tell it to Dutton and Corvo:
“Duluth believes in gender shaming as an intervention technique. We believe that it is based on an extreme, negative, and polarized view both of men and abusive men. For a review of the bedrock fundamentalist ideology of radical feminism, see Corvo and Johnson (2003).”
The Duluth Model is gendered when it really shouldn’t be, but the solution there is to MAKE A FUCKING VERSION OF THE DULUTH MODEL THAT USES THEY INSTEAD.
I mean. Christ.
As far as making a bad call, huh. I got out of the boat and was reading one of the very right-wing blogs the other day about the death of Andrew Breitbart. The comments were about how he was obviously murdered (by causing a heart attack). The views were: if he was found to have a suspicious drug in his system, he was murdered. If he was found to have no suspicious drug in his system, he was murdered because the left-wing obviously would use a drug that couldn’t be detected. When you’re dealing with people like that, there is no way to change their minds.
I think many MRAs are like that. Yes, they will probably remember only the story, not that it was a troll on them, but it did show how quick they are to believe a man, even one posting such a silly story, as long as he reinforces all their hatreds and fears of women.
i’ve only ever seen this particular bit of nonsense from owlslave, and i’m actually kind of surprised that anyone less bugfuck than him believes it. although i guess he has to get his fever dreams from somewhere.
like any other coalition of bigots, mra’s try extremely hard to co-opt the language of anti-oppression. like with every other coalition of bigots, the whole world notices how transparent this is, and doesn’t give it any credence.
It made me laugh, which is +250 lifetime happiness points and gets you a “made random Internet person laugh” moodlet.
guys did you know that appending some academic looking citations to something automatically makes it credible*
*this message brought to you by the high council of gullible-land
“[O]ut of context assertions mean nothing to me.”
-Myself, Just Now (2012)
If you want context, sweet cheeks, feel free.
Dutton, D. G., & Corvo, K. (2007). The Duluth model: A data-impervious paradigm and a failed strategy. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 12(6), 658-667
Here is apparently the citation in that quote:
http://lab.drdondutton.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/CORVO-K.-DUTTON-D.G-CHEN-W.Y.-2008-TOWARDS-EVIDENCE-BASED-PRACTICE-WITH-DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE-PERPETRATORS.pdf
I can tell that quote is routinely used, because when you type “corvo and johnson” into google, the second suggestions is “corvo and johnson 2003” and that link is the top result.