This was posted to the Men’s Rights subreddit the other day, with the headline: “Saw this today and I suppose that’s where we’re headed.” It’s gotten 556 upvotes, last I checked. (Those are net upvotes: it got 848 upvotes, 292 downvotes.) This is the world that a lot of MRAs, and Redditors in general, think they live in.
A handful of Redditors, like this one, objected to the hysteria:
Notice the downvotes.
Amazingly, one of the few voices of reason to emerge in the whole discussion (besides that downvoted commenter and serveral others) turned out to be none other than Pierce Harlan of the False Rape Society (now called Community of the Wrongly Accused). While not averse to spreading misinformation about rape and false rape accusations himself, he argued in a comment (and in a similarly worded blog post) that this kind of raving hysteria wasn’t helpful, concluding:
The delicate balance that commands us to punish rapists while not punishing the innocent is extremely serious business. We need more sober, more adult, more serious voices to be part of the public discourse. The last thing we need is more Chicken Little hysteria, no matter which side it’s coming from.
I’m guessing the upvotes he got for his comment must have come from visitors from his blog, because up until he posted that comment the few dissenters were mostly being dismissed.
The Men’s Rights subreddit: Waxing hysterical about imaginary oppressions since March 2008.
These MRA’s just like to make up stuff. Men don’t get convicted of rape on an accusation alone. They’re still innocent until proven guilty, and rightly so.
i think this is his tortured way of saying ‘let slip the dogs of war’. (as in the mechanical rabbit at the dog track) because, y’know that was totally a phrase that needed improving.
I always liked the red bumper sticker that said “If this sticker is blue, you’re driving too fast”.
This shirt is really disturbing, though. I mean, at some point during each day I’m at work I wind up alone AND within t-shirt-reading-distance of Mike and Ray. I COULD BE CONVICTED OF RAPE SEVERAL TIMES EACH DAY.
oh shit i can’t stop laughing about this
So rarely do you see a shirt that so succinctly tells you absolutely everything you need to know about the wearer. Even if you’re kindhearted enough to not instantly assume the wearer’s hobbies include sexual assault, you’re still instantly informed that you should back off before he opens his mouth lest he unleash some more ‘humor.’
It’s just like a woman not to “remember” hitting a Moose and then to calmly drive in to work on time without seeking medical attention.
A man would NEVER get away with this in Moose Court. That’s why I’m making a line of shirts that says: “If you’re close enough to read this and you’re a Moose, I will be trampled to death (but only if I have a penis!)”
Witty messages like these will finally bring feminism down.
Kyrie:
Potemkin humor!
Ohhh, c’mon now. Ya can’t even go a day anymore without some major MSM outlet printing yet another false claim and the slap on the wrist the little snowflake got. It’s so common everyone’s become numb to it. It’s not this incredibly rare happenstance. Everywhere throughout history are accounts of women doing the same. Apparently, all those women are like that, the only real difference was the reason for lying.
“dead girls don’t say no”
ooh, I ran into a guy in a bar wearing that shirt, while one of his friends was hitting on my friend (badly). I was drunk enough to go on the offensive, so I just yelled really loudly, “oh, oh, I get it, he’s a necrophiliac! Dude, that’s gross!”
I was hoping he’d stick around to correct me, but he just left with his friends. The possibilities for humor could’ve been endless!
Sometimes I wonder if loud and public mocking isn’t the way to go with the worst ones. Imagine a group of ladies, the older the better, splitting themselves laughing at dudes in these shirts.
And speaking of being completely awful in public, have you seen this lady stepping up to speak against teh gays in Lincoln, Nebraska? The guy in the left behind her is worth watching.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/05/great_moment_in_city_council_crazy.php?m=1
Oh hey Ruby, I’m sure it happens all the time, so us poors can go around making bad decisions and having entire broods at a time!!! I mean, I’m pretty sure I could totally pop out a dozen whelps atta time! And of course we make that false accusation, I mean, I have to find some way to justify the new brood I popped out right?
MRA peoples can join society any time now. And by “society” I mean ‘reality’.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/01/us-usa-rape-montana-idUSBRE84005B20120501
“The NIJ study found that college men who participated in aggressive sports in high school, including football and basketball, used more sexual coercion in their college dating relationships than men who did not take part in such athletics.
“Programs can create a culture where it brings out the best in players,” Pollard said. “Or they can create a culture where it is winning at all cost, and people’s behavior isn’t questioned so long as they do well on the field.”
Trot some out, Slavey. We’re only 12 days into May. Post links to 12 different MSM stories about people getting slaps on the wrist for falsely accusing someone of rape.
felixBC: You’re braver than I am. I would have just avoided the guy. With extreme prejudice, 911 on the cell ready for me to hit dial. Because that is not even remotely cute or funny, that’s sick and threatening.
QFT, could all the MRAs of the world please buy this shirt immediately and wear it daily so the rest of us can spot you and run the other way? Since you won’t actually go your own way, this seems like the next best option. (I’m basically thinking a self-selected scarlet letter here.)
And I realize that shirt is one highly triggering disaster, but it seems better than accidentally being alone with someone who thinks rape is only rape if it’s a stranger dragging a virgin dressed in long sleeves and a floor length skirt down an alley. Did I manage to cover all my bases there? Or probably not since NWO thinks all women and girls wear see-through mini-skirts everywhere?
KathleenB: I was shaking, admittedly. But then, I hate confronting people. It’s rare (as in lifetime rare) for me to do so, but his shirt was really awful. And he was right there, in my favourite grocery store, the one where the organic/vegetarian/vegan shoppers go. He looked fairly gormless otherwise, and couldn’t stand that a young woman was trailing him around the store, maybe a girlfriend.
I wanted to let her know even more that what he was saying publicly about rape and killing being a great thing to do to women was not ok. They looked young enough that maybe some public protest/shaming might have an effect, and there were a lot of people around. It bothers me that I’m likely to face more criticism and backlash for complaining about his shirt than he is for wearing it. (not even counting a violent response on his part)
And then when I told people about it, I was told that I should have been more gentle in my approach, more reasonable, and have attempted a teaching moment. Why do women have to be the teachers? And never take offense at something clearly offensive?
*I couldn’t stand
No see..that’s the guy I want to seriously mindfuck with by explaining that if I want to lie about a rape I DON’T. HAVE. TO. BE. ANYWHERE. NEAR. HIM. All I have to know is some small detail like appearance or name. So fella, I’ve already made the call….
Because FelixBC its our duty to our gender, and the only sheild we have is other peoples belief that we’re just such good girls to ever deserve being beaten or raped.
And speaking of being completely awful in public, have you seen this lady stepping up to speak against teh gays in Lincoln, Nebraska? The guy in the left behind her is worth watching.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/05/great_moment_in_city_council_crazy.php?m=1
That lady is pretty obviously schizophrenic or otherwise severely impaired mentally, so I don’t feel right laughing at her. 🙁
I think there are plenty of perfectly sane homophobes to worry about.
Are you sure about that Manjaw? It sounds a lot to me like what my daughter first started writing. The lady may have literacy problems. And honestly, I really don’t care what her problem is, she’s up there spreading inflammatory bullshit. It should have been stopped.
I don’t feel like laughing at her either, as what she’s saying is a pure distillation of homophobia. The next speaker up, a great grandmother, mother of gay son, and lgbt activist, says that she’s heard more packed into a few minutes of speeches than she’s heard in decades of activism. (I think she means both fear and hatred, and also love and tolerance, from other speakers at the city council hearing)
At any rate, if the woman is mentally impaired or ill, why does that mean I have to discount what she is saying? She’s well enough to get up and say it. How much discounting of this kind of rabid hatred can we do, when 32 states, 32!, have written anti-gay marriage amendments into their constitutions? Her stuff may be concentrated, but bits of it are out there all over, being presented to and by lawmakers.
Slavey, while you’re getting those links, why not dig up those laws?
“Utah it seems, is waiting for its rabbits on rails to come home in numbers so vast they dark the sky in swarms.”
I initally read this as Ruby on Rails and wondered why MRAs were suddenly scared of programmers. Evil misandrist software applications, you guys! They’re a real thing!