So the New Statesman — a rough UK equivalent of The Nation here in the US — has published an awesomely snarky yet utterly accurate piece on the Men’s Rights movement, such as it is, including references to Man Boobz favorites Tom Martin and A Voice for Men. Read it! Some excerpts:
Like your arse, men’s rights are massive right now. Of course, this has been “a thing” since the Fathers4Justice superheroes first scaled a public building, reiterating in one fell swoop that irresponsible, life-endangering behaviour and silly costumes are not only newspaper-friendly, but are also not qualities many women look for in a potential birthing partner. Then we had Tom Martin suing the London School of Economics’ gender studies programme for sexism, one of his complaints being that the chairs they sat on were too hard and not suitable for the comfortable positioning of his goolies. Poor Tom.
…
A Voice for Men is essentially the EDL [that is, the Islamophobic English Defence League –DF] of the mens’ rights movement, positing as it does such statements as “a single mother is a woman who in most cases chose to have, or to raise a child without a father. This demonstrates terrible, selfish values”, and “fake boobs are a sexual advertisement. If your wife or GF wants them that means she’s seeking to attract heightened male attention.” It’s extremist, bitter, and encourages men to “not get fucked” by taping every conversation that they have with a woman, like a troop of paranoid angry, ninja spies.
Naturally, MRAs are up in arms about this horribly unfair completely accurate (and if anything rather understated) description of their “movement.” I added some thoughts of my own to the discussion on Reddit here. Here’s one of the responses:
Keep digging that hole!
EDITED TO ADD: The New Statesmen is going to have a whole week of stuff on Men’s issues. So stay tuned!
EDITED TO ADD AGAIN: On the Men’s Rights subreddit, the battle rages on, but alas I can contribute no more, having just been banned from there, apparently for mentioning The Spearhead too many times, or something. Separate post on that in a second. But in the meantime, here’s my favorite comment from the whole thread, from someone who apparently didn’t enjoy the New Statesman piece as much as I did:
If anyone knows of any sorority newsletter that reads like that New Statesman piece, please let me know, as I would like to subscribe to that newsletter and/or join that sorority, if my status as a mangina qualifies me for membership.
In the meantime, I have added The Vagenda, the online home of Rhiannon and Holly, the authors of the NS piece, to the “Antidotes to Boobery” sidebar.
“I am a good person! Fuck you for not recognizing that, and may you suffer a lot.”
why the liver?
That’s awfully specific. Why liver cancer?
That’s both weirdly specific and weirdly vague. He hopes you get liver cancer, not any other kind – but what type of liver cancer, exactly? Hepatocellular carcinoma? Cholangiocarcinoma?
/ spent waaay too long in the medical field
LOL, I see everyone else had similar thoughts. 😀
Oh, liver cancer. Gosh, those MRAs sure love men!
Why’d they choose such mild quotes from the AVfM, though? It’s not like that stuff is hard to find…
:DDDDD Tom Martin is everyone’s favorite.
I can only assume that he was treated really badly by livers in the past and that’s why he is lashing out now. That seems to be the general reason I have heard for mra’s doing things.
is paul-e still bothering with register her? are we gonna see a page for ‘rhiannon and holly’
“Keep digging that hole”?
Don’t you mean “keep fucking that chicken?”
I can’t wait until that becomes a commonplace American English idiom.
Such Nice Guys, why is the MRM so misunderstood? A real hate group would have wished a more deadly type of cancer upon their detractors.
Maybe they’re just cranky because of all the sunlight being beamed on their movement. I would also like to see it reach the really musty, stinky dark corners like The Spearhead, Angry Harry, Heartiste, etc etc etc
All the comments from “Tract Morgan Freeman” so far make for grade-A comedy
In response to Dave’s mentionIng that The Spearheaders don’t want women to vote:
Some conclusions are so absurd that I do not WANT to know the reasoning behind it.
TW: for actual chicken fucking (by a dog) + chicken biting — in other words, you may not want to hit the Play button
(And no, I didn’t go searching for a “keep fucking that chicken” video; it was on another blog that I read. What kind of person do you think I am!?!!?!?!!)
@ David – can we please get that horrifying video removed? I’m disgusted.
@ Cloudiah – you should be completely ashamed of yourself! What’s wrong with you? You find that funny?
Anyway… Back onto subject.
AVfM and the MRM in general will present the NS article as a massive success.
MRAs basically have worked out a great system whereby literally anything that they do is presented as a victory. The Tom Martin debacle, a massive public humiliation, is presented as a victory – why? It for them press. The SPLC reports on their reactionary bile and hateful language. Another MRA victory – why? Same reason. To MRAs, all publicity is good publicity.
This has no basis in reality, but then neither do MRAs, so it’s all relative.
Well, it’s directly relevant to the “keep fucking that chicken” theme that keeps coming up, and no, I didn’t find it funny which is why I both described it AND warned people they might not want to watch it. But sure, delete it if you want.
There’s no way I’m pressing play on that video …
I’ll re-phrase, you think it has any place on a public thread? You think it makes people opposed to the bullying and victimizing of MRAs look good by putting something like that up>
You should apologize – that was a ridiculously stupid thing to do!
I’m not playing that video, to each their own. Happy’s pearl clutching is redlining my Ironyometer, though.
wowww I did not think it was even that bad happy. Animals hump people/furniture/other animals all the time. Its awkward and sometimes kind of funny but I don’t think its that morally depraved. The video was tasteless but way less than some of the shit I have heard here. I don’t think cloudiah needs to apologize for anything nor do I think it needs to be removed really.
I love a good snarking! British snarking, especially. Tom Martin’s beliefs may need a little clarification, though…
http://m.quickmeme.com/meme/3pdvif/
@Happy
Like AACC and hellkell, I have no desire to play that video. This, however,is pure bullshit. Cloudiah is no representative of manboobz, or anti-MRAs or something, and she has no obligation to base what she does off of how it will reflect on people here (of course this is even assuming that the video is so reprehensible that it reflects badly on the community in the first place).
Happy, clearly I am the worst person on the planet, and “ridiculously stupid” to boot. I sincerely apologize for posting a video that (a) depicts something that happens on farms all the fucking time, and (b) illustrates a recurring theme here, while also noting that it might be disturbing and describing the content accurately so that people can decide not to watch it. There is no punishment severe enough. I should probably be banned forever from the internet.
I await my fate with bowed head.