So I wasn’t planning on commenting on this mysterious little Men’s Rights protest that managed to draw a meager seven protestors, with only two signs amongst them, one of them impossible to read at a distance. I mean, despite the poor turnout, they’re actually making an effort to do something in the real world, right? And that’s something, even if the person posting this picture didn’t bother to tell us when this happened or who organized it or even what the protest was about. (Circumcision? Or Men’s Rights generally?) But, hey, baby steps, right?
But then I saw this little exchange in the Men’s Rights subreddit about it:
Feminists: Everything everywhere is always their fault.
Hey, at least they’re doing some actual activism, and anti-circumcision is a respectable cause. I don’t see a problem here.
Read Red Summer by Cameron McWhirter for some USian context on people organizing in dangerous contexts. (1919 was called “red summer” because it was the year that the highest number of incidents of racial violence against African Americans occurred. They did not take it passively, but organized at great risk against lynchings and race riots.)
Look also at how people have organized to fight repressive militarized regimes in S. America, Europe, etc. Talk about courage!
Fucking MRAs have no idea. Pisses me off.
@pangea Absolutely, doing things is good, better than just complaining on the internet. (In support of what cause is important also, though.)
But I think the mockery here is mostly about how they think there’s some oppression going on against them, and so a number of us have been providing examples of what real oppression looks like (and how people have fought it with more courage than MRAs have ever demonstrated).
Paul Elam =/= Nelson Mandela, for example. Or Gandhi, as much as they like to appropriate his words.
they really aren’t tho. seven people standing around with two incomprehensible signs is about as lazy as activism gets. if it were part of a broader campaign to put anti-circumcision (anti-foreskin snipping, mind you, they don’t care about girls) in the public eye and get local measures considered, that would be one thing, but they aren’t, they’re just posting on the internet and organizing half-assed meet-ups they forget to tell anyone about, and then they blame everyone else when they’re not treated seriously.
no, they don’t get a cookie for trying.
lmao… I wonder what they think of the scented candles for men?
This is OT, but anyone interested in some crazy MRA posts, including the one about removing infant girls’ voice boxes, check this out. Sorry if you’ve seen it before, but maybe some haven’t.
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/weekend-web/spearhead-forum-misandry.php?page=8
There’s this website called “Meetup” where you can create groups and events for those groups. I’m a brony so I subscribe to a brony group and get all kinds of emailed events right to my inbox. Plus there’s also this website named “Facebook” where you can create “groups” in which you can also create events for said groups.
There is really no reason why MRAs can’t get organized other than the fact that they either do NOT want to get organized, or they’re so fragmented full of “in-DUH-vidualz” that they just can’t agree on any one person to listen to about anything.
*shrug*
Or maybe they’re just idiots.
PS: Pretty much every feminist I’ve ever read or spoken with is outspoken against male genital mutilation AS WELL AS female genital mutilation.
Feminism has always been about bodily integrity and personal choice in life as well as breaking down illogical gender and sexual roles in society- it would be incredibly hypocritical to ignore the injustice of male circumcision and violation of male infants’ bodily integrity.
Yay Father Ted!
Wow, the fact that people organized massive protests decades before the internet whereas these guys who have specific internet forums dedicated to their cause can’t get even a dozen dudes to stand outside and rage says a lot about just how huge of a failure their movement is and how much they’re really just looking for an excuse to bitch about women and not to actually do anything.
like if someone ever tells me they need a picture of the internet its all ready to go
@nanasha
idk like occasionally i wonder how it would be different if my pipe wasnt cut but on the whole it is pretty much a thing i do not care at all about
@Sharculese
My husband and I are both anti circumcision. I think less people are doing it, and gradually it will fall out of practice. But people should be educated, so if MRAs want to do that, I’m fine with it. But knowing them, they’ll link circumcision to a feminist plot and make the anti circumcision movement look stupid.
I have to assume that they imagine that “the Feminist” is sort of brain-worm in the tap water that makes them forget about important stuff like that.
The drunk, geriatric priest from Father Ted reminds me of Uncle Elmer (he just needs to mention his FOREIGN BRIDE every 2nd sentence).
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tNY376o2XMY
For the life of me I don’t know why, but I look at that picture of those guys and the last line of the refrain from “Billy Jean” plays in my head.
One commenter writes:
You don’t say…
The crazy old Gandalf figure certainly completes the picture!
I dunno… I was against the MRM, but according to that picture, the movement consists of a wizard and his six companions. I can’t help wondering if there’s a treasure map on the other side of that sign.
Maybe, this is the problem – they’re just confused fantasy characters who don’t understand the difference between a ‘civil rights movement’ and an ‘expedition to the Barrier Peaks’. Instead of mocking them, we should chip in and get them some sort of magic wardrobe, and send them all head off to Narnia.
Or maybe Gor. I guess they’d prefer Gor.
D’oh! Ninja’d.
Could be that they had the organisation, but… and this is controversial… lacked the numbers to get a decent protest going. Maybe there just aren’t enough of them in that area to get more than seven people who can be arsed to make an effort.
Seven protestors? They’ve got a ways to go before they get their million man march.
BTW, I too am against circumcision. I won’t be surprised if they do try to link circumcision to feminism.
Don’t you realize? The proof is that there is no proof. That’s just how crafty the Government and Feminist Lobby is! They lurk everywhere. They might even be here right now!
Sometime I wonder about the Poor Put-Upon White Male, Conspiracy Theory Division. I mean, I have enough to do in my day that I don’t sit around and think these things up. But I suppose if I was, say, a milk machine technician, I might have enough time to contemplate conspiracies. Instead, I have to think about which street I should cry in so that I can get the best deals. I mean, couponing is better, but there’s no glory or thrill in cutting up and sorting little squares of paper.
Somehow Sir Rugglesby, I think you’re right. *shudders*
Of course not. Don’t you realize that managing one’s calendar is women’s work? Obviously, if their wives, girlfriends, mothers, daughters, sisters, and/or female co-workers didn’t a) notify them of the upcoming event, b) put it in their calendars, c) remind them the night before, d) make sure their clothes were clean and ready and that their signs and packed lunches/lunch money were all prepared, and e) wake them up on time (and remind them again), then IT’S A FEMALE CONSPIRACY!!!!
/sarcasm
(The huge core of truth in this is why I didn’t make it too far up the secretarial career ladder.)