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Is Reddit’s Feminism subreddit run by MRAs?

Oh, Reddit, where the demographics are so skewed that virtually every discussion amongst and/or about women ultimately gets taken over by dudes doing the old “what about the dudes” routine. It’s no secret that the TwoXChromosomes subreddit has long been overrun with MRAs and FeMRAs. And now it’s become pretty clear that the Feminism subreddit has gone MRA as well.

If you want all the details of the drama, here’s a thread in the subreddit in which the feminists who’ve stuck with the subreddit take on the MRAs and MRA-symps amongst the mods.

Check out the Feminisms and SRSWomen subreddits if you want to discuss feministy stuff on Reddit without having to deal with endless derailing from MRAs and other shitlords.

EDITED TO ADD:  More links:

SRS takes on the whole mess (lots of useful links).

SRS links to r/feminism mods defending MRAs

An r/feminism thread about the recent Captain Awkward posts about creeps that is, naturally, full of endless hang-wringing about the evils of “creep-shaming.”

(Thanks, Cliff, for the links.)

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Gametime
12 years ago

my words have been neither passive nor aggressive.

o rly?

Or, well, I was hoping to but, much as I expected, the majority of responses (not yours, to be clear) seemed to be based on getting all enraged and superior, or just being terse (yours), rather than fostering any kind of actual conversation.

And yes, I’m a huge MRA troll because I dare question the internet feminist status quo.

I missed the memo that said we all had to follow unquestioningly or be screamed at.

I guess (as I feared) we can’t really have a discussion about this or contemplate that we might be slightly off base or need to refine our thinking, or just defend our positions without being offended by the mere fact of someone not automatically agreeing. I’ll know never to darken this door with such depravity again.

If you want to read into it things you find angering then there’s nothing I can do about that. It seems you wanted to take what I wrote in bad faith.

All of this is passive-aggressive nonsense. You’re dismissing the criticisms of your argument by framing the critics as “enraged,” as avoiding “actual conversation,” as defending the “status quo,” as “unquestioningly” following others, as “offended” by nothing. (By the way, your complete failure to understand the contextual use of quotation marks as useful for things other than actual quotes was pretty great, but to avoid confusion all the above instances of quotation marks are, in fact, quoting the things you said.)

I can’t really fathom what of my writing you feel to be passive-aggressive and whiny.

Basically all of it, but funnily enough this sentence is a perfect example.

I want more than to just say they’re not even remotely the same kind of thing because there are some ways in which they seem similar.

Okay, let’s see if I can reduce this to the simplest terms possible for you. Please respond as succinctly as possible, because holy hell am I getting tired of trying to pick out what you are actually saying from these rambling walls of text.

Slut-shaming is bad because it shames women for exercising sexual agency and bodily autonomy, neither of which is a shameful activity. Creep-shaming is not bad because it shames people for violating a person’s emotional or physical boundaries, which is shameful. Your confusion seems to stem from this idea that “slut” means (at least in part) “woman who makes persistent and unwanted advances,” which is how the word has been used precisely never. (Again, a person deemed “slutty” by society might be guilty of creepy behaviour, but the word “slut” does not connote creepery.)

As an aside, I’m pretty sure no one here has committed an ad hominem fallacy in responding to you. It’s only ad hominem if the personal attack is used as the reason why your argument is wrong (as in “You’re really stupid, so you must be wrong about creep-shaming”). If the personal attack is attached to a legitimate criticism of your argument, it’s just an insult (as in “Your argument relies on a fundamentally mistaken interpretation of the word ‘slut’ which is supported neither by history nor contemporary culture, you dunderhead”).

Ithiliana
12 years ago

More directly relevant to David’s post on the rape threat on reddit, but that’s an older thread, so here!

Jim Hines cancels Q&A on Reddit because of the rapists sharing their story thread:

http://www.jimchines.com/2012/07/why-i-cancelled-my-reddit-qa/

drst
drst
12 years ago

Isn’t there some middle ground on the “creepy” issue? It strikes me that it is used the same way “bitch” is against assertive women

No. I don’t need to have middle ground with someone who thinks I have no right to decide whether I feel safe or not. And that’s what creepers are about.

Let me put this bluntly, since obviously you can’t be bothered to go read the extensive explanations put forward by a lot of other people on this subject just in the last week: if you go up to a girl and ask her out and she says no and you say “OK” and walk away? THAT’S NOT CREEPY.

If you proceed to keep asking, to give her a long list of why her answer is wrong? Creepy.

If a woman tells you “This thing you just did/said made me uncomfortable” and you apologize and never do it again? ALSO NOT CREEPY.

If you respond by continuing to behave that way? Creepy.

If you’re talking to someone and they are not making eye contact, not responding to what you’re saying very much, are leaning away from you, if they actually go walk away from you, and you don’t try to continue the conversation/follow them? Yeah.

Creepers violate boundaries over and over again. They ignore clear signals and in some cases straight up warnings and continue to encroach on people because they think what they want is more important than anything else.

Me being a bitch? Does not violate your boundaries. Mostly because bitch is used to shame women for doing things like, oh, say, declaring boundaries and maintaining them.

Seriously, if you want a fast education on how often women who just try to avoid being harassed get called a “bitch” for the most basic attempts at staying safe, check out the @everydaysexism account on Twitter.

And on the autism/Aspie front, I’ve never known a person who fit into either of those categories who, when told “That thing you do makes me uncomfortable” insisted they could keep doing it because they were autistic. They’ve all said “Oh crap I’m sorry I didn’t realize.” And they stopped.

Stopping the encroaching behavior is the hallmark of a non-creeper. This is not complex.

drst
drst
12 years ago

@drst – I’m not sure to which post you are responding because you certainly read things in there that I never wrote. If you want to RAGE all over the place then I’m happy I could give you a bit of diversion in your life. Still, I was hoping we could wear our big kid pants and that feminists (even ones on t’interwebz) would be able to be a bit reflective and consider what some folks at the party see as possible problems, inconsistencies, or weaknesses in some of our thinking. I missed the memo that said we all had to follow unquestioningly or be screamed at.

Oh, kid. you’re really new at this aren’t you?

I quoted you. Verbatim. Right in the top of my comment. I was replying to something you specifically said. And trying to claim you don’t know what I was responding to when anyone reading can go back a page and find what you said and read it is silly.

And let me tell you, that wasn’t even close to real rage, son. I didn’t even break a sweat. I have had this argument a thousand times before with other equally stupid assholes on the internet. But if you get your rocks off thinking I did more than scribble off a comment in 2 minutes, enjoy yourself.

And really, “big kid pants”? Wow. NOBODY EVER SUGGESTED TO ME THAT I WAS TOO EMOTIONAL NOW I AM DEVASTATED AND MUST GO HIDE MYSELF FROM THE INTERNET FOREVER! Except, not:You are damaging your cause by being angry

Your arguments are not new. You are not cleverly needling me or anyone else with your brilliant lines of attack. Your tactics are so ancient they have mildew. Seriously, go read the entire Derailing for Dummies site before you comment anywhere else on the internet. It will save people a lot of eye rolling at your idiocy.

I don’t need to be calm and reflective about this, especially not when dealing with trolls online. I don’t need to contort myself or my language into something you will deem acceptable. This is not some academic exercise in thought experiments. Women live with this shit every day. It gets them hurt, it gets them raped, it gets them killed. I don’t owe it to anyone to be civil about this, least of all a stranger on the internet. If you think slut shaming and “creep shaming” are the same thing you’re an idiot and an asshole and I hope you spend the rest of your life walking on Legos.

Sharculese
12 years ago

@Sharculese – Your response is exactly what I was critiquing. There are plenty of people who say slut-shaming isn’t a real thing. The NO U back-and-forth doesn’t get us anywhere and does feminists no credit. It is exactly how to respond without saying that creep-shaming isn’t real and just leaving it at that that I am trying to improve on. Or, well, I was hoping to but, much as I expected, the majority of responses (not yours, to be clear) seemed to be based on getting all enraged and superior, or just being terse (yours), rather than fostering any kind of actual conversation.

except that the invention of ‘creep shaming’ follows a known pattern where mras take actual problems and put a lazy spin on them so they can scream ‘me too’ and derail serious conversations with their pretend victim bullshit. “you were blamed for your own rape? well I was blamed for not getting a date to my senior prom and that’s basically the same thing.” except it’s fucking not and you have to be a pretty disgusting person not to get that.

i don’t know if you’re trying to engage in that sort of cheap, cowardly both-sides-do-it-ism or your just fucking stupid enough to be taken in by it it, but no, taking this shit seriously isn’t ‘improving’ anything legitimizing their talking points and demeans the experiences of actual victims. (speaking, fuck you buddy, people aren’t trying to sound ‘superior’ you said shit that’s seriously insulting and people are pissed off. you don’t get to play the martyr card)

Ithiliana
12 years ago

*Applauds DRST heartily and giftwraps one shiny internet for hand delivery*

Plus, +1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Sharculese
12 years ago

Isn’t there some middle ground on the “creepy” issue? It strikes me that it is used the same way “bitch” is against assertive women – sure, while some women genuinely are bitchy and unpleasant, plenty of women who are assertive or just have more stereotypically male traits get called bitches because they don’t fit people’s preconceived notions of femininity.

the middle ground is these dudes sober up and say ‘yknow what, while its frustrating when i’m held responsible for behavior i dont understand and dont always feel like i can control, that’s not the same thing as being sexually assaulted and i’m sorry for belittling your experience by pretending it was. i’m ready to have a serious and productive conversation about expected standards of male behavior without blaming all my problems of feminism.’

and then everyone wins

Ugh
Ugh
12 years ago

But some men, especially of the type you might encounter on reddit, are completely harmless and have no clue how to express how they like somebody, or are somewhere on the shallow end of autism spectrum disorder or are unattractive and shy.

LOL!

Of course, the web site with the most prevalent and public problems with sexual harassment on the entire internet is NATURALLY where all the harmless poor misunderstood men are found.

Ugh
Ugh
12 years ago

Also this excuse:
have no clue how to express how they like somebody

Is almost hilariously stupid. Like, everyone has trouble with these feelings during puberty. But if you’re 15 years old or older and still don’t know how to express attraction in a way that is respectful, it’s on you to get your shit checked by a therapist.

I guess it’s true what Jason Bateman says, some guys are just in a state of perpetual adolescence.

Ugh
Ugh
12 years ago

So much blockquote failure!

Anna
Anna
12 years ago

Oh fuck this. I’m very socially anxious and I freak out when men approach me. A lot of the time I clam up and don’t know what to say; I’ve got flustered and run off a couple of times with particularly aggressive ‘smooth talking’ types of guys (men with excellent social skills who STILL have no concept of boundaries or are choosing to ignore them.)

These reactions get me labelled as ‘rude’ and ‘stuck up’, that I think I’m too good to talk to them. You can’t win.

I can’t imagine how much scarier that pushy stuff must be for non-NT women. 🙁

Shadow
Shadow
12 years ago

Isn’t there some middle ground on the “creepy” issue?

About as much middle ground as can be found with peeps who think creationism should be taught alongside evolution.

Shadow
Shadow
12 years ago

Or, to be less snarky, IME “creepy looking” can be misused, “creepy” is much less misused. I’ve been told that people have found me “creepy looking” (usually secondhand accounts so take that for what it is) because I’m tall, dark and quiet. That’s not a problem with the term creepy, that’s a problem with a society that teaches us that dark people are to be feared. I have similarly heard some descriptions of “creepy looking” that follow racial, classist or otherwise oppressive lines. Again, that’s a problem with the messages we get from society, and are all passive. Creepy actions (those that are found creepy by a number of people) have no justification.

Quackers
Quackers
12 years ago

No. I don’t need to have middle ground with someone who thinks I have no right to decide whether I feel safe or not. And that’s what creepers are about.

This. The MRAs who rail on about the world creepy are creeps. They try to belittle women and make them feel guilty for asserting their boundaries and just want them to just sit back and take whatever creepy bullshit they pull. Sorry but no. If you’re being a creep you’re going to be called out on it.

Its reeks of entitlment. They have plenty of gendered slurs they use for women and constantly rationalize why it’s ok to use them (ie its ok to call women sluts cuz they’re more likely to cheat on you), but now one word that isn’t even gendered gets them all butthurt. Unless you say that men are perfect persons of perfection all the time you’re labeled a misandrist. Pfft….creeps ;P

Quackers
Quackers
12 years ago

Also an anecdote, but I (a woman) was told that something I did recently might be considered creepy. So how did I deal with it? First I felt embarrassed, then I pondered it and decided maybe it could be seen as that and decided I’d be more careful in the future. I did not take to the internet and rant about what a gross injustice this is and try to guilt people into not asserting their boundaries though.

I did annoyingly think of douchebag MRAs though and how they insist that creepy is only used on men.

katz
12 years ago

I’m trying to figure out what donsie expects people who don’t believe creep-shaming is a real thing to say, since apparently we’re not allowed to say “creep-shaming isn’t a real thing.”

heidihi
heidihi
12 years ago

‘But some men, especially of the type you might encounter on reddit, are completely harmless’…

And some men, especially of the type you might encounter on reddit, are self-confessed rapists.

Tulgey Logger
Tulgey Logger
12 years ago

Dear donsie,

Literally the whole MRM is a “NO U” movement. It doesn’t matter what we say to them, because feminists have been putting out plenty of substance for years. “Creep shaming” is something they invented so that they could pretend that men are oppressed by women.

xoxo

Common Fucking Sense

katz
12 years ago

Literally the whole MRM is a “NO U” movement. It doesn’t matter what we say to them, because feminists have been putting out plenty of substance for years. “Creep shaming” is something they invented so that they could pretend that men are oppressed by women.

Misandry, glass cellar, false rape accusations, paper abortions…there’s a long list of MRM “what about us, we want to be oppressed too!” terms.

whataboutthemoonz
12 years ago

“If your argument is that other people EXISTING violates your boundaries? You’ve got fucking ISSUES.”

Just because it ought to be said again.

pecunium
pecunium
12 years ago

Nomless: You don’t have to like everbody, but you do have to learn to get along with people whom you are repulsed by and who even make you a little uncomfortable.

No, I don’t.

I do have to learn how to cope with situation where, for some reason I can’t leave, or tell them to bugger off, but apart from thiings like work, or waiting in line at the DMV (where there are still limits to what someone can do before I flag the guard and report that person as being creepy) I don’t have to do anything like that.

I am will within my rights (natural and legal) to tell them to piss up a rope. Because I very much don’t have to put up with assholes being creeps.

For that matter, I don’t even need that justification. If I don’t like someone’s taste in clothes, or music, or food, I am free to not associate with them. I can refrain from asking them into my home. I can leave public spaces if I feel like it.

Becuase I, as a person, am not obliged to like/spend time with, just anyone who wants to spend time near me.

pecunium
pecunium
12 years ago

Creep is not parallel to slut.

Hence slut-shaming and creep-shaming are not parallel.

First, and it’s hard to do, the question is what is a slut/creep.

So… if we accept the existence of, “sluts” in the framework of the NWOs of the world, sluts are women who engage in being sexy in public; as defined by others, and who have sex with “too many people/in ‘bad’ ways” (again, as defined by others).

These others think this is shameful; even though there is no actual interaction between the “sluts” and the people shaming them (unless it’s people like the cop in Toronto, who went out of his way to tell women they were being sluts).

So “slut” is a state of being, which can only be avoided by not engaging in the autonomous behavior the slut-shamer dislikes.

Creeps are people who make others feel uncomfortable, in the course of personal interactions; this can be communicated to others, e.g. when someone tells you that person “x” is creepy. This commutative effect is based on the trust the person sharing it has earned from the person to whom they are speaking.

That’s the difference. The Creep is being identified from interaction, and the slut from mere existence.

Sylocat
12 years ago

As long as you’re checking out /r/SRS and /r/feminisms, may I put in a plug for /r/GeekFeminists?

Donut Butthole
Donut Butthole
12 years ago

If this was 1980, maybe, but in recent years there has been a rise of creepy women! Gender equality.

Snowy
Snowy
12 years ago

Boston moron why are you still here? I thought you didn’t do this kind of thing anymore.