Well,I got carried away there. It’s not literally the whole world. Only a teensy weensy portion of it.
The fellows at A Voice for Men, you see, evidently stung by criticism that they aren’t activists, have begun engaging in real, honest-to-goodness real-world activism, by which I mean that a handful of them, some in Canada and at least one in Australia, have been putting up posters advertising the AVFM website.
In other words, their activism consists of putting up posters for a website whose only activism thus far has consisted of putting up posters for itself.
Well, eventually they’ll get the hang of it, I guess.
In any case, the A Voice for Menners have discovered something about activism: if you do things that are offensive enough, people will be offended. And so they’ve managed to offend some people in Canada and in Australia where their posters have gone up. In Australia, there have even been a couple of news articles written about them! For example, one in Melbourne’s Herald Sun says:
A MAN who is littering the city with posters promoting a website that encourages men to support rapists has declined the opportunity to explain himself.
The website, which the Herald Sun has chosen not to name, is campaigning to get men sitting on juries for rape trials to “vow publicly to vote not guilty, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the charges are true”. …
The website’s publisher, Paul Elam, told the Herald Sun he was too busy watching the movie Air Force One to be interviewed, but later said by email he stood by the campaign.
Ooh! How very, very alpha of him.
Other articles (see here and here) describe the posters as “hate posters,” because one of them seems to suggest that women provoke domestic violence against themselves. The text of the poster reads “Domestic Violence Women Are Half the Problem.”
In fact, Elam and company are trying to suggest that women instigate half of all domestic violence, and thus are “half the problem,” but they’re so wedded to the easily misunderstood “half the problem” slogan that they somehow cannot seem to get this idea across in poster form. (This idea is itself incorrect, but that’s a whole other kettle of angry dudes.) Elam and company don’t quite seem to understand that an important part of activism is actually conveying your ideas to the general public rather than simply provoking people.
You can’t buy this kind of publicity!
Well, technically, you could, but no one would, because no one would willingly pay money for a publicity campaign that makes them appear to be hateful assholes — and in fact, even a teensy bit more hateful than they actually are.
So, congratulations, I guess?
If anyone wants to help AVFM in its publicity campaign, the super-sarcastic poster below, and a number of other poorly thought out and badly designed posters, can be downloaded from AVFM here by “anyone who wants to print and distribute them.”
Note: THIS IS A REAL AVFM POSTER. I didn’t make it up. See here.
*5/8ths. *facepalm*
This is why you fail.
Does anyone have a good recipe for wheatpaste?
http://i.imgur.com/IMMqw.jpg
I know, I’m seriously considering buying a damned Vita just to get Persona 4 Golden. Persona 3 portable was a great improvement on the original game, not the least of which allowing us to play as a female character. Also being able to control our party members is a big bonus, too.
I actually just looked up Digital Devil Saga a few weeks ago; both of them are only $19.99 on Amazon so I’m thinking about buying them. They used to be a lot pricier. But right now I’ve gotten sucked into Skyrim again.
Help me out, why is that why I fail, and what do you believe the first steps in activism are?
@cloudiah
http://www.instructables.com/id/Wheatpaste/
This is also why you fail. If you don’t know how to feel about someone who wants juries to pardon rapists even if they’re guilty. I don’t know what to tell you, champ.
Killing yourself in the explicit hope that it would inspire the destruction of public property and the murder of government employees is terrorism, not activism.
Also, I’m not sure why you’ve hitched your wagon to an admitted child abuser who refused anger managment therapy, but if he’s your best example of an activist, your movement might be in some trouble.
The first step in activism is direct person-to-person connection between the oppressed.
Somewhere WAY between there and bumper stickers ought to be “figurin out what message you’re even trying to send.”
That pear poster is a riot. Presumably, “pear” is supposed to be a euphemism for rape, but that doesn’t make sense when used in “now there’s a nice pear” and “time to grow a pear.” In that context “pear” is obviously a stand-in for “pair,” which makes the whole thing terribly disjointed.
How many women actually believe that all men are rapists? I mean, seriously. I’d say it’s the victim-blamers, not the feminists, who believe that all men are potential rapists. They instruct women on how to dress and behave in order to avoid being raped, rather than just tell men that it’s wrong to rape no matter what, as if they believe that men just can’t help themselves.
Besides, women have been subjected to “group guilt” since time immemorial. We are still judged negatively because of what some likely-fictional woman did in a garden several thousand years ago.
@pangea
If NWO is any indication, I think a lot of these guys have no idea that consensual sex is even possible. They do actually think all men are rapists. What upsets guys like Elam is that rape is seen as a bad thing by society.
First of all, it’s Thomas Bell. It drives me nuts that you all keep trying to turn this guy into the Rosa Parks of the father’s rights movement but are always misspelling his name.
Also, Bell is a terrible martyr for the cause. Please stop invoking him. At least once a week I hear (often on NPR) or read a story about a father seeking custody that is moving, an excellent example of the importance of father’s rights, and in no way about an abusive terrorist.
Seek out these stories; interview these men. Take your activism seriously. Or, you know, bumper stickers.
@creativewritingstudent If that’s the case, then I won’t spoil anything (else). They’re fantastic games, you’ll love them.
“The first step in activism is direct person-to-person connection between the oppressed.”
Huh? Clearly they do that at avfm and reddit and all the other sites David lurks at.
Also, what’s NWO, I haven’t figured that one out.
NWOSlave is MB’s longest-serving MRA troll. He, like many MRAs, does not understand that women can consent or not consent to sexual activity.
Any comment on the whole using a child abusing terrorist as your finest example?
Wait a sec, have I just not noticed him or has Owly been missing for a while? And why am I suddenly questioning if one of our trolls is missing? o.O
I think the evidence is that it is Thomas Ball, even David says Thomas Ball: http://manboobz.com/2011/06/27/amanda-marcotte-on-the-thomas-ball-suicide-and-mra-haters/
Another perspective on Thomas Ball that I align with 100% (please don’t tell me what I thnk, or who I think my martyrs are, you are not a mindreader and I have never said that, it’s truly a distortion and violation of a discussion) is here: http://www.fathersandfamilies.org/2011/06/18/divorced-father-thomas-ball-commits-suicide-in-front-of-nh-courthouse/ This is also an example of a very moderate Fathers Rights Activist that never gets any acknowledgement, or even criticism from the same people terribly offended by mens rights activists.
Haha it is mighty suspicious that sgbwys is somehow unaware of who our troll of the year is.
To be fair, he has managed to avoid posting lurid sexual fantasies about ladies on the street with animalian proclivities, so I don’t know.
Wait wut? They don’t even know their great heros name?
I’d say the first step is figuring out what the fuck is that you’re going on about, in the case of the MRM. How serious about an issue can you be if a hero of your movement dies for your cause AND YOU CAN’T BE BOTHERED TO HONOR HIS NAME PROPERLY.
“Any comment on the whole using a child abusing terrorist as your finest example?”
I think you have a distorted view of what happened and my feelings towards it. See my link: http://www.fathersandfamilies.org/2011/06/18/divorced-father-thomas-ball-commits-suicide-in-front-of-nh-courthouse/
Yes, the civil rights movement was all about bumper stickers and posters. I hear Gandhi was a big fan too.
You fail so hard.
Do you have evidence that it is Thomas Bell? Here is a report from the town he committed suicide that says it is Thomas Ball. http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110617/NEWS07/706179973
Perhaps in your zeal to declare how dumb and mistaken everyone that disagrees with you is, you should consider a bit of the old Dunning Kruger.
Interesting how that article doen’t note that he lost custody because he couldn’t stop himself from hitting his kids.
Like, seriously what did you want the judge to do? “I know you beat your kids when you’re angry, and I know you have refused any and all counseling options, so here! Have custody of toddlers for several days a week.” Yeah, that would turn out great.
Also kind of hilarious that the gist of the article is “Alright, I know he’s a terrorist, but what he really meant to do was draw peaceful attention to the family court system.” It’s kind of like saying that Breivik was basically a good guy. Which, incidentally, MRA blogs have done.
Bored guy, whining about things on reddit does not equal “direct person-to-person connection between the oppressed.” It certainly has not lead to coming up with a coherent message to communicate with the larger populace.
Seriously? Study social justice movements. Gandhi, who MRAs are fond of quoting but seemingly incapable of emulating; the civil rights movement in this country (go back to the turn of the last century to get the full picture); the labor movement — all managed to organize under actually oppressive circumstances, something men in the US do not face.
Ninja’d by hellkell! I shoulda hit refresh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. Ball beats his toddler bloody in a fit of rage.
2. Ball is offered anger managment.
3. Ball refuses.
4. Ball loses right to have toddler alone with him.
5. Ball writes a terrorist manifesto.
6. Instead of contributing meaningfully to his children’s well-being, he instead gives them a whole bunch of shit to work through in therapy in 20 years.
Big. Fucking. Hero.