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.
“Yes, the civil rights movement was all about bumper stickers and posters. I hear Gandhi was a big fan too.
You fail so hard.”
My father, in the 70s, started a support group for people that had his rare genetic disease. He passed away from it, but his group is still going strong, national, and having raised a lot of money towards research.
Some of his first steps were to put out classified ads nationally. Then to write newsletters (think websites) and obtain the names and addresses of victims and their families and researchers and *raise awareness*.
I don’t know how Gandhi was able to gather so many supporters without an awareness raising step, but more power to him.
Rare genetic disease = serious problem.
Not being allowed to abuse your wife and kids = not a serious problem.
Not having as many sexual partners as you’d like = not a serious problem.
A few more free posters for MRAs & AVfM:
http://i.imgur.com/8BVVq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/nbEND.jpg
“Ball beats his toddler bloody in a fit of rage.”
Yeah, you’re right. I don’t condone in any way what he did to his child or the violent actions he called for.
That said, while he did hit his child (he says he slapped her) and her lip did bleed, that is really not what you convey when you intentionally distort the reality by saying “Ball beats his toddler bloody in a fit of rage.”
You and I should agree to stick to the facts and leave out the reality distortion field, agreed!?
Ghandi didn’t need to raise awareness of the problem. Everyone knew what was being done to them. What he did was draw them together and work out a way to peacefully (for the most part) work against it. They needed that level of organization to draw the rest of the worlds attention to what the people of India were going through.
And that’s why the MRM fails. There’s no consensus on how they are being oppressed, because they aren’t being oppressed.
“Rare genetic disease = serious problem.
Not being allowed to abuse your wife and kids = not a serious problem.
Not having as many sexual partners as you’d like = not a serious problem.”
That wasn’t the point. The point was David and you all claiming that raising awareness is not a step in activism.
” Not having as many sexual partners as you’d like = not a serious problem.”
Heh. Have you seen Hannah Rosin’s piece in the Atlantic? You should stop oppressing women.
Speaking of NWO, I haven’t seen him in a while, has he actually decided to do something productive with his life?
Now, Some Guy, I find it kind of hilariously telling that in your few weeks of being here, the only time you’ve challenged me directly – especially considering this isn’t our first exchange- is when I’ve made a mistake. And it was a mistake, I’m perfectly capable of acknowledging that.
You’re right and I’m wrong about ball’s last name. Since we’ve gotten that out of the way are you going to acknowledge the substance of my post? If you want to harp on my error, feel free.
But it won’t change the fact that an abusive father who who advocated for terrorism is still a shitty representative for father’s rights.
And bumper stickers are not activism.
[quote] I think you have a distorted view of what happened[/quote]
Die in a fire, like Ball did. Because you are an asshole of the highest caliber if you won’t admit that the guy KNEW he was an abuser, and just felt it was his divine right to have his children no matter what he did, including beating them.
He beat his child. This caused her to bleed. He did so because he could not control his rage. What I said was factual. Child-beating is child-beating. I don’t expect the courts to say “oh, she only bled a little, I guess he’s a good father.” Isn’t it reality-distorting to reduce what he did to “slapping,” which is often not painful at all?
You called his suicide activism. That implies that what was done to him was an injustice. If you’re arguing that it’s unjust to take children away from child abusers, then you are condoning it.
Some guy, piss off. I could go into all the ways what you just wrote about Ball is completely fucked up, but we’ve already done that subject to death with better trolls than you; go read the thread.
“And that’s why the MRM fails. There’s no consensus on how they are being oppressed, because they aren’t being oppressed.”
And that’s why feminism fails. We have sex positive feminists that hate radical feminists and we have 3rd wave feminists that hate 2nd wave feminists. And we have pro-choice feminists and pro-life feminists that hate each other….
“I am large. I contain multitudes!” — Walt Whitman.
I hate that quote, but it is true.
I absolutely do agree how frustrating it is that there often is little consensus. Well it is a nascent movement.
It is frustrating also in a forum of feminists to hear one person say, “Not all feminists are like that!” (NOFALT). A fun example can be found in the past two days by Heather over at Zinnia Jones’ blog where Heather (guest blogger) describes that radical feminist theory is really and truly supportive of the transgendered and everyone is mistaken to think that radical feminists are transphobic.
Some dumbdude, any strike to any person that leaves them bloody is too fucking much!!
That child also likely landed a couple feet away on its ass! Kepp in mind the child was a toddler! Being beaten by a full grown man! And likely thought its life was about to end.
Christ you’re an asshole!!! How can you possibly write “it was just one smack”?
Oh my fucking God!! Pillowinhells rage o meter just hit K2 meteo strike!!!
Fuck fuck fuck.
I’m out. Someone please grind some sense of fucking human decency into this disgusting slimne of a failed make a human kit.
Awareness of nonexistent problems you’ve invented out of wholecloth is not a step in fixing oppression.
Feminism fails because it’s a real movement with real people debating real issues!
The MRM is so much more focused, because the only two points that matter are:
1. Women suck.
2. Abusers should not face consequences.
Everything else is just details.
“Now, Some Guy, I find it kind of hilariously telling that in your few weeks of being here, the only time you’ve challenged me directly – especially considering this isn’t our first exchange- is when I’ve made a mistake. And it was a mistake, I’m perfectly capable of acknowledging that. ”
I’ve actually addressed you directly before.
Hmm, you seem unable to acknowledge your mistakes without getting angry and filled with rage.
An uncoordinated postering “campaign” that is happening in 2 locations globally, and that has a message that is unintelligible to most viewers, is not the first step in raising awareness.
You’re reaching, pipsqueak. The MRM can’t even get up a meetup.
“That wasn’t the point. The point was David and you all claiming that raising awareness is not a step in activism.
Awareness of nonexistent problems you’ve invented out of wholecloth is not a step in fixing oppression.”
This was in fact the thesis of David’s post. I am just here to point out how boring his schtick is.
Yeah, they’re being oppressed because women are taking their jobs, and they’re being oppressed because women aren’t working and are leeching off of them, and they’re being oppressed because women dress too darn sexy, and they’re being oppressed because women aren’t dressing sexy enough, and on and on ad nauseum. Basically, they’re being oppressed by the existence of women.
Also, to state that a child abusing terrorist is a good example of what MRA activism looks like.
Duly noted, some guy. But you’d think you could just state your boredom once and then fuck off for good.
Oh no no no, we’re way past that, Boring Asshat; you sat here, and told us that an abusive terrorist was TOTES MCGOTES A DESERVING FATHER YO. You are beyond just talking about how ‘boring david’s schtick is’. And if it’s so boring, also? Fuck off. I just don’t go to sites that bore me, I don’t whine about how terrible they are to anyone.
Hey pillowhell,
“Christ you’re an asshole!!! How can you possibly write “it was just one smack”?”
Your tantrums aside, I never wrote that. Check your meds dear.
In a sense, they are under Schrodinger’s Oppression. They are simulataneously being leeched off by women and being emasculated by women working for themselves. Women are simultaneously too slutty and not putting out enough.
Whenever a troll puts together a comment, the waveform collapses into one or the other. But then, in the midst of a paragraph break, the oppression is no longer being observed and re-randomizes.