If you ever have the desire to get yourself downvoted on the Men’s Rights subreddit, here’s one sure-fire strategy: Write a sensible comment suggesting that birth control benefits people with penises as much as people with vaginas.
Here are the two top replies to this comment:
I was going to point out some of the ironies inherent in Men’s Rightsers getting mad about women getting “free” birth control, but I suspect you can figure those out on your own.
This is why the so-called Men’s Rights movement is not so much a rights movement as a take-away-other-people’s-rights movement.
Seriously David?
Your complaint with reddit upvote/downvoting behavior gets linked as:
antifeminism, hypocrisy, irony alert, men who should not ever be with women ever, misogyny, MRA, oppressed men, penises, reddit, vaginas, antifeminism, birth control, men’s rights, MRA, mras, reddit, sandra fluke
I wonder what you think of SRS downvote brigades then? I assume you must feel that is absolute proof positive of misandry, right?
And +4 votes and -5 votes! Heavens forfend!
Whuoh! It’s not at -3 votes and 3 votes and there are other comments ahead.
Come on David, don’t keep us in suspense, give us the exciting play by play on chavelah’s vote count!!!!1!!!
SRS downvotes shit comments. That’s not misandry, that’s what we call being a upright netizen.
This chat room is awfully empty. Is it because blitzgal farted?
Pregnancy is not just some normal function. Even with high quality prenatal care, it can be very dangerous and in the best of circumstances, it’s still very hard on the body. Also, talk about penny wise and pound foolish. Birth control is very cheap compared to prenatal care, delivering babies, and raising children. It’s sickening that even today, we have to fight these same battles over and over.
This is such bullshit right here. MRA’s tell feminists to just suck it up when dealing with actual threats and harassment on the web, yet they cry like little babies when they get downvotes on reddit.
eyes glazing over in here, may have to go back to work now. 🙁
Is that why you’re so boring? It’s just your eyesight?
It’s kinda creepy how many people internalized that line from the matrix and really do seem to think that humans are a viris whose only purpose is to reproduce.
Also is anyone else as tired of some guy’s schtick as I am. Not that constant carping doesn’t have an honored place in the abuser lobby, but still, there ought to be a self imposed limit.
Cool, so the next time an incel whines to me about how no one wants to fuck him, I’ll just say, “What’s so offensive about celibacy?”
Wow. Some guy has a pretty ironic name now.
You be sure to stand up and have a good stretch every hour. I understand that sedentary work is actually very bad for the body.
There would have to be actual misandry, as in, systematic oppression of men, for them to upvote (or anti-misandry efforts to downvote). Seeing as neither exists, that isn’t equivalent.
Misandry exists, because women exist. Science. *sage nod*
He has exactly one schtick, which is to pretend that the pattern of upvotes and downvotes in r/mr is not indicative in any way of the general views of its contributors it’s put to a referendum.
“Men haven’t got birth control options as good as women do” – what? Condoms are so terrible now? Worse than having a pill that is also not %100 reliable and can cause health problems of its own (WHEN you can get it, which seems problematic itself in the US)? Worse than having an IUD inserted into your body?
Childbirth and its aftereffects are, IIRC, the highest killer of young women worldwide. Obviously the danger is lower in countries with good healthcare, adequate sanitation, nutrition and so on, but it is NOT a risk-free event, exactly as thebionicmommy pointed out. And why should a woman be blithely happy to risk pregnancy anyway? We’re not baby-making factories. Nor do I see the anti-contraception men stepping up to be actual, you know, fathers, who raise their kids.
Fuckwits, the lot of them.
It hasn’t done a whole lot for his brain, either.
So these are the same guys who claim that women steal sperm to have babies in order to steal their money for life. If women don’t want to get pregnant they just shouldn’t have sex, but if women aren’t having sex with these guys, they are total stuck up bitches.
Tell me again that MRAs don’t hate women.
I’m incredibly bored with some guy’s shtick.
What’s so offensive about saying women should just stay celibate if they can’t pay for birth control? Pregnancy is the proper functioning of the body! It’s not like women go through huge physical changes when it happens, or 32,000 women a year get pregnant from being raped or anything like that. ¡Misandry! False Equivalence! Men have no reproductive rights! Give me boners or it’s all over!
Yeah. That “I’m bored with you and above it all” thing works okay for a driveby trolling or two, but when you stick around and post constantly it just makes you look idiotic.
“How to get downvoted at r/mr.”
Have a vagina or think people who have one should get a final say in how it gets used.
Believe that all humans have equal rights.
Act outside of expected gender norms for all genders.
Failing to act outside of expected gender norms as a female.
MRAs don’t hate wo- BWAHAHAHA!
I’m sorry. It’s not funny, but I couldn’t keep a straight face all the same.
So because men are sometimes told to “keep it in their pants,” women should be denied birth control because they need to just keep their legs shut. Ok.
Btw, if all of the women are celibate, who are the men supposed to sleep with? I though involuntary celibacy was misandry.
MRA’s tell feminists to just suck it up when dealing with actual threats and harassment on the web, yet they cry like little babies when they get downvotes on reddit.
It’s hilarious, isn’t it?
I like how Some Guy is so very, very bored with us that he had to post four times in a 15-minute period, and one of those times was complaining about how no one else is posting as obsessively as he is.
This is particularly true if you go all into a pout because people aren’t commenting for your entertainment as often as you want them to.
Ninja’ed by one of the best!
some guy has also managed to get in a “your mom” and a fart “joke.” Truly a comedic genius. George Carlin and Richard Pryor are wherever they are just kicking themselves for never getting to that level of humor.
I am in full support of finding more birth control options for men. We should share the wealth of side effects birth control causes.
I have used the following:
1. Birth control pill that made me gain ten pounds and increased my breasts to a DD (some may not see this as a bad thing, but none of my bras fit).
2. The hormonal patch that ate holes in my skin.
3. The Depo Provero shot that made my sex drive disappear for a year.
4. An IUD that hurt so bad when it was inserted I fainted, and then gave me nine day periods with such bad cramps I had to stay in bed with a heating pad.
Birth control is so much fun! The best times was when I was between relationships and practiced celibacy, sometimes for years. Now I am married and use nothing, though now we have the problem of infertility to deal with 🙁
@fembot: And that is why I choose condoms over the pill =P
Condoms are good, but if they slide off or break you have to take the morning after pill.
True, though the side effects aren’t as bad now as they were about 5 years ago…oh god the memories >.<
About twelve years ago I spent a day bent over a toilet vomiting from that darned morning after pill. They are much better now, thank goodness.
I use the implant. I don’t trust it, but one of my many brain irregularities (tokophobia) doesn’t trust any birth control that isn’t hysterectomy. It is good in that I don’t have to remember to take it every day, seeing as another of my many brain irregularities (severe anxiety) causes poor memory. This causes me to forget to take essential-to-not-dying medication sometimes. Somehow, I’m not dead. I also forget to take my anti-anxiety pills too. 😛
Some guy, I’m not complaining about the downvotes.I find upvotes and downvotes helpful for giving me an idea of how completely misguided the folks in r/mr are.
Yeah, the first pill I took had me sick for a week. I woke up the next day feeling like I had hit by a train. Now, the worst side effect I get is sore boobs. A bit of a pain but miles better in comparison.
The IUD insertion is brutal. Fortunately my doctor gave me a single dose of benzodiazepam so I was nice and relaxed – I still cussed like a sailor because of the cramps. On the upside: if childbirth is anything like that, it’s good incentive to keep using birth control…
P.S. My health insurance covered part of my IUD costs, I didn’t pay a cent to my doctor to insert it, and the world did not collapse. See America, it is possible.
@Flora
Lucky! When I had to have an HSG test (ink injected into the uterus to see if the fallopian tubes are blocked) my doctor wouldn’t give me anything, even though some women claimed it was more painful than childbirth. I had to have my mom mail me some vicodin.
I know three women who use IUDs; for one of them, it’s been great. The other two bled, like all the time, for months and months.
Someone take my vagina, I don’t want mine anymore =(
So we should have sex and just be celibate if we can’t afford birth control, but if we don’t have sex we’re frigid bitches? If we don’t want kids we’re horrible sluts, and if we do want kids we’re sperm-stealing child support chasers?
I asked my boyfriend why he helps pay for my birth control and he said “Because you can’t afford it and I enjoy having regular sex with you.” I guess that’s misandry, some how.
I think there was a male birth control suggestion that involved sonic-ing the testicles. I don’t know what happened to it though.
I do know my partner did not appreciate my suggestion that he sit on a loudspeaker though. 😛
The last time I took the morning after pill I was 18, and I still remember the nausea. And the constant bleeding, weight gain, and emotional confusion that led me to stop taking the pill. These guys want hormonal contraceptives and all the lovely side effects that go along with them? They’re more than welcome to it.
I guess they’re pretty close to developing a male birth control pill that inhibits sperm production and sperm motility.
OT, for those talking about problems with IUDs. There are different kinds of IUDs. There are two currently available in the US, the ParaGard, which is a copper-containing IUD and the Mirena, which contains hormones. ParaGard tends to increase bleeding and cramping in some women but has the advantage of being able to stay in for 10 years. Mirena actually tends to decrease bleeding, and some women actually stop bleeding with them. They can be used for 5 years. If you had problems with a ParaGard, you might consider a Mirena.
Screwdriver or The Hedgehog?
Either way: ow.
I’d amend that to ‘even more idiotic’.
@Tulgey Logger
I actually have a Wii-mote in the shape of Eleven’s screwdriver… *evil little giggle*
Don’t you just love MRA “logic”?
Active sexual dysfunction often IS normal function. It’s a normal consequence of aging, for one thing, and prevents reproduction when advanced paternal age is likely to contribute to developmentally disabilities in offspring. The same can be said of instances where impotence is correlated with serious chronic conditions. And lest we forget, Viagra doesn’t actually treat erectile dysfunction. It does not address underlying causes, and it has no long-term positive effect. It’s sole purpose is to enable a man to get his rocks off during a limited time interval.
Moreover, what are the consequences of impotence, other than the inability to have sex or reproduce? Impotence is not life-threatening. It’s not painful. It does not impact a person’s normal activities of daily living.
Pregnancy, by contrast, is painful, uncomfortable, life-threatening, disabling to varying degrees, and known to occasionally lead to long-term damage to the woman’s body. But no, because it’s what God intended, let’s deprive women of the ability to avoid the hell that is pregnancy and childbirth, while supplying men with happy pills. Because, you know, men really are entitled to be hung like a horse as an antidote to being forced into fatherhood. *Headdesk*
“Mirena actually tends to decrease bleeding, and some women actually stop bleeding with them. They can be used for 5 years.”
My doctor told me about 10% of women stop having a period all together. I am one of those lucky few – it is beautiful! (Although I did have one period post-IUD that was like being hit in the abdomen with a baseball bat. Repeatedly. At random intervals throughout the day.)
David,
Pointing out a swing of votes with a spread less than 10 is pretty lame, especially for a reporter presumably addicted to facts and a reality based community.
Pointing out the nonsense of the opinions seems reasonable. Making a big deal out of the votes themselves, especially at reddit, seems meaningless and a waste of everyone’s time, yours and your readers.
Especially since you don’t bother to report the silly opinions, or the misogynist opinions, or homophobic responses that get downvoted. So it’s just more one sided silliness from you that makes you, and your SRS buddies here, happy, and apparently gives the SPLC fodder for fundraising.
But it misrepresents the dynamics of that forum and the dynamics of reddit and you know that.
It is amusing to watch your commenters here fulminate over horrible MRA downvotes and then turn around and rationalize SRS downvote brigades. I know if I were a reporter I would be so happy to see my posts abused in this way.