So I’ve been mostly avoiding writing about the whole Men’s Rights postering controversy in Vancouver, because it’s such a tempest in a teapot. The tl;dr: Some posters got torn down, and some of the people tearing them down yelled at the blabby MRA videoblogger and A Voice for Men second fiddle known as JohnTheOther.
MRAs: Given that virtually none of you have any experience as actual real world activists, you may not be aware of this, but POSTERS GET TORN DOWN. It’s annoying, and I don’t support it myself, but it happens all the time. Sometimes, you may actually run across people tearing down your posters, at which point there is usually some sort of awkward confrontation that may include yelling.
You know what you do when this happens? You put your posters up again. You know what you don’t do? Compare the experience to rape. Because, on the list of the grand injustices of the world, having posters torn down is pretty far down the list, somewhere around “stubbing your toe” and “kitten farts on you.”
That said, here are a few new “developments” in this ongoing epic.
1) Jezebel has posted a piece about the controversy. The most interesting thing about it is the following quote from, you guessed it, JohnTheOther, who apparently had this to say to someone from a local “community-driven news” website. The topic? False accusations of rape.
Maybe it’s a mistaken accusation, she doesn’t remember who she had sex with because she was drunk at the party or whatever. Some make accusations that have nothing to do with being raped; they’re angry, or they got stood up, they wanted to have sex with a guy but he said no. The fact that our society doesn’t have a balance for this is a major problem. I’m not suggesting every woman you meet is a loose cannon, but every woman you meet has the potential to be one, because for those few who are nutty, there’s no disincentive for them to go, oh, I was late for work. I know, I’ll just say I got raped.
Now, if the Men’s Rights movement were an actual civil rights movement trying to better the lives of men, this quote would be a public relations disaster. What real civil rights movement would want to have itself associated with someone who seems to think that women make up rape accusations willy nilly, when a date stands them up or when they need an excuse for being late to work?
Of course, the Men’s Rights “movement” isn’t an actual civil rights movement at all; it’s more like a collective tantrum. While MRAs are eager to “spread the word,” the more spreading they do, the more damage they do to themselves. No one is better at making MRAs look bad than MRAs themselves, which is why on this blog I spend so much of the time letting these (mostly) dudes make themselves look ridiculous with their own words. So, JtO, thanks?
2) And speaking of Mr. TheOther, we can now see video footage of the supposed dramatic confrontation that JohnTheOther had with what his AVFM boss Paul Elam called “a gang of 20-30 assholes on the street, some wielding box cutters.”
GirlWritesWhat, one of the Men’s Rights movement’s few non-dudes, has put up selections of video footage from Mr. TheOther in her video below.
As you’ll see – unless for some reason GWW has decided not to post the most incriminating parts of the video — there was no gang; it was a small group of people. No one was “wielding box cutters” in a threatening manner. The whole thing took place in broad daylight on a busy street.
Some posters were taken down. There were some raised voices. That’s it. That’s the sort of shit activists deal with every fucking day of their life.
Here’s the video:
Am I missing something here? This non-event is the alleged confrontation that AVFM has been hyperventilating about all this time? This is the evil anti-MRA harassment that Elam says “makes getting bestially raped by Richard Dawkins sound kinda funny.”
Leave it to Mr. Elam to add a rape-joke cherry to this bullshit sundae. Once again, MRAs are their own worst enemies.
http://themonroetimes.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=31909
My department at the university where I work approves all posters that go into the residence halls. Most other buildings on campus also have policies where you have to submit your poster to their administrative offices in order for the poster to go up on their bulletin boards, otherwise risk it being torn down. It’s mostly me who’s responsible for approving for posters that go to the residence halls (I HAVE THE POWER!) so if something’s inappropriate, too bad, so sad. The thing is, we do have to be pretty lenient because we recognize there are a lot of different groups on campus, but you still aren’t allowed to use our campus to recruit for a hate group (or advertise shit, or advertise shit using our university logo, etc).
I suppose MRAs would say this is more evidence of “misandric” administrators trying to push a feminist agenda, but mostly it’s just to try to keep all the scam advertisement posters out of our halls and to try to limit at least a little bit of the things janitors have to clean up.
Holy shit, Blitzgal. Yeah, that guy really “loved” his family.
I’ll be looking at cat pics if anyone needs me.
@blitzgal, that story is heartbreaking. I’m sick to think of what a horrible death those poor children suffered. That father is a monster.
@blitzgal: that story made me feel physically ill. Maybe it is because I am hugely pregnant and vulnerable. But I think it is also because this man was stupid and evil enough to think that the life insurance would just pay out without doing a thorough investigation for foul play. He murdered innocent children and for what? Now he will be making a “fresh start”- in prison.
@psychodan
Does GMP identify itself as part of the MRM? I was under the impression that they did not. Of course, I don’t really know anything about them except that Ozy’s blog moved there
Yes, the GMP is still a part of the MRM. Some of the commenters from The Spearhead and A Voice for Men comments as well at The GMP. The GMP is a good MRM website.
@fembot
“And there is no bigger obstacle to finding happiness than lingering bitterness over a failed love affair. I have had my heart broken a few times. But if I had wallowed in my pain, and nursed my anger and let it grow, I never would have been able to give my heart to my husband, and I would have missed out on all of the happiness I have found with him.”
Some men may take longer to get over a heartache or possibly they have been hurt not once but numerous times by women. However, many men in the MRM do eventually get over it after awhile and get married, enter in a relationship, or have friendships with women.I know for me -it took some soul searching, and even talking to a therapist before I got married, The last thing fembot is to bring unresolved issues in a relationship. If you peruse The Spearhead and A Voice for men over time you will see many comments by married men in the MRM.
Also, another good site that conveys the experiences of a moderate married MRM who I admire is Dalrock. Dalrock even has many women comment on his blog.
@Happy
Thanks for your response. I was kicking myself last night after I wrote that post about Chapin after I remembered his video mocking “lesbobos.” Anyway, he is a homophobic asshat on top of his many other lovely qualities.
But your bar scenario is interesting. I would definitely chose Chapin over the others. JtO is just creepy. He doesn’t even sound human the way he talks. Elam would probably never stop talking about how great he is. I think Chapin would be semi decent company provided we didn’t talk about anything of substance. Maybe we could just talk about beer. I think I may find Chapin less disgusting than other MRAs because he was in the Army (so is my husband) and I have enormous respect for that institution. Or maybe because he smiles and doesn’t seem to be brimming with hateful rage. I don’t know.
Anyway, let me state again, I do not think Chapin is in any way a moderate, but when you put him next to Barbarossa he looks like a teddy bear. He is probably way too political to ever become head honcho of the MRM. And he doesn’t hate enough, either. The MRM requires less politics, more hatred of women from its lieutenants. I really can’t think of any moderate MRAs, actually. People keep throwing out Warren Farrel as a possibility…?
Anyway, OT, does anyone else have a cat that is constantly rubbing his paws in a paddling motion on every smooth vertical surface in the house? Television, glass picture frames, mirrors. He doesn’t put his claws out, at least, but it makes one helluva racket. He also likes to chew on the corners of our end tables. I think he is a puppy trapped in a cat’s body.
Oh holy hell WTF is wrong with my blockquotes? New laptop.
@MGTOWMRA
Last week, you mean? Since you weren’t married last time you came round…
@MGTOWMRA
I refer you to David’s comment on the previous page.
Many of them just as honest as you.
Some of them also comment here; doesn;t make MB an MRM website.
Pro tip: if no writers or editors of a blog identify as part of a movement, then the blog is not considered part of the movement.
Trolling a blog does not suddenly assimilate it into your ideology.
Did you take dictation on both the original comment and the follow-up comments as well? Did you read your buddy all the replies or something? Why did you make it all first-person? Why didn’t you include your own thoughts as well, and demarcate them as such? Why are you only explaining this now that you got caught in an obvious lie?
I don’t even want to know the answers to those, it would just be more pathetic. Although I do love the image of someone reading out all the comments in a thread to someone over the phone, though. “Then cloudiah said something about an owl and a wordle. It’s really confusing.” And then his buddy instructs him to copy and paste some link from that stupid anti-feminist tech blog. lololoololol
@MGTOWMRA
Also, re: antifeminist tech blog, maybe you should read David’s latest post.
Also, I don’t see how a few comments on another blog changes the fact that the chief editors of the Spearhead and A Voice For Men think that rape and torture of women should be legal.
Arguing that their advocacy of rape and torture isn’t a big deal isn’t exactly making you the voice of reason in this conversation.
I am laughageing
AMG our idiot black an white cat does this! Its similar to the motion they make when trying to cover up a stank, so I used to panic when he did it, looking for the pee or poo someone had made. I never did find one >.> I think it might be some form of scent-marking, though. Right now his two favourite targets are the tool box next to the water bowl (drink, drink, paw, paw, paw, paw …) and the full length mirror in the bathroom. I used to have a clock over my desk and he’d crawl up on the top shelf of the desk to paw at the clock for ages. (I’ll see if I can dig up the video when I get home …)
Cats are weird >.>
All, see MGTOWMRA’s hilarious explanation of that little inconsistency about his marital status here:
http://manboobz.com/2012/09/11/posters-getting-torn-down-a-crime-against-humanity-includes-video-footage-of-johntheothers-epic-confrontation-with-alleged-box-cutter-wielding-gang/comment-page-4/#comment-202965
Or just scroll up.
I often deal with trolls who’ve been banned using this sort of crap excuse. In wiki-parlance: WP:BROTHER is not a credible explanation you dumbass.
Neeerrrr… looks like that link didn’t work. Try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:BROTHER
LOLOLOL they backpedal sooo fast.
Were you also, perhaps, holding that weed for a friend?
Cat!
http://evaporites.tumblr.com/post/31428812500/barlow-why-are-you-such-a-dinglebutt
Seriously, I love this cat more than life itself, but he is dumber than a box of hair >.>
@Halite
Thanks for the video. My cat does that all the time, but especially when I’m sleeping.
So MGTOWMRA has an imaginary friend as well as an imaginary wife? How sweet!