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.
Also, was it The Spearhead that posted that horrible thing about how we should bring back medieval torture devices like the Scold’s Bridle as a way to get women to shut up?
Here is a link to a collection from the Spearhead. Trigger Warning. There is some nasty stuff here.
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/weekend-web/spearhead-forum-misandry.php
Agreed. “I have issues with my ex, therefore I must make war upon 50% of the human race” is really not acceptable.
And who was it that said women are incapable of love?
I love it when people talk about Paul “fuck their shit up” Elam being moderate and reasonable. And the fucking Spearhead? Please.
The idea that MRAs now probably thing that Something Awful is full of manginas makes me laugh so hard I’m worried I might rupture something.
Think, not thing.
MGTOWMRA: HAHAHA, Elam and Price are moderate? Pull the other one.
BTW, if you do a 360, you’re back where you started, so nice try and all, but I call bullshit.
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.
@jumbofisch
Also Jezebel and Pandagon are such bland typical feminist sites to use for your imaginary feminist wife…. XD
Come on dude you could at least list more specific sites rather than the main sites all mras think feminists read. Hell I could think up a better imaginary mra husband than your imaginary feminist wife. XD
Obviously you and other commenters here do not agree with me on sites such as A Voice For Men and The Spearhead, I still contend those sites are not extreme hateful sites in the MRM. There might be other sites in The MRM that are extreme.
BTW I am not lying regarding my wife. I have no motivation to lie about being married.In fact we just celebrated our second anniversary last month (August 4th is our date). We plan to go Vail Colorado to celebrate it( a delayed celebration inasmuch as we both love to ski as a hobby).Yes we did meet on a blog on the internet and yes we both are on opposites sides of the spectrum -feminist and MRA, but it’s working and has its ups and downs like any relationship. I am grateful and feel truly blessed to be married 2 years. I have no reason to fib about that.
“mostly avoiding writing about it” yeah….. okay buddy. we really believe you.
If you’re going to contend that those sites are not hateful then you need to demonstrate why you don’t think they’re hateful by addressing the clips taken from those sites that people have already posted here. And why Elam’s confession that “fucking your shit up” gives him an erection is also reasonable and moderate.
You know what people shouldn’t do???? Tear down other’s posters!!! is that such a hard concept to understand Mr Furtrellllllle
@MGTOWMRA
Paul Elam has said that juries should pardon rapists, even if they’re guilty. He wants rape to be, for all intents and purposes, legal.
If your moderates don’t think women have the right to bodily autonomy, what the hell do your radicals think?
Like, I don’t mean to burst your bubble or anything, but declaring that the idea of hurting a specific group of people because you disagree with them politically is something you find sexually arousing is not generally considered to be a sign that a person is reasonable and moderate.
I second CassandraSays. Please, explain why you think the clips we have posted are not hateful and are moderate.
Also, it’s pretty chilling how CassandraSays actually brought up the Spearhead’s advocacy of using medieval torture devices on women, and MGTOWMRA still said
Torture devices. On women. Advocated. This is what you are knowingly calling “moderate.”
Yes, you contend that these sites are not hateful. You have been met with a bunch of quotes and links from these sites definitely seem to be hateful. Could you either explain a) why some or all these statements are in some way not as hateful as they appear or b) why the existence of these hateful statements is compatible with your characterization of AVFM and the Spearhead as moderate, non-hateful sites?
Ninja’d
So, MGTOWMRA, how is “fucking their shit up” an expression of the moderate wing of the MRM? How does the near constant use of the term “mangina” a sign of their reasonableness and moderation? How is Elam’s resolution to never ever vote for conviction in a rape trial consistent with a lack of hatred or misogyny? How does register-her.com figure into this supposed tolerance and moderation?
Do you even read these sites? Have you read this one? And do you think we were born yesterday?
@MTGOWMRA
In case you’re still lying to yourself, you are in a hate movement. Literally. Hate is actually the only consistent feature of your movement. The reason that your “moderates” still want to rape and torture women is because there are no moderates in hate movements.
Thank you, 2-D Man, I nearly spat my sammich when I read that line!
Slightly OT – the whole ‘traditional male/female occupations’ thing is just another small example of how freaking ignorant MRAs are about history, among other things. I mean, I bet they deride a skill like knitting as being totally girly and unmanly – but in a couple of centuries of hand-knitting as a major industry, it was mostly men who did it professionally.
Had to throw that in. I was reading about knitting the other day and professional knitters did up to TWO HUNDRED stitches per minute. I can’t even imagine that; the hands would be just a blur.
MGTOWMRA,today:
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-2/#comment-202810
MGTOWMRA, two months ago:
http://manboobz.com/2012/07/06/mgtower-most-women-are-shined-shaven-social-succubi-desirous-of-everything-and-deserving-of-nothing/comment-page-2/#comment-170146
I am 100% shocked to discover that Mr. “Paul Elam is shunned by other MRAs for being too moderate, no really u guiz” is a huge liar.
Now THERE’s a short engagement!