It’s hard to parody Men’s Rights Activists, because no matter how ridiculous your parody is, there’s a good chance that some MRA out there has already said, or written, or sung, something even more ridiculous already.
Not that long ago, a bunch of Man Boobz regulars set out to parody the bizarre, and often inadvertently surrealistic, posters that have been popping up on MRA sites like A Voice for Men and Artistry Against Misandry. It was hard, but I think some of us managed to come up with posters that were even uglier and less coherent than the originals. I especially liked these two, from (respectively) Cliff Pervocracy and Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III.
But alas, we have been outmaneuvered by the all-too-serious poster-makers on A Voice for Men, who have managed to produce posters that make even less sense than our silliest parodies. Take a look at this one, which I believe is the work of an Australian MRA by the name of Roger O. Thornhill.
I mean, really. How can we compete with that?
This is an actual poster that some MRAs think will actually win people over to their cause. How, I’m not exactly sure. What exactly about a cupcake with a tiara is supposed to scream “men’s rights” to random pedestrians who might catch a glimpse of this poster wheatpasted to a hoarding while on their way to work?
For more of Roger’s fine work, see here and here.
Man Boobzers, can you do better?
Or, if you’re not up to that Herculean task, could you at least try to explain just what exactly you think Mr. Thornhill was trying to say with that poster of his?
EDITED TO ADD: I have been asked to contribute a poster myself. So here one is. You can find many more hilarious and incredibly ugly posters at ArtistryForFeminismAndKittens and, of course, in the comments below!
I used to like cupcakes…then one stared at me with full lips and come hither eyes…never again.
cloudiah, Tulgey, those are awesome. I love poster time. ^^
From the WaPo comments section:
This seems to be a pretty consistent idea with anti-feminists. “If you’re a feminist, you can’t possibly have a good relationship with another person and you will end up old and alone with all your cats bemoaning the great men (like me) that you could have had if you weren’t a feminist.” I think that maybe the idea of a feminist having a happy relationship with someone who isn’t an asshole, or being happy with your cats, is anathema to them. They NEED you to be unhappy. So would all you lovely cupcakes kindly stop being happy now? And if you actually love your cat/s, get rid of them so you’re not happy!
Stop being happy right now!!! MRA happiness depends on it!
Since the MRM tends towards just dumping an entire blog post onto a piece of paper and calling it a poster, here is my humble contribution doing just that.
(Text is from this article, btw)
Ugh, and via Pandagon, there’s this week’s Dear Prudence. Major trigger warning for this one (domestic violence).
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/27/when-mens-rights-narratives-kill/
Well. I think (think, mind you, certainly don’t know) that the cupcake poster is referring to the idea that the cupcake (which represents) a woman, has ‘free recipes for life’ (ie can get away with anything) in this misandrist feminist society we live in (lol). They are making fun of this.
OK, on second thoughts, this is probably completely wrong, but it’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the poster. Heavy symbolism!
Carley, I really don’t think the MRM is capable of that depth of symbolism. As you saw with the box cutter, if there’s a picture, it’s probably meant to portray a real life (or imaginary) thing that they either think does happen, or think is going to happen. For instance, if there’s a picture of a guy chained up and a woman holding the chain, that doesn’t represent men’s servitude to women or anything–it means they think that, sometime in the future, women are going to literally chain men up.
@Katz, I just slogged through that article. What a pompous, ego-inflated wad of crap. Many paragraphs to say “wah teh ebbul feminazis are oppressing us, let’s GOOW.”
Guys, please do. GYOW already. Please. Think of the bandwidth you’ll save.
Yes, katz, you’re probably right. I’m too used to spending analysing poetry and art, it seems! I’m still trying to figure out what it means and it’s frustrating me more than it should, heh. I mean, the cupcake is obviously supposed to be female, the crown indicates a high status…
*Carleyblue steps away from computer*
I was just looking for a bog-standard generic bit of MRA drivel. Didn’t even read it.
I mean, in terms of actually effective MRAs, we have Eivind Berge, who got Uni Bergen to allow him to debate, who got TV time in mainstream Norwegian media, and who emerged from state custody, really a sort of preventative detention, with a supreme court ruling in his favor, a bill of psychological good health, and the possibility of suing the public prosecutor. However he is really f’-in scary and riding a technicality of the law to advocate violence against police, besides the rapey stuff. With more tact and less anger and not actually having violence and destruction as a political means *and* a goal, he might make a feasible center-right politician of the neo-liberal (in European terms) persuasion. But he’s also indicative of how far MRAs have to go to get towards acceptable political discourse, which leaves us with the British Fathers’ organizations as the *one* working model that’s discursively allowed. But yeah, best to start by being intelligible.
Does the crown indicate high status? Or did their bit of clip art just have a crown on it?
In terms of the glorious cupcake poster, maybe it’s like ‘those stupid sexy horrible bitches love cupcakes and recipes and will therefore come to our clever site looking for said recipes and see how we all HATE THEM AHAHHAHAAAAAAAAAA. And then they’ll realise what FOOLS they have been in rejecting us and come to us and let us do terrible things to them.’
Yes. The perfect plan.
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3rxyg9/
Yay, katz is playing too! Everyone, don’t be intimidated — you literally cannot do worse than MRAs at designing posters. Think you need a fancy computer program? No! Go to http://www.postermywall.com
Two more from me, and then I have to hunker down for a while.
I thought that furby picture needed its own poster, and I loved the quote Freitag found:
http://i.imgur.com/KgQBJ.jpg
We’ve had Nazis, but no Solanas yet!
http://i.imgur.com/0jQHG.jpg
Yes, the crown indicates high status. *nods firmly* It is a stupid princess BITCH cupcake!
Is anyone else really disturbed when animals or inanimate objects are given ‘sexy’ faces? I just find it really weird.
Don’t listen to Cloudiah. The only correct tool for making MRA posters is Microsoft Word.
The war on men. The battle of the sexes has an easy solution: just shut up and submit to men, ladies, and everything will work out!
@katz *snicker* Running through Windows 3.1
I’m trying to do a more involved one, but in the meantime, I think this image gets the AVFM message out about as well as anything else they’ve put up:
http://i.imgur.com/Uv1lO.jpg
I think he’s trying to say that AVfM will give you ways to live life, i.e. “Recipes for life.”
If that not it, I got nuthin.
You’re all heretics. The One True Postermaker is GIMP run through the X11 environment on a Mac.
Freitag, you gave me another idea.
AIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!
My eyes! My eyes!! It burrrrrnnnnsss!
So many awesome creations, I fear my own poster may be too coherent.