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!
At first glance, the poster seems to be saying you can get free cupcake recipes. The crown on the cupcake throws it all off, though.
Oh and the tldr of Suz’s link was women suck.
Geez, Futrelle, after all your years of stalking MRA stuff you’d think you’d get the semiotics by now. I’ve spent waaaay less time on them than you, and while this poster is baffling at first, all it takes is a second, wait… a third glance.
Cartoon “Princess Cupcake” is telling you that the website AVfM contains “Free recipes: for LIFE!” …… as in “plans to make your LIFE better”.
I don’t know why Princess Cupcake is saying this, because normally she is a baddy and surely full of misandry… but maybe she got the blue pill or something? (she does have blues eyes) and is now a FeMRA. Or something.
Yes, it is very silly.
Lol.
Tells David he should have been able to “get” this poster. Admits that he doesn’t get the poster himself.
Well done, Joe.
@WeeBoy – it’s not that men don’t want to have a family (some do, some don’t). It’s that the institutions of marriage and fatherhood got abolished.
Oh, they still exist in name, but they are meaningless in practice:- anyman, anywhere, anytime in the Anglophone West can be kicked out of his family, out of his house and put into indentured servitude / peonage anytime his bosswife decides, (and that goes double if they have kids).
^That’s how “marriage 2.0” now “works”.
50% of marriages end in divorce and 75% of divorces are initiated by the wife. So, that’s roughly a 37% chance of having your bosswife flush your life down the shitter.
Shockingly enough, lots of men are not eager to sign up for something with that level of arbitrary risk.
As to your “nice guy” friends, all married with kids? They better hope their bosswife doesn’t become unhaaaaapy with them, because then they’re toast.
By the way, if that does happen to any of your friends? Please make a point of looking out for them and showing some support particularly in the year or two immediatley after divorce – the suicide rate for men SOARS after divorce, by about 4 times (as I recall).
So, Joe, if you have to be an MRA to understand the poster, how is it supposed to attract new people?
How’s life in the parallel universe, Joe?
@Ugh – you don’t really get “lighthearted banter” do you? Just dull self-righteous sarcasm from you. Prig.
From The First Joe’s post:
“anyman, anywhere, anytime in the Anglophone West can be kicked out of his family, out of his house and put into indentured servitude / peonage anytime his bosswife decides, (and that goes double if they have kids).”
From the article linked above:
“The notion that the police can’t be trusted to deal with a straightforward kidnapping case where the boyfriend is innocent of any wrongdoing is exactly the sort of tale MRAs spin. As this case shows, the likelier story is that he can’t call the police because he’s under some kind of restrictions for abusing his ex, and probably has an order not to contact her.
I mention this because I continue to run across men, even supposedly pro-feminist men, who are seduced by MRA claims that the court system is somehow anti-male and that it’s easy and common for women to make evidence-free false accusations that are immediately believed and used to strip men of all custody rights of their children. “
Linked above by blitzgal, i should have mentioned, in this comment:
http://manboobz.com/2012/11/27/mens-rights-posters-now-officially-sillier-than-their-parodies/comment-page-1/#comment-224102
@Joe
You know, I’m just throwing this out there, but noone is making men get married or have kids. However, if you do have kids, supporting them is not “indentured servitude,” unless you’re the kind of person who wants to criminally neglect his kids.
Though based on the MRA’s position on the child abuser Thomas Ball, that wouldn’t shock me.
@Joe
Haha all you do is support a rape apologist movement, and people get all self-righteous when they’re talking to you! What gives?
clairedammit – I haven’t a scooby. It’s mental. Still, it gave me a laugh.
Maybe you could try asking the designer?
P.S. Taking an interest in men’s rights / issues does not make people the Borg. There is no telepathic link. In fact there are often (very strong) disagreements within the ridiculously titled “manosphere”*. E.g. Much with the handbags between some of the MRA / MGTOWers and the PUAs = huge waste of time and energy IMO, so I stay well out of it.
*Which always conjours the image of a huge hairy bollock floating in cyberspace, whenever I read it.
Oh, Joe’s here. Shit’s about to get reeeeeeal dumb.
Uh-huh. You keep telling yourself that. Maybe it has for retrograde assholes like you and yours, but most men do just fine.
Look, it’s Joe’s default!
Joe, when you throw around nonsense like “indentured servitude” to describe a man actually supporting his own children, or “bosswife” to sneer at the idea of women having any say in their own lives and marriages, or describe disagreements in the MRM as “handbags,” it’s not light-hearted banter, it’s just bog-standard, bleedin’ obvious misogyny.
Despite their many disagreements, in my experience most manospherians can agree that they do not have a single fucking clue what indentured servitude is.
@Ugh – I do a lot of things, I certainly do not support a “rape apologist” movement. YOU keep on repeating this FALSE accusation over and over just like a broken fucking record, despite that fact that I am on record, on this very blog disagreeing vociferously with the e.g. Tom Martin’s POV on sex/AoC. Apparently, you believe that I should spend all my time picking fights with MRAs I disagree with on the interwebs for your edification. Fuck you.
I’ve better things on my big “list of things to do”: Addressing men’s disproporationately high suicide rate, and lack of provision for men victims of DV, for starters.
I know you have an ingrained belief that MRA = the Borg. While at the same time you manage to believe there is a multiplicity of views within feminism from gendercidal RadFem Hubbers all the way to sex-positive gender egalitarians, and those two conflicting beliefs cause you no cognitive dissonance at all, because: YOU are a MORON.
@Hellkell – Suuure most men are doing juuuust fine, and that’s why men suicide, are made homeless and die on the job at vastly higher rates than women.
Check your female privelege, you asshole.
Haha you have notably NOT cited a single prominent MRA who has not called for more rape, domestic abuse, or child abuse in society.
There is a lot of variety within the MRM. Some believe that women should be raped as part of a pick up strategy, while others they they should be be raped as part of an inescapable abusive marriage.
See the common thread?
P.S. Also, you have no idea what cognitive dissonance means. I can believe one thing about an actual human rights movement and another thing about a hate movement, in much the same way that saying “all white supremacists are racist but most Amnesty International volunteers aren’t” is not cognitive dissonance.
And what better way to help than to preach about a movement whose political arm, the NCFM, explicitly argued against providing domestic violence services for millions of men?
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/16/national-coalition-for-men-backs-gop-version-of-violence-against-women-act/
Heeheehee, LMAO. Meltdown.
Let’s see a citation or ten for your claims about the plight of men, jacknut. Actually, no, don’t bother, because all your shit is easily debunked and has been done so many times here.
I love it when he reaches high dudgeon and calls us morons. The irony is so so tasty.
Here’s a fun question, Joe:
Why do you think the MRAs spent time and effort trying to “honor” the memory of a child abuser, while also spending time and effort to make sure that abused men and boys have no help or services?
Hmm, what type of person would benefit from both these actions?
@Kitteh – The Princess Cupcake thing was the light hearted banter. Do try to keep up.
Serious face:
Under no fault divorce rules + presumed mother custody any wife can at anytime “fire” her husband and collect cash and prizes for doing so. So, wife = boss.
Bosswife is NOT waaaaa !!misogyny!!
Nope, it’s a simple compound word that perfectly describes the actual structural, (i.e. social / legal) position of any woman who gets some guy to sign a marriage licence.
Welcome to the post-feminist world. Feminism won, and women now hold the reigns of marital power in an effective reversal of the situation 100+ years back (presumed father custody, he got her property).
Here’s a question for you:
Women, according to feminism, HATED the old patriarchal marriage 1.0, and could not wait to get rid of it.
Now they did, and have created it’s direct reflection: matriarchal marriage 2.0, why do you imagine that men will put up with what women wouldn’t?
As a feminist, you believe that men and women are equals, right?
And you wouldn’t want women to have a bosshusband placed over them, right?
So why do you want men to have a bosswife placed over them?
That would be sexist, y’know.
Hey, Joe, you do realize no fault divorce works the same for men, right? Do men not file in your world?
Back to “female privilge,” which never gets old because it’s fucking fiction, what is that exactly? And if it is a thing, why the fuck would I want to live seven years longer at 30% less pay?
Eat a bowl of bees.