If you stuff a bunch of angry, narcissistic, egotistical twits into a “movement” the size of a teapot, it is perhaps inevitable that there will be drama. So I’m pleased to report on a dramatic BREAKING STORY in the Men’s Rights “movement” – a split between A Voice for Men and the bald, blabby, bigoted far-right videoblogger Bernard Chapin.
Well, I’m not sure how much of a BREAKING STORY it is. It happened about three weeks ago, but I only just noticed it yesterday.
Anyhoo, the split happened after Chapin appeared on the AVFM News and Activism “radio” show in the wake of the election. Apparently (I haven’t listened to it) he said some things that displeased the A Voice for Men regulars and a giant battle erupted in the comments section. Alas, AVFM head narcissist Paul Elam got pissy and deleted all the comments, so the exact details of the discussion are apparently lost to history. But the few details I have been able to glean, by watching a couple of Chapin videos and looking at his Facebook page, are hilarious.
The basis of the disagreement is, surprisingly enough, sort of substantive: Chapin is a right-wing blogger, while the A Voice for Men guys like to pretend that they are somehow above political partisanship. But naturally, this being the Men’s Rights movement, this disagreement played out in the silliest possible way.
In several videos made during and after the comments-page kerfuffle, Chapin charges that A Voice for Men – which he now refers to as A Voice for Diabolical Leftists – is being taken over by leftists and radical feminists, some of them possibly agents for the Southern Poverty Law Center (or at least SPLC fellow travelers). No, really; he seems to actually believe this.
According to Chapin, the vanguard of this leftist infiltration of AVFM is the site’s relatively new “managing editor,” a long-haired, middle-aged IT dude by the name of Dean Esmay, whom Chapin has taken to calling “Dean Rimsgays” and “Dean Licksgays.” (Such a wit!)
Chapin accuses Esmay of being an evil lefty who doesn’t appreciate the full gloriousness of small government, while Esmay accuses Chapin of not having a solution to the problem of greedy, golddigging, Alpha-male-chasing ladies. No, seriously. At one point in the debate Esmay apparently confronted Chapin about this crucial Men’s Rights issue:
While you’re at it, explain to me how “smaller government” will end hypergamy. Indeed, explain to me if you would why libertarianism (whichever particular flavor of that ideology you espouse) would not actually APPLAUD hypergamy in women? What, like she owes her man something? If he’s a “loser” who doesn’t make enough money to make her happy, why shouldn’t she dump him and trade up? Hey, isn’t that the FREE MARKET?
Chapin is also pissed that some of the AVFM folks refer to him as “Bernie” instead of “Bernard.” Elam is (one can only imagine) pissed that Bernie has done an impression of him in a silly voice.
And so these former allies are now going their separate ways. A Voice for Men seems to have removed Bernie’s – sorry, Bernard’s – videos from its video page (or at least from its “featured video” list), though it hasn’t scrubbed all mentions of Chapin from the site.
I look forward to the day when all of the “big names” in the Men’s Rights movement stop talking to one another.
I was thinking of posting one of Chapin’s anti-AVFM videos here, but he’s so irritatingly long-winded you’re probably better off not watching them (I’ve got a couple of links above if you’re feeling especially masochistic). Here, instead, is a video of a talking kitty:
Speaking on hilarious feuds, it seems that Paul’s been banned from r/mensrights for an article he wrote in which he calls for the doxxing of some feminists protesting Warren Farrell.
@Crumbelievable, Do we know that’s why he’s been shadowbanned? I see there’s now a r/mr thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/14fg17/avoiceformen_shadowbanned_probably_for_pissing/
Totally off topic, but I just read a comment on the spearhead. The guy was complaining that even women who were young and hadn’t given birth have labia that look like a cabbage patch. He looked up on wikipedia what a labia is supposed to look like, so what gives (with a side of why aren’t women using wiki to figure out what the anatomy should look like).
Erm, son… I was born before the internet was widely available let alone wikipedia. And I don’t think that labia are overly concerned with your schematics.
Aw, GWW is all in a tizzy on Paul’s behalf, saying this ban affects his ability to bilk suck… I mean, make money.
Wow, Paul Elam has the ability to piss everyone off that Internet trolls could only dream of. First, any decent person doesn’t like him, then r/mr doesn’t like him, then MGTOW forums don’t like him, and now Bernard Chapin? It’s like he has some superpower or something. An ability to piss everyone off. Pissman (that was the best name we could think of.).
Brown, with green leafy bits all in orderly rows?
This is now a very disturbing image.
@pillow
“The guy was complaining that even women who were young and hadn’t given birth have labia that look like a cabbage patch. He looked up on wikipedia what a labia is supposed to look like, so what gives”
I’m so sick of this need for vaginas to look all neat and orderly. Before photography, men looked at sculptures and paintings to see the female form and, once in bed with a live woman, were often shocked and putt off by the reality and even hair! Eeek! I think this contributes to pedophilia, I really do. Or at least the obsession with young girls and “barely legal”. Not to mention, whether or not one has given birth has little to do with the design of one’s exterior anatomy. I know mine didn’t change much. (Tmi?). I have never had an opinion about male genitals, their appearance, it’s a non issue. Although if I were to ponder it, male genitals are much sloppier in appearance. But again, who friggin cares?
Wait, why am I supposed to care what some random guy on The Spearhead thinks my labia should look like? And dude, if wikipedia is your primary source of information…I went to an all girls school, trust me when I say I probably have a better idea of the average variation than you do.
I’m also confused as to why giving birth would totally reconfigure the outer bits like the labia. Is this like how they think having sex a lot makes the muscles in the vagina looser and weaker, because that’s totally how muscles work?
Because Wikipedia (and more importantly, Wikimedia Commons, where we keep our image files) isn’t run by pornsick dudes who are selecting their own preferences for labia*.
Fun fact: Wikipedia doesn’t require model releases, so there’s no guarantee that the owner of those labia consented even to having photos taken, let alone to having them published on the internet. And as a bonus, there’s also no way to tell how old the model was. Is there child pornography on Wiki Commons? Yes, yes there is. Will Commons do anything about it? No, no they won’t. Fuckers.
I was blessed recently to read through a long discussion of some pornographic images of “lesbians” having sex. The models involved never consented to having their images freely available on the internet for anyone to use for any purpose (Commons requires such a license for images). The general attitude at Commons was that the photographer had mislabeled the license on his website and so fuck them; once that image was out there it’s out there forever.
It took five deletion discussions, with active complaints from the models the whole time, to get them taken down.
[/Wikipedian rant]
I’m generally not okay with the damn “hairless = pedophilia” thing, which I hear over and over again. Some people just don’t like hair, and that’s just fine, as long as they don’t take it out on anyone else. Can we drop that stupid meme and move on with our lives already?
Also, newsflash to that guy: labia are not within your sphere of influence. Deal.
Say a woman happens to have labia that don’t look the way this dude thinks they should. What is he expecting her to do about it? That’s not a relatively simple thing to “fix”, like with makeup. Does he expect the majority of women to get labiaplasty (never gonna happen, dude), or does he just want them to know that he finds them unsatisfactory?
RE: CassandraSays
D: Never, ever mention labiaplasty ever again. That shit makes me cross my legs into a pretzel.
Perhaps with a bit of luck Mr Oooh Ick Labia will just stay away from women altogether (or women in the altogether, heh). That’d be a win.
I wonder if he thinks the penis and scrotum are things of beauty? Is there a Greek system for rating men’s bits?
@ LBT
There’s a British documentary about labiaplasty that’s quite interesting (conclusion – most people who think that their labia are really way outside the realm of standard deviation in terms of size and shape are totally wrong), but you may want to cover your eyes when they get to the bit where one of the women goes into surgery, because it’s pretty graphic. I’m not at all squeamish and I winced quite a bit.
RE: CassandraSays
Yeah, my understanding of it is more on the trans side of things, but still. D: And I have a weak stomach when it comes to medical gore.
(conclusion – most people who think that their labia are really way outside the realm of standard deviation in terms of size and shape are totally wrong)
I am completely unshocked. Seriously, how much reference would most women get?
Hey, LBT’s here. Everyone should check out the new banner that LBT created for me:
http://artistryforfeminismandkittens.wordpress.com/
so cool.
He’s just giving a Note From His Boner.
Oops, I apologize for interrupting your conversation about labiaplasty. 0_0
That banner is great!
RE: Cloudiah
Bet that’s one thing you never thought you’d have to say! And I’m glad you like the banner!
I know that Random Notes from Some Guy’s Boner always inspire me to contemplate elective surgery.
(“Remove pushy assholes from your life forever” is a form of elective surgery, right?)
I love the banner, LBT!
The troll is my favorite detail — and I threw that in at the last minute.