[TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE THREATS]
The Men’s Rights movement has been described by some as “the abusers’ lobby.” I don’t think that’s fair, but there are certainly those within the movement that fit the bill – not necessarily because they themselves are abusers, but because, among other things, they lionize abusers and advocate on their behalf.
In the case of hate site A Voice for Men, there is another way in which the term applies: the “activism” of the site and its followers, insofar as it consists of anything more than self-promotion, often mirrors the actions of abusers – AVFM is known for harassing individuals, usually women, and exposing (or threatening to expose) personal information that could be used to stalk and harm them, in an attempt to intimidate them and other feminists and shut them up. Indeed, the site on several occasions has offered $1000 “bounties” on the personal information of its foes.
Now AVFM has another individual in its sights: a young woman, presumably a student, who participated in a recent demonstration against Men’s Rights author Warren Farrell at the University of Toronto. Men’s Rights activists have been promoting a video depicting the protest, in which a group of feminist activists blockaded the building at which Farrell was speaking, until they were forcibly removed by police. The carefully-edited video pays particular attention to one of the activists, the woman in question, as she confronts supporters of Farrell, calling one of them “fucking scum.” (See here for an even-more-manipulatively propagandistic video that focuses even more intently on the woman; and here for one that more clearly depicts the police pulling, shoving, and knocking non-violent protestors to the ground.)
I don’t personally support blocking speeches by opponents; I think it’s bad both in principle and as a political tactic. But Warren Farrell certainly deserves criticism; demonstrators certainly have the right to demonstrate; and as anyone who has ever been to a demonstration knows, sometimes people on opposite sides shout at another.
Apparently the politically inexperienced “activists” at AVFM are unaware of this. And so the site has responded to the demonstration with a campaign to uncover and publicize this woman’s personal information – for the “crime” of using angry language at a protest. In one of the several posts on the subject now up on AVFM, the MRA known as JohnTheOther describes her as, among other things
her own generation’s brown shirt, and she knows it. …
She is clearly sadistic, unable and unwilling to recognize the humanity of anyone who does not slavishly and blindly agree with her own religion of hate.
There is more, much more; if you have the stomach for it, I suggest you read the full post to see JtO’s extended attack on the woman. As is often the case with MRA writings, the full quotes in context are worse than the excerpts I quote here.
A later post from site founder and head Paul Elam includes a picture of the woman, with the caption “Seeking this undesirable’s identity.”
Elam warns that
We have her image and know her general location. We will identify her and profile her activity and name for public view.
We will not stop there, or just with her. And while we will not publish our complete intent, we are dogged in our efforts.
Again, this quote is if anything worse in context; see the entire post here, filled with vituperative, thuggish, threatening language and illustrated with a picture of a violent storm, evidently intended to represent what AVFM is threatening to rain down upon its opponents.
In still another post, with the inflammatory title “Yanking Off the Hood,” Elam defends his site’s “doxxing” policy, writing
AVfM is conducting outreach and investigation into the identities of the persons involved in the violent protest against the rights of men and boys orchestrated and conducted by the University of Toronto Student Union and other antisocial elements within that institution.
To that end, one individual has already been identified, and you will be seeing a story on her here in the near future. Our search for the woman highlighted in the video of the protest continues, with some leads. …
Gender ideologues absolutely hate the light of day. They hate it shining on their ideas and on their lies. Many of them also don’t want it shining on their identities. They seek anonymity for the same reason Klansmen wear hoods.
Even beyond the vicious nature of AVFM’s language and tactics, the hypocrisy here is off the charts: most of AVFM’s writers – gender ideologues all – hide their identities behind pseudonyms, including of course JohnTheOther, who launched AVFM’s campaign against the still-unknown protester.
JtO, who now wishes to conceal his identity, used to write under his own name, and has linked his name with his pseudonym on YouTube and on Men’s Rights sites he has written for. Though his real name is fairly widely known, and can be uncovered with the simplest of web searches, JtO has now decided to try to get that cat back in the bag, and at one point demanded that I remove all mentions of his real name on this site so that he would not – irony alert — face harassment. As much as I don’t respect John, I respected this wish of his, and did so; he may want to take this issue up with his friend Elam, as a post by the AVFM head still up on the site identifies JohnTheOther by both name and pseudonym.
There is no question that the student activist targeted by JtO and AVFM will face harassment when and if her personal information is exposed. Indeed, she is already being singled out for abuse now. On YouTube, videos featuring her have inspired numerous threatening comments. Here are a sampling of comments I’ve found there:
Here you can find even more, sent to me by someone who was at the protest.
If AVFM releases the personal information of the student now being attacked online they are giving a green light for this sort of harassment online and off. They are aiding and abetting those who wish this woman to come to real physical harm.
That’s why I think it is fair to call AVFM a hate site, and a member of the abusers’ lobby.
(Meanwhile, JohnTheOther seems to be undergoing some sort of meltdown on Reddit; more on this in my next post.)
There MUST be something the police can do about this?
Now, now, David: they don’t hate women, just women who take exception to rape apologists. Big difference! [/sarc]
Thank you for posting this.
Do they seriously not realize how it makes them look when rape is their default threat? Learn to PR, guys.
This is dangerous. Did they learn nothing from the Gabriel Giffords shooting? Is there someone you can alert about this?
every time
every time I think the MRAs have got as bad as they can get
they get worse… they can’t be… WHO THINKS THAT THIS IS OKAY?
Could someone explain to me again why it’s the feminist demonstrators and not the rape apologists/youtube commenters using rape as a threat who are held in contempt by society?
Change the gender and you have the MRM in a nutshell. Although of course it’s not even disagreement, with them: they refuse to recognise the humanity of all women, as well as any men who disagree with them.
“undesirable”
Not “woman”, not “person”, not “protester”, heck, not even “bigot” or “enemy” or something, simply “undesirable”, the dehumanization is so blatant.
Wait, semi-new here. Is there any proof that his real name is Paul Elam? Because otherwise, I don’t buy it that his name really is “male” spelled backwards.
Anyways, why is it that “fucking scum” is worse than the shit they say? And why, if their definition of feminism took over America, did the cops remove them?
@ Cthulhu, yes, his name really is Elam, he admitted it in a post.
Once again, no bottom to that particular barrel.
A woman yells insults at them and they lose their shit completely. They are such whiny little babies. No wait, I take that back — babies usually have a good reason when they cry. They are so privileged that if they aren’t coddled and catered to at every fucking moment they actually perceive that as an attack.
And the rape threats? MRAs, if you’re reading this, these are your people. Embrace it.
Wow, this is really triggering. And can you belive Paul Elam commentend in one of the videos:
“Moderate the comments all you like. MRAs are not going away. Concern for men and boys is spreading, because it is a matter of justice. Warren Farrell is the least of your problems.”
So does this means he is aware of the rape threats? Even worse that line in the end, what does he mean with that?
And I apologize for the bad english is not my first language 🙂
It makes me so sad that people would think to sexualize violence and use that as a punishment. That’s not how sex is supposed to work 🙁
Because nothing says ‘peaceful protest movement’ like trying to find/publish personal information of someone exercising their right to free speech. And threatening to rape them.
I suppose rape threats are to be expected from people who advocate for mens right to rape torture and abuse women. And in the case of Farrel, mens right to rape torture and abuse children. Creepy, but that is who they are.
These protestors physcially and verbally harassed innocent people, blocked them from enterting the building, vandalized posters, and I wouldn’t doubt threatened to batter (which is assault) the men attending the speech. They are in essence a violent hate lynch mob operating on a hateful ideology. As a result of this behavior, it provoked some very strong reactions and hyperbolic comments.
This is a complete failure for feminism – it showed its true colors. Revealing the DOX on the protestors wouldn’t result in violence against their persons, everyone knows who David is, and he hasn’t been assaulted or murdered, and he is one of hte most hated feminists on the planet.
Violence begets violence, but not in this case.
Feministfrequency a blog I follow found herself in a situation where she was attacked by those defending “gaming culture.
She did a lovely Tedxwomen talk about it.
You guys should check it out.
It was interesting.
Yes, because they don’t scream insults and call women names on the internet. Nor do they threaten violence against women in any way………
They don’t seem to get how life works.
Quite the “human rights movement” we have there.
Oh, you hear that argument too? That feminists should be HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS and not dis-include a gender. However, these same folks are as anti-feminist and anti-HUMAN rights as you can get.
How the fuck does this movement (MRM) not come off as threatening to more people?
Oh, our trolls will No True Scotsman away the rape threateners. THESE ARE YOUR SUPPORTERS, ASSHOLES. I hope Steele is beside himself right now.
When Elam and JtO get doxxed, I hope they take it well.
If you call letting the neighbors know that horrible smell in the area is the huge asshole that lives by them, “doxing” such is your prerogative, I suppose.
OMG, WTF is wrong with these people? You don’t agree with someone, so they should be physically harmed? Over an opinion?
Wow.