You all need to go read Kate Harding’s bracing (and given all the recent doxxing bullshit, spectacularly well-timed) Jezebel piece titled “Fuck You, Men’s Rights Activists.” Here’s a sample:
Fuck you, first of all, for making it nearly impossible for decent men struggling with abusive partners or unfair custody arrangements to get the help they need and deserve. You have forever tainted those issues with your rage-filled, obsessively anti-woman horseshit, to the point where it’s become difficult for any rational, compassionate person to trust a man who claims he’s been screwed over in family court or abused by a female partner, even if he has. …
Fuck you for showing up every time women speak, especially about rape and abuse, and trying to make it all about you. Fuck you for derailing threads about the victims of Marc Lépine, a man who screamed about his hatred for feminists as he murdered fourteen women and injured many others, because you also hate feminists and want a fucking cookie for not killing anyone. Fuck you for making rape and death threats against young women who dared to protest a speaking engagement by a man who thinks little girls would enjoy being raped by their fathers if it weren’t for society telling them it’s dirty. Fuck you for whining about how unfair it is that women might wonder if you’re a rapist when you approach them out of nowhere, while completely ignoring how unfair it is that women feel the need to be on guard all the time in public. Or that if we relax and behave normally—drinking, dancing, dressing however we want—you will be the first motherfuckers in line to blame us for getting ourselves raped.
And it keeps going from there.
Thank you Kate, for putting it so well.
Ooh, this one is so much better than the “fuck you, other people’s children” one they ran earlier. Thanks for the link.
Are those candles… scented?
Kate Harding is a magnificent human being. I learned from her to stop hating my body, to treat it right and let my health take care of itself rather than tying assumptions about health to an increasingly arbitrary number on the bathroom scale.
This article just proves that she supplies 100% of your FDA-recommended levels of Vitamin Win.
Hoorah!
I’m particularly glad she started where she did, actually – I do wonder if that’s one of the more damaging things the MRM does. I’m not comparing with the doxxing and suchlike – that’s clearly horrible – but I kinda feel like the main effect of their (frankly rather small, though quite visible) hateful circlejerking could be to get the issues they talk about dismissed, as opposed to anything it gets people who agree with them to do.
Having typed that out, I’m inclining away from the idea again because I don’t want to erase any abuse that does result from what they do.
Uncertain MC is uncertain.
The number of people in the comments who disbelieve that the Farrell harassment brigade could possibly be a real thing in the world is mind-boggling. Hello, welcome to the planet. This is what happens to women who speak up, appear in public, exist as women.
I couldn’t read the comments on that article. Can’t take that level of dumb today.
I wanted to see what the trolls were saying. They are starting to make their way to the thread. For awhile it was mostly people posting gifs to celebrate the shitstorm that was about to happen.
hellkell, MOST of the comments are okay, and the bad ones generally have people being like “Uh fuck you, thanks”
That said, I totally fed a troll.
… Thinking slightly more, did I just do a steaming pile of manbias?
argh
The article was great. Only read a few of the comments and they seemed generally from clueless men who have no idea what scum Elam &co are or what the MRM is really about.
@Morka–it might not be one of the biggest problems with them, but it’s one of the biggest hypocrisies with them–they say they’re for men, and they hurt men, full stop.
Their shit is bad enough, but it directly undermines their stated goals.
But, yeah, if we focused purely on that it’s sorta missing the point about their overall effect on women, which is hella worse.
So…. yeah, we should mention it, like Kate did, but definitely not dwell there, because there’s bigger fish to fry.
That was glorious and spot on. I was glad to see her point out the way the MRAs have appropriated genuine problems that–surprise surprise–FEMINISTS have been working on, because gender equality means breaking down all of those damaging gender-based barriers.
I’m not generally a fan of Jezebel, but this was fantastic.
Curse my metal body, I wasn’t fast enough!
MRA central in comments. Surprise? None.
“What about the moderate MRAs?” When you show me one I’ll tell you.
the candles have to be scented. Justice would have it no other way.
Oh ye gods, Kate Harding is back, and just as awesome as ever. That was a ridiculously cathartic read.
Commence whining on reddit…
Yeah, I especially liked the guy who started his comment by saying that he follows several “Red Pill” blogs, and then goes on to say that Harding unfairly mischaracterizes the majority of MRAs, they don’t hate women at all, blah blah blah.
Dood, you use the term red pill. Do you not see what that’s an issue right there?
Too afraid to follow Cloudiah’s link.
There are worse discussions going on on r/mr today, actually.
A discussion on why there aren’t more homeless women starts with a “joke” about sexual exploitation, and contains this gem:
My only response at the moment is “God damn I miss Shapely Prose.”
(I get why it was closed and I respect it, but, well, damn.)
Oh, you should read the responses to those comments- for every mra whine there are ten jezebel readers just annihilating them. Does the heart good.
@cloudiah: I read that quote and thought of Cliff. Exploiting desperation to get laid — how horrible can you get?
@blitzgal, they are just whinging and complaining over there. Not scary, just head-shaking. They really do not get it. And I think some of them might actually be the elusive moderate MRAs.
This is the tragedy of the MRM. They find some men who might actually have it in them to be good and decent men, then play on their frustrations to turn them into sad, lonely, and very angry, MRAs. Awhile back there was a thread on young men who would just like to cuddle and have a nice relationship with a girl, and the MRM will never let this happen. Instead, these guys will become more bitter as they continue to alienate, and become alienated from, the women they might have been happy with.
ugh, I actually went through r/mr to try to prove one of my points to some dipshit who isn’t even going to listen.
I think I need a break. 🙁