What a year!
The Men’s Rights movement, the most important human rights movement of the 21st century, got 2012 off to a flying start in February with an event in Bozeman, Montana that was quite literally attended by no one. After that, the year was a whirlwind of activity. Let’s go to the timeline:
January: The Men’s Rights movement rests up to prepare itself for the year.
February: The Montana State University chapter of the National Coalition for Men holds a lively and well-attended Men’s Rights event in Bozeman, Montana. Sorry. When I said “well-attended” I meant to say “not attended at all.” As the local NBC affiliate reports, in what may be my favorite sentence ever written about the Men’s Rights movement: “No one showed up to the event but organizers say the lack of attendance is not due to a lack of interest.” You can read more here at Man Boobz, or watch the NBC affiliate’s report here.
March: The Southern Poverty Law Center, an important and influential watchdog of hate groups in the United States, profiles the Men’s Rights movement, describing it as “an underworld of misogynists, woman-haters whose fury goes well beyond criticism of the family court system, domestic violence laws, and false rape accusations. … Women are routinely maligned as sluts, gold-diggers, temptresses and worse; overly sympathetic men are dubbed “manginas”; and police and other officials are called their armed enablers.”
March: British Men’s Rights activist Tom Martin has his “anti-male discrimination” lawsuit against the London School of Economics thrown out of court as a “hopeless claim.” Martin responds on Twitter by calling his critics “whores.” He then comes to Man Boobz and calls people here whores. Eventually he announces that female penguins are also whores. No, really. Read more about Tom’s visits to Man Boobz here: 1, 2, 3, 4. (TRIGGER WARNING for links 2 and 3, which deal with Martin’s reprehensible views on child prostitution.)
April: Thousands of Men’s Rights Activists converge on the National Mall in Washington DC for “Sink Misandry,” apparently some sort of protest against the lifeboat-boarding policies of the RMS Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic one hundred years ago. (There was a movie about it.)
Sorry, correction: When I said “thousands of MRAs” I meant to say “none.” While the Sink Misandry protest was announced with great fanfare in December of 2011 on A Voice for Men, it was later called off due to unspecified logistical problems. Understandable, given how difficult it is to get to our nation’s capital, inconveniently located on the sparsely populated East Coast and served by a mere three airports.
May – June: The Men’s Rights movement has lunch and takes a little nap.
July: Seven Men’s Rights activists make it to the steps of the Capitol in Washington DC, evidently for some sort of anti-circumcision protest. On Reddit, one MRA blames the poor attendance on the machinations of the “Government and the Fem lobby.”
August: In order to more effectively harness the activist energies of MRAs on Reddit, Paul Elam of A Voice for Men sets up a Men’s Rights Activism subreddit alongside the longstanding Men’s Rights Subreddit. Only a handful of MRAs subscribe, possibly because Elam seems more interested in banning people he doesn’t like than in organizing anything, and the subreddit is abandoned by its founder and everyone else within a month.
September: In Vancouver, Men’s Rights activists hold a lively, well-attended debate with feminists on the question “Has Feminism Gone Too Far?” at a local used car dealership.
Oh, sorry. Another correction: After being announced, and cancelled, then resurrected and reannounced, the event is ultimately cancelled after the organizers lose the venue for the event due to a weird turn events that involves an MRA car salesman being removed from his place of business by police after some sort of dispute with his business partner. Also, the MRAs never bothered to round up any feminists to take part in the debate with them. You can read the whole complex and confusing saga of the Great Vancouver All-MRA Debate That Wasn’t in these three Man Boobz posts: 1, 2, 3.
October: Recess
November: Artistry Against Misandry holds a lively and well-attended concert and fundraiser in Nashville to celebrate International Men’s Day.
Whoops! One more correction: The event never happened. Apparently the organizers lost their venue, and were unable to book another one, as Nashville isn’t really much of a music town and musical venues there are as scarce as … wait, no, it’s fucking Nashville. NASHVILLE. Music City. The home of the Grand Ole Opry. I’m pretty sure that every building that isn’t a house or a restaurant there is a musical venue.
Also, the Artistry Against Misandry website seems to have vanished from the face of the earth. Might I suggest a visit to Artistry For Feminism and Kittens instead?
December: Christmas shopping.
I should note that when not organizing, then cancelling, events many MRAs have been busily harassing individual women online and posting many very angry comments. A few have also been putting up some very badly designed posters. So there’s that.
With a year of such triumphs behind them, how will the Men’s Rights movement manage to keep up such a blistering pace in 2013?
@carnation- I REMEMBER Zarat. He was a good troll too. Our trolls these days are just disappointing *shakes fist and cane at these young upstart trolls nowadays*
Paul claims that the article 20/20 is quoting is not only satire, but explicitly admits to being satire. Yet somehow the interviewer still failed to recognize it as such.
I’m taking a wild guess here, but I suspect this could be the article they’ll end up quoting:
http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/ill-decide-if-you-were-raped-not-you/
This article is very easy to quote mine and portray as misogynistic, but it also mentions within the article itself that it’s satire… three times. If this really is the article, then 20/20 wouldn’t be the first to overlook that little detail about it: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/michael-laxer/2013/07/voice-mens-canadian-rape-apologist-campaign-hate-speech-hits-ou
So yeah, you can’t really judge the article unless you read the whole thing, but of course, no one’s going to read the whole thing. Especially not 20/20 or anyone at manboobz.
Andy, Elam has a long history of calling things he’s written “satire” when they clearly aren’t satire.
He’s also written two bait-and-switch articles (including the one you link to) that might possibly be considered satire.
There’s really no reason to assume that ABC asked him about that article.
Or to assume that people here at man boobz don’t read the entire article. I’ve actually corrected people on twitter who misread the article you link to.
That “I’ll decide if you were raped” article is just fucking appalling. Way to try to make a point that’s actually valid by stepping on the feelings of other rape victims. Real classy, Elam.
I have no idea about television programming, but it’s been about three weeks since AVfM sent their best man to NYC for 20/20.
Will it see the light of day?
carnation, I don’t know. It was supposed to run last friday, but got postponed. At this point the word is that it will run sometime in the next few weeks.
Thanks for the heads up, David.
I thought perhaps the interview was unusable for some reason, or perhaps haf been pulled.
I’m guessing Mr Elam is seriously on edge waiting for the release.
David, do we get a clue as to what you may or may not have had to do with it?
Who are you to talk about the MRM’s lack of progress? Were you there for it all?
Kevin, what are you even talking about? Never mind, just go away, and stop pooping in old threads.
Kevin, if you think Manboobz has misrepresented MRM;s 2012 achievements, there’s an easy way to prove us wrong. Provide us with loads of examples of the MRM’s impressive progress that we have somehow overlooked.
Put up or shut up.
I’m digging the idea that the MRM has made huge strides in the fight against misandry, but they are secret strides that you could only know about if you actually took part in them. After all, what better way to change the minds and attitudes of the public than by doing things that the public never sees?
I suspect the MRM’s huge strides are something like this:
http://youtu.be/IqhlQfXUk7w
With a touch of secret handshakes thrown in:
http://youtu.be/L6geBs1_Gos
Hahaha Kittehs, I had a giggling fit when I saw what you’d posted.
Has Kevin commented in ANY live threads, or is he purely a necromancer?
MRA/Creationist parallel checksheet:
#16 – “Were you there?”
Check.
I must say, Kevin is one of the more stultifying of the Defenders of the MRM we’ve had. Brandon was more exciting.
Hey, at least Kevin doesn’t talk about HIMSELF all day.
(PS: Kevin, do not take this as encouragement.)
Someone finally figured out how to combine thousand league boots with an invisibility cloak!
I think they’ve just got the Boots of Icarian Flight. They sure have made some strides, but we won’t be able to see them until they come plummeting back down to the ground.
My work here is done. 🙂
David,
Can we please have a list if this year’s MRA triumphs?
My personal favorite is Elam trolling himself via the satirical article that he took seriously.
Frankly, I think their main “triumph” is the Occidental false rape accusation clusterfuck.
That, and maybe their Toronto rally that had fewer people than my Thanksgiving dinner.
I second that.
“That, and maybe their Toronto rally that had fewer people than my Thanksgiving dinner.”
Aw, I miss the huge dinners my grandmother used to host. Three room apt, one bedroom, joined den area and dining “room” and we’d squeeze in over 20 people and a nearly 30lb bird. And then Christmas! Just as many, with PILES of gifts.
Her funeral had easily 3 times the number of people that rally did. Most of the East haven fir dept showed up even — she worked for their lawyer. I mean, I was front row family and didn’t know half the people there.
My grandmother, way more liked than the MRM!
But no, their biggest achievement was Elam not appearing on 20/20.
And don’t forget all the flying monkey pooping raids on feminist blogs and fora! If not for those, the flying monkeys would be useless.