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2012: Year of Triumphs for the Men’s Rights Movement

Come early to get a good seat!
Come early to get a good seat!

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?

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CassandraSays
CassandraSays
11 years ago

No surprises that the Daily Fail thinks that MRAs are the best thing ever. Some of them even hate brown people! All they have to do is come up with a theory about how feminists of color cause cancer and the Daily Mail will be endorsing any MRA they can find for PM.

thenatfantastic
thenatfantastic
11 years ago

Yep, that’s him. The parliamentary stuff was weird, he was asked to speak at a select committee hearing about Women In The Workplace (a group of MPs investigating ways to make businesses more women-friendly) because he’s apparently put all his frothing about how women shouldn’t do business into a book (it is his particular bugbear), and they “wanted to hear all sides of the story”.

OH GEE THANKS GUYS.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

Returning to the subject of goats, what about goats on things?

So, does a former king jamming Springsteen on a lute count as highbrow or lowbrow?

Or what about a former duke and serious art patron doing his interpretation of a Highland fling which is more Fling than Highland despite the kilt?

One needs to know if one’s in-laws are Snobs or Yobs!

Kiwi girl
Kiwi girl
11 years ago

Soo… they can make businesses more women-friendly by having all businesses run by men and employing only men! Amiright?

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

Jayzuz, the Daily Fail makes the Hun look good.

thenatfantastic
thenatfantastic
11 years ago

@Kiwi Girl

To be fair, they did actually say afterwards that they regretted invited him, not least because he doesn’t speak a lick of sense.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

Did he give ’em a good serve of word salad?

CassandraSays
CassandraSays
11 years ago

The fact that a parliamentary committee was willing to even hear from a dude whose basic premise is that women shouldn’t be allowed in the workplace is, ironically enough, proof that he’s full of shit about, well, pretty much everything he’s ranting about.

Try to imagine a parliamentary committee inviting someone who’d written a book about banning men from the workplace to speak as if they were a serious person whose opinion might be valuable.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

It’d be nice if they’d invited him so they could point and laugh and say “See, MRAs are total morons, you believe us now?”

Sadly I don’t imagine that’s the case.

thenatfantastic
thenatfantastic
11 years ago

I think his ‘argument’ isn’t that women should be banned from the workplace, it’s that women have nothing to complain about since they are already afforded not just equal, but better chances in businesses than men because of TEH FEMINAZI GUBMINT but at the same time, are too stupid, weak and lady-brained to take advantage of it. But yeah, your point still stands.

Argenti Aertheri
Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

Goats on things…there really is a tumblr for everything huh?

And kilts are automatically high brow in my book, as long as they look relatively like the wearer has a damned clue wtf a kilt is (yes I like kilts!) Lutes are probably classical enough to always be high brow as well, but then again, I don’t think my electric violin is an unholy abomination…I was afraid I would, but I quite like it.

Low brow “art” is more … my father’s “you might be a redneck if… ” calendar, or whatever the latest shit from the Jackass guys may be. Ball shots are low brow humor, filming them does not magically make it art. So unless Springsteen started doing limericks set to music or something, I think you’re good.

Note that ball shots are only funny when it’s my brother doing it to himself (I reserve the right to laugh at his stupidity, it’s my right as the first born XD )

Btw, the fish named goat? He picked out a Cory catfish (the first of them) – said it looked like a goat, our mother misheard nd thought he named it goat, so when I said that his catfish was lonely, I got told “his” name was goat. Got some more cories, goat laid eggs, got about 20 cories 🙂 and my mother still calls goat him/he!

This is how my 55g tank, my tank, no the living room tank, but my personal tank, ended up being FULL OF CORIES! They’re cute at least…well, cute for a fish that looks like a goat?

CassandraSays
CassandraSays
11 years ago

Is your mom a bit nicer than your dad? It would be good if you had at least one non-batshit parent.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

Just as long as Goat the fish doesn’t look like this (cute though it is).

I like kilts too. I wish I could persuade Mr K to wear one, but I’ll just have to be satisfied with remembering his youngest doing that fling (they look very much alike). Mr K steadfastly refuses.

Ball shots I have been happily unaware of until now, lol.

Springsteen doing limericks is a cute idea. I wouldn’t put it past him, actually, after reading his bio!

Thinking of electric violins puts me in mind of the Electric Light Orchestra. My faves when I was a teenager. 🙂

Argenti Aertheri
Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

“Is your mom a bit nicer than your dad? It would be good if you had at least one non-batshit parent.”

She usually isn’t too bad, she gets a laugh when I read MRA drivel to her, generally defends me against my father, as long it isn’t a matter of principals, and I’ve turned her into a plague rat (Emilie Autumn fan) – but there are topics we vastly disagree on, she’s a “pro-life” republican, but not of the shove it down your throat variety.

So yeah, she isn’t batshit, or she’s at least predictable about it (abortion is an Off Limits Topic, but she doesn’t get why so many pro-lifers are anti-birth control…I’m converting her slowly ^.^ )

Argenti Aertheri
Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

And no, goat isn’t a mermaid creature, she’s one of these. Her mate’s an albino Cory, so the babies basically look like lighter versions of her, they’re adorable and I’ve probably got at least 6 watching me XD

…I think that one is lost in a tunnel, either that or it just enjoys swimming back and forth inside PVC…

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

Opera and ballet are really the highest forms of stage art.

Ha. HAHAHAHA. That’s like, your opinion, man. And I’m sorry about your near homelessness, but I fail to see what that has to do with anything. Poor people can’t be snobs? Yeah, OK.

Katz, Cassandra: high fives for ninja/flounce artistry.

pecunium
11 years ago

So… I have an ex who is an opera singer (really good, has had operas written for her, etc.). I like Opera.

This, . Opera and ballet are really the highest forms of stage art,” is a steaming pile of fetid pigshit.

It ignores Noh, Kabuki, Mime, close up hand magic, Suspense Events like Houdini, plays, pantomime, operetta, and every other form of, “stage” entertaiment (while also being dismissive of non, “stage art” like interactive improv in street settings, celiedhs [which can be as observational as they are participatory).

There is no objective standard of “art”. I have some strong prejudices about what I think is good. I have some lesser ones about how I define art; and I happen to think craft is essential, but gustabus non disputadem and all that.

I have lived for many years on a very low income and often in danger of homelessness.

Which has shit all to do with being a snob, and clueless.

So yeah, I think you did hit on it with the first part of that comment, There is another problem we face…the lack of understanding of different forms of art.

Physician, heal thyself.

deezers
deezers
11 years ago

“I see the world as it is, and I tell it like it is”

– said by grossly arrogant, mistaken, fools-with-unfounded-opinions-that-everyone-else-should-agree-with everywhere, since forever.

Melissa, YOU see the world how YOU think it is, and CHOOSE to ‘tell it’ as such.

Here are two things I know. Having an opinion is great, sharing it is cool, but when you get called out on it for being massively offensive and woefully misguided, the defence “but that’s my opinion!” will probably not make people say “Oh right, sorry. It’s YOUR opinion. Sorry I bothered you. Carry on shaming those stupid abuse victims”.

How embarrassing that you seem to think that because you think something that it is absolutely right.

Can I be a tenor in the fuck you Melissa chorus? I’m thinking like, a big resounding booming bass-y “ffffuuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkk youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu” under a chorus of really high, staccato ‘fuck you’s.

deezers
deezers
11 years ago

Ok so I really like Opera and ballet, but I at the moment I prefer videos of guilty fat dogs and kittens getting surprises. Once I finish riding the cute kitty carousel will I want to settle down with a nice opera, but by then my hearing will be old and ugly and it’ll be too late?

Am I just a big art-whore who’ll enjoy ANYTHING cos feminism has made me so selfish?

Where’s Tom Martin when you need him. I’m confused.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

For Melissa:

deezers
deezers
11 years ago

I hope this embeddy thingy works – his voice is incredible and it always makes me goosebumpy and teary eyed.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsNlcr4frs4&w=560&h=315%5D

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

Deezers, no need to use brackets, just drop the link and it’ll work fine.

Kakanian
Kakanian
11 years ago

>Speaking of Stendhal, if you ever want an antidote to misogyny, read him. Here was a man who truly loved women, as they really were.

He did write a pickup artists manual with On Love though. I guess the difference between him and the current brand is that he wanted to be in love rather than get his dick wet as quickly as possible. And that he himself falling in love with all the anguish that comes with that was actually an acceptable and desired outcome for him.

And a good Noh Performance is a glorious thing to witness.

Karalora
Karalora
11 years ago

I slept through the sub-conversation about rape prevention, but I wanted to share something that I encountered many years ago in a far-off corner of the Interwebz that may not even exist anymore.

Some women were explaining to the guys there that the reason women are often brusque with strange men and distrustful of them is that we never know who the rapists are until it’s too late. One guy came back with “Maybe women wouldn’t get raped so much if you didn’t act like that. If you’re going to suspect the worst of us anyway…”

So there you have it. Under “Reasons Why She Was Asking For It,” after the laundry list of things that amount to “not being cautious enough,” you can go ahead and add “being too cautious.” There is literally nothing women can do that some man won’t use as an excuse for rape. Not even all the “right” things.

gnstr
11 years ago

some things are harder to change than others.

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