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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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Bostonian
11 years ago

By that logic, women should simply shoot men on sight, just in case.

cloudiah
11 years ago

Erp, Bostonian’s getting Registered for that comment! 😉

Kakanian
Kakanian
11 years ago

>By that logic, women should simply shoot men on sight, just in case.

That approach is very zombie apocalypse-like.

timetravellingfool
11 years ago

Careful, Bostonian, it’s jokes like that that get you registered.

freitag235
freitag235
11 years ago

OT and completely fucked. TW: graphic abuse of very young children by a kid of around 10 or so. Do not click on the link unless you can handle it, and it is bad. Get this kid to a shrink and fast. The video is about 5 minutes long, and the abuser kid knows what he’s doing so as not to get caught.

It is painful to see this kid, so young, and so violent and calculating about it.

TW again.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151557163136110

pillowinhell
11 years ago

Send that llink to the local police dept. I don’t have facebook, but I do know that certain police depts take that kind of shit very seriously, and will try to get the victims help and the victimizer an intervention.

Hell, send it to the Toronto special victims unit.

Abnoy
Abnoy
11 years ago

That’s why I never delude myself on the so-called innocence of children for I knew far too many kids like that in my own youth. Some people are just born bad and beyond any hope of any rehabilitation …

Falconer
11 years ago

I feel I would be remiss if I did not explain that, no, Les Miserables is not a musical, it’s an oprah.

Bostonian
11 years ago

Just following the illogic to the conclusion. I am sure he did not think it all the way through when he said it.

Binjabreel
Binjabreel
11 years ago

Can’t really check this site more than once a day, but just wanted to pop back to say that I’ve been reading y’all for a long time, since my sister introduced me to some of her favorite feminism blogs after I bailed on a couple of my favorite atheism and science blogs for being horrendously misogynistic.

Never really felt comfortable joining the dialogue, but it’s amazing how much social anxiety can be overridden by indignant rage, I guess.

That and, y’know, actually having relevant thoughts and experiences. That helped too. 😀

And, yeah, I can’t stand western modern interpretive dance, (ballet and opera are fine) but just thinking about Japanese theater gives me chills. And that whole “high art” trope always makes me think of this:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6330/1690/1600/ch930720%20%28high%20art%20low%20art%291.gif

Goddamned Eurocentric nonsense.

Kiwi girl
Kiwi girl
11 years ago

Gosh I go to bed and miss out on the comments about kilts. My partner bought me my clan allegiance’s kilt for combined Xmas/birthday – I got the longest one you can as I am quite tall and I think knee-length kilts are more traditional. It’s lovely and warm, I wear it with thick black stockings and boots. He also bought me an Edinburgh cape in the same kilt material. Both are in the ancient hunting tartan as the black stands out better compared to the modern dyes, and the dress tartan is just too red. 🙂

katz
11 years ago

Also, fuck you. Nearly homeless and paying for the opera?! I remember not knowing if I could put together bus fare to get to my psych – *that* is nearly homeless, if you’ve got money for transportation to the opera, and admission…either you lived next door and had a student pass / discount hours, or I have questions.

Gotta throw a side-eye at this; it’s very “you can’t really be poor if you could afford X!”

katz
11 years ago

And, in this particular case, moot since she said she was an opera singer. (Which is also, in my experience, a great way to become poor.)

justeunperdant
11 years ago

wow I like to come here an chat with really intelligent women. Keep blogging girl, you are making me a better men

fantysq
11 years ago

Haha, reading that abuser related argument definitely brought up some bad memories for me.

Funnily enough, I never had any trouble having lots of empathy towards total strangers who have been abused, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get rid of resentment I feel towards my mum for staying with my dad. I spent too many nights of my childhood imagining her taking me and my brother and going back to live with her parents, which is something she should have done before my brother was born.

freitag235
freitag235
11 years ago
whataboutthemoonz
11 years ago

Comments are always worse.

chocomintlipwax
11 years ago

I agree. Comments are always worse. Comments make me lose (more) faith in humanity.

A little part of me hopes that some troll who works for each website (professional troll?) writes all the awful comments to drive up traffic and get more ad impressions or something. I have a CNN app on my iPad just to keep up with headlines, but gah … the comments! The comments!! Apparently every racist misogynist f::k in the world reads CNN.

Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

Also, fuck you. Nearly homeless and paying for the opera?! I remember not knowing if I could put together bus fare to get to my psych – *that* is nearly homeless, if you’ve got money for transportation to the opera, and admission…either you lived next door and had a student pass / discount hours, or I have questions.

Gotta throw a side-eye at this; it’s very “you can’t really be poor if you could afford X!”

Yeah, I was just straight up angry, sorry about that *goes to corner of shame*

inurashii
inurashii
11 years ago

argh argh argh have y’all seen this 🙁
https://www.potentialprostitutes.com/faq

thebewilderness
thebewilderness
11 years ago

I had a really hard time when I was young with that whole suspend your disbelief thing on nearly anything but the written word. I was bookish, and cared for little beyond drawing and reading. Mind you the musicals of my youth were the dreaded fifties follies variety. I just wanted the story. Digressions were aggravations. Eventually I learned to see the art form in the story telling. Then even if I did not care for one I could enjoy the other.
It is always a treat to hear someone express a narrow view as though it were sophisticated. It reminds me of me in my tweens. I am old now so I pretty much like everything.
I hadn’t seen that British talent singer clip in a while. It was wonderful. Thanks for reminding me.

freitag235
freitag235
11 years ago

@inurashii, that is fucked up beyond words.

Here’s a baby jaguar to keep Argenti company.

katz
11 years ago

Yeah, I was just straight up angry, sorry about that *goes to corner of shame*

No worries 🙂

katz
11 years ago

Wow, if the first question in your FAQ is for people who want to sue you, you’re doing something terribly wrong.

Also if you’ve been “sued on many occasions” when YOUR SITE IS ONLY THREE MONTHS OLD.

timetravellingfool
11 years ago

@ inurashii- spiteful little men doing spiteful hurtful things. now I have the anger.

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