The votes are in and the winner of the highly coveted Man Boobz Troll of the Year Award for 2012 is … MRAL!
Wait, you say, he wasn’t even on the ballot?
Well, no. The troll that got the most votes from you, my dear readers, was the verbose anti-Man Boobz crusader known as Steele — also known as Mikhael Varpole and, briefly, as Torvus Butthorn. Indeed, Steele cruised to victory, getting 47% of the vote, as compared with the 33% received by Tom Martin, his only real competitor. (Dr. Pell came in third, with a mere 6% of the total.)
But as it turns out we’ve been played, big time. The troll we know and love as Steele turns out to have been MRAL all along.
Yes, that MRAL – the long banned commenter who cannot seem to walk away from this blog. We’ve uncovered and banned many of his previous sockpuppets, but somehow he managed to slip his boldest sockpuppet right by us.
Oh, sure. I and others here often wondered if Steele was for real; it seemed pretty clear to me that he couldn’t possibly believe everything he said. But it wasn’t until I went back to some of “Steele’s” earliest comments here, in preparation for this post, that I discovered how justified these suspicions had been. Turns out that one of “Mikhael Varpole’s” IP addresses matched one used by an earlier troll, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, who had been outed as MRAL a couple of months earlier.
D’OH!
“Torvus Butthorn” really should have been a dead giveaway. But otherwise the highly dedicated MRAL did a masterful job of keeping his troll character consistently ridiculous yet plausible enough to not be an obvious phony, and of hiding his particular obsessions in such a way that he didn’t give himself away.
So, congrats, MRAL, and you’re banned again.
After this, the rest of the results are a bit of an anticlimax.
Sunshine Mary wins the Special-est Snowflake award for Female MRA Trolls, with 52% of the vote. Driversuz comes in second with 32%.
Tom Martin easily wins the Worst Human Being award with a stunning 73% to David K Meller’s 22%.
Some Guy Bored With Your Schtick wins Most Tiresome with 58% of the vote; Diogenes is a distant second with 24%.
And JudgyBitch wins Most Pathetic Vote Beggar.
I hope they’re not all MRAL too.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH huge seconding on Captain Awkward.
That blog has literally helped make me a better person, both in the way I treat myself and other people.
@Shiraz
This is truly the last thing I can post today, lest I be late for work. But I’d like to just point something out…Read your very last sentence.
You say WOMEN’S issues. Not women and men. Not people. Not humanity. Not everyone who is unfairly portrayed in society/gender roles/employment/etc.
You say it is a women’s movement, started by women, about women’s issues. If this is honestly what Feminism is, then no…I’m definitely NOT a feminist. I’m a single woman, a Wiccan, a vegetarian, a holder of a business degree, a workaholic and a good lover.
But if Feminism is as you say above, I can’t be part of it. I care about myself and my fellow women, certainly. But I can’t care about them and NOT care about the men in my life also.
I’ll check back later to see if there’s any revisions or additions to this definition of Feminism, though. Again, I hope everyone here has a good day.
I also am puzzled about the “Captain Awkward” thing. Maybe I’m just stupid, but I’m definitely missing something here. 🙁
Feminism does not require that you do not care about the men in your life, Evito.
Give this a try:
http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/faq-why-feminism-and-not-just-humanism-or-equalism-isnt-saying-youre-a-feminist-exclusionary/
And this too:
http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2007-04-07_569
Captain Awkward is an awesome advice column:
http://captainawkward.com/
This one is especially fitting:
http://captainawkward.com/2012/12/03/401-i-cant-tell-whether-my-girlfriend-wants-to-have-sex-with-me-spoiler-she-doesnt/
Evito you should probably take some time to do some more reading about Feminism.
It is NOT solely concerned with womens problems, but with everyone who is hurt by Patriarchy.
Today’s Feminist look at issues of race,of gender, of sexuality and all the ways that patriarchal values and stereotypes restrict and hurt people.
We are all very aware that patriarchy has negative consequences for men as well, and that a lot of the issues raised by MRA’s and labelled as “misandry” are in fact the result of Patriarchy.
However we call ourselves Feminists because we maintain that Patriarchy hurts straight, white,cis men the least and because the privileges it gives them outweigh the negatives.
We care about men,of course, but there are those who need help more, like trans people, like LGB people, like women from ethnic minorities.
It is Feminism that analyses the impact that race, gender identity and sexual orientation has on peoples experiences and it is Feminism that argue that men are not the sex-crazed,violent, emotionally repressed things that patriarchy wants them to be.
No-one is saying that to be a Feminist means you cannot care about men. I care about men,about my father and brother and my friends and colleagues who are men.
Also, short history lesson Feminism is called that because that is how the movement began, to address the issues women faced.
It began largely as a movement by white middle-class western women to gain the vote, and overtime it has expanded and developed to address the concerns of wider groups of people.
However it retains its name just as any other ideology keeps its name despite changes.
And also because as I said, changing the name to something less women centric would be doing what the patriarchy wants us to do. To apologize for being women and for caring about women.
The name of our ideology has a long history and I am proud of that, I am proud to be part of the same movement as the people who have fought and struggled for the rights enjoy today.
@ Evito
Yeah, I’ve been reading sunshinemary’s blog lately, and it’s horrifying to me. The men who post there are such childish, egotistical little shit, and the women just constantly stroke their egos. Ugh- how can that be good for anybody?
@deezers
I kind of used to be an MRA (emphasis on the ‘kind of’). It started when I went to university and feminist theory became a big part of my study. I thought at the time that much of it was overly simplistic, downright vicious towards men, and a bit silly (compared to, say, the other theories we learned about). I was friends with mostly guys in my first year, and they complained bitterly about feminism and the way girls treated them. It just seemed to me that there was so much division and hatred in society between different genders, and I wanted to know what had caused that. I read the writings of a few men’s advocates, such as Warren Farrell and Glenn Sacks, and a lot of it made sense to me. Again, though, I was horrified by most of the comments on the MRA sites (and these were the less extreme ones!) and realised quickly that most of these men didn’t want equality. Likewise, I always disagreed with the views on sex and rape which most of my male friends and even the moderate MRAs held, so I could never be a ‘true’ MRA, I guess. I am also very interested in historical female figures and women writers (in fact I’m doing my dissertation on all women writers), and they would hate that. Honestly, my interest in men’s rights stemmed mostly from not wanting to be a victim, and just being tired of all the division and hatred I (thought I) saw around me. Also, I thought that most men believed like this, even though I’ve realised in the last couple of years that this isn’t true. I should clarify here that the anti-feminist guys I knew in real life were not on the level of, say, the guys on sunshinemary’s blog or the spearhead.- I would never have listened to them if they were. They might have felt right at home on reddit men’s rights, though.
Mostly, I was swayed over to the ‘feminist’ side by the way people acted and have treated me. On feminist blogs, I see real discussion, people being held accountable for their words and actions, and a sense of humour and joy (in spite of what some people may claim). On MRA sites and blogs, and with some of the guys I know in real life, I see a lot of misery, hate, no logical arguments, and a complete lack of personal responsibility. Why would I want to be part of that? To be honest, I’m not sure what to call myself now, but I am sure that the MRM as it stands will only make things worse. I’m also not sure it’s healthy for me to be on this blog, but I just can’t seem to look away. Plus, I learn a lot here, even non-gender related stuff!
Just wanted to say where I’m coming from. I know it’s a bit long…
Gawd bless you Historophilia, but I am not having another session of trying to justify why women don’t have spend their lives pandering to the slights felt by men as a consequence of the wholesale oppression of women (why patriarchy hurts men too). I just honestly couldn’t give one iota of a fuck arguing this with people any more.
(Not saying other people can’t but I am O-U-T out. It just feels like this line of argument always leads to yet another “if you don’t cater specifically to ME, I’m not supporting YOUR rights and GODDAMMIT WHERE’S MY COOKIES?”.)
Evito: The real problem is there are so many contradoctory, and conflicted teaching, married to a power imbalance in the intimate relationship that all of it is fundamentally irreconcilable.
1: Men are always right.
2: Women aren’t supposed to like sex.
3: Women who like sex are morally suspect.
4: Denial of sex is one of the few places a woman in these relationships can have any sort of control over their lives.
Of course they are going to use that. It’s the only place they have any sort of power.
Re Womens’ Issues: I think you are pretending to a distinction without a difference.
Equality for women in the Armed Forces is a womens’ issue one that correcting makes things equal for everyone.
To say it’s, “an issue of equality” is to ignore that the present inequality” isn’t equal. It’s a mistreatment of women.
Correcting it helps everyone, but it’s not about making men equal, it’s about correcting the present inequality.
And that’s just one example of a systemic problem.
It’s about women, because the inequalities are gender biased (and it’s worse for women who aren’t white).
Can I sit this round of justification out with you, natfantastic? We can go get a beer or coffee, and browse scented fucking candles.
Um, yeah. I’m going to follow thenatfantastic’s lead and drop this particular line of discussion.
C’mon, Shiraz, let’s go drunk candle shopping. The misandry compels you!
Hellkell, you might be able to help me actually – are you one of the Proper Tea Drinkers of Manboobz*? I just bought some Assam tea after a lifetime of drinking sugary English tea and don’t know how to drink it. Am I a bad person if I put sugar in it? What do I do with it?
(*If not please ignore the question and look at this video instead)
I don’t think I’d be considered a proper tea drinker because I love milk and sugar in my tea.
Whoo, hamsters in a wheel! Too cute.
Damn, HTML fail.
On the good news front, I just got a physical at the VA clinic (and the needed referrals to start my rounds of specialists). When going over my basics, I was asked (for the first time) what my sexual preference is, i.e. the assumption that all people are heterosexual, is 1:no longer default, and 2: something to find out in the normal course of doing business.
Interestingly, also, the number of partners I might have was never addressed. I don’t know if my saying I practice safe sex short-circuited that or not.
I was never an MRA, but I came close through the Nice Guy(tm) path. I didn’t consider myself sexist, since I didn’t act like a stereotypically chauvinist TV character, but I certainly didn’t notice my privilege, and was still prone to seeing women as a mysterious “other”.
It wasn’t until years later when I read the dissection of the Nice Guy trope at Pandagon that I recognized exactly how that subconscious sexism warped my worldview.
I realized that I believed I “deserved” an attractive women for being nice.
I realized how twisted the “Friend Zone” concept was. The reward for friendship is friendship, not a deposit in the “please fuck me” jar.
I started to realize how whiny and sensitive I was in the rare cases when I was not in the privileged position, yet blind to the fact that others have to deal with that lack of privilege regularly.
I realized that the idea of “women are people too” had not actually sunk in, papered over by every time women are seen as a monolithic stereotyped block, rather than individuals steeped in a similar culture to mine.
Since then, it’s just been a long slow process of removing my head from my ass.
Okay. This revelation has inspired me to actually work on the idea I’ve had for a while now – we need an Encyclopedia of Manboobz Trolls so we can identify sockpuppets / help newbies understand why we yell at them even if they haven’t said anything bad in the thread (RubyHypatia comes to mind).
I’ve typed up what I know in a googledoc, and I welcome any help!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ln8HNEAkBWQlw6UkfTsitP9HkhELSjFdgxYv5dxl5Y0/edit
hellkell: Makes you a proper tea drinker in my book (and when I was in Scotland that was the way tea was presented. A pot, and a pitcher of milk with sugar).
All the Brits in the army took it with milk and sugar, and the “norwegians” (jerry cans, ideally insulated) which came out to the field were nothing but tea with milk and sugar. The tea in “compos” (field rations) is instant, and labelled, “white tea”. There is a lot of sugar in a compo.
Woo for less heteronomativity! And I hope your navigations of America’s labyrinthine healthcare system go swimmingly.
Wheeeee! let’s go, hellkell !
Pecunium: glad the VA went well for you. My father goes there for all his stuff now, and can’t believe the changes from the early 70s when he was fresh out of Viet Nam. It’s like they actually give a shit now.
Teratomatastic: Diogenes is also known as, “Diogenes the Naïf” and just plain, Naive/Naïf
And I’m flattered my Taxonomy of Sockpuppets is seen as useful.