Today is an auspicious day. For the Men’s Rights Subreddit, which we often write about here on Man Boobz, has won the prestigious World’s Greatest Shitlord Award. Oh, sorry, I mean it won the Subreddit of the Day award on Reddit. Which is, in this case, pretty much the same thing.
Here are some highlights from the official announcement , which I am totally not making up. No, really, you can go look. Someone – that being XavierMendel, one of the mods of r/subredditoftheday — actually wrote these things. And meant them. I AM NOT BEING SARCASTIC THIS IS REAL HOLY SHIT.
The topic at hand today takes a generous turn from our amusing and lighthearted articles of the month. On this, the last day of January, we look at something a bit more worthy to be called an article. /r/MensRights comes up a lot across reddit and, indeed, across the world as being one of the few centers for men’s help. It’s often attacked, and is always the center of one controversy or the other. My questions reflect that. MensRights is, undoubtedly, the home of great activists.
Again. I am not making this up.
There were some people close to me that suggested I not run this article. That the repercussions of doing so would be unreasonably bad. Well, here you go, people. This is my way of saying that a good reporter doesn’t care. A good reporter reports. It’s not in my job to care about consequences.
I’m not sure that Mr. Mendel quite understands the difference between “reporting” and “asskissing.”
/r/MensRights. Never in our society could the uninitiated imagine such a place. A place where feminism is questioned, and our culture is deconstructed to find what it’s really up to.
Hahaha, what? I was not aware that feminism wasn’t ever questioned on the internet, or anywhere else in “our society.” I mean, it’s not like I run a blog that features nearly 500 posts detailing people attacking feminism on the internet, most of them nastily and ignorantly and sometimes using the word “cunt,” and the vast majority of them not on Reddit. And it’s not like this only barely scratches the surface of the subject.
/r/MensRights is one of the last fortifications of free thought to exist on Reddit.
Yeah, that’s why I was banned – not for trolling or harassing or calling anyone names, but for politely if persistently disagreeing with the denizens until then-moderator ignatiusloyola threw a fit.
“Surely you jest,” one might tell me, “when you mean they’re alone in this regard?” No, hypothetical 19th century British gentleman, I do not. I truly mean it when I say that. What other subreddit openly questions feminism? None spring to mind, and I make it my duty to catalog various subreddits. Most end up banned or run down within a month. Only /r/MensRights remains.
Reddit: Bastion of Internet Feminism.
Nobody can say for sure whether or not they’re correct in any single regard. It’s certain that, due to the laws of probability, they’re not correct in every regard. However, it’s also certain that they’re correct in most of them. Occasionally a wackjob or two will suggest that feminism is behind Cinnamon Toast Crunch (The taste you can see!™). The accuser latches onto those wackjobs to denounce the whole movement.
Yeah, it’s not as if comments suggesting that a man allegedly wronged in divorce court should turn to murder got literally dozens of upvotes in r/mensrights, or anything.
Oh wait, they did.
Yeah, it’s not as if Men’s Rights Redditors gave literally hundreds of upvotes to a post about a t-shirt suggesting that men could be convicted of rape simply for being in a room alone with a woman.
Oh wait, they did.
It’s not as if Men’s Rights Redditors regularly give dozens if not hundreds of upvotes to posts from unhinged hate sites like A Voice for Men or Angry Harry,or fall all over themselves praising an internet-famous female MRA who thinks that many abused women “demand” their abuse.
It’s not as if they think “spermjacking” is a real thing in the world that should make all men think twice about ejaculating in the general vicinity of women.
It’s not like … oh, you can find many, many more examples for yourself.
After claiming that “people have died” after being called misogynists, while “nobody ever dies after being called a misandrist,” Mr. Mendel winds up his speech with this stirring conclusion:
I support the struggles of people who are in bad positions. I respect it, in a way, for I have also seen great struggle. My struggle is not over, nor will it end until my death. For I struggle with something that will not go away through legislation or social change. The Men’s Rights Movement, however, struggles with something very changeable. Very malleable, able to be fixed within a generation if so desired. So I will support them, for they have a fighting chance. …
/r/MensRights is controversial for a reason. In the same sense as Jews of the 1890s, Irish of the 1850s, Hispanics of the 1350s, and many more. Each generation has their controversial improvement in society. We’ve gotten off easy so far, but we have to make it happen eventually. As far back as anyone living can remember, the table has been imbalanced in one way or another, favoring men or women. It’s time the table stays level for once. We need equality.
And that’s what /r/MensRights is trying to do.
Oy yoy yoy. There’s so much ridiculousness to unpack there that it makes me tired. I think I’ll go take a nap.
Mr. Mendel followed his stirring introduction with some questions for the denizens of r/mensrights. And there was some discussion. I can’t even. Not right now. I’ll get to all that in a future post.
In the meantime, Skepchick’s Rebecca Watson – who has been on the receiving end of r/menrights’ heroic activism more than once — has her own reaction to the Men’s Rights is the Subreddit of the Day announcement.
Great! I’ll look it over and tell you what I think.
Drst: I really do recommend reading Northanger Abbey. It’s the most pulp of Austen’s novels, so I find it really entertaining and charming. It’s one of her early ones, before she got into methodism, but after she made her prose more clear, so it really bounces along well.
It’s weird how a lot of the “great romantic heroes” seem to get frozen at asshole time in later adaptations. Like Darcy, for example, is rightly shot down by Lizzy until he becomes less of an asshole, and all of her attraction for him is post-asshole ( with some modification for her misunderstanding him a bit), and he even says she shocked him out of being a spoilt, self-satisfied ass, but its like 80% of the people entirely miss that part of the point is that he changes – not to win her back but because she was right, and he’s intelligent and good enough to listen to her.
Lord of the Flies completely freaked me out but I identified with Simon, which I think explains that.
@Neurite, DtC actually gave you some of the same advice I would about identity theft. Even a stopped clock occasionally has the correct time… While I would not change my SSN unless things got really bad, you should put a block on your accounts with all the 3 major credit reporting agencies (a minor pain in the ass, as I recall), and file police reports even though they will tell you flat out that they won’t even look for the person(s). You shouldn’t need a lawyer, but you’ll need to be persistent and probably supply the same documents over and over to get any charges reversed. I think it took me 8 months to get off the hook for a delinquent cable account someone had opened in my name, and I was denied like 4 times before they finally accepted that it wasn’t me.
PM me on the forums if I you think I can be of any help.
In the cases of credit cards and suchlike, there is a limit to what you can be held liable for. A very small limit. The banks often … would rather you didn’t realize this. They gloss over it.
Just knowing that limit can be powerful. (what, sixty dollars? I forget.)
I didn’t experience real identity theft; I just got my debit card number stolen, which is much easier to fix. So I don’t have any useful advice, sorry.
I had a really persistent identity thief. I think zie’s still out there, because occasionally I get junk mail sent to me with a variation on my real name that I think zie was using. Zie’s obviously succeeded in opening a cable account, and has tried and been narrowly foiled in getting a cell phone and a car loan in my name so now I just have a block on my SSN and if anyone tries to get credit for anything using it that gets blocked until they contact me.
Bleargh. Pain in the ass.
Deoridhe, according to my teacher, you would be identifying with Jesus.
I can’t remember who I picked. Definitely not simon though.
My goodness yes. I don’t know if we just had bad English teachers, but I felt like I couldn’t possibly actually enjoy any novels I read in English class; I was spending so much time trying to find the symbolism in every single image. Sometimes a color is just there because the author wants to be descriptive, you know?
So I went back to my preferred method of reading: read it once for enjoyment, read it again to catch all the shit you missed, and if its really good, read it even more! But I think this method is inefficient for writing term papers on schedule 🙂
Sexism is endemic to all of the worlds major religions, especially those that are monotheistic. The bible say that God create Man in his image, and by “man” it specifically means MEN(read male humans). Woman was made in the image of men with a few physical alterations but you get the idea.So if you are a woman and you wanna be with Jesus when you die, you had better be a submissive housewife and mother. But ya don’t have to take my word for it! Read your bible(but only the authorized King James version).
FSM is that other banned all-religions-suck troll? The one who said Jews aggressively evangelize? (No, not NWOslave, the OTHER one!)
Troll all right. Not a very good one either.
Turns out that sexism is also endemic among atheists, FSM. Also, racism. Also, classism, ableism, etc. May a pigeon piss in your eye, you annoying bit of troll-gristle.
@Katz
Boggi?
No, the OTHER OTHER one!
Ye gods, there are just too many to remember.
You won’t convince anyone that atheism is less full of dickheads than religion by being a massive dickhead in the direction of every believer you can find.
The trolls aren’t even trying any more. I am disappoint.
Nicely put.
From now on, FSM and DL are getting the Ruby treatment from me: Ignore.
Not worth any more time, thought, or typing. O_O
Although, could we substitute “asshat” for “dickhead” for a non-gendered insult?
Know what else is rife with sexism? Atheist communities on the internet. Go eat an evolved primate reproductive organ, douchenozzle, and leave the rest of this community to judge people based on how they act, not what gods they do or do not worship.
I’m fond of “doucheweasel” myself.
Ugh, that evokes weasels slithering up one’s vagina.
@Kiwi girl, I am allergic to wool too, and I react oddly to acrylic as well. I’m always charmed when a friend goes out of her way to make me something that won’t make me red and itchy, because I know it takes extra effort.
I tried to learn knitting at one point, but I have roughly a million cross stitch projects I’m in the middle of, and I decided I only needed one hobby to feel guilty about. (Two if you count writing…where I am also in the middle of many things I’m behind on.)
This is why I’m happy to remain ignorant of things like symbolism and metaphor and filmcraft and writing structure and etc. (It’s also because it seems like you have to read all kinds of stuffy old “classics” so you can tell when later writers are referencing them, which doesn’t seem like fun to me) (It’s also also because I’m lazy, but let’s not go into that)
Do not douche, people! Particularly not with weasels.
This has been a Public (Pubic?) Service Announcement brought to you by vaginal flora.