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.
I was thinking a weasel made of douche, rather than douching with a weasel, but I suppose either would be a bit not good. Even if you’re just companionably co-douching with a weasel who is also douching. Or something.
Do you know this for a fact, or are you just parroting what other people have said? Can you tell me, o scholar of the world’s faiths, what the major schools of Buddhism say about women? What is the role of women in Yoruba religion and its offshoots? What criteria are you using to define “the world’s major religions”?
(Protip: sexism is endemic to humanity)
Christianity =/= all religions though.
Chapter and verse, please
Have you?
So you’re aware that there are various translations of the Bible and that secular politics have influenced the development of some strains of Christianity, but you also think you can make broad-brush statements about what all 2 billion Christians believe. I thought Atheists were supposed to be all logical and shit?
Let’s just skip straight to the part where he learns about Sikhism and his head explodes.
FSM is like a caricature of an internet atheist. If I didn’t know any better, I would think they weren’t actually one, but alas—I do.
SAUCE FOR THE SAUCE GOD!
Seriously, if I were attempting to make atheists look like a bunch of morons, that’s exactly what I would say.
Did someone call for a Sauceror? Or maybe we need a Pastamancer to banish this noodly pest.
(Kingdom of Loathing was fun until I had to abandon my paid account because Disco Bandits are useless)
“The trolls aren’t even trying any more. I am disappoint.”
I’m with Hellkell.
What an awful way to teach/learn literature. I recall a professor in one of my lower-level college literature classes explicitly warning against taking that approach in a paper. I didn’t quite understand why, but I guess a lot of people have been taught that way.
I also recall a poetry unit where we would read two poems and then pick which one was better.
I shit you not.
@Katz I’m waiting until he finds about Unitarian Universalism: the religion where atheists and agnostics make up 20% of the members. We even have atheist sub-groups.
Aaaand that was in reply to your comment about Sikhism, above. I really have to remember to quote people!
I only wanna be Jesus if I get the awesome water to wine and walk on water shtick and get to skip the whole dying horribly to earn brownie points bit.
I’ll get to the trolls and stupidity in a moment, but need to comment on this —
“I was thinking a weasel made of douche, rather than douching with a weasel, but I suppose either would be a bit not good. Even if you’re just companionably co-douching with a weasel who is also douching. Or something.”
Co-douching with a weasel? Co. Douching. With a weasel!
Coffee warnings! Can we please get some?!
And we were graded on whether we picked the right one.
Wat r u doing bad lit teachers.
Bad lit teachers STAHP.
Yah know, fuck it, y’all got the trolls covered already!
FSM is slandering zir noodlies name!
At least this twit didn’t abuse the name of Ceiling Cat …
I like “asswaffle” as a descriptor.
Reblogged this on iheariseeilearn and commented:
Man Boobz Classic…
Borrowing Kiwi girl’s phrase, I think bumplucker would do well.
How many bums could a bumplucker pluck, if a bumplucker could pluck bums?
@katz: Beloved says that the only reason that poetry unit is not the dumbest thing she has ever heard is that she pays attention to the Internet.
@AliasC
Another cross-stitcher, eh? Awesome! I’m on the verge of finishing a small cross-stitch project myself–I usually wait until I finish one before moving on to the next, specifically so that I won’t wind up with gobs of half-completed ones lying around my apartment (which is cluttered enough as it is).
At some point, I plan to tackle Teresa Wentzler’s Celestial Dragon. That should occupy me for a good long while!
Haha, yes, asswaffle. Like the pattern left behind when you sit naked on a wicker chair or something.
While the Flying Spaghetti Monster certainly is trolling here on manboobz, I’ve noticed that anyone who disagrees with the particular interpretation of feminism(along with overall socio-political paradigm) is conveniently branded a *Troll*.
I’d like to follow up about my comments regarding the cheatress with the abusive lover: I was not insinuating that she deserved to be abused. What I was pointing out is that her lover has no respect or empathy for her. Therefore, as long as she satisfies his needs he has no incentive to be concerned with her needs nor to stop treating her so bad. I hope she has finally come to realize that she cannot change him and her only options are to dump him and never fuck him again, or suffer his abuse for the sake of sex.