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.
Actually I could do with an angry troll rant as a distraction from all the pretentious twaddle I’m reading for work (I’m going through promo emails). I mean honestly…
>On Rockidol and fathertime89: Terrible minds think alike or someone didn’t read the comments policy?
It logged me out and logged me in as someone else and I couldn’t see my old comment so I assumed it wasn’t posted. Sorry.
Weeeeee!! Dumb troll!! First comment I read is he is disputing the proportion of the stupidity of each of his comments. He’s probably right, I imagine one of his comments was probably stupider than others. Perhaps he’d like some sort of metric of stupidity to be applied to everything he’s said so that we are all clear on exactly how stupid he is being at any given time.
@cloudiah YES! The popcorn recipe is me. And now I want it myself but it’s late and BoyFantastic is in some kind of mood so won’t make it for me 🙁
@SomeGal Yeppers, nutritional yeast FTW!
BoyFantastic is watching Spin City at the moment, there is proper out and out spermjacking in this episode, maybe this is where the MRAs got the idea? However, in the last episode it had one of my favourite exchanges ever: “C’mon Mike, we’re a dying breed. Who’s looking out for the middle class, heterosexual white male?!” “…Congress?”
Having an outdoor cat can be very unsafe for the cat, depending on your area. I have some friends who have barn cats and one goes missing about every year or two. I would always keep my cats inside because I would worry about them.
But everyone’s circumstances are different.
Cassandra – good grief. What a pretentious tosser.
Heheh if I owned a Greebo I’d put him in a box and hand him to Mr Cats Are Killers and say “Don’t open the box …”
All this cheese talk. So much cheese talk. ::nom nom nom::
Fathertime/crawled out from under a rock/whatever your name is: don’t whine about cherrypicking. The MRM sites have plenty more than the gems David quotes here. The links demonstrate it. These guys (and presumably you, since you’re whining about them being treated so badly) hate women and are pro-rape, pro-pedophelia and pro-violence. Nobody’s impressed with you or your claims (you personally and the MRM in general).
@CassandraSays
The last band I had to deal with refused to acknowledge they were influenced by any bands ever; they were far too unique. But some people said they sounded like Evanesence or Lacuna Coil.
I’m like… yeah, I can see that from LOOKING AT YOU. GIVE ME SOMETHING THAT’S NOT ABOUT HOW ‘YOU ARE THE NIGHT’.
Blahdeeblahblah, we are not entirely made up of rape apologists whose few acts of activism serve to stop funding to domestic abuse shelters- well guess what, dude, when that is the sentiment in an overwhelming majority of the sites dedicated to your ‘movement’, it’s time to find another movement.
Ah, most of the cats I’ve known have been free-roaming cats and have been very unhappy when they have to be locked inside.
I guess a better solution would be to bell the cats?
On cherrypicking: Many of the worst things I quote come from some of the most prominent MRAs out there. Most of the comments I quote from r/mensrights have numerous upvotes, sometimes dozens or hundreds, and when I post comments that have been downvoted, I note that they’ve been downvoted. Also, I generally ignore the worst of the worst in the MRM, like those who consider Marc Lepine to be a hero. Please point me to the completely reasonable MR sites that aren’t full of misogyny that you think I’m somehow ignoring.
On the rest: r/mensrights can ban whoever they want. It just seems a teensy bit hypocritical for MRAs to describe it as a bastion of free speech when they regularly ban people who disagree with them.
Meanwhile, I let people who disagree with me post here and only ban them if they’re abusive or otherwise really badly behaved.
@thenatfantastic
I’ve started putting nutritional yeast in almost everything we eat. The boyfriend had low levels of vitamin B so it seemed like a good strategy (and he may not be able to get it from anything but injections, but it can’t hurt to eat more yeast). Recently, I discovered that it goes great with rice and/or black beans.
@Katz
BoyFantastic’s sister lives in the middle of the countryside. She rescued five cats a few years ago, only one is left :/
My kitties weren’t allowed out of the front garden at all, but Jemima* once escaped through the attic window, ran along the terraced roofs and was thrown out of the house she intruded on, which ended up with me lying underneath a hedge in that house’s front yard for 45 minutes shaking a box of cat treats trying to get her back.
(*My terminally dim kitty. She used to trip over her own paws, try to lick cheesegraters and fal over backwards trying to chase flies)
“don’t whine about cherrypicking”
This is cherrypicking. He’s pointing out their worst behavior and pretending this represents all of them. That is the definition of cherry picking.
“These guys (and presumably you, since you’re whining about them being treated so badly) hate women and are pro-rape, pro-pedophelia and pro-violence.”
Seriously?
You realize these are actual people and not cartoon characters right?
Someone get that person an exorcist! 😛
@ nat
Working with bands and trying not to laugh when they say hilariously pretentious things has given me a great poker face. The PR people are sometimes even worse, though. I just did an interview with a lovely older Mancunian gent who was in two of the most influential bands of the 70s/80s, and he was perfectly reasonable, but his PR person? Oy.
The rule of the lower down the food chain someone is the more pretentious and prone to wanky diva behavior they’re likely to be tends to hold true in most parts of the music industry.
Yes, fathertime, yes they are real people. Real people who hate women. They exist. Dude, you will get no traction here. Better to discuss an actual issue that affects men and see people’s reaction to it (also, what cartoons were you watching as a child? Egads!).
“Many of the worst things I quote come from some of the most prominent MRAs out there.”
Read: Most of it is commenters, but yeah you’ve done enough that “many” are prominent.
“Please point me to the completely reasonable MR sites that aren’t full of misogyny that you think I’m somehow ignoring.”
This is a pointless challenge. Any website that allows comments will have trolls on it no matter the subject matter. I’ve seen individuals who call themselves MRA’s that seem reasonable. They still count even if they don’t have a blog.
Perhaps this is a generational issue? Because the cartoons of my childhood (70s-early 80s) did not feature angry dudes ranting about how the age of consent should be done away with and how divorce is rape.
“Yes, fathertime, yes they are real people. Real people who hate women.”
If you honestly think that it’s nothing but pro violence pedophiles then I bet your only experience with MRA’s comes from other people telling you how horrible they are (like this site).
OK… so, can you point us to an MRA with a consistent record of insightful, reasonable, non-frothy-bigoted commentary?
Have you ever read Elam’s shit, for instance? Or Ferdinand Bardamau? Roissy? Roosh V? They talk about rape, they brag about it. The trolls we have had here like NWO slave actually want women beaten on the street for wearing clothes said trolls disapprove of. These men hail the child abuser and suicide Thomas Ball as a hero and martyr. They want women’s voting rights removed. One of them actually called for baby girls’ larynxes to be removed and was upvoted for it
Go fuck yourself. You’re defending men who want to, or have, commited rape and gods know what other forms of abuse against women and children.
This troll has a socky smell about him.
@SomeGal
We don’t use it that often, but in the places we do it’s a total lifesaver. I can make cheese sauce! And popcorn that tastes like Wotsits/Cheetos!
It’s pretty funny actually, my mum gets bare paranoid about my vitamin levels and whatnot because I’m vegan. She emails me once a week with something she’s convinced herself I’m not getting enough of, and the DIRE CONSEQUENCES if I don’t. Always forgetting I’m a vegan who makes all her own food from scratch, paying attention to a vitamin chart I have pinned up in my kitchen, and she’s a pescatarian who lives off ready meals. The last time was her being convinced I was DYING because I didn’t get enough B12, so I made her a list of what I’d eaten in the past 24 hours which was fortified with B12 (nutritional yeast, vegan butter, soya milk, etc, etc.), then asked her what she’d had – nothing at all. Possibly the best part was the reason she’d convinced herself I was DYING – lack of B12 – was because her friend had just been diagnosed with something to do with lack of B12. Where lack of it was a SYMPTOM – her friend’s body couldn’t absorb it – not a cause. But yeah, me making food fresh from vegetables every night is sooooo unhealthy *headdesk*
Naturally, if you cut a cat off from part of her territory, she will be upset about it. Like if we shut our bedroom door, Mot will whine and put her paws under the door, but she does that at the front door, because outside isn’t part of her territory.
Bells are helpful to most birds, but obviously they are not much help to kiwis!
I’d think that on average vegans probably eat better than most people in that unless they’re lucky enough to live in a major metropolitan area they’re likely to have to make most of their food themselves.