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 think a sock would know how WordPress commenting works. Also, he’s throwing all the absolute most basic points at us, and most socks have evolved beyond that point. I think he’s new.
WE’VE BEEN VISITED BY FATHER TIME AND NO ONE TOLD ME?!!??!?!!!?!
“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.”
Do you know why I compared them to cartoons? Because the whole idea that everyone in there is there because they love rape and pedophile is insane. They are not a league of villains or a group dedicated to evil. It’s not that black and white.
And I say that as a devoted omnivore. I could probably construct an entirely vegan diet from prepared foods here, but I don’t think I could have done so in Scotland without putting a lot of time, effort, and money into shopping.
@ fathertime- See, I didn’t say the MRM was all pro-violence pedophiles. I said it`s a group whose prominent heroes are rape apologist misogynists. And I’ll go further and say the dialogue of this group serves to propagate and re-enforce rape apologist, dv apologist discourse, and their only ‘activism’ has been to cut funding for women’s services. When the ideology of a group is based around misogyny, being a member of a group effectively identifies you as a misogynist by your tacit support of misogynists. Sort of like how your membership of the clan doesn’t guarantee you enjoy acts of violence against ethnic minorities, but it indicates you are supporting it.
In the Middle East? Impossible, there’s dairy in almost everything. In Thailand? Impossible, there’s fish sauce in everything that isn’t a dessert.
Y’know something, Crawled From Under A Rock? I don’t give a fuck if there are “moderate” or “reasonable” MRAs out there. Because if there are (which I doubt) they’re not doing anything about the ones who want women abused and enslaved. They’re not saying anything like “Hey, this isn’t what men’s rights is about! We’re looking for better healthcare and more help for men who are victims of DV or sexual assault!” They’re not calling out Warren Farrell for saying incest is good and any women who say they didn’t like being raped by their fathers must be lying. No, they’re making up lies about him being set upon at a university campus.
But you know, if genuine men’s issues are the sort of things you are concerned about, there are groups out there who are trying to help. They’re called feminists. Because all the MRM is about is pushing women into a worse situation than the one we were in a century ago. These cretins talk about Saudi Arabia as a matriarchy. They complain about pedophilia being frowned upon. They complain about women having any control over when or if we will reproduce.
Amen to that sister. My last two reviews: One band on their debut album, where I pointed out where their production values may have been improved in order to make them sound more awesome, and one guy who’s been recording since the 70s, where I slated the sound half his album because the production values sucked.
Guess which one took the trouble to find me on Facebook, thank me for the good review and offer me a place on a tour and which one banned me from their gigs?
Hm, I’m looking for the place where David said that everyone in the MRM is there because they love rape and pedophilia. Not finding it. Citation?
*70s guy was bezzies with Crass too.
“OK… so, can you point us to an MRA with a consistent record of insightful, reasonable, non-frothy-bigoted commentary?”
You think I keep a record of everyone I talk to on the internet?
Eh, I can’t be bothered to go over 101 issues with the troll. We need a site devoted to debunking MRA myths from a 101 perspective that we can point people at so we don’t have to keep going over the basics.
fathertime, here’s an easier challenge for you: give me the names of half a dozen reasonably prominent MRAs online who are decent people and not misogynists.
You’re still not rocking that cartoon analogy- a rape apologist pedophile who tried to take over the world by blowing up the moon (or something) is a super villain. A rape apologist asshole who writes hateful crap in the internet is an asshole.
thenat – “and she’s a pescatarian who lives off ready meals”
If those ready meals are anything like the ones we get here, I can only imagine what your mum’s salt levels are like! I had to cut those things almost entirely out of my diet when I was diagnosed with NAFLD.
This one isn’t even bothering to point us to Fidelbogen or whoever. He’s just out-and-out admitting that he’d need to keep studious records of every MRA he ever talks to in order to have a snowball’s chance of finding one who isn’t despicable.
I like hanging out with you guys! This is nice.
” Because if there are (which I doubt) they’re not doing anything about the ones who want women abused and enslaved. ”
There’s nothing they really can do. Anyone can call themselves an MRA and make hateful rants which fall under free speech. Same is true of people who call themselves liberals or conservatives.
I mean, there must be at least one person who calls himself an MRA who’s not horrible out there. Said person would probably be very new to the whole thing and not have encountered some of the more, um, interesting characters yet.
@Cassandra I’ve wanted to be vegan since I was about 14, but lived in Bradford until about 18 months ago. Basically I met BF and needed to cook for him (we were doing long distance at the time) so I learned how to cook vegan, but it was bloody hard. I moved to Bristol 18 months ago and was on the dole, so I could only spend about £7/week on food shopping, so I couldn’t afford eggs, cheese or milk, and I needed vegan substitutes in for when BF would come to stay – and they were cheaper – so I’d just use them, until I realised I’d managed 6 months totally vegan without even realising. Now I live in Brighton it’s amazing. We can go *anywhere* and eat vegan, because people understand it here. When I go home to Bradford it’s still difficult, but I do struggle through. However, if I still lived there I doubt I’d have made the change from veggie to vegan, if I did I’d be living on potatoes.
Well, if there’s a non-anon commenter on a blog I frequent who gives lots of good, interesting, or funny comments then I tend to remember their name because I enjoy their commentary.
So, y’know, this kind of indicates that you don’t make notes of the ‘reasonable ones’, they don’t exist, or that prominent MRA sites freeze them out…
Pecunium — tempting me to play with fire! …think a wide mouth nalgene would work?
Cassandra — milk substitute for coffee? I use coffee mate’s hazelnut. Honey does work though, did that and sugar in the raw when I was working at this hippie co-op (lol shortest job ever, I’m not same enough for being left in charge with no extra hands on my second week >.< )
>This one isn’t even bothering to point us to Fidelbogen or whoever. He’s just out-and-out admitting that he’d need to keep studious records of every MRA he ever talks to in order to have a snowball’s chance of finding one who isn’t despicable.
Is it really that hard to believe that I don’t remember the usernames of everyone I spoke to on the internet?
I don’t even go to MRA sites. I ran into them on random threads on the internet so pardon me if I don’t have their names memorized.
But oh well I guess if you only talk to the same people all the time it’d be easier to remember their names.
“So, y’know, this kind of indicates that you don’t make notes of the ‘reasonable ones’, ”
I don’t take notes of anyone I meet on the internet, because I go to large websites where there’s 100 or so people on at any given moment.
I’m sorry if I don’t obsessively write down the names of everyone who seems interesting, I have much better things to do with my time.
We need a site devoted to debunking MRA myths from a 101 perspective that we can point people at so we don’t have to keep going over the basics.
I’d do it except I think my debunking would come down to “get out of your computer chair, go into the outside world, and just experience it for once, please, before the vitamin D deficiency gets to you”