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.
@cloudiah
Sleep well and feel better!
I almost wish I hadn’t read Wuthering Heights. The fact that there are still people who think it’s “romantic” depresses me.
@CarleyBlue
Even English majors can’t read ALL the classics. 🙂 (And there are all of those times when the books for class just didn’t get read somehow. Those kinds of things are nobody’s fault.)
LBT:
Brazilians are not hispanic, they are lusitanic. I have met some black barazilian humans BTW.
I am going to have to read it someday- I know I will. Maybe I’m just not cut out for being an academic or writer. Too many depressing books to read.
*offers to tuck cloudiah in, leaving tea warming nearby?*
I read Wuthering Heights for school (fantastic class – AP English) but Northanger Abbey on my own, and it is pretty light and charming. The sarcasm is a lot more broad and closer to snark in a few places, but I actually really like the love story part of it. She was making a satire of the Gothic Romances of the time, so it is a bit more eventful than her other books. It is my second favorite (after Pride and Prejudice).
@cloudiah nite 🙂
Everyone else: all your biscuits are belong to me
…What was your previous incarnation?
The classic I hate is kind of commonly hated, but Holden Caulfield still needs to SHUT HIS DAMN MOUTH.
NO! Who are these mysterious people of whom you speak?
Oh, wait, they are still Hispanic.
The Austen book I didn’t like at all was Mansfield Park. I never could figure out why Fanny was Austen’s favorite of her heroines, I found her insufferable.
I like Wuthering heights… but it’s not a Romance – at least the main couples aren’t at all romantic (I would argue Cathy and *spoiler* breathe a little bit of clean air into the end, but most people don’t remember them at all as near as I can tell). I think what I liked most was the Cathys, especially the second one – I liked that she didn’t go all Traditional Heroine Beautiful in Suffering but rather became snippy and sullen. Much as I love the A Little Princess style of heroine, I think Cathy was a lot more realistic. Most people don’t become better people due to back breaking drudgery and cruelty.
Oh lord Fanny. What a drip. She was a limp dishrag and Edmund was a prig.
If there’s anything good to say about that book it’s that those two were perfect for each other.
I think I ell asleep during Mansfield Park. Over and Over and Over and Over again.
Honestly, I don’t even think people started noticing my posts until I wasn’t as much of a newcomer anymore. But yeah, I mean if you come in here posting problematic shit, people are going to notice that and they are going to call you on it. Even if you aren’t a newcomer. Hell, there have been times I know I’ve probably worded things horribly or not explained myself well and looking back I’ve been like “oook – not great, ostara, there’s loads of cis-centric language there” etc.
This place has one of the least strict commenting policies of any feminist blog I’ve ever been on. Not to mention, if you don’t understand why something you said was problematic, the folks on this blog tend to be super patient in dolling out 101 factoids to people who are willing to listen. That’s key though. You have to be willing to shut the fuck up for half a second and listen to people who might have a better grasp on a concept than you. Which necessitates acknowledging that you might not know everything in the world better than everyone else. The only way I can figure this place is “hostile to newcomers” is if your idea of “hostile to newcomers” is “PEOPLE ARE NOT PRAISING EVERYTHING I SAY AS GOOD AND RIGHT AND TOTALLY OK TO SAY BECAUSE FIRST AMENDMENT”.
I didn’t get far into Cather in the Rye – I felt like I was reading a myspace page.
Mansfield Park is one of those books that somehow (magic?) didn’t get read for class. I read enough to know I didn’t want to read anymore and I read all the criticism, which so didn’t help make it sound any more pleasant.
Deoridhe. I did the same with The Secret Agent. Really ended up hating the book, and the author.
Mansfield Park wasn’t the most boring book we had to read at school though! That honor goes to Cider With Rosie.
Also, I think we might have power back finally. I won’t know til I get home, but there have been rumours. Most of my neighbours have had power for the last 2 nights, but we are right near where the tree fell on the road and power lines.
I’ll be driving the long way home for another couple of months though I think until they fix the bridge which was actually scheduled to be fixed in March – because it was damaged in the last flood 2 years ago.
I hated Catcher in the Rye, and I read it long after school because it was a “classic”. I also read it to the bitter end, figuring the story would improve.
A classic I liked very much, and again one I read after school, was To Kill a Mockingbird.
The worst for me was Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping.
I didn’t like anything by Dickens much either. I can’t remember which novel had the full page description of a clock, but really, “it was a big, old clock” would have sufficed.
Kiwi, some trivia for you. Dill is based on Truman Capote. The knew one another growing up.
He writes about the same events in one of his works. forget which one.