So: many if not most of you have probably heard about the whole #INeedMasculismBecause thing. For those who aren’t: a bunch of Men’s Rights Redditors and other MRAs, inspired by a post on 4Chan, decided to swarm Twitter with #INeedMasculismBecause tweets in response to the #INeedFeminismBecause hashtag. Feminists responded by outswarming the MRAs, flooding their new hashtag with often quite hilarious parodies of MRAspeak, as well as some just plain ridiculousness.
Today, on r/mensrights, MRAs are surveying the damage in a host of different threads, with some plaintively wondering “why is everyone so hostile towards the idea of men having issues,” and others claiming that the hashtag really “started as a caricature of Men’s Rights, in order to lure out the real life caricatures of Radical Feminism.” Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Jezebel has already chronicled some of the funniest parody tweets. And I was thinking of doing the same. I mean, these are pretty good:
Ok, that last one was just a dumb joke about someone ordering a watermelon-flavored drink. I “favorite” a lot of things.
Anyway, catching up on the whole thing last night, I found myself thinking that the parody comments – as funny as some of them were – couldn’t really compete with the loopiness of the real MRA tweets.
So here are some #INeedMasculismBecause tweets by some of my new favorite Twitter MRAs. (I only started going through these really late last night, so a lot of my examples come from the Indian MRAs who were posting prolifically at the time.)
Let’s start with Average Man, who opened a new Twitter account just for the occasion:
Uh, maybe they gave you “less marks” because you don’t know the difference between “less” and “lower.”
Alexander shared these somewhat perplexing thoughts:
The prolific SaveIndianFamilyNGO had all sorts of interesting opinions:
I found myself often perplexed by wnnbl, but I don’t think his troubles with English were the main problem:
I assume these last two are jokes, but honestly, who knows?
I have no idea what Virag was going on about with these tweets:
But this one at least was pretty clear:
Atit seems to have a rather strange idea of what “equality for men” means:
Warrior for Justice also doesn’t seem to like women very much:
Martin Clausen ramped up his largely dormant Twitter account to post these gems:
I don’t quite know what to make of Jackson here, but he seems to be a real MRA.
This is just a theory, but maybe women look at you strangely when you pick up your kids because of that uncontrollable boner you mentioned earlier?
MRAs show once again that they’re beyond parody — or at least indistinguishable from it.
“after being asked what country Connecticut is in”
O_o
I get being asked what country Maine is in, as my parents were when they traveled, but Connecticut?
Then again, I have a New Englander’s perspective on the USA. Obviously folks from other parts of the country will have different ones…
I was once asked if Scotland was in England when I was in Texas. Them’s fighting words to a Scot.
Given the state of education in TX, I’m not surprised you were asked that.
Yeah, my aunt used to get “You speak very good English!” when she visited in the 70s.
Heh – just told Mum about Connecticut etc, and she said “America’s called the policeman of the world, but how do they find any of those other countries?”
Heh – just told Mum about Connecticut etc, and she said “America’s called the policeman of the world, but how do they find any of those other countries?”
Funny story, I’m convinced that’s how we accidentally ended up in Iraq…
emilygoddess — idk about elsewhere, and time wise, but the woman who asked would be maybe 40 now, and idk about there, but I know I had to learn all 50 states!
Is Scotland in England XD
We have issues with England v UK.
Kitteh — with computer guided missiles. The computer has maps after all (that is half a joke, and half me being bitter)
Nawh, we were aiming for Iraq, cuz WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION (were nowhere to be found)
We could claim that’s how we missed crossing the border into Pakistan though.
kittehs, Your mom has a good sense of humor. We should let her whack a troll around one of these days. 😀
I also got asked if we had television and running water. I mean, I know parts of Scotland are a bit remote, but come on.
Also we have constantly running water. We like to call it “rain”.
Gonna be in Scotland next week!!!
/Random bragging only slightly related to the topic at hand.
viscaria: Am jelly. What part of Scotland?
“We like to call it “rain”.”
Far less minerals. Idk about for humans, probably moot for us, but it’s far saver for carnivorous plants (oh, right, pecunium if the cutting survives it’ll need rainwater, distilled, or RO, rain is, obviously, the least obnoxious and cheapest option
[if not…dear gods does that thing grow! I’m sure it’ll seed soon enough])
We’re doing a bus tour, so all over! Mostly the Highlands. Pretty much can’t express how excited I am 😀
You’re taking lots of hats and gloves, right? It gets really cold once you get up into the Highlands.
Also take a good camera, because it’s gorgeous.
We will layer! The weather doesn’t look to be much chillier than it will be here, though.
Bf loves photography and spent more on his camera than I have spent on my last two computers, so I’ll be leaving the serious shooting to him. I’ve got my little iPhone and that’s enough for me!
Wow. They had probably watched Braveheart and thought it took place in present day Scotland.
I did, too, in the song Fifty Nifty United States. It was a catchy way to learn all 50 states in alphabetical order. I used to have all the capitals memorized but I’ve gotten rusty on them.
“Fifty nifty United States from thirteen original colonies/Fifty nifty stars on the flag that billows so beautifully in the breeze…”
Boy are you taking me back.
@Katz,
It was a classic. I also learned a song listing the US Presidents in chronological order. That song has come in handy many times for Jeopardy! questions.
You must have to sing it really fast to answer in time. 🙂
I only have to sing fast enough to get to the correct answer, not all the way to Obama. The answers are usually between James Madison and Grover Cleveland.
I suppose Yakko’s World was a little after your time? People my age definitely learned from that one.
I watched Animaniacs when I was a teenager. It was a great show. That countries of the world video is such a fun way to learn.
But I learned another version of the President’s song, in a middle school music class.
I was too self-conscious to watch cartoons when I was a teenager; now I’m like “Fuck it, cartoons are awesome” XD
@bagelsan (nice to see you posting again, btw!)
Nah, this was why.
@cloudiah – if Mum knew how to use a computer! 😀 I think we’d be way to sweary for her, though.
@Cassandra:
Boss: “If you can see the hills, it’s about to rain, and if you can’t see the hills, it’s raining.” (Old joke.)
@Viscaria – envy envy envy! I’d love to go back to Scotland. Are you going to Urquhart Castle? If you are, be prepared to get blown off your feet! It was incredibly windy there.
@thebionicmommy:
Gah. When I was there in 2000, some USians were going on about how great that film was. I said something to the shop assistant about not having seen it and not intending too. “Oh, we like it here,” she said serenely. “It’s a great comedy.”