And so the MRAs have found yet another woman to hate.
Earlier this month, as many of you no doubt know, a Men’s Rights group sponsored a lecture at the University of Toronto. The event drew protesters, and the protesters drew MRAs with video cameras. One of the MRAs filmed a confrontation between a red-haired feminist activist and a number of MRAs who continually interrupted her as she tried to read a brief statement.
Her crime? She wasn’t exactly polite in responding to the interrupters. And so, after video of the confrontation was uploaded to YouTube, and linked to on the Men’s Rights subreddit and elsewhere, she became a virtual punching bag for the angry misogynists of the internet.
A Voice for Men, naturally, led the charge, running an article by Canadian MRA Dan Perrins labeling her “Little red frothing fornication mouth” and commenting on her breasts. The Amazing Atheist weighed in with a video I couldn’t bring myself to even watch.
Since being targeted by angry YouTube misogynists and MRAs, the red-haired activist has received death threats, rape threats and literally hundreds of other hateful and harassing messages. She’s also been “doxxed” — that is, she’s had her personal information plastered all over the internet, including on A Voice for Men’s forum. Ten days after being uploaded to YouTube, the video of her faceoff against the MRAs has garnered more than 300,000 views, and YouTubers are still leaving threats and insults and crude sexual comments.
This, apparently, is what “Men’s Human Rights Activism” consists of: the doxxing and harassment of individual women.
Several days ago, she contacted me to tell me about the harassment she’s endured. Here’s some of what she wrote:
I’m the red-head. I’m sure by now, you’re one of the 260,000 people who have seen the video of me … .
Because I had the audacity to tell a dude to stfu, an MRA no less, I have since been the target of not only just online misogyny (as if that’s a surprise) but cyber stalking, rape and death threats. They somehow found my facebook, they found my tumblr, they found a twitter acct that I don’t even use, they even found an old [dating site] profile of mine with outdated info …
I also got an anonymous message on tumblr that specifically said “[name deleted] would be disappointed”. [Name deleted] is my dog that died 1.5 years ago, I don’t talk about him on tumblr, nor fb, so they would have had to reaaaaalllly dig to find this info. …
In about 12-24hours, I got about400-500 new messages on my blog, most of them hate, which included rape and death threats, also people wishing death upon me or the typical troll “kill yourself” message. They made a meme of me.
I dunno how many haters I have, and I don’t know where they are. I can’t be sure at any given second, if I’m ever outside my house … if anyone is going to recognize me and try to hurt me.
With her permission, I am reposting screenshots she sent me documenting some of the harassment she’s endured. Even though her personal information has already been widely disseminated online, I don’t want to contribute to that, so I’ve whited out any information that might reveal her identity.
TRIGGER WARNING for what follows, for threatening language and crude sexual remarks.
Here’s a death threat she received from someone claiming to represent the “Islamic Brotherhood.”
Here are some sample comments from her Tumblr inbox. I’ve whited out comments and parts of comments that consist of her contact info, which being sent to her in an attempt to intimidate and frighten her by letting her know they “know where she lives.”
Here’s another threatening comment sent to her via Tumblr:
Here are some comments sent to her via her YouTube account. You’ll notice that the second comment comes from AVFM’s Dan Perrins, who is clearly relishing the attacks on her.
And another glimpse into her YouTube inbox:
Here’s a screenshot from a Men’s Rights forum revealing her personal information.
Meanwhile, over on YouTube, the hateful comments continue to pile up. Here are some of the nastiest ones I’ve collected. I am deliberately posting a lot of them in an attempt to convey something of the relentless nature of the attacks on teh red-haired activist — though I should note I’ve only gone through a small portion of the total comments there and this doesn’t even reflect all of the awful ones I found. These are not in any particular order. I threw in a few non-threatening ones that struck me as a tad ironic or otherwise revealing.
Again, this is only a small fraction of the abuse she’s gotten on YouTube.
This is what happens when MRAs and other misogynists target a woman online. The only thing that’s surprising here is the sheer amount of the hateful comments.
I’ve seen no serious attempts from any MRAs to rein in this sort of hatred. A Voice for Men has tried to distance itself in a superficial way from some of the harassment it has played a central role in unleashing, with an official announcement asking readers to refrain from posting the personal information of the red-haired activist in the comments. Meanwhile, in the AVFM forum, comments linking to her defunct dating profiles remain up.
This is what MRA “activism” looks like.
Coming tomorrow: A more detailed look at AVFM’s role in the harassment.
Sorry, I got the wrong quote (although that one is equally reprehensible). Here’s what he said in regards to consent being revoked during sex:
“Definitely shouldn’t be “rape” if consent was already given. Maybe a lesser charge.”
I read the whole page, my desire to either punch someone or go cry in a corner required the clinical “the law sometimes says” approach. Between Boston and my elderly grandfather being in the hospital (I’ll explain when I know more than “he fell, and some leg problem”), I’m spent.
Argh, what I meant there was just that my head might explode if I think too much about it, but yes, dude needs to pet a cactus. My new barrel cactus needs a gentle poking to see about a watering schedule, gotta be bare fingers to tell if it’s soft or firm, maybe he’d like to help me sort out how often to water it?
Hey Argenti, I’m very sorry to hear that link disturbed you. I should have been clearer regarding what kind of stuff can be found on that page. For anyone who doesn’t know, there is some reaaaaaaaally disgusting rape apologia in that link I provided. I’d think twice before clicking it.
Oh and that sort of “maybe it should be a lesser crime”? Yeah, the ex in question used similar logic to that regarding stranger rape being Super Serious but date rape being maybe just crossed wires. Will give him this, learning why he was so wrong is a good bit of how I ended up a feminist and joining you all.
And love that the corner of the net where you’d most expect misogynists is where they are least tolerated 🙂
Aaliyah — no worries, it’s more everything else today already has me wanting to down the rest of the whiskey, but I sorta accidentally snorted some earlier and eewwwww.
Maybe ask him to help you out with every single cactus you’ve ever owned. He has also argued in the past that a woman who is sexually penetrated while unconscious isn’t a rape victim.
To make things worse, he’s also a conspiracy theorist who believes in the illuminati. I don’t know if he’s NWOSlave, though.
Unfortunately most of my succulents aren’t spiky. One of these being my latest addition.
Basically, he can help with the barrel cactus, but he can’t touch anything else because he clearly has no sense of decency and if he can’t empathize with fellow humans, he isn’t touching my plants!
Pecunium — I built my poor tiny jade a little in water but can root directly into soil dish thing. Couldn’t find a sensible way to do the root in water thing on a plant that fucking tiny!
Oh and my aquatic fern has a baby fern and it might be the cutest thing ever, I’ll try and take pictures tomorrow when the light in there is on, if I remember.
Well, does he know you’re trans*? Does he rant about how humans can’t change genders? If not, not NWO (he really is a joy to deal with, he’d rant about how nothing can change genders and fish do it all the damned time, and proving him wrong was so much fun, he’d flip out)
Pretty much, if him going “I’m laughing at you” makes you go “oh that’s hilarious, now I’m laughing harder than I already was”…it might be NWO.
Lol, that doesn’t sound like him. In fact I don’t even think he calls himself an MRA. He doesn’t know I’m trans*, although some other bigots know I am and make it a point to bring that up whenever I’m arguing with them. For example this one Muslim guy who hates me for being an apostate likes to ridicule me by saying something like “Shut up; aren’t you the guy who wants his dick cut off?”
When I first encountered Men’s Rights stuff on the internet, I was sympathetic. Sure, involuntary vaginal intercourse should be considered rape and taken seriously even if the woman is the aggressor. Yes, custody decisions should be based on the particulars of an individual case, not on which gender is traditionally the primary caregiver. And, if boys as a group are doing worse in school, that’s something we need to fix. I do have some quibbles with particular feminist theorists, and I’ve seen a few times where I thought internet feminists were ‘overreacting’* or misrepresenting someone’s position.
Then I got to know the MRM. A lot of silly arguments; a total, basic ignorance of feminist everything; and *this*. This right here. This woman getting doxxed, getting rape and death threats en masse because she… was obnoxious? Just like Anita Sarkeesian. Just like Adria Richards. It’s telling that Mark can’t even bring himself to say ‘rape/death threats are bad’, and as far as I can tell there is zero effort on the part of MRA ‘leaders’ to stop this recurrent pattern of serious harassment–they’re just happy to have a new hate object to rally the troops.
I still think there is room for some sort of Men’s movement, but it would have to be explicitly and thoroughly pro-feminist.
*In retrospect, maybe not. It’s a lot easier to ignore stuff that isn’t directed at you.
And, while on the subject of male suicide:
I’m a dude. I’ve also struggled with major depression and generalized anxiety disorder for my entire adult life. When I was… let’s say 100 is pulling the trigger†, when I was at 95 I got in touch with a former professor/quasi-mentor of mine. I didn’t say anything explicit or specific, but she figured out what was going on. She’s possibly the most busy and overworked person I know, but she took the time to talk to me and gave me the exact right mixture of sympathy and suck-it-up-soldier to get me through. She’s a philosopher; feminism is one of the areas she has published in.
†Outside a hospital. I was going to call it in right before so they’d be able to get my organs before I was cold. I had a whole plan worked out. Not sure it would have actually worked.
Well isn’t he just a shining example of humanity. Why does the concept of someone who wants gender dysphoric parts of anatomy removed so damned hard for some people? Sorry, I’m trying to generalize that instead of discussing your anatomy since idk how comfortable you are with that, and really, it isn’t his damned business if you’re pre/post/non-op!
I didn’t catch up with all the comments yet. But this thread is dark and depressing (and the internet is a really dark place that brings out the worse of people at times) it needs some kittens… but the same time I feel it would be disrespectful.
*sends many internet hugs to everyone, gently*
Malitia — kittens, and other cute things, are always appropriate. In fact, have a baby hippo.
Are you new around here? Did I give you a welcome package? (It’s late, I’m not sober, forgive me if you aren’t new)
*posting this again since my previous comment was censored for referencing a transphobic slur*
Argenti, I’m only uncomfortable with discussing my anatomy when I’m dealing with assholes who are trying to violate my personal boundaries and make me feel overly self-conscious. But I appreciate your sensitivity!
And yeah it’s none of his business. I doubt he’ll every care to change his mind, though. He’s too fixated on condemning me for leaving Islam and being trans*. Either that or accusing me of lying because somehow it’s impossible for me to be an ex-Muslim who is trans*. He’s weird. People are weird.
Ok. Then:
http://mahou.imouto.org/board/pic/f25892f6600555825528c07094ff96f1.jpg
:3 Not the best picture (understatement)… but according to poster they were born yesterday.
I’m new. And no, not yet. 🙂
Re islam and trans, the religious authorities in Iran are pretty explicit that you’re allowed to be trans and have gender-corrective surgery (sorry, I know the proper English term isn’t “gender-corrective” but I’ve forgotten what it is, so I used “gender-corrective” since that’s a straight translation of the correct Swedish term). I mean, they’re adamant that you’re not allowed to be gay or bi, and as far as I know you’re not allowed to be some kind of genderqueer either, but you ARE allowed to be transsexual.
There is simply no excuse for the types of anonymous death and rape threats documented here, and for the record I do not condone such behaviour. Furthermore I acknowledge Red’s right to freedom of expression.
However she should be aware there are misogynists and internet nutjob’s out there ( to quote our PM Juliar Gillard) who will say mean things to and about your. I expect someone of her age to be tech savvy enough to either protect their personal information online or confident enough of her convictions that she would be happy to have her words and behaviour associated with her real identity.
Apparently she is neither, just another victim, running to manbooz for support . Sorry Red , cry me a fucking river …..
And you might like
Malitia — first, I am dead of cute. Second, the complementary welcome package consisting of a misandrist hard chair, matching bath towels, SCENTED MOTHERFUCKING CANDLES, flavored bottled water (your choice of brand and flavor) and cupcakes, delivered by female (whore) penguins in spanx.
Aaliyah — “people are weird” — I’m not even the religious sort, but amen to that!
Dvärghundspossen — I’m used to “gender reassignment” surgery (GRS), but the term is a bit questionable as the implication of “reassignment” is that the surgery assigns the person to a gender they weren’t before surgery, and, if Aaliyah doesn’t mind being an example for a moment, it doesn’t matter whether she’s had GRS or not, she’s still a woman. But yeah, reassignment is the generally accepted term in English, sorry to complicate it 🙂
*is into the whiskey*
There’s also that people make it out to be one be all and end all surgery, but it often isn’t — even in broad terms there’s often “top” and “bottom” surgery. Plus, idk about where you are, but GRS surgeries are explicitly not covered on plenty of insurance here (eg my state insurance, or see what LBT said about the cost of top surgery being totally worth it)
*is now rambling a trans* 101 lesson cuz whiskey* I’m gonna shut up now
Malitia! Those kittens! Baby tabbies, Great Ceiling Cat above! <3
Is "gender corrective surgery" a term not favoured in English usage, now? Is there a term trans* people would prefer, other than GRS?
Gah. Try “any trans* people here would prefer”. I’m presuming yez haven’t had the Hivemind Memo.
::hides in corner::
The Hivemind(tm) demands access to bathrooms and shelters, and doing something about the murder and suicide rates. *does not actually speak for any Hivemind, beyond being the household keeper of who’s forgetting what and where*
But yeah, in the grand scheme of things I’m fairly sure any Hivemind would put terms in the backseat behind basic safety. Afaik gender “corrective” is older than me, I’ve always heard “reassignment” or a discussion over the issues with that term (that seems to be fairly recent though)
And now I’m going to bed, as soon as I die of cute due to those kittens.
Also, I am way past spent and haven’t the spoons to properly reply, but we’ve a new poster who got stuck I’m new poster mod queue. Welcome thekidwiththereplaceablehead! You’ll find the welcome package a couple of comments above this one, I’ve a limitless supply of them, so feel free to take one! And since we’ve got all the new people coming out of the woodwork on this thread — you can shorten me to Argenti, and gender neutral pronouns please (ze/zir) As the keeper of the welcome package (self titled, just now) I welcome you, and bid you goodnight as it’s 4:30 am here >.<
Sorry, Argenti, yeah, terminology may be blah but it’s a tiny blah compared to a lot of other much more important things. 🙁
Say … does one summon TheHivemind(TM) by saying “Bees. My God.” ? Or is it “My God. Bees.”