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my tumblr, they found a twitter acct that I don’t even use, they even found an old [dating site] profile of mine with outdated info …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.
THE HIVEMIND HAS ARRIVED. You have spoken the PassKey. The HiveMind is in attendence. State your query.
Do you wish to:
A) Kill all men
B) Deny men basic rights
C) Shame men for lacklustre sexual behaviour
D) Post rape threats against anyone speaking against you
E) Laugh snidely at people’s small penises
F) Skin a beta slob
G) Alpha something something gamme peta pi
H) Other, please specify: [ ]
@Argenti, thanks. I think the reason we use “corrective” in Sweden precisely is that you don’t want to imply that the person gets a new gender in surgery (less trans-aware people often say “sex change surgery”). Actually, the Swedish word could be translated as either “gender corrective” or “sex corrective”, but in any case, the idea is that there’s something off with your BODY and by surgery you correct that.
JULIAR!!!! Hahaha. Oh Greg. You slay me with your witty wittiness and super originality.
/sarcasm
G) sounds interesting but I think I’ll take H, please. How specific does my specifyin’ have to be?
Not all MRA’s are like this. I understand that many feminists dislike MRA’s mainly because the site A voice for fools.
Most MRA’s are forced to remain hidden online and meet in secret because of the idiots who claim to be MRA’s spouting their immature anti-women dribble, also known as misogynist anonymous groups among legitimate Men’s rights activists. Because of them and society’s willingness to generalize, now all MRA’s are considered misogynistic members of a hate movement. This also causes society, especially feminists think men don’t have issues that need to be addressed or that none of our rights are being denied to us. On many of these issues feminists agree. I am just asking that people don’t jump to a conclusion that all MRA’s (the real ones) are misogynistic fools spewing hate.
And Greg? “There’s no excuse for this behaviour but she should have realised it would happen”. Seriously? So, uh, how are you not condoning this if you think she brought it upon herself and should be been aware it would happen? Sounds a lot like some good ol’ victim blaming to me.
Oh no, the HiveMind specializes in making any female dream come true at the cost of dudebro tears.You can be as vague as possible! In fact, the vaguer you are, the better – really – since emotional manipulation, guesswork and intuition is a corner stone of being female q:
Hmmm, well if being as hypergamous as the come – Mr K is a king, or an ex-king after all – caused dudebro tears, that’d be a start. Though I’m twice the maximum allowable age for dudebros, so I prolly don’t exist. BUT I’m getting teh alpha sexy male even though he’s not alpha height (5′ 7″ is plenty for me) and looks seriously unlike Brad Pitt. And I’ve always witheld everything from the poor dudebros and betas.
I’m not sure the Hivemind will need to use its wondrous powers after all.
Oh yeah, and the other thing, the thing that pisses off the dudebros more than anything …
I’m
HAPPY.
Muahahahahahahaha!
un-lurk
Hello everyone! I found this site today, thought of this place because I think it’s perfect brain bleach. Google streetmogs! It’s a postman who blogs about cats he runs into. Don’t want to put a url as I’m technically a stranger and you might be too wary to click it.
bye bye 🙂
re-lurk
There is simply no excuse
Wow, Greg. If you don’t realise that in the next paragraph you go on to literally excuse that exact same behaviour, you must be some kind of fucking idiot as well as a heartless asshole.
Why does a male feminist exist?
What does a male feminist seek to gain from being a feminist?
Whats the point of it? You dont gain anything from an repressive, hateful movement like modern feminism.
MRA’s, stop making Sasha cry :'(
@Kittehs
I think “Sex Reassignment Surgery” is commonly used? Idk. Individual preferences vary, of course.
Also, “thebakedlebowski” is being very un-Dude and could do with a lego carpet.
I’ll say what everyone else has been saying:
Show us an example of a non-misogynistic MRA. And preferably by blockquoting, I don’t want to click on a bunch of links to random places.
@esmnmb
Do yourself a favor and look into the “no true Scotsman” fallacy.
To my lovelies here, this is Blitzgal. I’ve decided to post on feminist forums using a different handle than I use for my other interests because I just need another layer between myself and these terrorists. And yes, I will continue to refer to the MRM as terrorists because that’s what they are. Anyway this will be the last time I write the old name on this forum. But my avatar is the same so you’ll know it’s me.
@Chie: Apropos of totally nothing except your username, Chie was my favorite character in Persona 4.
And that long-nosed jerk Igor needs to go take a few courses about informed consent >:(
I just got up and was feeding my babies; I hope nothing really bad happened last night after the Boston bombing.
Er, I can’t tell if Puahate Spokesperson is actually being serious. Either way, it’s a pretty pitiful attempt at trolling.
Mine too, Falconer. I love Chie!
Puahate spokesperson is actually being fairly honest with us.
What he just said is “I would not participate in any movement that wasn’t solely about empowering ME. So why are you involved in a movement to empower other people? It makes no sense to me.”
It really makes no sense to him, and he really wouldn’t participate in any movement that wasn’t solely about benefiting him.
Because he is an asshole.
Shame on them!
My trans* professor who is a professor on the topic of sexuality said gender confirming/affirming is a new and widely appreciated term?
For surgery.
OMG…. David and Redhead, I congratulate you wholeheartedly. Let me tell you that I have been following Manboobz for a very very long time, and have relished all the articles and the regular commentators. However, this is the first time I have participated directly.
David – I just can’t think of what to say to you…. You do a really great service to the world for running this blog. May I suggest something? I’m sure we would all love it if you put up ALL 500-something spiteful comments, rape and death threats, etc. for everyone to see and decide for themselves – not just the ones you thought were most hateful. You could also do the same for other victims like Adria Richards, the girls from UofT who were doxxed, and other feminists who may want your support. I would love to help in any way I can.
Redhead – You are a brave woman and I wait to see more of you in future.
I’d like to address some issues in this comment:
1. @Greg Canning: As we feminists have not doxxed or attempted to find out personal information about the MRAs who threatened to rape and murder Redhead, we really can’t be sure that its not you in one of the hateful comments. Multiple online personalities! Very clever of you…
The MGTOWs have already developed an acronym for the phenomenon – NAWALT (Not All Women Are Like That) to be used when silencing a woman who claims that not every female is the Femitheist. I’m sure we can use it for MRAs too (NAMRALT!) – to be used when some of the more pompous MRAs claim that not every MRA is like to guy who orgasms at the idea of slitting Red’s throat.
2. There is a certain MRA on here who is accusing David of further doxxing Redhead. Well, let me remind you Mr. MRA, that Redhead has herself asked David to post all this stuff on his page so that other victims may draw courage. Can’t you people understand the meaning of ‘consent’ even in a non-sexual context?
3. I am reminded of Paul Elam’s comment that he doxxes feminists in the hope that ‘when society turns against feminism’, they have a harder time changing sides. I think the time has come for society to turn against MRAntism. AVFM has removed the links doxxing Redhead, hasn’t it? Well, let me tell you, Paul… running away with your tail between your legs when confronted directly is not the same as discouraging violence.
David – This is all the more reason why I implore you to put up absolutely all the threats to Redhead, Adria Richards and the girls from UofT and any other victims who are willing to contact you.
There are other discrepancies in MRA-logic that are worth mentioning.
– Of course, there is the ever popular ‘f*cking your s*it up gives me an erection’ comment. I wonder why he didn’t write ‘slitting your throat gives me an erection’ – he could’ve avoided the asterixes. And they say AVFM does not condone violence.
– Then there is the case when a contributor on AVFM says that Adria Richards should stop being a delicate little flower whose petals wilt before the slightest obscenities. I wonder why the MRAs wilt so quickly when women swear.
De-lurking to respond to an idiot, just because I feel like it this morning.
As a male feminist myself, perhaps I can enlighten you. No, I don’t do it to ‘get laid’. That’s the last thing on my mind. In fact, I don’t do it for any benefit to myself. I am a feminist because it’s RIGHT. I, as a white male, who grew up in a pretty well-off family, recognize the advantages I have had in my life because of my birth attributes, and wish that others did not experience worse treatment in life simply because of various birth-determined attributes (Like possessing a vagina instead of a penis, or being inter-sexed, or what-have-you).
I think women deserve to be treated as beings with agency, and the right to bodily autonomy, which are things men NEVER have to worry about. I think women deserve to be treated the same as men are treated, in the general sense. Women should have the same rights and responsibilities as men do. And this is what my brand of feminism means to me, and the kind of feminism the vast majority of feminists I’ve ever met practice. It has nothing to do with hating men, or privileging women over men, or anything like that. I have no desire to make the situation of men worse (I do have some level of self-interest after all), but rather, to improve the situation of women. It is not a zero-sum game.
And there’s the tragedy of you people in the MRM. I think there is a (tiny, shriveled) kernel of truth somewhere buried deep in the MRM. There are some cases where men get a tough break on things, I agree. Many individual men struggle with things. Family court CAN be unfair at times (but not for reasons most MRAs seem to think). Suicide and depression ARE problems for men (but it is for women too). MRAs incorrectly blame feminism for all these things. I blame the same bullshit, gender-essentialist cultural tropes that are used to keep women ‘in their place’, also known as ‘the patriarchy’. The things that harm men in our society are the tired cultural tropes about masculinity. Things that try to tell you what a ‘real man’ does and does not do. The ones that tell you that seeking help for your depression is un-manly, or just seeking help in general. There ARE even cultural elements that tell men to sacrifice their personal life to be the breadwinner for their stay-at-home wife while she takes care of the children. And this is NOT because of feminism. It’s patriarchy. Feminists are the people who fought to be let OUT of the kitchen, to be taken OFF of the pedestal and allowed to join the workforce and not be taken care of by men, so that they could have personal responsibility and not have to have their financial well-being tied to a man.
I think, fundamentally, you MRAs simply have an inability to empathize with women, and it mystifies me. Seriously. Put yourself in the shoes of a woman. Imagine yourself as you, but with a vagina instead of a penis. Do you really think you would like to be treated in the way MRAs advocate? Do you think you would act in the way MRAs claim women act just because you have a vagina?
Womens’ minds are not fundamentally different than mens’. Much of the difference is matter of hormones, and that doesn’t somehow magically cause women to become spiteful monsters without pity or remorse like MRAs claim. If you began to take female hormones, you may feel a little different, but you would still be YOU. Women are human beings, and they deserve to be treated as such.
That turned out longer than expected, but that’s why I’m a feminist. Rant over. Undoubtedly more than this drive-by MRA idiot deserved, but that felt good.