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my tumblr, they found a twitter acct that I don’t even use, they even found an old [dating site] profile of mine with outdated info …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.
I do like your explanation thingie to the MRAs (not that they’ll read it), but you can be a woman without having a vagina, and a man without having a penis.
How aren’t they terrorists? They approve the use of threats and violence to publicise their ideology.
Puahate: Why does a male feminist exist?
What does a male feminist seek to gain from being a feminist?
Because they think women are people, and ought to be treated the same as other people. They seek to gain a better world.
emmnmb: So most MRA are, from your description, chickenshit. They don’t agree with AVfM, but they are too scared of how they will be perceived, because of AVfM, and it’s ilk, even though they hate what it does to them, and they outnumber them.
Why don’t they speak out? Tell the world what’s wrong with AVfM, and preach the reasoned debate you say needs to be had to address mens’ issues (issues, which, BTW, feminism admits need to be addresssed)?
Why is it that these men, with this burning desire for change can’t say, “I disagree with those assholes,” and lay out their case?
I am just asking that people don’t jump to a conclusion that all MRA’s (the real ones) are misogynistic fools spewing hate.
If they aren’t speaking against it, what does it matter?
Greg: You don’t condone it, but anyone who has failed to take proactive steps, from the first moment they came online, to prevent everyone who might decide to wage a hate campaign of terror against them, should they ever say something that group got their feelings hurt about deserves what they get?
That’s condoning it. That’s giving tacit permission for this thing you say there is “no excuse for”; apart from the part where you excuse it by saying, “there are mean people and if you don’t go to extraordinary lengths to make sure they can’t ever find you, then you deserve what you get”, with a side dish of she had it coming because you don’t like how she said what she said.
So you are a liar, and a puling hypocrite.
Good morning, all. What’s the current troll threat level? Ah, I see it’s the usual puce — they’re here, but too stupid to pay much attention to.
Buster and Hazel offer kitty hugs to anyone who needs one.
Good morning. Right now, the current troll level is annoying, but it may increase to disgusting as the day goes on, with chance of ridiculous later in the evening.
/was that successful at imitating a weather report? I’ve never watched the weather.
Anyway, right now I’m trying to apply for jobs because a) I want some spending money, and b) my dad’s been jobless for a couple months and I’m really worried about our financial situation.
What’s up with everyone else?
nopestories: And don’t bother trying to argue men have all the governing power. 0.001% of individual men might have power but they do nothing for men as a collective. In fact, they do more for women as for men.”
that’s nice dear, run along.
Where are the women in power? Where are men being systematically repressed? How are men being denied the right to vote, work, live?
Please tell me about how men are forced to work, denied rights and abused by the system.
Show me that men make less money, are hounded by the law, excluded from politics, etc.
But… when you complain about divorce, child support, “debtor’s prison”, or whatever shibboleth of the MRM you decide to trot out, have evidence, or we will point and laugh, because we’ve been through it all before.
@Nope stories
WTF. I see the troll level has already increased to disgusting while I was typing my comment.
Nopestories should be banned for this shit:
Fuck off, nopestories.
@Nopestories –
You are repulsive. Even the DSM (if you even know what that is) is changing its terminology around trans-issues to reflect a difference in preference rather than a pathology. It is now “gender dysphoria,” not “gender identity DISORDER.” I say this not to validate the DSM-V or anything in contemporary psychology, as it may be one of the most problematic things worldwide. The DSM-V pathologizes everything (caffeine intoxication is diagnosable!), is largely controlled and influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, and yet still is moving away from calling trans* people disordered or sick.
Nopestories is also unbelievably incomprehensible and clearly not worth anyone’s time.
Also, to any trolls or MRM lurkers — USING A WOMAN TO ESPOUSE YOUR VIEWS DOESN’T CONVINCE US OF SHIT. if there were no misogynist, rape apologist women out there, we’d be making a hell of a lot more progress than we are. all you people do is to derail legitimate arguments. it’s like the white girl in the diversity class who won’t shut up to let the people of color speak. but a million times worse.
Let me tell you, MRM, if there ever were a legitimate group working on equality hosting an event specifically on men’s issues, I can nearly guarantee women wouldn’t jump on stage screaming “what about teh womenz” in, say, a conversation about the horrors of prison rape.
Hahaha, nopestories thinks what he terms a “disorder” is a physical thing.
And he doesn’t understand social constructs whatsoever — oh wait, none the MRAs do.
And it’s “must HAVE pissed off,” you hooplehead.
David, ban this guy. He’s going to keep calling people awful, ableist stuff that makes me really, really mad.
Also, for a guy who is questioning people’s reading ability, you now that
should include TOO. TOO, not to. and no, i’m not going to call you anything but a hypocrite.
Fade,
Most legitimate MRA’s, men and women who actually care about the human rights violation and issues facing men today, have a hard to starting up and staying afloat. These are goups that feminist would gladly support if they gave them a chance. Right now my group, who does not have a website, are trying to distance ourselves from these lunatics that spread hate, and threats to people simply for being a feminist. We are tasked with cleaning up their mess, it sucks, it’s unfair, but it’s reality,
If you want an example of a non-misogynistic MRA check out NOMAS.
http://www.nomas.org/tenets
Chie, I know all about the no true scotsman fallacy. The reason I don’t consider MRA’s that spew this stuff to be legitimate MRA’s is based on my opinion that nobody that stands for human rigths and equality would oppose feminism outright. While I don’t agree with all tenents of feminism, I don’t think of myself as anti-feminist. I am a feminist simply becasue of how I feel about women’s rights. I don’t blame feminists for the issues men face, I blame a society that is so drenched in mostly patriarchy run world.
Nopestories, what is wrong with you? Transgender people are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. With one comment you portrayed everything that is wrong with the popular MRA’s out there, Hate towards people you choose not to understand,
OT: David, did you see this?
(Trigger warning: rape discussion, rape apology, victim-blaming, body-shaming, homophobia, sexism)
http://womenspost.ca/articles/socialnetworking/50-most-disgusting-responses-torontos-male-rape-victim
A man was sexually assaulted by four women and the results online have been awful (which I guess I’m not too surprised about).
The only reason I’m bringing it up here is because I think (and this is an opinion I’ve also read on other feminists’ blogs) that this is one of the effects of misogyny – just as it keeps women from being the strong and independent ones, it makes it socially unacceptable for men to be the vulnerable ones in need of support. Also, the same theory that keeps women from ever actually wanting sex according to our culture also claims that men never stop wanting sex, so it’s damaging for both.
I don’t know if any of this is making sense. I’m not trying to turn the conversation into “what about the men?” I promise.
esmnmb, can you point us where NOMAS say they’re a MRA group?
@MKlein, it’s true, the greatest irony of MRAs is that feminism does much more that’s beneficial to men than they do. By forcing women into traditional gender roles you do the same to men. Breaking one breaks the other.
Is this nopestories shithead our friend Pell?
Uh… WordPress blogs are pretty easy to set up. Stop whining and hop to.
Nopestories — you don’t present arguments, so there’s nothing to respond to there.
And no, I did not admit that I think trans* people are social constructs. PEOPLE ARE NOT SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS. They are people. I was referring to the fact that you don’t seem to understand that gender is a social construct. Along with how “disorders” are defined and/or created. Christ. Jesus. I need someone else to jump in here and remind me that this person is not worth engaging with. You can’t present nuance or reason with this one.
@MKlein – Yes, this kind of horrific behavior clearly results from misogyny and patriarchy. And it’s horrible and sad.
MKlein, when I try to follow your link Avast start screaming.
True, I’ll admit I completely presumed you were a man. I’ll admit when I’m being an ass, and make amends (to the community. not someone trying to hurt others.).
Xie was talking about gender. Gender is a social construct.
@Esmnmb
I didn’t really see that site saying it was an MRA site. Like, you can be for men’s rights and not be an MRA, because the MRAs have corrupted men’s rights into a hate movement.
I mean, I searched the whole site for “mra” “MRA”, “men’s rights activist” and “men’s rights movement”. The only thing I got a result for was the last one
Yeah, so I’m guessing they don’t align themselves with the MRAs.
esmnmb, if 99% of MRAs we encounter are asshole and 1% seem pretty normal, should we conclude that 99% are doing MRA wrong or that MRAs are not good people?