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my tumblr, they found a twitter acct that I don’t even use, they even found an old [dating site] profile of mine with outdated info …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.
Thank you so much for that list, Bagelsan.
Antacids do very little to help. In fact sometimes they make me feel worse after a while.
A similar list (I just googled “low acid foods”) http://www.health.com/health/gallery/thumbnails/0,,20440834,00.html
Hmm, I guess that isn’t surprising that it could make you feel worse. :/
According to Wikipedia you might need antibiotics to really kick your ulcer; many of them are caused by a strain of bacteria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptic_ulcer#Treatment
Hmm, I think you’re right about not consuming cold things. I tend to have a lot of things that are cold, especially cold water, and it always has a bad effect on me as someone with a stomach problem. I also have more white bread than I should. Bananas won’t be good though as my stomach problems are often made worse by eating bananas. Thank you for the suggestions!
I should also note that, after eating, I often feel like there’s food heading up through my esophagus, as if I’m ready to vomit at any time. In fact, I was just smoking the other day with my brother (it makes it easier to deal with my pain, emotionally and physically, although I don’t do it often), and just by coughing I managed to vomit everything in my stomach. The same thing happens if I cough under any other circumstances, so I know that the stuff itself is bad for me.
Reproductive rights fall to women in most states.
Be accurate here, please: decisions about abortion fall to the pregnant party. This is not always a woman, and this is not the only reproductive right in existence. (And don’t even get me started on how woefully undermined the right to an abortion is.)
Edude, most custody is arranged outside of court between the parents. All the court does in those instances is to rubberstamp the agreement. In situations where custody arrangements are in dispute and therefore up to the judge, most men get shared custody. The uncommon instances when men don’t get custody is in cases where it can be shown that he is abusive towards the children. And that takes quite a lot of work to prove. To the point that kids have died at the hands of their father, despite police involvement and the constant efforts of mothers to prevent those deaths.
Hmm, that would be more convincing if it weren’t called “socialmalemisconceptions” and if you’d deleted the content before I saw that it was a picture of someone (you, I rather suspect) doing the “I need masculism because” meme.
Anyway, if you’re going to actually lead a movement, you’d better get a handle on things like your name linking to a site you didn’t remember existed. If you’d like to delete it for real, go to your dashboard and then to Tools > Delete Site.
I’ve banned nopestories and deleted their transphobic and trolling comments. Which is to say al of those posted today. Sorry I wasn’t around to ban them earlier.
I haven’t yet caught up with the comments on this thread today. If there’s anyone else that needs a quick ban or moderation, please drop me an email. (my last name at well.com)
Do any of you know that Karen DeCrow, former president of NOW, supported male “paper abortions”
[blockquote]Karen DeCrow, an attorney who served as president of the National Organization for Women from 1974 to 1977, has written that “if a woman makes a unilateral decision to bring pregnancy to term, and the biological father does not, and cannot, share in this decision, he should not be liable for 21 years of support … autonomous women making independent decisions about their lives should not expect men to finance their choice.”[/blockquote]
Child support. For the kids. Not for the parents.
Child support pays for a kid. If there is a kid and their custody parent cannot pay for them, who do you suggest should?
And are you calling “paper abortions” a men’s reproductive right?
Aaliyah, do you know when you’ll have health insurance? That all sounds like good stuff to get checked out.
Edude: I do not give a single FUCK what the former president of NOW said about paper abortions. we are not a hivemind, and paper abortions are utter horseshit. Sorry to blow your mind.
Hopefully within two months.
Oh, well, if Karen DeCrow thought paper abortions were a good idea, then who are we to argue?
Protip: if I create a human being, I have to support it or find someone else who will. Kids can’t eat paper abortions. And it’s not like the man didn’t have an option 9 months earlier, to use a condom or other form of birth control.
And come correct with some current feminist thought on paper abortions, or don’t come at all. Next you’ll be quoting Dworkin and you will be forever branded as completely full of shit.
This is really starting to sound like another “explain everything all over again” troll. Like Christ, this misconception has been dealt with at least a hundred times over since I started posting here.
Edude, if you’re starting a social justice movement for men (which is awesome by the way! There are definitely issues men face that urgently need addressing!) I would start with reading some 101 statistics info and then start reading up on the actual studies and literature from oh I dunno, the department of justice, just detention, RAIN, the CDC etc. Right now, it sounds as though your viewpoint has been strongly influenced by people who want to keep things as they are or dial back the years. Which is okay, you’re not saying anything that isn’t commonly believed by society at large. Its just that stopping to explain the same information over and over is aggravating.
As far as child custody goes, the single greatest thing you could do for men is to advise them to ask a judge for custody if an agreement can’t be worked out with the ex. MRA’s do a great deal to convince men they don’t stand a chance, and so many men may be walking away without even looking into the situation.
@ aaliyah
Bwuh…why? God he sounds like a real asshat.
@thekidwiththereplaceablehead
Welcome 🙂
@greg
Nice, I see you pulled out your token ‘of course it’s horrible’ and then just blew it all over. Go hug a cactus.
@fibinachi
H [cuddle a guinea pig? That’s misandric. I mean, I could be cuddling a man instead. Or do men not like cuddles? I’m still new to this whole hivemind thing]
/caffeinated.
Yay! ::parties:: I can cuddle my guinea pigs!
@esmnmb
::dies laughing::
::zombie marie mode activated::
Best excuse ever XD They’re all just hiding.
Name a right that’s being denied to you on account of being a man.
@ostrijj
Hello, and welcome if you want to stick around 😀
@puahate
MEN… who care about females? Impossible! ::brain blows up::
@nopestories
You’re so boring, so I’m just trolling you back instead of answering any pretend points you have (hint: feminism is niether in charge or equal to the KKK)
Are you a man? Because you know who else was a man? HITLER!
@Nekora
Hi and welcome if you stay 😀
I see nopestories got all disgusting and ableist instead of unintentionally hilarious, so I’ll not bother responding to his wrongness unless I think of something witty.
@esmnmb
You know, I’m pretty sure this wasn’t a 50/50 decision, bub, one group likley had a lot more to do with it, and it’s not that hard to guess which.
I wonder why…I can think of a word for it. Hint: it starts with a P and ends with a airtriarchy.
So do the large majority of feminists, but I guess you’ve got some straw ones in your head to battle.
@mark
um, and threatening people is bad, you know that right?
Gah, posting before this gets too long, if it isn’t already. Sorry for the huge thought dump, I just tend to type as I’m reading, but you guys tell me if it bugs you.
Are your cuddled guinea pigs female? That’s extra misandry!
Hey, I already googled around a little, but could someone point me to a good source about ‘paper abortions’? I just…need someone to phrase it for me, I guess, if that makes any sense at all…
I don’t really know–the only time I really hear the term is from MRAs, and I’m not going to their sites.
esmnmb:
Okay, you’re now on much, much thinner ice. As others have noted, the idea of ‘paper abortions’ puts the onus and hardship on blameless children. Advocating for such is pretty much going to make you a pariah in feminist circles, even if you can find a few feminists from 30 years ago who were willing to consider the idea. Here’s some possibilities for your group to address that advance the notion of ‘consensual fatherhood’ without kicking actual women and children in the teeth:
1: Funding for research into medical contraceptives for men. This is one of the biggest–if you’re taking a little pill every day, or have an implant that makes sperm production zero, then you can’t get a woman pregnant, no matter what happens to the condom (which, outside of a committed monogamous relationship, you should still be wearing, because Not Stupid).
2: Undermining the usual “Mommy Nurturer/Daddy Provider” bullshit in society in general. Part of this is closing the wage-gap, and balancing the scales for wages in ‘traditional’ male/female professions. (Big note, here: Sure, there’s a lot of women-dominated professions. Invariably, these are paid far less than their men-dominated counterparts, even in terms of, say, education required to get the job. This is so true, that when a particular profession has ‘shifted’ demographically–nursing, secretarial work and, reversed, the grunt-work IT field–the compensation has shifted in response, with the money following the menfolk.)
3: Encourage men to recognize their own right to say “No” to sex. The hyper-masculinity complex that says that a “real man” must always take sex that’s offered has far more to do with unwanted fatherhood than almost anything else.
You also need to do a really good, hard look at the actual statistics–not just the surface numbers. Dig deep.
Simple example: Women are granted custody in the majority of cases, it’s true, but the imbalance is only really significant if you factor in cases where custody was uncontested. There’s anecdotal evidence (often decades out of date) that men in ‘close call’ cases have been told, “Don’t bother,” by their attorneys, so the numbers may or may not still favor women if we go on a ‘would have been’ basis, but it’s hard to say definitively right now, and claiming that it is only alienates those of us who are looking for fact-based approaches.
@Aaliyah — I’ve had an ulcer, but it was not caused by h. pylori, the most common cause, but the use of excedrin on an empty stomach continuously. so, don’t do that. cut out all NSAIDs (aspirin, aleve, advil — just use tylenol, unless you have liver problems).
it sounds more like you have GERD than an ulcer. you could try an OTC acid reducer — different than an antacid, it actually works to reduce the amount of acid your stomach produces. in the us these would include pepcid AC, or zantac. Take them for about 14-21 days, what it says, and see if that helps. they aren’t something you ideally want to be on longterm — although the drug companies don’t want to tell you, they will eventually cause backlash (I was on nexium for almost a year due to my ulcer, and it got worse when i came off of it. i also never had heartburn before my ulcer, and now regularly get it. fortunately tums work okay. mylanta was amazing but they pulled it off the market last year and it seems to be permanently gone).
eat small amounts. different people respond differently, so it’s hard to say exactly. avoid animal products as they’re all high in acid, although eggs are protein and easy to digest, and yogurt is usually a good bet. don’t eat raw vegetables as they are tough to digest. you probably have an ulcer if your pain reduces after eating a small amount, although some ulcers work a different way. i had to eat a tiny amount every hour, because if the stomach was empty than the acid would eat away at the ulcer.
watch out for vomiting or defecating anything dark/coffee grind looking, that means you have internal bleeding and need to go to the ER.