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my tumblr, they found a twitter acct that I don’t even use, they even found an old [dating site] profile of mine with outdated info …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.
Quote: “at the expense of other people”
It’s almost like you’re deliberately removing the context in which people explain why marginalized and oppressed communities don’t always have totally happy jolly feelings towards the people benefitting from their marginalization and oppression so you can misrepresent them. Huh, weird, I wonder why you’d do that.
“Okay, PEMDAS, what does your theoretical “hating white men” look like? How is it expressed in the real world? How does it impact you personally, or even anyone you know?”
What? This has nothing to do with anything. Of course SRS is just an online community with no real power. However the Westboro Baptist Church isn’t taken seriously either, but they are still rightfully considered a hate group.
“PEMDAS, I swear on the Flying Spaghetti Monster that the only intrinsic trait people mock you for is your shitty personality.”
Again, I have demonstrated this to be untrue- the SRS hate group targets straight white men for ridicule.
Yeah, they target straight white men who are dumbfucks. Is that how you self-identify?
Quote: “rightfully resent them for it”. This is a roundabout way of legitimizing and condoning hatred.
Well it’s also irrational. I mean that’s essentially the problem I have with MRAs, feminism, and other Kool Kid Klubs.
People take a physical characteristic and say this one over here is me and that one over there is you, and I’m good and you’re bad. All the people on my side act the same except the ones that don’t count and all people on your side act the same except the ones that don’t count. We’re good, you’re bad, that’s fact and there can be no argument. I mean look at how many people have defended Channity’s actions and said my distaste for David’s omission of her poor behavior was excusing the 13 year olds threatening to kill her.
Ridicule is hate speech. Ridicule is literally the same thing as murder.
@Pro-equality MRA What’s your take on the srssucks icon of of the srs bird being violently stabbed? Hateful/not hateful?
And what are your thoughts on the black civil rights movement’s behavior with civil disobedience in staying at lunch counters black people were not allowed to be by law in protest? Were the death threats they recived(some actually carried out) deserved?
I mean, I have exactly the same problem with the KKK and the SPLC. Because I can see both sides, you see.
/sarcasm
I ridiculed the Pope once, and he literally died right then. I’m also probably the reason that George W. Bush and Cheney are dead, as is Rush Limbaugh. God I am a monster.
“It’s almost like you’re deliberately removing the context in which people explain why marginalized and oppressed communities don’t always have totally happy jolly feelings towards the people benefitting from their marginalization and oppression so you can misrepresent them. Huh, weird, I wonder why you’d do that.”
So…. what? First of all, you are totally distorting things here… it’s not a matter of “not having happy jolly feelings” but behaving like a hate group.
Are you excusing a hate group because it feels “marginalized”? I think that probably justification for all hate groups ever. Also, are you aware the SPLC monitors black supremacist groups as well?
@ clintiskeen
You really don’t seem to be getting what’s going on in this case. Notice how some of us haven’t really said anything along the lines of “I think everything the woman with the red hair did and said was awesome”? That’s because some of us don’t think that. I didn’t like the fact that she sang that song. I would not want to be her friend. That doesn’t mean that it’s OK for people to send her rape and death threats.
Today’s random “think of the worst person you can” example is Warren Jeffs. Not only did he lead an organization that’s pretty horrifying on almost every level, he raped children (both boys and girls). He’s a horrible person. I still wouldn’t be OK with people sending him rape and death threats, because that is not a thing that decent, civilized people do. Nor is it a thing that decent, civilized people should encourage or cheer on.
AVFM, which is one of the most prominent MRA sites, was encouraging and cheering on the threats sent to this woman. That is not a decent or civilized thing to do, and they are being judged for it. If someone on my side of the political fence did the same to an MRA, I’d say the same thing, which is “that is not OK, stop doing it”.
This is not about whether or not people like the woman in the video, or like what she said. It’s really far more basic than that.
Well, sidestinkappleeye, some of those lunch counter protesters were kind of rude to white men, in that they took their seats! So I’m not racist, but I think they pretty much deserved what they got.
/extreme sarcasm, channeling MRAs
“Yeah, they target straight white men who are dumbfucks. Is that how you self-identify?”
No, they target all straight white men. Again, read the links I’ve provided right on this page! Or look at the Imgur link I gave way back, or look through SRSsucks.
Civil disobedience is wrong. It’s like violence is wrong. Now sometimes people have to commit civil disobedience, and sometimes people have to commit violence. Sometimes that’s the way it is. We have to have sit ins, we have to have wars. That’s the ugly nature of the world.
HOWEVER that having been said, comparing someone having two authors come out and speak about men’s issues and men’s health is hardly fucking racially segregated lunch counters you fucking unsane piece of shit
This is so full of wrong. You have no idea what the definition of a ‘hate group’ is. This is like saying that it’s possible that openly-gay people are in the Westboro Baptist Church, or black people in the KKK, or Jews in neo-Nazi groups.
And your link to SRSWomen there? It’s called ‘context.’ This is clearly not talking about the same kind of hate as the WBC has for gay people, where the poster wants to kill every man and thinks they are all without redeeming quality. The ‘hate’ is simply in the sense that so many men don’t fucking get it and continue to perpetuate the oppression she feels.
This is NOT the same kind of hate that gets you ‘hate group’ status. The kind of hate that gets you ‘hate group’ status involves wanting to hurt or marginalize other groups of people through law or social discrimination. Nothing I see in any of your quotes implies that any of the people involved want that, but rather, that they dislike the groups by default because of their past experience with them. Nobody is obliged to like or trust you, or even be nice to you.
Besides, you clearly believe in the EXACT SAME THING because you believe it’s okay to hate women and feminists in this very same sense.
Now if any of these people on SRS cross the line into advocating violence or less than equal rights for men, let me know. I’d even take threats against someone. I’ll be outraged right along with you. But none of this so far is ‘hate’, like we are talking about as far as ‘hate group’ stuff.
MRAs, on the other hand, slip into advocating violence against women ALL THE TIME, and advocate social arrangements where women have no agency and have no economic or social freedom, and can be freely raped at the whim of men. Do you REALLY not see the difference between the stuff on SRS you’re linking and what you see daily on MRA forums and sites?
If you ever criticize specific white men, with examples, clearly that means that you hate all men.
But if you ever criticize all white women, like MRAs do all the fucking time, you are engaging in FREEZE PEACH.
I have to admit that my MRA translator might be overheating. Not sure if I can … keep … this … up … much … longer……………..
This is clearly bullshit. There are straight white men all over that have not been targeted by SRS. In fact, the people I know who regularly hang out on SRS are straight white men as well. The common thread is idiocy and bigotry. SRS really only targets privileged assholes who say bigoted things.
@PEMRA:
Alright, I honestly can’t talk to you unless you give specifics, rather than linking and saying “thus hate-speech.”
From your first link:
Obvious hate, right? So much hatred for people based on who they are instead of what they do…
Well, wait… That is about actions rather than membership… What about
Ah ha! Saying that black people are free to hate white people, but white people aren’t free to hate black people! Contradiction!
Wait… It’s about white privilege and repeated refusal or inability to understand a POC’s position in society, leading to perpetuating that very culture that is so harmful. And seriously… with all the white male politicians talking shit about how women have ways of shutting down a rape pregnancy, or accidentally using the n-word, or nearly saying “black people” in a prejorative context… They aren’t doing any favors for their race, huh?
Except that, they aren’t held as standards for their race. It’d be silly to generalize an entire group based on the actions of a few.
Except that people in the real world do this all the damn time. Redditors do this all the time. And ShitRedditSays devotes its time to highlighting every single time this happens, to make people aware of the culture so that it can change.
Boom, perfect segue.
Cloudiah, no! Stay away from the light!
Civil disobedience is wrong.
We’ll have to stop using that Gandhi quote now.
Or maybe we’ll keep using it, and hope no one knows anything about Gandhi.
Nice breakdown, kirbywarp. Boom indeed!
You may be right cloudiah, white men could have been denied their lunch! How could they ear with all the coloreds around? It’s totally right they should get the dogs and fire hoses on them. /snark
anyhoo down with sexists, Go Feminist Redheads! I have changed my kitty gravatar to add red hair in solidarity. starts singing Justin Timberlake style, “Let me show you a few thangs, Let me show you a few thangs…..”
“This is like saying that it’s possible that openly-gay people are in the Westboro Baptist Church, or black people in the KKK, or Jews in neo-Nazi groups.”
I think it could be possible that there are closeted gays in the WBC… actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if Phelps himself was. Likewise, there aren’t any blacks in the KKK, obviously, but there were blacks who perpetrated black oppression or enjoyed their personal status in that system, whatever it was
“This is clearly not talking about the same kind of hate as the WBC has for gay people, where the poster wants to kill every man and thinks they are all without redeeming quality. The ‘hate’ is simply in the sense that so many men don’t fucking get it and continue to perpetuate the oppression she feels.”
True it’s not as virulent as the WBC, but it doesn’t have to be- the WBC is an especially nasty one. Violence is not a requirement to be a hate group… it’s merely inciting hostility toward a group. This is exactly what SRS does- remember, that comment is one of thousands. It’s the SRS mainstream position. A hate group’s position.
I’ve recharged my batteries. But not my tablet’s batteries.
MRAS SUCK.
I am a hate group of one.
“This is clearly bullshit. There are straight white men all over that have not been targeted by SRS. In fact, the people I know who regularly hang out on SRS are straight white men as well. The common thread is idiocy and bigotry. SRS really only targets privileged assholes who say bigoted things.”
No, again, they target straight white men AS A GROUP, as my links have clearly demonstrated. INDIVIDUAL straight white men aren’t targeted if they share SRS’ politics, but AS A GROUP, they are targeted for ridicule.
@PEMRA:
If expressing frustration at a group for not “getting” something is enough to qualify as a hate group, then call every single civil rights movement in the history of humanity a hate group.
Oh wait… you probably already do (unless it’s the MRM).