Mark Minter, a bitter, angry, divorced man in his late fifties, made a name for himself over the last year or so in the tiny world of the misogynist manosphere as that subculture’s most vociferous opponent of marriage.
In a series of little manifestos, deposited as comments on various manosphere blogs, Minter excoriated the institution he thought made a “slave” of men. “Get it through your head,” he wrote in one,
Men are from mars; women are FUCKING IDIOTS.
Never marry. … Duh. Game. Duh. Pump them, dump them, next them. Duh. THAT IS THE ONLY WAY TO WIN. Duh!!!!!
That was the old Mark Minter. Then, last week, word got out that Minty was getting married. To a single mother (oh no!) over the age of thirty (eek!) that he’s apparently never even met in person (well, actually that does sound a bit worrisome).
If this isn’t all some elaborate work of performance art, it may well be turn out to be the most entertaining drama I’ve seen since I started following the manosphere three years ago.
It was Minty’s future wife, a mysterious manosphere-friendly woman known only as Kate, who first broke the news, in a comment on Heartiste’s “game” blog, where she is something of a regular fixture. Heartiste posted about the strange engagement shortly afterwards, wondering if it had been his blog that had “brought these two lovebirds together into a promise of holy matrimony.”
Needless to say, some of Minty’s fans — now ex-fans — reacted as if he had just pooped in the punch bowl.
“Oh crap, the one man wh ostands agianst marraige……destroyed by the unmerciful claws of marraige,” wrote one commenter, evidently too overwhelmed by emotion to type properly. “Farewell Mark, you will be missed. The medusa kate has you now.”
“Speechless,” wrote another. “This is like having Jesus spit in your face while saying ‘FUCK YOU BROTHER!’”
Feeling a tad defensive, Minty rushed to defend himself, and his future wife. In a comment on Chateau Heartiste, he explained
I suppose I have to eat crow. So why the change of heart?
First, I would say I saw some photos that the rest of you have not.
He’s seen some photos? Am I right to think that the only possible interpretation of this is that the two haven’t actually met in person yet?
Second, she is Red Pill and has actually been in this community longer than I have. You cannot imagine what it is like to have conversations with a woman and say “Remember the CH essay on ….” and have a girl say “Yeah, He was right on with that one.”
And I think the odds of men finding someone that fits the first statement AND the second are pretty remote. I believe I nailed down one of the 2 or 3 that might exist in the world that have photos that can make a fellow sit up and pay attention, and then having the intellect and the preparation to keep that attention.
After some proud blabbing about Kate’s apparently quite traditional values, Minty brags about what an alpha dog he is for scoring her:
To me, this engagement is a validation of Game.
I practiced what I learned here. I am 58 year old man. None of you know what that truly entails until you get to that point in your life. Kate is an attractive 34 year old woman, with options galore if she chose to take them.
And in following what I learned here, following the suggestions, the psychology, the mandates, I have an attractive woman 24 years younger than me that is ready to commit to me.
Top that motherfuckers.
As for the medusa Kate, he defended her honor in another comment,
When this Facebook announcement thing happened and members of Kate’s family learned of it, my name got Googled and the writing I have done came to the attention of her family. And some of it was quite provocative and written by me to be intentionally provocative.
And her family came straight at her.
They set up something like an interdiction where she was confronted by not only her family, but also by a PhD in Psychology …
The family compelled her to attend this session with them and this counselor.
They could not believe that a rational woman would wish to marry a known sexist and misogynist.
So she went into that meeting alone, and she stood her ground, she defended our ideas of the Manosphere, she stood up for me, my right to write what I have written, and she won the day. …
She deserves your respect and she has earned it.
Not everyone in the manosphere is convinced that she — or Minty — deserve this respect any more.
In a post yesterday, PUA skeezball Roosh V denounced Minty as a “phony” and warned him that he would no longer be tolerated in Roosh’s corner of the manosphere:
He is like the conservative politician who espouses family values while diddling young boys on the side.
What? What kind of a world do you live in where a man who announces his plans to get married is in some ways equivalent to a child rapist?
He is the PUA who sells products on how to get laid but can’t even approach a single woman, someone who creates a false character to gain either money or—in this case—praise, at the expense of everyone’s trust.
For that reason, he has lost all respect from me. If he were to knock on my door, starving, begging for food and drink, I would only place the sustenance on my front step. He would not be permitted to enter my home so that the foul odor of hypocrisy that now trails him does not infect my place of sleep.
I hope his name will forever be synonymous with a man who doesn’t live by his own code. He deserves to be permanently exiled from the manosphere community. No more praise or compliments should be directed his way.
Contributing to Roosh’s disillusionment with Minty: his discovery of comments left here on Man Boobz by Minty’s ex-wife Suzanne Minter, which depict Minty as something less than the swashbuckling figure so many in the manosphere took him to be. With somethig less than fondness, she described him as
an absolutly insane person. … we have been divorced for ten years, dont you think it is time to get over it? …
[He] has 2 children, including a 19 yr old daugther. He has never paid a dollar of child support in his life, so all of the crap he spews is crap. He has not worked in 5 years because no one will hire him. Amazingly, he has been fired from EVERY job he ever had. He lives with his sister because without her support he would be homeless.
This is the man that people are calling “great” – he is a bitter ass.
In a comment on a site called FOKMCAST, which had posted something supportive of Minty, Suzanne elaborated further:
Mark Minter is a fraud. … Mark is the biggest victim I have ever known. You say his children didn’t appreciate him? What the hell did he do for them? They were 7 and 3 when we finally divorced. He never saw them because he moved out of state and then emptied out is 401k after getting fired for the 6th time , to go to South America to have relationships with women he met on the Internet. (As a result of that brilliant financial decision he owes the IRS about 35k in back taxes and penalties and fees)
You people act like Mark is the greatest thing ever. He is a fraud and a liar. 99% of what he has written on the web is fabricated. Don’t you people have real lives that involve human interaction or do you only have the social abilities to exist in cyber space? I really would have thought that one or 2 of you might have been smart enough to do some fact checking before you took Mark as your messiah.
His engagement is a sham. Don’t you find it odd that he is marrying someone he has only seen pictures of? Well, I take that back, he did marry a columbian woman he met on the Internet which she shortly after had annulled. …
Moral of the story: mark is a liar and a fraud and they way you people idolize him his a sad testament to the modern Internet. I am a 5’7 135 lb blonde who earned 200k last year. I raised my children on my own and was single for almost 10 years before marrying someone 8 yrs younger than me. I am clearly the slob, pig, bitch, moron, bloodsucker here.
Have a great Sunday.
After quoting Suzanne Minter’s comments here, Roosh sadly added “I don’t know what to believe right now, but our manosphere “innocence” has been violated.” In a followup comment, as he evidently began to take in the implications of all this, he wrote:
Our enemies will use this against us for a long time. Minter has done serious damage. I accept blame since I helped spread his writing. My troll radar seemed to have failed me this time.
Dude, speaking as one of your enemies, we figured out that Mark Minter was full of shit the minute we first ran across him. Why do you think I was writing about him with such obvious relish months ago, back when he was still your hero? When Suzanne Minter came by to tell us that he was (to borrow your own description of him) “literally … a basement dweller troll,” we didn’t even blink, and I didn’t even bother to write a post about it. We already take for granted that the gurus and would be gurus of the manosphere are a bunch of liars and frauds. The fact that the manosphere is full of gullible idiots is not news to us.
In the comments to Roosh’s post, some commenters wondered if he was some sort of “feminist psyop,” sent to disrupt the manosphere. “Until I see the photo of them in wedded matrimony,” wrote taterearl.
I’ll just take this as a pleasant fairy tale for us to bark about. For all we know they could be actually be double agents from Jezebel posing as people with the elaborate plot of trying to take down the place.
Well, it’s pretty clearly not that, but whatever it is, I suspect it will be providing us all with some lovely drama for some time to come. Will the now happy-couple make it to the altar before the old marriage-hating Minty rears his ugly head once more? Will Roosh and Heartiste start a feud? Who the hell knows, but it should be entertaining nonetheless.
Suzanne Minter summed up her reaction in an email to me,
This can not be real. Seriously, Mark is penniless and I don’t see his sister forking over the dollars to buy him a car (he has not owned a working vehicle in 3 yrs) so he can go meet his fiancée in person. I can’t see a woman with an IQ higher than 40 signing up for this, no matter how “red pill” or what ever the hell it is that she is. …
It does blow my mind though that a man who lives like a troll in his sister’s spare bedroom for 4 years, hasn’t had any real human interaction in years, can’t get a job dispute the fact that he is truly gifted in a math/computer science sense, has managed to create a name and following for himself in the cyber world.
I should add that while I have confirmed Suzanne’s identity (and that she’s really the one who’s made all these postings of hers I’ve quoted), I don’t know how much of what she says about Mark is true. I also don’t know if the engagement is real, or even if Kate is a real person. Of course, I don’t know if Roosh has slept with a single HB8. In the manosphere, it’s fair to say, roughly 80% of everything is bullshit. I’m guessing the truth value of Suzanne’s comments is higher than that.
To keep up with the ongoing drama, I suggest starting here:
The original, ever-growing thread on the Roosh forums
The comments to Roosh’s “Mark Minter is a Phony” post.
The comments to Heartiste’s announcement post
For more on Minter see:
Roosh’s two earlier posts quoting him at length.
My posts on him, especially Mark Minter takes on Marriage, Mangina Manservants and America’s Matriarchal Infrastructure.
For Suzanne Minter’s take on the alleged engagement, see her comments to that post, starting here, as well as her comments on the FOKMCAST post, some very pointedly directed at the mysterious Kate.
For more on his future wife Kate, see this post of hers on the racist manosphere blog Eradica, where she urged white men to “alpha up” lest white women desert them for men of other races, thus destroying civilization. Yep, she’s a real prize.
@katz
I can’t front, you may not regret that. I found it heartbreaking, and that’s not something I usually say about movies. I have The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas, but I still haven’t watched it because I haven’t recovered from Grave
@Katz
I like subs, too. Not necessarily in Anime, but definitely in foreign films.
Meh, my life’s sad enough as it is. Something like Kiki’s Delivery Service would be more my speed right now. Or Hamtaro.
Shadow: I don’t know who could have possibly told you it was subpar compared to the original. I personally think it’s better in basically every way, except for the opening. The original does Liore better. However, after that…well…I just really can’t say the original even compares.
Brotherhood has a much neater plot, a chance for all the characters to shine. Even Winry, who is by no means a hero, gets her chance to be important and shine. She’s a prime example of a believable female supporting character.
In fact, I’ve gotten several people into anime with FMA: Brotherhood, and everyone I’ve showed it to that’s an anime fan likes it better than the original too. I’d elaborate, but…if I start talking too much more, I’ll spoil, and that’s bad.
About Grave of the Fireflies…I cried at that movie harder than anything else I’ve ever cried at. If that movie doesn’t make you cry, nothing will.
I have Me in Kitty Pyjamas or Coffee Cup Pyjamas.
(Well, not right now, they frown on wearing PJs at work.)
My personal preference is good dubbing over subtitles, subtitles over mediocre dubbing.
IMHO, Cowboy Bebop is perfectly dubbed. Most of the Disney/Ghibli dubs are excellent as well. FMA is acceptable, but I kind of prefer the original japanese.
Note of shame: one of my favourite films growing up was the butchery of Nausicäa: Warriors of the Wind. Even though Nausicaa sounds vaguely like Rocky the Flying Squirrel, there are two scenes I miss from the Disney translation.
One is the banter between the three villiage elders stealing a Tolmekian tank, the other is when Nausicaa is trying to escape from the Pejite gunship as the Tolmekians are attacking.
Asbel: “Can you take off from here?”
Nausicaa: “I can take off from anywhere!”
*cargo door opens, revealing Tolmekian gunner.*
Nausicaa: “Except under fire!”
I like that much better than her stating the blindingly obvious.
I wouldn’t call it subpar, but it is VERY different. I like the slower pacing and artistic direction of the original series a little more when you see the original and new episodes side-by-side, but that’s a personal opinion. Brotherhood isn’t nearly as dark as the original anime but it is more cohesive as a story, and has a happier ending, although still a satisfying one.
I’ve seen most of IRC Tylor. In the very first episode the hypercompetent female lead uses the sexy-girl-twins’ panties to distract some enemy agents. I was not all that impressed.
I was more impressed with the way Tylor handled the overall plot. Nobody else got him, least of all the sexy-elf-eared-alien-princess who thought she was in love with him.
Among the hardcore Tylor fandom, I understand that Words Have Been Had over whether he’s a fool or a chess master. I tend towards fool, because I think it makes the series better.
I’ve only seen the redub of Nausicaa, but I loved it.
I give mad props yo to anything by Hayao Miyazaki, although I probably shouldn’t because I haven’t seen everything he’s done. What I have seen, though, I loved, even filtered through Disney, and even considering how loosely adapted Howl’s Moving Castle was.
I tend to end up watching the subtitles and not the action, even when I’m watching something originally in English with the sound way down because the darlings are asleep.
I was finding everything amusing and funny until I learned that Mark Minter is the guy who claimed he is not a misogynist, but a woman hater. Then it became incredibly awesome and hilarious.
In addition to laughing hysterically with the comments here, I also learn a lot!
Thank you, thebewilderness for this amazing tip! I shall test this as soon as my moving process is over!
I didn’t see anyone get back to the bipolar discussion: Minter’s wife mentioned a manic episode. It originated with her.
Also, I know I mentioned it before, but I recommend Revolutionary Girl Utena to pretty much everyone who likes anime. Seriously, it’s nearly flawless. And I just love the art style.
Oh!! I love Revolutionary Girl Utena! *___*
HM — there’s a difference between “he did a stupid thing because of his mental illness” and “he’s inherently unfit to lead a movement because he’s mentally ill”. Which is ignoring that the person who said that wasn’t saying he must be unfit because he’s mentally ill, but rather that because he’s unfit, he must be mentally ill.
Minter’s wife — here’s a stupid thing he did because of his mental illness
Not cool thing — because he’s mentally ill, he can’t lead a movement
Really fucked up thing — he failed the movement and thus must be mentally ill
Stupid action versus oh, he fucked up? He must be mentally ill!
Also, his ex-wife has first hand knowledge of his mental state, the commenter was, at best, working from her statement and thus had second hand knowledge. But it read like pure speculation.
Analogy time! The difference between pecunium saying I did [thing] cuz mentally ill versus some random commenter who knows in passing that I’m mentally I’ll going “well what did you expect?”
Talking about bipolar disorder makes me a little sad… my former fiance is bipolar. It’s… it can be very difficult for everybody.
I also don’t like when assholes are compared to people with bipolar disorder…
… we cannot diagnose Minter only from the little info we have… I don’t believe it is possible.
@shadow
huh. I couldn’t stand the English voice acting. Especially whoever was voicing Ed, I did not buy him as fifteen. :/
I don’t believe it is possible = I think he is just an asshole.
Argenti, the question was why someone would say the man was probably bipolar, that’s all. I was answering that that’s where it originated.
I’m also bipolar myself and could really have done without a lecture, based on the assumption that I couldn’t possibly educated in such things, when I was answering one very specific question. Thank you for the condescending “analogy time!” on my own condition and the ableism I myself am subjected to every day. I get your intentions but I’m not eight years old.
Sorry, I spent an hour pretty much getting lectured by my psych and am in a touchy mood as a result. My apologies for assuming the worst from your question.
So I have been AWOL and I have not read all the comments here. Getting ready for school and… tumblring.
RE Anime:I would suggest FLCL over Neon Genesis. I say this after rewatching Evangelion in prep for Pacific Rim. FLCL stands up really well to rewatching and almost requires it.
Otherwise +1 to Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and FMA Brotherhood. Naruto is my secret shame, much like Heroes. I neither defend nor claim it, but I am going to finish it.
opium4themasses — does naruto get any better after um, oh gods all the irony, the guy who’s name Lee can never remember >.< [spoiler] “dies”?
I’m obviously way behind.
The new stuff makes me have a sad, I really loved the first few seasons, and then it all went to hell after the exams (don’t cheat means don’t get caught? yeah, pretty much)
Gravitation is my true guilty pleasure though. Yaoi alert.
If we’re talking anime, let me say one thing: BACCANO. In a sea of creepy and disturbing nerd-wish-fufillment fantasies about girls who look WAYYYYY too young, Baccano is the greatest anime I’ve ever watched. I once watched a whole bunch of anime on Netflix on a goddam lark, and Baccano just blew me away.
It’s the anime for people who don’t like anime. It’s just excellent. It’s extremely violent though, and a lot of people might find it just a little too excessive. At the time I first marathoned the series I thought it only added to the awesomeness of it, but now I think some of the violence is downright unwatchable. It’s still amazing though, dont let that stop you from watching it!
Hey, what’s the appeal of Yaoi to nerd girls? They don’t even show the guy’s dicks!
And when they do show dongs it’s usually in the context of really goddam rapey shit.