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A Voice for Men UK: All Women Are Homophobic (If We Can Just Make Up Our Own Definitions for Words)

You keep using that word. I'm not even going to bother with the rest of this quote.
You keep using that word. I’m not even going to bother with the rest of this quote.

If you ever need proof that Men’s Rights Activists live in a world of their own, check out this, er, argument, found in a posting on A Voice for Men UK, the official British franchise of the American hate site we know so well :

All women are homophobic.

Whether the men being prejudiced against are gay or not is kind of beside the point – after all, ‘homo’ = man, ‘phobia’ = fear, therefore: ‘homophobia’ = Fear of Man – but, if you want to quibble over Greek & Latin etymology, perhaps we can at least agree on this: all women, to a greater or lesser extent, display the ‘symptoms’ we attribute to said condition: overt caution, fear &/or disdain of men.

Yep, that’s right. In order to find an excuse to call women “homophobic,” they’ve invented an entirely new definition for the word not based in any way on the actual etymology of the word “homophobia” (which is of course derived from “homosexual”) but on something they’ve just made up.

By this logic, the word “homosexual” would not mean “of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex” but rather “man sexual.” If we take this to mean “attracted to men,” this would suggest that all straight women with sex drives would therefore be homosexual as well. Brilliant, A Voice for Men UK.

The author of the post then uses this weird logic to make excuses for actual homophobia among straight men:

Female ‘homophobia’ is so normalized in our society that treating every man you meet like ‘Schrödinger’s Rapist’ is considered an ordinary, common sense fact of life – just so long as you are a woman. But if a man feels at all uncomfortable around another man sexually, he is presently branded an evil bigot for behaving the way all women do at all times.

A Voice for Men: they reject your reality, and substitute nonsensical unreality that allows them to say bad things about women.

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Ally S
11 years ago

Oh dear, I hope that doesn’t make me sound like I’m trying to act like some Special Snowflake for adopting a view that many others already have. V_V

Mil.
Mil.
11 years ago

OT, but check out the Sunshine Mary parody (?) fanfiction: http://sunshinegary.wordpress.com/

baileyrenee
baileyrenee
11 years ago

Ally, I agree… Grrr I wish my comment showed up!

Her article could have just been about how you can recover from assault and all that good, encouraging sort of stuff… but she has to get all GirlWritesWhat-y with it.

Okay, I need to stop. I could bitch about that woman all damn day.

Bad Puppy
Bad Puppy
11 years ago

I can’t wait until GWW gets kicked out of the club. Because at some point… she will. That’ll be the fastest switch to feminism in the history of humanity. “Whaaaa those misogynists were mean to me even though I was a good little slave!”

Ally S
11 years ago

Okay, I need to stop. I could bitch about that woman all damn day.

You mean “complain,” right?

Anyway, she is one of the worst MRAs out there. Almost as bad as that dipshit Toy Soldier (and his best buddy, Tamen, although he’s certainly way better than other “equalists” out there).

baileyrenee
baileyrenee
11 years ago

That tumblr is terrible. Why did I look at it. Why.

baileyrenee
baileyrenee
11 years ago

Whoops, yes I meant complain. Sorry about that, it’s scary how I don’t even think about the words I use sometimes!

kittehserf
11 years ago

If “bitch” meant “complain” in a literal way it’d be kinda funny to imagine people barking at GWW & co every time they went out in public.

Ally S
11 years ago

@baileyrenee

I get you. ^_^ Speaking of slurs, I can actually remember the time I used the word “c*nt” as an insult for some people. I was 16 then. And boy do I regret it. V_V

sarahlizhousespouse
11 years ago

“I can’t wait until GWW gets kicked out of the club. Because at some point… she will. ”

I think that will create a huge rift in the movement. So many MRAs need her presence to reassure themselves that they aren’t misogynists. They need GWW to point at as a shining example of their egalitarianism.

However, Elam has been earnestly courting the MGTOWs and so many of them have called her a “cunt” so… it’s only a matter of time.

It will be a rather ugly affair.

baileyrenee
baileyrenee
11 years ago

Oh man… I still have a bad habit of using that word…

Michelle C Young
11 years ago

Some people seem to believe that Greek equals Latin. Just because the Greek mythology was carried over into Latin mythology, since Rome was founded by a couple of Greek kids (raised by a wolf, no less, so how did they know all that Greek stuff?), does NOT mean they are the same. They have similiarities in genetics, and in mythology, but linguistically, they do not even use the same ALPHABET! You just can’t take “homo” and say that it is the same in both languages.

Pardon me, now. I’m going to drink some lovely homogenized milk. WHOOPS! Man milk! EWWWWWW!

MordsithJ
MordsithJ
11 years ago

It will be a rather ugly affair.

Yeah, just imagine the popcorn shortages.

gillyrosebee
gillyrosebee
11 years ago

cloudiah, I’m with you on a rousing chorus of “FUCK DICK CHENEY!”

On your loss, I have no words, and you have my deepest. Prostrated by grief, yes, but motivated by love and compassion, and that’s a universe better than the cesspool of anger and entitlement that the MRAs live in.

Ally, I think I had Locke and Rawls specifically in mind, but Kant helps there too!

SarahLiz, that Gilbert thing, I can’t even begin… So very many levels of fail there.

Ally S
11 years ago

Women will flock to the popcorn and devour it, thereby depriving all men the right to eat popcorn. It’s only a matter of time.

kittehserf
11 years ago

(raised by a wolf, no less, so how did they know all that Greek stuff?)

Since it was a she-wolf, she must have STOLEN knowledge of Greek stuff from the manly alpha wolves.

linguistically, they do not even use the same ALPHABET

But they must! Like Spanish and Russian!

gillyrosebee
gillyrosebee
11 years ago

Michelle, you just ruined any possibility of breakfast for me for the near future…

Ally, the pain is just your consciousness and empathy expanding. I used to sling the word r*tard around like it was nothing. Everyone did where I grew up, but yeesh does it make me cringe to think about it now…

sarahlizhousespouse
11 years ago

“Yeah, just imagine the popcorn shortages.”

Buy bags of popcorn kernels now so you can scalp during the shortages to come! The coming manosphere rift shall strain the world’s supply of butter! We may have to face the fact that some may have to go WITHOUT popcorn!

baileyrenee
baileyrenee
11 years ago

Oh man, I even wrote “retarded” on that comment of mine that didn’t show up. Yikes. Forgive me manboobz, I am a moron.

cloudiah
11 years ago

Toy Soldier is so terrible.

I lurk on some of the FTB blogs, but some of them can be kind of ableist. I didn’t feel like I had the standing there to call it out, since I don’t really participate. So I was very heartened to see this.

But it’s a convenient shorthand to call someone crazy, loony or insane. Everyone knows what we mean by it, that this person has ideas that are beyond the pale and so disconnected from reality as to be utterly absurd. I use those terms constantly here and always have and I’m sure everyone knows that I don’t intend to disparage those who really do suffer from some form of mental illness. But that isn’t really the point, is it? If it makes those people, many of whom I care about a great deal, uncomfortable and makes them feel more marginalized than they already are, I need to try to find other ways to express myself.

Miri gave me a link to a post by Jennifer Kesler offering some replacement words. Writing is what I do and words are what I love; it may not be easy, but I’m going to try to stop using these words, at least to describe people rather than ideas. I may still slip up now and then, and if I do feel free to call me out on it.

This is the difference between people who try to be good, and MRAs. Not that they don’t fuck up, but when they fuck up they try to make it right.

kittehserf
11 years ago

I’ve lurked occasionally on Pharyngula, but it’s not really my sort of commentariat – there’s a fairly high tolerance of Asshole Atheism there. Some of the threads are great, but mmm, I wouldn’t feel safe or welcome to comment, especially not having any STEM education.

Ally S
11 years ago

This is the difference between people who try to be good, and MRAs. Not that they don’t fuck up, but when they fuck up they try to make it right.

That this actually has to be pointed out to some people makes me sad.

cloudiah
11 years ago

Kittehs, I feel the same way about Pharyngula; I think there’s sometimes some classism there, or at least a level of educational privilege that they seem not-so-conscious-of. But I enjoy reading some of the time — they have some truly epic troll smackdowns.

kittehserf
11 years ago

Educational privilege is a good way of putting it. Sometimes there is a sort of education = intelligence vibe there. Or rather, I pick it up, which could be me being thin skinned. But it’s the assholish “belief of any sort = Republican fundy with mental illness” bullshit that’s even more irksome. I tend to stick to the feminist-themed threads.

katz
11 years ago

since Rome was founded by a couple of Greek kids

Kids descended from the Trojans of Asia Minor, thankyouverymuch! Not a drop of Greek blood in ’em!