“Compassion for Boys and Men.” This, the slogan of Men’s Rights hate site A Voice for Men, has always struck me as a teensy bit ironic, given that site founder and head angry dude Paul Elam spends much of his time berating other men, and really only seems interested in showing “compassion,” if it can be called that, for those who not only agree with everything he says but also donate money to him.
Recently Mr. Elam ran across a four-year-old video that’s been posted to the Men’s Rights subreddit numerous times in recent days. It shows a young woman assaulting a campus preacher, and knocking him off a platform, after falsely accusing him of groping her. (The woman, a student at Middle Tennessee State University, was arrested and later pled guilty to assault charges, getting a year’s probation, some community service and a fine; the preacher suffered only minor injuries.)
But the fact that a few people in the crowd cheered for the attacker apparently convinced Elam that everyone in the world except him and a few of his pals are worthless pieces of crap.
Look at the crowd cheer this violent lunatic on. It isn’t just her that is the problem. We live in a psychotic world where women can do whatever they want to men, as long as they vomit up a lie, like “get your hand off my breast.” It is a world which praises sickness, as long as the person to suffer for it is male.
Well, actually, it looked like most of the people in the crowd were a bit shocked by her assault and the preacher’s fall, and several people came forward to help him. And I’m not quite sure how Elam managed to miss the fact that the woman in question was led off by police at the end of the video.
In this culture, most every woman is Sharon Osbourne. Most every man is Hugo Schwyzer.
By describing women as a bunch of “Sharon Osbournes,” Elam is not (I don’t think) suggesting that they are savvy, articulate women who’ve been able to not only survive but flourish in male-dominated industries; no, he’s making a reference to the one time that Osbourne made a horrible castration joke on national television, and suggesting that women are a bunch of evil harpies that love to fantasize about cutting men’s dicks off.
By referring to men as “Hugo Schwyzers” — Elam’s post was written before Schwyzer’s recent Twitter meltdown — he’s not (I don’t think) suggesting that men are all a bunch of manipulative predators who glom onto feminism as a way to exploit and manipulate women, but rather suggesting that they’re a bunch of obsequious manginas who let women walk all over them.
I feel confident in attributing these interpretations to Elam’s words because he’s made these arguments many times before. It’s pretty obvious that Elam hates women. It’s only a little less obvious that he hates most men as well.
But I don’t think it’s really this video that’s got Elam angry. It looks to me like he’s still stewing over a recent op-ed by libertarian anti-feminist Cathy Young — a writer in many ways deeply sympathetic to the Men’s Rights ideology — which took a passing shot at A Voice for Men and similar sites whose “steady diet of vulgar woman-bashing … discredits any valid points they may make.”
So far Elam’s site has run at least four other posts — possibly five? I’ve lost count — responding to the single sentence mentioning AVFM in her column, including one by him and another by a “brigade” of self-described “Honey Badgers” (female MRAs), but Elam can’t resist the opportunity to point out yet again that he’s going to remain as angry as he wants to be:
I do not give a rat’s fucking ass about offending or upsetting any of them.
This world does not deserve MHRAs that are decent or measured or considerate of the mainstreams sensibilities. This world deserves a jerk on the collar and a slap across the face and the flying spittle of rage that it earns with each man and boy that it denigrates and abuses.
“The Flying Spittle of Rage” makes a much better — and more accurate — slogan for AVFM than that boring old “Compassion for Boys and Men.”
Quoting for perfection.
BTW, as fucked as Osbourne’s joke was, I thought these guys were all against PC humour and whatnot? Daniel Tosh can make rape jokes but Sharon Osbourne can’t make castration jokes? Dark humour knows no limits Paul, we’ve all been offended by jokes before.
Honey Badgers? WTF? An animal famous for following little birds around to steal honey from bees. Who are mostly…female…and live in a hive…and do loads of work without the help of men… Maybe I do see where they are coming from.
Is the GWW atheist woman assault topic about this post?
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/08/08/what-do-you-do-when-someone-pulls-the-pin-and-hands-you-a-grenade/
@misery
I have no idea if HealthyAddict is one of the women mentioned in that post. Maybe? No way to tell, I guess. From what she and that post described it doesn’t sound like the same guy… but yea, I can’t say for sure.
A libertarian anti-feminist, and SHE thinks they are ridiculous. Oh, that gave me a chuckle.
“Elam and the Phlying Phlegm of Phear”, coming to the discount bin of a bookstore near you.
@misery:
No, not the same woman, though Myers has blogged on healthyaddict’s case too:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/07/29/ashley-speaks-out/
(note the date in the URL)
I love you guys so much, you make my little heart so happy
The more Paul has hissyfits, the worse his little movement looks. When libertarian anti-feminists think you’re too women hating, you have a problem.
I can’t find it now, but someone mentioned rape culture being teaching Steubenville students not to post picture instead of not to rape, well, this was hiding in my inbox —
Quote:
But I don’t think it’s really this video that’s got Elam angry. It looks to me like he’s still stewing over a recent op-ed by libertarian anti-feminist Cathy Young — a writer in many ways deeply sympathetic to the Men’s Rights ideology — which took a passing shot at A Voice for Men and similar sites whose “steady diet of vulgar woman-bashing … discredits any valid points they may make.”
How unbelievably stupid can these MRA’s be? Are they honestly incapable of seeing that they really do this, incessantly???
Oh, that’s right, I forgot for a second that they don’t care who they piss off, or alienate, because getting as much negative attention as possible is the whole point.
Anyone who says this seriously is already misunderstanding what rape culture is. It’s not “He committed rape, so he’s a hero,” so much as “He’s a hero, therefore what he did can’t really be rape.”
@Stoic Sophist, I think you’ve nearly got it, but it should probably be titled “Tirade of Vituperative Abuse from a Texas Condo.” XD
Yep. Or, “Boys got in trouble for raping a girl and posting videos of it online. Therefore it’s in our best interests to teach boys not to post incriminating videos online.”
Not. Fucking. Kidding.
http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201308080007
Petition here.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/steubenville_project_future?referring_akid=551.424435.xm8DPY&source=taf
@leftwingfox- If they’re still mad about Valerie Solanas and the Titanic, I’m honestly not surprised that they’re still mad about Sharon Osborne. These people are CHAMPS at holding grudges.
I gladly signed the petition.
Healthyaddict specifically said that TAM(the host) handled the situation well. She also said that it was the hotel(the venue owners) that were the asshats.
For clarity, Healthaddict is a member of the YT atheist community. She was not mentioned in the original post.
Sorry Argenti, I have no idea how I missed your post, and didn’t mean to talk over you.
Well said.
misery: Sadly, there’s been so much shit in the last couple months coming out of the atheist movement that the incidents are generally ‘new’–that is, there’s just more of them. Staying on top of it all, and encouraging the bloggers who’ve taken the lead on exposing this corruption, is one of the reasons I haven’t been posting as often the last couple weeks–the ‘grenade with the pin pulled’ post over on Pharyngula generated thousands of replies in a couple of days. The shitstorm’s just been… exhausting, frankly, and disheartening because of how much of it there’s been.
Interesting double standard you found there. I’ve also noticed that some MRAs are offended by rape jokes directed at male rape victims, but think that anyone who doesn’t like rape jokes directed at female rape victims is just too PC.
Oh, we all know what the PC hatred is about anyway. They like to pretend that those around them being politically correct means they CAN’T say whatever they want, but they just don’t want other people to hold them RESPONSIBLE for the horrible things they say.
In that way, the double standard makes perfect sense. Just a bunch of whiney babies who want the world to kiss their ass and tell them they’re right all the time. Or, at the very least, not call them on their bullshit.
There’s few things that will piss me off faster than the whole “Politically Correct” thing, anyway, since by nature, it’s a flat-out accusation of dishonesty. “Oh, you don’t really think that; you’re just saying that to look good for others.” My reaction tends to be, “If you really think I’m lying about what my views on this issue are, please feel free to fuck off, repeatedly and eternally.”
@freemage- this is part of the reason why, as a religious person, I get frustrated by atheist sanctimony (when they are sanctimonious). It’s like “You think you are not steeped in patriarchal/ racist/ homophobic bullshit just because you have given up on God? Look at all of these examples over here!” I’m happy to work with atheists in my community who want to help with separation of church and state, or social justice issues, or generally making the world a better place. But the atheists who claim to be morally superior whilst perpetuating bullshit get extra side-eye from me.