Our old nemesis Fidelbogen — the Would-Be Counter-Feminist Philosopher King — has taken on a dire, if altogether hypothetical, threat to the men’s rights movement as we know it today: the danger that actual activism that benefits men in the real world will get in the way of the feminist bashing that he thinks is job #1 for all good MRAs.
As he argues in a recent post:
Doing good things for men – opening DV shelters, men’s centers, passing male-friendly laws, and so on – is all very excellent and fine, but it does not attack the root of the problem.
This is kind of a remarkable statement for him to make, given that the Men’s Rights movement that Fidelbogen has attached himself to — or at least its very vocal online contingent — has so far succeeded in opening precisely zero DV shelters and/or men’s centers and has successfully lobbied for zero “male-friendly” laws.
Indeed, it’s only in recent months that any MRAs active online have managed to raise even a miniscule percentage of the money it will take to open much less operate a single shelter for men.
But apparently Fidey is worried that even these paltry efforts from MRAs will get in the way of the noble task of yelling about feminists. As he puts it, in LARGE BOLD TYPE so you know he’s extra serious:
Fidey, I don’t think you need to worry for a minute that MRAs are going to actually accomplish anything in the real world. And you can quote me on that,
Ooh, SO pretty! Look at that perfectly fluffy tail!
And those gorgeous green eyes and big ears! She’s coloured like Mads but (looks around guiltily) prettier.
PRETTY KITTY.
Biscuit turned one today. We got him a new catnip toy and gave him a piece of his normally forbidden favorite–bacon.
I’m totally okay with being a virago. Viragos are fucking awesome! Seriously, it sounds like the name of a goddamn superhero, in my mind.
*shakes head* They never stick the flounce. YoullNeverGuess, I’m sure you won’t respond to this, so for the rest of the crowd, a serious question: how long and what events have to transpire when a word HAS drifted far enough away from its initial meaning for it to be usable? Or does such a time never exist?
The word virago immediately makes me think of Viggo Mortensen racing horses in Arabia. Except that’s Hidalgo.
Who cares, it’s Viggo Mortensen!
Happy Birthday, Biscuit!
YoullNeverGuess: Okay, one last comment, and then I am fully flounced: I’ve donated to this blog before because it seemed like such a great bunch of people. When you guys immediately get so hostile, you’re potentially driving away sympathetic subscribers. You might want to think about that. I’ve seen a lot of trolls here, so I get some of the suspicion, and you guys and David obviously enjoy each other, but maybe ease up on the blood lust a little.
Oh, I see, the problem here is we don’t restrain ourselves when we see someone stepping out of line; which will cost us, “subscribers”?
Here I thought this was a free blog, and folks what liked it chipped in. We didn’t get hostile (trust me, if we get hostile, you’ll notice… then again you say you know what we are like, but you find this to be, “over the top”, and try to shame us with how supportive you’ve been. Color me unimpressed).
If we don’t cut each other slack, what makes you special?
Thanks, Kittehs!
Frankly, not sad to see her gone. She bugged me.
FTR, I love it when people accuse pecunium of being hostile, I can’t help but laugh.
Also, who’s a pretty kitteh!
Yep, the entertainment versus tedious whining balance was way off on this one. Long may her flounce last.
Also yay Biscuit!
I keep missing small dramas! Cassandra, did you find your eyeballs?
And didn’t there used to be a publishing house specializing in women writers that was called Virago Press?
Happy birthday little Biscuit!
Virago Press is still around, but it’s part of a bigger publisher now.
Oh and I love avocado, and I love veggie sushi, but something about the flavor of the seaweed and avocado together makes me gag. I’m glad I’m not the only one; I was starting to think I was (gasp!) weird or something.
I really don’t understand why not using sexist/ableist/racist slurs us such a huge issue. We don’t do it here and if someone does we call them on it. It should be no big deal, just stop using them here *shrugs*. You can’t claim to be an inclusive group and toss these terms around without hurting or putting people down.
Not gonna lie, one of the reasons I like this place is that you can call someone a cockbiting chucklefuck douchebag and nobody bats an eyelash, but call someone insane, and they’ll correct you.
I didn’t realize how prevalent all that was until I had a space without it!
I love avocado, especially with chicken, but I’ve never eaten seaweed and don’t intend to, and combining them sounds … blech.
“Guys” is gendered male. Way to erase all the women from the conversation, yng. (I fucking hate how people tend to use it as gender neutral. It isn’t. It also isn’t hard to find gender neutral words to use.)
/headdesk/
I like Louis’s word: persons. I think he’s just doing the straight sound of “personnes” (people) in French, but it works for me.
kittehs: re seaweed: There are lots of seaweeds. I like many of them, and some (like kombu) are used as a way to flavor broths/stocks. Daishi (the japanese soup-base) is traditionally nothing more than dried bonito and kombu leaves, boiled gently and strained).
In the spirit of the thread so far maybe we could just accept the fact that Kittehs doesn’t like seaweed and not try to explain to her how the flavor of it varies, it’s tasty in some forms, etc.
Thanks, Cassandra!
If any of you ever tries to make me like beets, I will seriously get all stabby. Same with olives, which is weirder because I remember quite liking them as a child.
There’s also several varieties of mangoes, but I’m not going to go though them and try to make people like ’em. HINT.
If a person really liked failure, they could try to get me to eat lima beans. HELL NO.