When is a false rape accusation not a false rape accusation? When it’s leveled against a feminist man.
That, in any case, is the logic behind an appalling post on A Voice for Men attempting to smear a male feminist blogger named Jason Thibeault, who posts on FreeThoughtBlogs as Lousy Canuck, by proclaiming him a rapist.
The post is a typical bit of AVFM “satire” — that is, sophistry — arguing that “by his own feminist standards” Thibeault is a rapist … because he was once accused of rape by a girlfriend, as he wrote about in a recent post. And since feminists believe that ALL accusations of rape are true, AVFM’s Birric Forcella argues, Thibeault is thus a “confessed rapist.”
Obviously, this argument is ludicrous on its face. Feminists don’t believe that all accusations of rape are automatically true. And Thibeault, for his part, says that he was falsely accused.
This doesn’t stop AVFM from giving their piece the frankly libelous headline: “FreeThoughtBlogs’ Jason Thibeault, confessed rapist.”
AVFM may defend its post as “satire” — they have a rather expansive definition of the word — but that headline is pure libel. It’s false — and would be so even if the accusations of rape were true, as Thibeault (who’s responded to the AVFM post here) maintains his innocence.
And AVFM’s intent is clearly malicious. In the first comment to the piece, AVFM founder and publisher Paul Elam declares frankly, and revealingly, “Karma is a BITCH.”
Thibeault’s real crime, in AVFM’s eyes, is that he has publicly supported women who have come forward in recent weeks to accuse prominent skeptic writer Michael Shermer of rape and sexual assault.
And so they have responded by making what is an unequivocally false accusation against him in a headline on their site.
Of course, this isn’t the first time A Voice for Men has falsely accused someone of something based on bad evidence or no evidence at all.
In April of this year, Elam (along with a number of other MRAs and an assortment of White Supremacists as well) worked himself into an uproar over a blog post from an alleged feminist allegedly working in a college admission office who claimed she was routinely trashing applications from white males.
Though even the most rudimentary amount of fact-checking would have revealed that the woman they blamed for the blog had nothing to do with it, she had her contact information posted online by MRAs and others, leaving her open to harassment and widespread vilification. Elam contributed to the hubbub by posting a vituperative post identifying the wrong woman by name — and only after being called on his mistake by numerous other MRAs did his finally retract the post.
You can read about the whole appalling affair here.
Elam has also made false accusations against little old me. In yet another case of libel-by-headline, he accused Jessica Valenti and me of being “child abusers” … because we’re feminists. (Seriously, that was the entire basis of his accusation.)
And at one point, either lying outright or misled by a troll, he put forth the absurd conspiracy theory that I was somehow responsible for an appalling Reddit forum known as the Beatingwomen subreddit.
In his post on the subject, he claimed to have “intel” from two separate sources that “confirm[ed]” my involvement in the subreddit — he provided none of this evidence — and promised that “further word” on the subject would be forthcoming.
Of course, this evidence never materialized — because it was fraudulent and/or imaginary. Elam dropped the subject. I had and have no connection to the subreddit.
And not long ago, AVFM’s Dean Esmay very publicly accused its former Canadian News Director Kristina Mendez (AKA TheWoolyBumblebee) of (maybe, possibly) running off with the money she collected for a center devoted to the memory of Earl Silverman, a Canadian MRA who committed suicide partially out of frustration over the difficulties he had in funding the DV shelter for men he ran out of his home. The folks at AVFM have admitted quite plainly that they have no evidence of wrongdoing here.
Apparently, AVFM’s strategy is to prove that false accusations are common by making as many of them as they possibly can.
EDIT: Added the bit about Valenti and me.
Anyways, if I’m going to resort to begging, I’ll be for a ride on your bike, not over mangos! (Pleeeeaaaasee?)
I need to redo the rear pegs, but there is no reason not to take you for a ride.
One of the more superficial things on my bucket list is to have a motorbike at some point. I expect that if I ever fulfill that one, it’ll be from, like, renting a motorcycle during a trip for a weekend.
YES! Need help with the pegs? Gotta be easier than the short block Van was trying to talk me into doing (yes really, it’s apparently just take it apart and put it back together properly…so I maybe could?)
Argenti, the idea of you riding on Pecunium’s bike pegs is utterly charming.
Strawberries rule. Mangoes… well, you can have my share.
Reading about these shitty attitudes towards boundaries is so upsetting. =[ I knew about the general hostility to boundaries and consent, but hearing specific examples of it is just horrifying.
I actually have an AWESOME biker jacket, which also has the miraculous power that no matter what gender you are, you WILL look gay in this jacket. Black leather, fringe fucking EVERYWHERE (seriously, I mostly don’t wear it because the fringe gets caught in my ever-present backpack), and red leather roses sewn on the back.
Unfortunately, I’ve gained weight and doubt I can wear it anymore; it was tight even in the ED days. And then there’s the fact that I’ve owned it three years and it STILL stinks of cigarettes.
Also, badass as the jacket is… it turned out to be much cooler to lust over than it was to actually wear; the zippers on the pockets scrape my skin, the fringe gets caught in everything, and the braidwork on the sleeves also invariably tangles in my backpack, which I always have on me.
What I’m trying to say is… Argenti, you’re roughly my size, I think. Want my jacket? (And if you don’t want it, I’m putting up for Manboobzers; I think it’s a size small, and can upload photos of it, if anyone’s interested!)
If you’ve still got it in a month, bring it, I’ll give it a go. I bought a fake leather one the other day that I absolutely adore and cannot wait for it to be cool enough out to wear it, but fake leather is really all that protective so for practical purposes yours might be better.
And fuck it, if I look gay, I look gay. Not like I’m not bi/pan/don’t-give-a-shit-what’s-in-your-pants.
Idk if it’ll fit though, I’m a bit taller than you and uh, perhaps sizing is best discussed in private though? (You know what my “uh” is about right?)
LBT, I totally want to see Philippe wearing your jacket. He would totally rock it.
I have spare jackets.
And now it’s time for the Hugos.
I am all on tenterhooks, because I have several friends who are so tense they are just shy of puking.
Cross your fingers.
Yeah, this is how I was raised. Being able to opt out actually made me more willing to try new things. Although for some reason I could never handle not being told what something was. Maybe that’s also a trust thing – I’ll almost always at least try something identified, but if you can’t tell me then what does that say?
RE: Argenti
Trust me, that won’t be an issue. I bought the jacket before that, and it fit me fine. My ARMS are what don’t fit into it now.
Your arms?! Weird…
And I guess the three of us probably do wear damned near the same size, this’ll be funny (well, mostly, he’s probably got 5″~ on you LBT, shorty 😛 )
Oh and *crosses fingers and hands out tums*
RE: Argenti
I’ve gained a fair amount of weight, since going through meds, hormones, and a meal plan. Our arms aren’t pipecleaners anymore.
Ok, sorry to remind you of that then.
Actually, it’s okay. My brain’s weird like that; it’s totally fine with my arms thickening. My gut, not so much. But even that is okay; I know that I’m eating well and exercising every day, and if that’s what my body looks like on that kind of regimen, then it’s a healthy body.
Seannan has won one. Also, I just ate the best ham ever. I will be splurging on it too often.
kittehserf: yes, my mother is a bit like that. Whenever someone doesn’t like something she considers a delicacy (tongue, caviar – we’re Russian) she dismisses that person half-jokingly as a barbarian. If it makes you feel vindicated, I read on cracked.com once that the whole reason chili peppers developed spiciniess was to keep from being eaten by certain animals, like us (they need to be eaten by birds to spread the seeds and birds don’t feel the spice, if I remember correctly). So it’s a defense mechanism and people who like spicy foods, like me, are akin to those who intentionally get themselves stuck by porcupine needles. Or, for you Aussies, platypus spurs.
Afaik porcupine quills just REALLY FUCKING HURT, but won’t kill you, barring infection.
Also, go Seannan! (Ham is allowed in your fridge? You guys have some strange kosher system worked out)
Oh god porcupines. D: The last creature I will ever mess with, that’s for sure. When we were kids, our vet had a newspaper article up on his board about a dog that stupidly took on a porcupine head-on. You can guess who won that one.
markb – and platypus spurs are poisonous, too!
Echidna spines are bad enough. I had to handle a dead adult echidna once and it hurt like hell, though I don’t think their spines are as sharp as porcupines’.
I like that info about chilli. I shall throw that at any chilli-eaters who want to pressure me into eating the things. 😉
RE: Kittehserf
From what I understand, the pointiness isn’t the worst part of porcupines spines. It’s that they’re BARBED. And LOOSE. So very easy to get them stuck in you, very difficult and painful to get them OUT.
Seriously, on the list of “animals I never, ever want to get in a fight with,” porcupine is pretty high up on the list. They don’t start fights, but dear god, do they end them. Give me a poisonous snake any day of the week. (Course, it helps that the poisonous snakes I’ve run into most are coral snakes, which are pretty docile.)