So the self-described “human rights activists” at A Voice for Men have found three more women to harass. Here’s the story, which for many of you will have a depressingly familiar ring:
Members of Men’s Rights Edmonton, a small group that is for all intents and purposes a local chapter of A Voice for Men, has been putting up pictures targeting Lise Gotell, the chair of women’s and gender studies at the University of Alberta. The pictures, which seem inspired by “Wanted” posters of yore, feature a large portrait of Gotell and the caption:
Theft isn’t black. Bank fraud isn’t Jewish. And rape isn’t male.
“Just because you’re paid to demonize men doesn’t mean rape is gendered. Don’t be that bigot.
Gotell’s crime? She was involved in what appears to have been a remarkably effective rape awareness campaign focusing on date rape and featuring the slogan “Don’t Be That Guy.”
A Voice for Men took exception to the campaign because, even thought it did deal with the male victims of rape, it didn’t devote equal time to the problem of evil, false-accusing “girls.” No, really. Men’s Rights Edmonton Activists put up “satirical” versions of the campaign’s posters with the slogan “Don’t Be that Girl.” Now, MR-E and AVFM, at least according to the “argument” advanced on their new poster, seem to be upset that the campaign didn’t devote equal time to the problem of female rapists. [Note: this paragraph has been corrected; see note at end of piece.]
Gotell spoke out against the posters, and now Men’s Rights Edmonton and AVFM are doing their best to smear her as a “bigot.” Because she doesn’t believe that women are responsible for half of all rapes.
Since this is not actually true — more on this in a later post — it’s hard to see how this makes her a bigot.
As a rule, I don’t support tearing down the posters of one’s ideological enemies. Free speech and all that. But these posters are different: they’re slanderous personal attacks designed to harass an individual. Were they posted in my neighborhood I would tear them down.
And evidently that’s what some people in Edmonton have been doing.
Indeed, one recent night, several members of Men’s Rights Edmonton claim to have caught two women doing just that. While they don’t seem to have video footage of the women tearing down the posters, the MRAs filmed themselves following the women down the street and angrily confronting them for this alleged crime.
They posted the video to YouTube, and AVFM posted it as well, under the typically overheated title “Men’s Rights Edmonton confronts fascists.” They screencapped images of both women from the video and announced their intention to uncover their personal information:
MR-E would like to know the names of these two women so that charges of destruction of property can be laid against them. Also, the world should know the identities of those who seek to silence and censor messages advocating for human rights.
Of course, this is ridiculous. Tearing down a poster that was almost certainly posted illegally in the first place isn’t “destruction of property.” No one is going to be prosecuted for this. The police have better things to do.
But of course that’s not the real intent here. The real intent here is to scare the shit out of these women and other feminists by exposing them to harassment online — like the woman labeled “Big Red” and countless other women who have been targeted by AVFM and other MRAs (sometimes completely erroneously).
AVFM’s Paul Elam gave the game away with an “editor’s note” added to the post:
[A] woman who vandalizes man’s property and then flips him off when he confronts her about it on a dark street at night only acts in this manner because she is certain she has absolutely nothing to fear. Feminists terrified of MHRAs? My ass.
Elam could not have made it any clearer: the main point of this kind of “activism” — which has become AVFM’s bread and butter — is all about intimidating women, not helping men.
AVFM, where terrifying individual women is “human rights activism.”
Here’s the appropriate response to that:
CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: I rewrote the paragraph starting with “A Voice for Men took exception,” which confused AVRM/MR-E’s current objection to Gotell’s views with its original “argument” against the “Don’t Be That Guy” campaign.
Marie, I was talking about people who live in a constant state of fear, not rapists, genius.
And now he’s being equally stupid about racism!
He just has a deep and abiding hatred of PSAs. “Stay off the tracks.” “WHAT, DO YOU THINK I’M A MORON?” “Wash your hands during flu season.” “ARE YOU CALLING ME A PLAGUE VECTOR?” “Only you can prevent wildfires.” “FUCK YOU, WHY IS IT ALWAYS MY JOB?”
@jason
cute. Throwing in some racism.
Also, power dynamics. ‘black men are scary’ something white people say to demonize black people and make violence against them more acceptable.
Men are a privileged group. (white)* men haven’t been stereotyped as rapists to demonize them.
*since black men have been stereotyped as the rapists of white women to demonize them before, and if the posters being made were following this pattern that would be a very fucking bad thing.
@katz, I am now picturing Pierre fielding an angry phone call while working at a non-profit that makes educational signs.
Jason – fuck you. Take your privilege of never having to worry about being raped or attacked because you’re living while female and fuck off.
Privileged groups = men, white people, able-bodied people, neurotypical people, cis people, straight people, and many others!
marginalized groups =women, PoC, disabled people (mental or physical), trans* people, LBG people, and many others!
Notice something? In your comparative thing, it would be “Don’t be that WHITE guy”.
I wonder what on earth Jason’s idea of “holding my tongue and responding reasonably” is. I doubt it resembles a decent human being’s idea of it. Because today Jason has clearly shown he isn’t that.
@jason
…? I was responding to you saying neither you nor your male friends are rapists. 1 in 20 men are rapists. You can’t know if your friends are rapists. statistically speaking, some peoples friends are rapists.
“Buzzed driving is drunk driving” “I WOULD NEVER DRUNK DRIVE OMIGOD THIS IS SO OFFENSIVE
“Stay off the tracks.” YOU EVIL VICTIM BLAMER, YOU SHOULD TELL THE TRAINS NOT TO RUN ME OVER! “Wash your hands during flu season.” TELL THE GERMS NOT TO INFECT, DON’T TELL ME NOT TO GET SICK! “Only you can prevent wildfires.” I’M SICK OF ALL THIS VICTIM BLAMING! JUST BECAUSE I LEAVE A LIT MATCH ON THE GROUND DOES NOT MEAN I WANT TO START A FIRE! I’M GOING TO START THE WILDFIRE WALK!
Privileged groups = men, white people, able-bodied people, neurotypical people, cis people, straight people, and many others!
marginalized groups =women, PoC, disabled people (mental or physical), trans* people, LBG people, and many others!
THIS is the biggest lie of modern times – that women are marginalized and oppressed in the same way that blacks are, and men are a privileged group just like whites. Most meters of social well-being that apply to whites, also apply to women. What do you say about that?
wow jason has started paroding himself.
trains aren’t people. the train driver will likely try to stop but trains stop slowly.
again, germs not people. You can’t tell germs to stop infecting you because they are not people.
and yeah this one is actually targeting the person who started it so I see no…problem.
Jason dear, false equivalency doesn’t help your case.
After all, if you were just walking down the street and a driver went out of their way to hit you with their car, it’s the driver’s fault that they chose to ram into you with a car, right?
So why is it any different for rape?
Ffs. Apologies in advance to any gay people in the room, this is the only way I know of to get the message across to this kind of person.
Ok, Jason, there’s this guy, he likes you. Like, really, really likes you. You don’t find him attractive, or interesting, or particularly pleasant, but he likes you, and he keeps on trying to get your attention. Consensually, of course, he’s a nice guy! So he’s got you cornered in some walk in closet and, obviously, he wants to have sex with you. Now… he’s been working really hard to get your attention consensually, so you owe him, right?
If women are more oppressed than men, how come most racial stereotypes (“angry black man” and the like) apply to men? How come anti gay male hate crimes vastly outnumber anti lesbian hate crimes?
@ Everyone not Jason
Okay, how do you deal with that level of cluelessness.
I guess I’ll try
Here’s a hint. WHITE women benefit from the social well-being that applies to WHITE people. They do not benefit from the male privilege MEN benefit from.
Women of color do NOT benefit from the social well-being that applies to white people BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT WHITE.
Jason, you have actually stumbled upon a point. White woman are more privileged than women of color. It’s called intersectionallity. You don’t have to go “who has it worse, black people or women?!?!??!!?” because black women exist, and they have to deal with racism and sexism. ffs.
That should be *accidentally stumble upon a point, not actually.
This is an epic meltdown.
The stereotype you are thinking of is ‘angry black woman’ btw.
hate crimes= citation needed dearly.
Angry Black Woman is not a thing?
@Jason
A) i don’t think it’s all against men (demure lotus blossom stereotypes for east asian women? Angry black women stereotypes?) and B)
THAT IS NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE MEN! YOUR EXAMPLES INVOLVED ANTI GAY AND RACIST CRIMES. NOT ANTI MALE. YOU CANNOT EQUATE THESE THINGS. BECAUSE IT IS NOT BASED ON GENDER IN YOUR EXAMPLES.
Athywren – Well, if I was happy to take every single thing that nice guy did for me, I’d have to expect to give something in return, wouldn’t I? I mean, if I didn’t want to have sex from the guy, I should at least be honest enough to not accept his one-sided altruism?
*sigh*
Good news, Marie, you can’t push my wheelchair over steep hills. It’s not acceptable unless I do something in return. You can’t you know, MENTION that you want something in return first; I have to read your mind.