Pity the poor Men’s Rights activists. The real civil rights movements that MRAs like to compare their, er, “struggle” to may have faced many obstacles that MRAs haven’t — from legal prohibitions on voting to fire bombings and assassinations — but at least they haven’t had a hard time explaining just what it was, and is, that they’re seeking redress for.
When Martin Luther King so famously dreamt of a world in which “my four little children will … not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” he was not only speaking eloquently; he was expressing an idea that was, well, pretty easy to understand.
And that’s where the trouble comes for the MRAs. It’s a bit harder to explain your alleged anti-oppression movement to the general public when the people on whose behalf you’re fighting aren’t actually, you know, oppressed. So is it any wonder that MRAs have such a hard time explaining themselves to the public?
I mean, all the Suffragettes had to put on their posters was “Votes for Women.” MRAs are stuck. Men already have votes. They already have civil rights. Heck, men already run most companies and hold most political offices and control most of the world’s wealth.
And so MRA propaganda tends to be muddled, a weird mixture of misogyny and special pleading and stuff that just doesn’t make any sort of sense no matter how you slice it. In earlier posts we’ve looked at baffling and/or offensive posters from A Voice for Men and associated sites, as well as at some of the awful graphics that sometimes make their appearance on Reddit.
Today, a quick stroll through the MRA underground on deviantART.
The graphic at the top of the post is from someone calling himself awesomeninja; for his propaganda work, he specializes in somewhat baffling text-based graphics in basic colors. Apparently he has convinced himself that “feminazis use child-bearing all the time to defend their sexist views,” and feels it is necessary to respond to this in giant letters in several colors with a black background.
He is also responsible for this similarly befuddling contribution to political art:
Wait, is this a trick question?
Dude, have you actually met any Men’s Rights Activists?
Oh, wait, you are one. Oops.
But wait, there’s more:
Of course, awesomeninja isn’t the only one spreading the MRA message of love on deviantART. Here are a few other graphics I found by searching for “men’s rights” and related tags on the site.
This lovely “stamp” from loqutor, who has convinced himself he is “debunking an ages-old feminist myth” with it.
A meme from Userbruiser, who apparently thinks that if a woman has alcohol in her system, it’s ok to rape her:
This bizarre castration fantasy from the same lovely fellow:
This rant posted by themodsquad, who also enjoys jokes about pedophilia and bestiality.
There’s some question about whether or not themodsquad came up with that all by himself, but this uglier and worse-written sequel seems pretty authentic to me:
Is he a “real” MRA or just a troll? I don’t know, but he does seem to be an authentic misogynistic asshole attention-seeker, and I’ve seen virtually every “argument” in the first graphic rehashed many times on assorted MRA sites; it’s pretty much standard-issue “we hunted the mammoth to feed you.”
Let’s close with several graphics from an aspiring Man Going His Own Way. millenia89 is proud of his own reproductive organs:
But he doesn’t seem to think too highly of most of his fellow male-identified penis-havers. Indeed, he believes most of his fellow men are like lemmings marching off a cliff — except for a tiny percentage of MGTOW like the two tiny fellows at the bottom right of the graphic below.
I know it seems confusing, but trust me, the MGTOW in this picture aren’t the ones going over the cliff, really. They’re the ones facing the other direction, underneath that little MGTOW sign. No, not under the big MGTOW sign, under the little one. Just trust me on this one.
millenia89 is especially unimpressed with men who step in to “save a hoe,” like this fellow, whom he sees as a handy “personification” of the sort of “manipulated tool” who, I guess, apparently likes women enough to help them out. I’m not quite sure I get it. Apparently this picture is inherently hilarious because it’s a picture of a black guy with an odd smile in a weirdly inaccurate superman costume. Heck, even the font is wacky.
Millenia89 may not think much of most of his fellow men, but at least he doesn’t want to render them obsolete. Women, well, that’s another issue entirely, as this utopian paean to the glories of artificial wombs suggests:
So awesomeninja thinks that “pregnancy is no excuse for misandry.” Millenia89 evidently hopes that in the future there will be no excuse for pregnancy itself.
This is how the Men’s Rights movement tries to explain itself to the world.
And MRAs wonder why their little movement has the reputation it does.
—
I was inspired to check out deviantART’s MRA community by some of the commenters here. Check out the comments in the “Feminist anti-obedience school” thread starting here to see some homegrown parodies of awesomeninja’s graphic works.
Athywren – so who is this MAN? Is there just one of him? How is he different from a man? Enquiring minds need to know!
The real, deep misandry is that shoes are still made with laces. They should all be slip ons or, for the technically sophisticated, have velcro straps.
This doesn’t excuse wimmins from fixing them for manly men, of course (or is that MEN?).
Isn’t Ansty what they call Simon Amstell?
Probably not…
I was trying to imitate the MRAs color schemes, but then I scrolled up to the top and saw I missed the purple.
and ick re: the asshole who was trying to convince people men are always the rapists, even if they’re too drunk to consent. I
For example, I got this from Cute Overload.
Special offer! Buy one before the end of the month and get a free tube of PeniSheen!
(I’d spell it Crumb-Itch, ‘cos I kept reading it as Crum Bitch, and Robert Crum, ewww.)
@Cassandrasays
yes, cute overload helped, thanks 😀
Marie, have some cute hamster pics!
http://youtu.be/Yu9SMovchmw
…And I just got to the baby pandas.
“People always used to say that my dad was a cereal monogamist…”
/).<
*also read it as crum-bitch*
Some dude on, I don’t remember, maybe Jezebel? A mainstream kinda-feminist site, anyway, once yelled at me in a rage that whatever hot dude I was fangirling all over at the time was probably a serial killer. Except he wrote “cereal killer”, and then I imagined said hot dude trying to beat someone to death VERY SLOWLY AND INEFFICIENTLY with a box of Cocoa Puffs for the rest of the day.
PANDA BELLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, Fade, awesome poster.
@kittehs
D’awww. Hamsters are cute!
I’m not sure… all I have learned from my time infiltrating the manosphere is that his name is Terry, but he goes by Flashmaster Flashterton and he has a funny hat.
Anyway, I appear to have sillied the rargh out of my system, so I’m going to go sleep now. I’m very glad I probably won’t have to deal with a series of “and another thing!” dreams tonight. G’Night, all.
And remember what a women feels is her cute hamster pics, logic doesn’t get a look in.
Here’s a rabbit called Cloody who’s seriously relaxed (as in falling asleep) about having a bath:
http://youtu.be/3_J0AMPPD34
I don’t really like hamsters, can’t I have a rationalization kitten instead? I will accept a panda or a fennec as a substitute. Maybe a red panda, since a giant panda would be hard to make fit, and it would be too lazy to ride the wheel.
Cassandra – I remember you mentioning Mr “Cereal Killer” dude.
Is it killing people with cereal, or killing cereal? (I think that conversation happened last time, too.)
😀
Certainly, have a rationalisation kitten!
http://youtu.be/YtbgCzOIf6I
You know they make wheels for cats, right? Mostly for Bengals, so they don’t get bored and destroy your house.
I saw those videos, too. 🙂
I can’t get through all the comments today, but I thought you’d like this.
Where I found it:
http://witchsistah.tumblr.com/post/62125763084/bipolarsupport-sukahe-amyleona-stop
Where it came from:
http://www.stopstigmasacramento.org/resources/program-materials.php
I’m sorry if they were allready posted. And while an ad campaign isn’t the end to the stigma surrounding mental illness, it is nice to see an attempt. Plus, acknowledgement that there are more languages than English.
@CassandraSays
That is such a cute cat. Yet it also strikes me as badass. Maybe that’s just the song, though. 😛
Strumming my pain with his corn flakes
Singing my life with his Trix
Killing me softly with his Quisp
Killing me softly with his Quisp
Telling my whole life with his Trix
Killing me softly with his Quisp
sporfle
snort
arghchoke
@kitteh, I can’t really help with homes for your friend’s cats, but does she need any help researching feral spay/neuter programs for the kitties that have moved in? I have some Illinois resources (throughout the state, in fact, so probably at least one in her vicinity) for that if needed.
@emilygoddess:
This is always a big question of mine too when people argue that it’s evolution so we should just accept it. Evolution fails miserably the majority of the time; even when it doesn’t, we constantly are improving on it (see: all domesticated animals and modified crops–and I don’t just mean genetically modified ones in the modern sense; we’ve been selectively breeding plants and animals for millennia). Why are gender relations any different? Oh, right, because it’s convenient and maintains the status quo.
@CassandraSays:
I find this post really funny because I literally just ran into a cat wheel in real life and before that had no idea they existed (and yes, it was for a pair of Bengals). It’s a bit reassuring that it’s a thing, because it belonged to my dad’s new-ish girlfriend and I kind of had this “OMG she is one of *those* cat ladies” moments. Not that there’s anything wrong with cat ladies, but you know…there’s a bit of a knee-jerk desire to judge my parents’ new partners negatively (folks split up after 30+ years together so it’s taken some getting used to…), and it’s reassuring to know that a wheel for Bengals is pretty normal. 😉
Also, HI EVERYONE. I don’t know if you’ve missed me since I’m not a super regular poster in general, but I’ve missed you. We’ve been having significant flooding here and multiple SAR callouts every week, so I haven’t even been able to read all the posts, much less the comments. I’m rambling a bit because I’ve had two glasses of wine and am exhausted from the long weeks, but it’s finally drying up (I think) so hopefully life will get back to normal… 🙂
Oh, my mother’s friend’s cats are spayed, but being treated for the icky fleas.
There were lots of attempts at getting people to take cats and stuff at the shop today. Including noting that one of our techs has Shiftie…and another cat and two dogs (Shiftie is so named for being rescued from the shift box on a truck [I think that’s what it’ scaled?])
Kitteh — same tech who washes his wee-wee (he’s also raising another dude’s son, MISANDRY!!)