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.
They spent about one minute last night interacting with each other normally, and then it devolved back into hissing and growling so I separated them to opposite arms of the couch for the evening. I’m still keeping them in separate rooms when I’m not there, with Feliway diffusers going. If it doesn’t change, I’ll at least call the vet.Neither one is acting sick otherwise; they’re eating normally, drinking water, and both of them are fine with me.
It’s just making me sad, because this is what they’re like normally.
Awwz, they’re so adorable, Keep us posted!
@Tristan Gareth-Grey
::offers some internet hugs:: Ignore this if it is unwarrented/not for you, but if you just like hanging out in the comments/community here you could skip ahead to the comments without reading the articles. Obviously things start off on topic, but we derail quickly 🙂 Plus, that’s what I do when I’m not up for mra shit (and I still make it to the site) and I don’t think anyone has a problem with it.
@emilygoddess
feetishize consent? I’m…confused or something. Here in america we fetishize consent? someone should have told me, it seems like we do the opposite :/
@sarahliz
Ditto. I mean, just…bwuh? May that guy step on all the legos.
@auggz
Ugh, yes. You’re just resonating with me extras cuz my stepmom had some arblegarble about this, telling me I was ‘a beautiful young woman and should respect myself’ cuz I wore revealing clothing around her ‘innocent kids’. And I probably whine too much about this, but it was on my head since the topic came up. Anyhow, go you 😀
Sheesh. I mean, I love mini skirts and boots to wear (though I’m guessing my boots may be to ‘manly’ and not enough ‘sexy’) but I’m feeling embarrassed dressing anything like this guy wants. Then again, I’m embarrassed sharing a species with him, so I suppose I can’t escape.
ugh yes. Whether someone has breast implants is none of random-care-about-my-boner-plz’s business.
@chie satonaka
no, I didn’t see. 🙁 ugh.
Spiked heel and miniskirt wearers were not impressed.
Alice — ok, but still, actual safety hazard versus might cause an idiot to walk into a wall safety hazard? I’ve no beef with ones that make practical sense, but the sort like “no strapy tanks, must have an actual strap” are just weird. No visible bra straps was the weirdest since it’ snot exactly evenly applied, practically since some girls can get away with not wearing one // wearing a tank with a built in bra…and then you have the busty girls that are pretty much ensured to be showing some bra somewhere come summer heat and minimal clothing to prevent overheating (an actual safety issue I may add!)
One thing I don’t get on the argument between “You feminists are denigrating another rights movement” vs “MRA isn’t a rights movement”.
Why call people rights activists and then say they aren’t? Arn’t there such thing as real MRAs or ‘masculists’?
I was speaking of me. When I make a point, even if I provide the coveted citations, the responses from posters here are 90% personal attacks and insults (fueled by internet anonymity) directed at me and my points are rarely addressed.
So, “Good” is your true name?
You aren’t defending someone making the historically inaccurate argument that women have never contributed to science, gov’t, invention, etc.
And your elision of the 40 years between the invention of the dishwasher, and the improvements, wasn’t meant to imply a woman made an inferior product a man had to “fix”.
And you’ve always had accurate citations, properly used; which were relevant to the point.
And I’m Marie of Rumania.
re women in science: When the chair of astronomy at Harvard started to really push astrophotography he realised his assistants (men) couldn’t do the work. So he fired them. Then he replaced them with his housekeeper; who oversaw other women.
He got the credit, they got half the pay the men had been getting.
One of them figured out how to make the film more sensitive. When one of his fellow professors (who was named a chair of astronomy at Harvard) designed a better form of systematising stars (the one still used today) she was shunted ot out of the picture. It’s not, “the Cannon System”, but rather, “the Harvard System”, even though things were named for him, when he was in charge.
And then idjits like Good try to tell us women aren’t good at things; and men did all the heavy lifting.
Good: Whether it is or not, your point doesn’t apply to me since I don’t toss out personal insults.
Liar.
You’ve been doing it in this very thread; saying no one is addressing your points and purely engaging in ad hominem while ignoring your citations. Your very first comment was a non-sequitur personal insult against the entire commentariat: “Feminists have an even more difficult time defending their views. That is why you guys resort to personal attacks and insults.”
Those are insults. They are stronger insults, in fact, then people pointing out your disingenuous douchenozzelry.
Let me ask this. If men dominate the world, why is that the case when men and women are equal in numbers?
Ok, but you aren’t going to like the answer:
Patriarchy.
I’m playing the devil’s advocate and asking you guys to give me the basic reason for the “so called male domination” that you claim to exist. Who elevated men to “dominance”? Was it God? Was it space aliens? Please tell me.
Look up Helotry.
And you aren’t playing Devil’s Advocate, you are doing a piss-poor imitation of Plato’s Socrates, trying to frame the debate to make us admit to a conclusion you’ve decided is the “proper” one and so “prove” men are innately superior to women (and therefore there isn’t really a patriarchy, just, “nature”).
You will, of course, deny this; because that’s the nature of jaq-ing off, you can let your ass hang out and pretend it wasn’t handed to you because you aren’t actually showing the moral courage to stake out a position. You are “just asking questions”.
So we can add coward to liar.
takshak: Did the troll just go for sciency-ness (like “truthiness”, but with 100% more sparkles!)
I think the proper word is, “Scientifical” (it parallels fantastical).
Band name or album title? I can’t decide.
“So, “Good” is your true name?”
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess it’ slews his name than Argenti is mine 🙂 (it’s weird coming back here and being refered to by my legal name, I apparently prefer Argenti)
Album title. By a band with an alliterative name, whose albums all alliterate (cuz I love alliteration)
Good:
Oh dear, another twerp who thinks there is no such thing as nurture. How embarrassing for him.
Stop being stupid stupid. Nurture is important. But you don’t think that nature is involved with something that is universal and has been for hundreds of thousands of years at the least?
What’s with the personal insults? I thought you were too good for that?
Since it’s not universal, you are proven wrong (quite apart from the question begging in your response: but playing Spot that Fallacy with you is likely to increase the tedium, because I’ll have to read your words more often as I parse them out to show the logical failures in your attempt at argument: HUffPo?, for science citation? really? that’s Varsity Level Stupid there).
augzillary: I know when Dahmer was caught by his last almost-victim, the victim escaped him by punching and then pushing through him while he was stunned(the victim was in the bathroom and Dahmer appeared at the door). Of course, Dahmer was kind of not expecting that, since he had just walked in, so I don’t know if that would work in most DV situations.
First Rule of violence (i.e. violence with real intent to harm): the person who initiates usually wins.
Second Rule: initiation by surprise is more effective.
Third Rule: If you are going to initiate, be ready to terminate. By which I mean you have to render the other person(s) incapable of harming you. Either by physical incapacity (i.e. some form of immobility), or distance.
I absolutely agree that it is ludicrous to call people “rights activists” when they aren’t… but we’re not the ones who picked the title they give themselves.
Yes, there are. Ally Fogg is the first person who comes to mind who would actually fit the label.
Both. It’s the name of the band and their début album.
“but playing Spot that Fallacy with you is likely to increase the tedium, because I’ll have to read your words more often as I parse them out to show the logical failures in your attempt at argument”
That’s why I haven’t tried, it isn’t worth the brain cells.
As for Dahmer…I’m not entirely sure that was legal self-defense. His victim wasn’t in immediate danger, so baring Stand Your Ground laws (which, afaik, didn’t exist yet)…he may’ve lost in court. Not that any jury would convict.
Pecunium — ah the first rule, which, with me, needs to be followed with 1b) give absolutely no opening. Cuz surprise does little good if you, say, try blocking a door and grabbing someone (who is very flexible, already has fucked up joints and thus no fear of doing them mor damage, and can out run you by a lot [not for long, but more than long enough to lock myself in another room!])
So many years of practice from escaping my father. Maybe I’ll tell you the more memorable ones some time, but this is not that time.
Disingenuous Douchenozzelry was okay, but Angsty Assholishness was better. You know, before they sold out.
But no one was able to match Tedious Technobabble. Those guys were adept; the sound was impenetrable, and amazingly opaque. I think my favorite track on, “We hunted the mammoth” was, “The Mastodontist Braces”. That was gripping.
It’s also funny… castrations are either done with knives, or teeth.
By men.
I wiki-ed and Mother’s Day was not invented by the Nazis. The UK has had Mothering Sunday as a christian celebration since at least the 16th century and the USA holiday of Mother’s Day goes back informally to the 1870s and was made official by Woodrow Wilson in 1914. Inquiring minds needed to know.
Yeah…. but! The 16th century was invented by Hitler!!
I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad…
Totally have it stuck in my head now, and I surprisingly still know the words, haven’t sung that in most of a decade (had I thought I knew them, I might a joined you)
Oh and don’t get me started on Sexy Steampunk ^.^
Thanks to everyone. I’m in a bad place in my life right now, & I shouldn’t even be reading this stuff. Things are so bad in my life that I even avoid the news. It makes me feel very stupid to not even know what’s going on. & it’s difficult when I’m trying my best to avoid things that make me upset, but they still invade my life.