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“Pregnancy is No Excuse For Misandry” and other pithy, baffling slogans from the Men’s Rights propaganda squad

pregnancy is no excuse for misandry
A real Mens Rights poster from deviantART

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:

if feminism is about equality then why are so many feminists against men's rights activists

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:

proud to be a white heterosexual male

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.

dearcunt

A meme from Userbruiser, who apparently thinks that if a woman has alcohol in her system, it’s ok to rape her:

Raped_by_Userbruiser

This bizarre castration fantasy from the same lovely fellow:

Snip_by_Userbruiser

This rant posted by themodsquad, who also enjoys jokes about pedophilia and bestiality.

superior_lol_by_themodsquad-d2ygdyt

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:

women_are_attention_seekers_by_themodsquad-d2zpcke

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:

proud_owner_of_a_penis__black_by_millenia89-d3ct2hd

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.

mgtow_lemmings_by_millenia89-d3e6eva

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.

captain_save_a_hoe_by_millenia89-d3ct2vj

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:

artificial_wombs_by_millenia89-d4xtw4h

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.

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Hyena Girl
11 years ago

I almost want to create a nym named Miss Andry for these days.

sparky
sparky
11 years ago

The castration one is totally off. Those are good fabric shears. No woman alive is going to dull her good fabric shears by using them on anything other than fabric. And I’m a little jealous she owns two pairs of shears. But, really, castration anxiety? Dude’s been reading way too much Freud.

“…lack the enough…” No. You’ve just made whatever point you were trying to make moot.
And I don’t know how a man on the phone is like having sex with a woman who won’t get you cereal. It’s like he suddenly went off on this weird tangent about cereal.

Ally S
11 years ago

It’s really stupid when people say that “c*nt” and “dick” are just as bigoted. The former is used in a misogynistic way very often, whereas the latter has an almost gender-neutral usage that basically means “asshole”, which is another word that, despite often being used for men, isn’t actually bigoted against men. And only “c*nt” can be used to demean both men and women because of its connotation of female inferiority.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

No, Good, we insult you because you’re fucking stupid.

Pecunium:

One of the tells I can pretty reliably count on to show me a misogynist is the use of “a women”.

You notice too? This particular misuse train is never late.

Howard Bannister
11 years ago

See, Good got confused. He saw ‘you have no coherent message’ and what he heard was ‘you guys are violent ideologues who can’t hide your bigotry.’

And his kneejerk response ‘you’re more violent and bigotted, nyah!’

Because that’s all he has.

Of course, actual citations and stuff would be too hard. So we definitely won’t get that.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

Howard: we’ll get citations, they’ll just be 20 years and completely fucking wrong.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

^20 years out of date

Noadi
Noadi
11 years ago

The shopping one makes me laugh. I went with my dad and my brother to a hunting and fishing store over the weekend. We spent 2 hours looking at archery equipment and my dad ended up buying a very expensive new bow despite not being in the market for one (we had gone to get new arrows and a few other things). Going in to a store for one thing and coming out with something else entirely is not gender specific at all. I’m just as guilty, I didn’t intend to buy a new sight for my bow but I got one anyway.

Chie Satonaka
Chie Satonaka
11 years ago

I love it when MRAs get their inventing history wrong. MRAs wouldn’t have Wi-fi, Blu-tooth, or other wireless technologies without Ms. Heydy Lamarr. The dishwasher? Invented by a lady named Josephine Cocharane. I mentioned that the person who built the first compiler was Grace Hopper. Etc.

And women’s participation in advancements were largely ignored or suppressed. It was a woman who provided Ely Whitney with the final inspiration to figure out how to get the seeds out of the cotton, but he gets credit for the invention. Watson and Crick used a woman’s research to discover the structure of DNA, but they’re the ones who will forever get credit for it.

Deny women access to the institutions that will allow them to succeed, and suppress/ignore the few who are able to surpass these hurdles. And then pretend that women are simply incapable of these achievements, not that they are actively held back.

Howard Bannister
11 years ago

@hellkell: And they’ll actually be completely unrelated to the original question…

Tulgey Logger
Tulgey Logger
11 years ago

So, is the MGTOW logo supposed to look like someone standing with an erection in profile view? Deep questions.

Here’s my personal favorite piece of MRA deviant “Art”:

http://alexlartwork22.deviantart.com/art/EFFCTS-OF-FEMINISM-328889918

Good
Good
11 years ago

Joel Houghton invented the dishwasher. L.A. Alexander expanded on it and Cocharane improved on both to create the modern version. William Howard Livens then improved on her design.

Heydy Lamarr’s co-invented/developed frequency hopping with George Antheil and both received the patent.

Chie Satonaka
Chie Satonaka
11 years ago

And Mozart’s sister was also a musical prodigy and went on tour, often receiving top billing above her brother. But once she reached a certain age she lost all familial support in advancing her career, because it was time for her to be a wife and mother instead.

Good
Good
11 years ago

Of course, actual citations and stuff would be too hard. So we definitely won’t get that

I give that all of the time. The responses are 90% personal insults. Feminists have little bases for argument so when you accuse MRAs of the same, you are being hypocrites.

Have they sent a memo to Catherine the Great about this? (You know, absolute ruler of the largest country in human history which became that large during her reign*)

So the “patriarchy” is a myth.

Alice Sanguinaria
11 years ago

MRA Poster contribution part 2: http://i.imgur.com/Ov2yhwK.png

I was bored. I think this came out better than the first one. For one thing, the colors are more varied, and the font looks better.

Fade
11 years ago

Logic according to Good:

If a woman was ruler of a country once, there is no such thing as patriarchy. It doesn’t matter that men are much more often in charge. It only has to happen once and then the patriarchy is a myth!

Except don’t disagree with him on this, because then it’s a personal attack.

Noadi
Noadi
11 years ago

As far as I know there is no reason to suspect that Cochrane built on the previous dishwashers since neither worked very well or gained any sort of widespread use. So the existence of previous designs does not negate that she invented the first dishwasher that actually washed dishes effectively.

Good
Good
11 years ago

And Mozart’s sister was also a musical prodigy and went on tour, often receiving top billing above her brother. But once she reached a certain age she lost all familial support in advancing her career, because it was time for her to be a wife and mother instead.

Is this not accurate?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Anna_Mozart

“In contrast to her brother, who quarreled with their father and eventually disobeyed his wishes with respect to career path and choice of spouse, Marianne remained entirely subordinate to her father. She fell in love with Franz d’Ippold, who was a captain and private tutor, but was forced by her father to turn down his marriage proposal. Wolfgang attempted, in vain, to get Marianne to stand up for her own preference.”

sarahlizhousespouse
11 years ago

Good, no one should ask you for citations of any kind, because you don’t bother looking through sources before you toss them out. You’re wasting everyone’s time and you’re dull while you clog up the thread with your drivel.

Alice Sanguinaria
11 years ago

Chie – the woman you’re referring to is Rosalind Franklin. She was the woman who found out that DNA was a double helix with X-rays. Later on she did work on the tobacco mosaic virus and others, before dying of cancer at the age of 37.

Crick and James got the Nobel Prize and all of the credit for discovering the structure of DNA and other nucleotide work for years. She died prior to that ceremony, so she never got it, and her contribution was never cited till at least twenty five years later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin

Good
Good
11 years ago

Therefore women never invented anything because they’re too stupid?

No one said that. But that person was criticizing alleged historical inaccuracies while promoting inaccuracies his/herself.

Noadi
Noadi
11 years ago

Also some more quick research shows that Livens’ improvements were 40 years after Cochrane invented her dishwasher and took advantage in the rise in indoor plumbing. I would certainly expect improvement in any device in 40 years, especially in a device that uses water but was invented prior to widespread indoor plumbing. That is the nature of technological progress and does not diminish the original invention.

Howard Bannister
11 years ago

I give that all of the time. The responses are 90% personal insults. Feminists have little bases for argument so when you accuse MRAs of the same, you are being hypocrites.

…see, you fundamentally don’t understand the basis for our complaints about these posters. You think that our problem is that they’re insults? No. They are just insults, but they are profoundly lacking in anything of substance, because there is no substance.

NONE. ZERO.

Alice Sanguinaria
11 years ago

Also, I did a Google search for “inventor of the dishwasher”. Even Google itself states that Ms. Cochrane was the inventor of the dishwasher.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

Good, it’s not our fault you’re too stupid to realize why the responses to you are insults.