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.
Say, what time is it in Pell-land? Anyone think weirdtroll might be a sock?
@cloudiah
nerny-nerny nerr-nerr xP
Look, feminism DOES smell like wee-wee, OK? Can we just be honest with one another?
Like a good old tweed! 😛
Is it tweed I’m thinking of?
But what sort of wee-wee, marinerachel? Is it high-quality cat piss, or just common or garden human pee? Inquiring minds need to know!
When you introduce a new cat to the household and the old cat gets really miffed and starts pissing all over the furniture.- that kind of wee-wee.
Powerful! :O
Speaking of powerful, the true strength of Fribbie’s Wonder Stenches was revealed the other night. Mum had burnt the bottom of the kettle out (this will happen when you stick an electric kettle on a stove) and the house stank of burn plastic. Ventilation fans, open windows and air fresheners made no difference. Then Fribs did one of her Poos of Death, and totally neutralised it.
Nature is wonderful.
You’re right. It’s a simile.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Why, are you giving lessons?
Lipschitz: Elam and his coworkers might show some misogyny sometimes, but that’s for them to deal with in their own community. MRAs call out MRAs, feminists shouldn’t call out MRAs. Feminists should be dealing with misandry in their own communities while MRAs deal with their misogyny.
Quite apart from the blatant idiocy of this statement, the MRM is all to fond of calling out feminism (it’s what they do… pull out the fantasy of “misandric laws” and then bash on feminists (real, or imagined).
So you are saying, “feminists need to bash each other, while the MRM bashes on them,” while giving the MRM a free pass; since they don’t call out the violent people in their “movement”.
I thought of saying, “The violent radicals”, but that would be playing to your little fairy-tale, the violent people in the MRM are the mainstream leaders.
Because it’s the logical conclusion, as anyone with a brain can see.
No actually. Since you’ve just stated there is no moral absolute there is no, “logical conclusion”. If you want to make that stick you need more than, “because I said so,” since you are averring the right to make up a moral rule. If all moral rules are, “made up” then the onus is on the proposer to convince the community that the proposed rule is useful enough to be considered binding.
Since the MRM is about oppressing women, your telling us to let them look after themselves (which they have proven completely inept at doing) while they attempt to bring their desired oppressions to fruition is morally bankrupt. You are, in effect, asking us to let them win.
Fuck that shit.
lol katz, i thought of that after i hit send
The super-effective strategy of internal policing is why the NYPD no longer has a reputation for brutality and racial profiling. It’s why the KKK and Stormfront have really cracked down on hate speech and threatening the President. It’s allowed the US Congress and large corporations to jointly sort out the whole mess of corporate tax loopholes and ensure fair distribution of tax burdens. Self-policing FTW!
You tipped your hand a little early, trolly.
But then what would they talk about?
Some stray observations:
As a graphic designer these posters make me sad.
It is incredibly difficult to follow a link when it’s part of an image, userbruiser. Of course that may have been a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the original study his graphic was inspired by.
“It’s because you lack the enough logical reasoning skills”
ME MAN MAKE GOOD LOGIC! MASTER OF ENGLISH ME!
“If Feminism is about equality then why are so many Feminists against Mens rights?”
Hmm, that’s a pretty true observation. Feminism is about equality, yet many Feminists tend to be against rights for men. Let’s see what the author of this article counters that observation with…
“OMGZ HAVE YOU MET MENS RIGHTS ACTIVISTS? OMGZ YOUS ARE ONE THEREFORE YOUS WRONG”
Gee, are you sure you couldn’t add a little rant about “mansplaining” as well?
Interesting. I have looked all over this article to find out where the author uses “OMGZ” or “YOUS WRONG” and I’m not seeing it.
Well, Kira, and what are these rights that men allegedly lack?
RE: Kira
Hmm, that’s a pretty true observation. Feminism is about equality, yet many Feminists tend to be against rights for men.
That’s silly. Why would I be against my own rights?
I wonder how many feminists say men shouldn’t have the right to vote, or work, or to bodily autonomy? I could swear I’ve heard MRAs saying all that about women, with monotonous regularity.
(Yes I know “monotonous regularity” is a cliche but it describes MRAs’ rants on their imagined grievances so well.)
Oh Kira, it’s so obvious you didn’t read the post at all.
And seriously, “feminists hate men?” That is so 1970’s Got any new material?
Didn’t think so.
Dear Kira,
You are not good at trolling. In order to really work people into a lather you have to get more specific and really get under their skin, which you have failed to do. Please go back to troll school and do not return until you’re regularly achieving at least a B average.
Love,
The Committee for More Interesting Trolls
Also, Kira, editing the quote to alter the meaning? Intellectually dishonest. Nil points.
Men’s Rights Activists are for men’s rights like javascript is for server side functions.
Not at all, unless you bend over backwards, twist your head, and manage to end up in the twilight zone in the process.
If the MRM is about equality, why are they so opposed to feminism?
Maybe we should have a contest for new Troll In Residence this year, instead of our usual Troll of the Year contest. Seriously, guys, the pickings are SLIM.
Least Boring New Troll?