I sometimes say that the only “activism” that the Men’s Rights Movement is any good at is harassing individual women. But perhaps I’m being a bit too stingy here: following on the heels of the Father’s Rights activists who dress up like superheroes and climb up buildings and bridges to show that, well, I’m not sure what they’re trying to show, Men’s Rightsers seem to be developing a knack for poorly conceived media stunts that make them look like idiots.
The latest incredibly poorly conceived Men’s Rights media stunt come from Men’s Rights Edmonton, the A Voice for Men sister brother group famous for, among other things, chasing women down the street in the middle of the night and claiming that the women they chased were the bullies.
Anyway, the loudest and most obnoxious dude in the group, Nick Reading (a.k.a. “Eric Duckman”) has decided to run for Edmonton City Council on — get this! — the Patriarchy Party ticket! Oh no he didn’t!
Oh, yes he did. I suppose that the Patriarchy Party’s supposed platform — including a pledge “to end antiquated laws regarding women’s sexual consent” and provisions to instruct teachers “to snatch things like toy trucks out of the hands of little girls and replace them with dolls or tea sets” — probably inspired a chuckle or two amongst the folks at A Voice for Men, but the trollery here is really too inane to offend.
Whetever, dudes. You can find their badly designed pamphlet, with traced-photo “artwork” presumably by the noted FeMRA artist TyphonBlue, here.
:/
😮
:I
Dude. That guy’s eyes follow you everywhere you move. Because each eyeball is pointed in a slightly different direction, mainly, but…
He looks like he’s seriously reconsidering a bowl of soup.
Awww! I’m not in his riding! I’ll have to vote for a non-joke candidate now. 🙁
It looks like an ad for dystopia, so the pamphlet art is amazingly appropriate. What’s going on with the Pp bit, the right one of which kind of looks like a golfing iron. Or wood. The head thing on the end of the … club? stick? I’m not a golfer if you haven’t guessed by now…
I honestly thought the poster was a satire, an intentional joke. It’s the sort of thing my husband would laugh at.
I’m still having a hard time believing that anyone, even this clown, could think that others would see “Our Mission” as anything other than a bit of wrong-headed silliness.
They think they are being ironic, mocking what feminists think of MRAs. Unfortunately the joke falls flat because so many MRAs DO want to subjugate women, repeal the 19th amendment, abolish child support laws, etc. Yet every MRA will deny this despite the presence of tens of thousands of comments posted on blogs, The Spearhead, AVfM, and youtube. I guess there are only 500 “real MRAs” on the internet but ten thousand MRA trolls (or feminist plants trying the make the MRM look bad). No true Scotsman, my arse.
You mean you missed the oh-so-clever, too-clever-by-half, logo “design”.
I think it’s supposed to be an “edgy” version of PP – a campaign button we could all wear with pride. They might even become collector’s items.
I love how in the comments they are mocking people who don’t get the “joke” for being stupid (as they did in the Reddit where they debuted this piece of “art”).
They basically admit that they aren’t interested in anything but trolling
“Obviously MR-E doesn’t intend to actually run in an election.This is a publicity stunt that was meant to rustle the feathers of people who can’t understand non-concrete logic and to get media attention.”
And I just noticed that their acronym is MRE. Okay, MR-E, but still. My Army friends would point out, as with the original MREs that it’s “three lies in one”, but I suppose that this bunch of sterling satirists are at least located in Edmonton…
Well, Poe’s law strikes again! Impossible to tell if this is someone going to a lot of trouble to troll them, or an MRA genuinely stupid/blinkered enough to be honest. “Efficient and effective institutions to serve YOUR desire to subjugate women” sounds too satirical to be true, but it really is what these turdbrains want.
Wait, hang on, is he actually running? I thought the whole thing was a joke?
It’s funny, MRAs like to act as if feminism is all about demonising and shaming men. I’ve never been made to feel as if I should be ashamed of my gender by feminists, but these guys? They make me want to crawl under a rock and disappear. They do such a good job of making maleness shameful… maybe they’re the real feminists? 😛
Should I laugh or should I laugh harder.
Damn, this is hard!
I’m guessing the figure in the pamphlet is supposed to convey ideas like “thoughtful,” “intrigued,” or “wondering,” but the major vibe that comes across in more like “I just saw five people expose their genitals to the public and I’m not sure how to react yet.”
It’s the eyes.
To me it looks like he’s trying to intimidate us… failing miserably of course – takes himself too seriously – but trying.
What the hell is it with MRAs and a complete lack of graphic design skills!?
I’m not seeing how them expressing what they truly believe as a fake election campaign is trolling. That like an atheist saying they don’t believe in god and then saying but just kidding folks. I would say poe, but I thought that writing a poe piece is irony or sarcasm – which doesn’t fit the context either.
This is like: we wrote what we truly believe and you told us it was awful. Just like you tell us that the other bigoted stuff we write is awful. Checkmate feminists!!!111!!!1
Also, the eyes. Oh gods, the eyes. It looks like he just saw someone take a dump right in front of him and he’s like “hueeeeeeeeeeeee”.
I can’t really explain this well, can I? It sounds more stupid in words than in my head. >_>
and they wonder why no one takes them seriously, regardless if they’re actually being serious or not.
The guy with the boot on his head is a better fake political candidate, and he’s actually funny.
Apparently it’s supposed to shake up all those people who think (know) we, at the very least, live in a society strongly influenced by patriarchal views by showing us that nobody would vote for a “patriarchy party.”
A better experiment would be to make a realistic and more subtle campaign and see how much support they get. But since there are so many traditionalists in the world already I don’t know what the point would be.
Athywren, yup, he’s actually running. I checked the list of candidates to see if I was in his riding. Under the old system I would have been able to vote against him, but now I can’t.
“And I just noticed that their acronym is MRE. Okay, MR-E, but still. My Army friends would point out, as with the original MREs that it’s “three lies in one”, but I suppose that this bunch of sterling satirists are at least located in Edmonton…”
I keep saying they ruined Batman for me (MR-E, Mr. E., Edward Nigma (E. Nigma)). MRA’s ruin everything.
@Kiwi girl, well I haven’t seen the ballot, so I don’t know that they aren’t actually running a candidate for the election, but they have specifically stated there and on the Reddit that they were only interested in trying to get people upset so that they can get coverage for their tantrums. They want attention for the sake of getting attention, not because they are trying to actually accomplish anything (like supporting male* rape victims or domestic violence victims or, well anything really) but because they want someone to watch them while they have their tantrums.
Like this kid
Sure a lot of them believe it, but that’s not the point. The point is that they produced this piece of “literature” purely to get people upset at them so that they can get attention (and so that they can insult people who tell them that they are pigs, insisting that it is “satire” and “irony” and “OMG you feminists can’t take a joke!!!”).
Pretty textbook trolling, if you ask me.
*does it go without saying that they CERTAINLY aren’t interested in bringing attention to the issues facing trans men? It should by now, but…
It’s like they have no idea of modern politics as well as history or science, isn’t it?
I mean, who would vote for the fundamentalist Christian dominionist party? Nobody! Maybe a couple of hundred fundamentalists. But who would vote for the republican party? About half of the population of the USA. Because sometimes people are a little bit subtle.
I skimmed through the pamphlet quickly and thought to myself “sooo…basically this is an MRA party?” because pretty much every point that’s blatantly stated in the pamphlet as a joke is something I’ve seen seriously argued for or at least justified on various MRAs sites.
I say Feminists should just ignore them and just watch. Let them hold their rallies without protest. MRAs are great at making themselves look like fools on their own and eventually betraying their true desires.
In the U.S., we call the Patriarchy Party Republicans.
I also want them to run and look like asses. They always do a great job of that.