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.
Why isn’t there a Gooder?
Because the word is Better?
Exactly! Gooder is a better word!
I have to mention…
I have no idea why people keep saying this (I do, actually, but rhetorically speaking). We’ve never said it, it’s a complete strawman. Men do face real issues under the Patriarchy, this one being toxic masculinity and stigmatisation of mental illness. It’s mentioned almost every thread that trolls come into. Men do face legitimate issues.
MRAs are not working at all to fix those issues.
Seriously. I’d be more than happy if they stopped whinging about feminism and got on with actually helping men. I’d have no problem with them if that’s what they were doing. The fact that it’s not what they’re doing, and that they reject feminism, which has dealt with this matter with a coherent framework, instead of utilising and building on it, is kind of the whole problem. That’s pretty much the entire point of this blog…
So no, to most of us, people like that do exist, we’ve even looked up resources like Argenti said, But MRAs aren’t working at fixing the legitimate issues. The manboobz challenge (Find one moderate/non-misogynist MRA who is widely considered to be a spokesperson for the movement) is a challenge for a reason: because it’s not possible to find. The movement is headed by people who hate men almost as much as they hate women, plainly obvious in the fact they don’t give a shit about helping men like your friend and just want to use their suffering to promote their hatred as a talking point.
Wouldn’t gooder be a gooder word?
A University of Toronto professor responds to Gilmour’s comments, and he is not pleased.
http://www.dispositio.net/archives/1688
Hey moron, patriarchy means “rule of the father.” It means a few dudes at the top run everything, with the majority of everyone else (all women, all children, and most men) underneath them. It’s why feminists have very consistently said the phrase, “patriarchy hurts men, too.”
Why not Betterer?
DoublePlusUnBadBetterGoodereresterer
Bestestest
Goodiarchy
(The society he wishes we lived in)
You ARE women-haters, because THAT’S ALL YOU DO.
No one is stopping you from advocating for increased support for male victims of rape and domestic violence. NONE OF YOU DO THAT. None of you start support groups, none of you contact your local politicians, none of you seek grants for research, none of you start charities or non-profit groups, none of you coordinate with local churches to start soup kitchens or food collection campaigns for homeless men. NO ONE IS STOPPING YOU FROM DOING THIS WORK.
What you want is for women to be forced to stop advocating for issues that they find important. You won’t lift a finger to do your own advocacy.
A Voice for Men takes in well over $100,000 a year in donations by its own admission. Not a penny of it goes to actually helping men, as far as I can tell.
That’s what really ticks me off. Women have been working their asses off for decades to get these programs going. They exist through a lot of hard work, much of it unpaid.
It’s very very true that our mental health support system in this country is a joke. That is something that affects everyone, men and women.
I haven’t read through the comments yet, but I certainly hope that someone expressed the realization that this is satire.
Someone needs to tell Good that it’s not enough just to put it on the character sheet. You have to actually act out the alignment through play, or the GM is totally justified in sending a paladin after your ass.
Yup. Satire so good that it needs someone to remind us that it’s satire and contains no material to undercut the satirical “intent”. None at all.
Excellent effort. Top marks.
@Karalora
That was magnificent. I owe you cookies.
Hey moron, patriarchy means “rule of the father.” It means a few dudes at the top run everything, with the majority of everyone else (all women, all children, and most men) underneath them. It’s why feminists have very consistently said the phrase, “patriarchy hurts men, too.”
If half of those few at the top were women, feminists wouldn’t complain (or else they would look for something else to complain about). Half of the few elite being women would change absolutely nothing for the better.
Feminists are not interested in attacking plutocracy, otherwise, they would use that term as opposed to patriarchy. The interest is in attacking masculinity and not the rule of the very elite that feminists are in bed with:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/world/europe/10iht-letter10.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I was not aware that I was fucking a plutocrat. Should probably let Mr C know about that, huh?
I hope Paul E’s at least giving the IRS it’s due for his scam.
Is LesserGood here? I hear this inane babbling.
Geez, read the comments. Look that the devious looking man on the image. It was meant to mock. Actually taking this seriously makes you appear to not be very bright.
Today’s unintentional irony award goes to Good! It’s probably the only prize he’s ever won, so he should treasure it.
Um, Good…aw, fuck it. You’re just too stupid.