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.
Chie, does your kitty make suspicious faces like my cat does?
(Also sometimes when I read your comments I like to pretend that you are the actual Chie from Persona 4 venting her rage at all the injustice. I hope that’s okay.)
Good: I’m sure a lot are, but I don’t see it as being the dominant view.
Now that we’ve seen this trenchant, detailed, and scathing, critique (from the dude who thinks a site with manufactured quotations from dead people is worthy of praise for its denunciations of a philosophy he otherwise doesn’t understand), we shall get right on remaking feminism to be what he wants it to be.
A movement working for a different sort of social justice altogether.
True Story: I have a friend (shocking I know) who actually thinks like this. He’s not interested in feminism, as a movement, because he thinks that, as soon as class is resolved, all the things women suffer from in the present system will go away.
Maybe Will is right, but that’s no good in the here and now. Short of revolution (and the hope that this time it will 1: actually overthrow the sexist/racist aspects of the culture; so far the track record isn’t good, and 2: not be subverted to something like the USSR, or Napoleonic France, or Cromwell’s England, or even the present day US; so far the track record isn’t good), telling a huge swathe of society to suck it up while “the real problems” are being fixed is an asshole move.
And while Will is a great guy, and means well, every time he opens his mouth on gender issues, we have to tell him he’s being an asshole.
You don’t even seem to have that much going for you.
So I’ll cut right to the chase, you’re an asshole; in specific you are a hemorrhoidal asshole
Good: Do you even realize you’re arguing against yourself, here, as well as getting some base ideas very, very wrong?
1: There’s a vast, vast difference between ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’, and ‘Marxism’ is simply one sub-branch of communism. They all attempt to address the problem of economic inequity, but from very different angles.
2: There’s also a difference between economic models and governmental models. Totalitarian governments tend to be bad for those underneath them, no matter which economic theory the totalitarian leadership ascribes to.
3: Your own ‘point’ about women in the USSR and communist Cuba actually undermines the notion that feminists would be well-served by focusing primarily on economic equity (your original position). Changing economic models without undoing patriarchal models just leaves you with a different system of enforcing the patriarchy.
He more often makes big eye, confused faces. LOL.
That’s fine, I would love to be Chie!
You heard it from Good, kiddos. Sure, discussion about intersectional issues like race and class may be the defining feature of third wave feminism, but the fact that feminists don’t prioritize those issues over seeking equality for women means they are secretly against men – just like civil rights activists are secretly against white people and those campaigning for better accessibility for the handicapped are secretly chiseling out the foundations beneath stairways.
This is truly the most biting insult I’ve ever come across. Good, we are at mercy of your wit.
Good: FUCK YOU, GRAMMAR TROLLING IS 999999% MORE ENTERTAINING THAN YOU.
Also, how the hell can you call me kid? You are, like, literally about four years old. Don’t try to condescend, it just makes you look kind of… well, younger.
It’s a shame ithiliana isn’t around so we can all guffaw when the whiny, uneducated manchild calls her “kid”.
Also, I should point out, grammar-trolling isn’t really what went on here. I had a whole former life as a copy editor. I know from grammar trolling.
Getting criticized because of a chronic lack of ability to string together a sentence? That’s not grammar trolling.
Arrrgh, that crappy “art” she does, arrrrgh. I think if I were sympathetic to MRA-ish views and wandered onto A Voice for Men I’d be discouraged by the crappy graphics alone and would think “These aren’t my kind of people.” I don’t know why that is exactly. They’re just SO crappy. I suppose when all your friends are progressives you know dozens upon dozens of artists, good artists, and are exposed to good stuff every day. There’s something so telling about them in that crap traced photo thing. Here be Monsters With No Imagination.
@Magnus Spem
Uh huh, and I used to share a flat with a white guy who was a victim of racial abuse, therefore the BNP are a genuine organisation, aimed at helping white people, and not at all a racist group. Because, as we all know, all it takes is a real issue and you automatically become a genuine group who really care about the things they occasionally bring up. Actually demonstrating an interest in solving those issues isn’t required anymore.
So anyway, speaking as a guy, who has been abused within a relationship – by one of those awful females no less! – how does insisting that it’s not rape if she was drunk help me with the abuse I’ve faced?
See, you can judge a group’s motivations by what they consider activism. Attempting to build resources to help people who don’t have much available to them? Then they’re probably interested in helping people. Putting rape apologetics on posters, publishing the names, faces and addresses of private citizens who publicly disagree with you, and advising people to burn public buildings down? Eh… call me judgemental, but that seems a little iffy to me.
You think people are too lazy to bother finding out the truth? How about you look beyond the excuses the MRM uses to cover their bullshit? They don’t give a flying fuck about us. We’re just handy to wheel out whenever they want to shut feminists up. “Oh, you’ve been raped have you? MEN GET RAPED TOO!” And then they dismiss rape altogether. They claim to speak for me, to help me, but all they do is hurt my friends and use me to excuse it. They’re not about defending men’s rights, they’re about defeating women’s rights, and I’m sorry but that’s bullshit.
There are resources to help, but you’re not going to find them in the MRM… I mean, unless you’re having trouble with circumcision – they seem to actually care about that one… probably because most of them are American and it’s still a big thing over there for some bizarre reason.
If you want to be known as crusaders for the better treatment of men throughout society, that’s great, but you have to actually earn that. If all you’re going to do is abuse women, and occasionally call people fascists when they don’t understand that circumcision is bad, then you’re not going to earn it.
@Hry
Are you forgetting about the death panels? Man, I once went in for surgery on my toe – ingrown toenail – and I was thinking “so, are they gonna fix my toe, or throw me in the juicer?” Damn, but that was a tense weekend!
@Chie
Don’t be silly! Patriarchy means “men are to blame.” I know this to be true, because a helpful MRA told me so. Repeatedly. Despite being corrected. Several times. Over the course of a year. *sigh*
@Tedious Good
Christian: “Why do I only ever hear you atheists arguing against Christianity? Why do you never tackle Islam!?”
…if you need the response to that… well… the answer should be obvious.
Also, how the hell can you call me kid?
Sorry, child.
Umm… sorry for the wall o’ text.
I know it’s a minor thing but for some reason it’s the fact that the eyebrow on the right seems to be pressing or cutting into the dude’s skin that bothers me most. Like the artist doesn’t understand that eyebrows are made of hair, not hard plastic.
Oh! And happy birthday, hellkell!
*Sigh*
Good, I wasn’t complaining about the concept of you attempting to condescend to me.
I was complaining that you are BAD AT IT.
Being worse at it isn’t going to make you sound smarter, unless you go all the way and start condescending so hard that you accidentally compliment me.
Try being BETTER at your condescension. Go ahead. Try to be witty. Try to be funny.
Just try not to be BORING.
Also I know that MRAs hate all feminine things but a hard line traced around the eyebrow in a color noticeably darker than the hair? That’s not how eyeliner or brow pencils work, guys.
@Athywren
Sometimes dropping a wall of realness is the only answer we can give these guys. And yours was utterly relevant. No apologies necessary!
Needs more kitty stuff:
20 Cats Who Deeply Resent Their Halloween Costumes
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alannaokun/cats-who-deeply-resent-their-halloween-costumes
I’m convinced that cats know when you are laughing at them, and they do not appreciate it one bit.
Good: Hey kid. Stop reaching. Grammar trolling is lame and weak like you.
Son, I say son…! if you’re gonna change ya’ game and go for the insults you used to dis-dain, you gotta step it. Son, I say son; listen when I talk to you; insult is an art!
Ya gotta find out where their weak; seek out their vulnerabilities! (Son, I say SON!, are ya listenin’? I’m talkin’ to ya boy!). If you just repeat the same only tired barbs, they lose their sting, they go all flat! You can do better boy! I’m sure there is greatness in you, it’s just that you’ve lost the fire in yer belly!
Son, ya gotta have PASSION! If you want to be a great defender of the cowpies you flop, you have to BELIEVE! You need a vision. You have to see this great land divided, With the Real Men, who know how to treat women right on one side, and with the ignorant fools who want to live in equality between the sexes on the other: “safe” in their miserable little, “paradise” where rape is scorned, and treating women as less than fully human is practiced and children are wanted and supported and people who need help can get it (pfui! What sort of socialist hellhole would that be. It would be like God-Forsaken-Norway!
No, if you want to keep that from happening you’re gonna need some idustrial snark; not this lily-livered gum-flapping about how you ignore them! Make them bring it to you. Sneer at them with colorful invective, if you lack the skills to make it, then fake it! But repeating yourself boy… that’s not gonna do ya any good. They’ll just laugh at you.
And they know all the tricks. They will jump on the least sign of your inability.
So son, I say SON!, are ya listenin’ boy? If you can’t hang, cut the rope.
Did you? I thought we were talking about Athywren’s “otherwise reasonable” acquaintances. My bad.
Aw, poor Cheshire Cat, I feel your pain.
re chili: I like to start with some roasted paprika; Put it into a pan with some hot oil. When it starts to smoke, pour it into a cold pan.
Then I brown the meat, simmer the tomatoes (lemon juice to balance the acid, lime if you want a fruitier undernote, vinegar if you want more bite). Simmer that with the smoked pepper oil, until the meat is tender.
In the meanwhile some bay leaves, dried poblano, guajillo and ancho pepper are simmering with the beans. When the beans are tender drain them; reserving a little of the water. Add the meat mixture to the beans. Add the bean water, as needed, to keep the level right. Adjust the spicing with some oregano (or some mexican oregano, if you have it: it’s a different plant altogether, and goes very well with bean dishes).
Serve with cheese, sour cream and beer.
You can do better boy!
Figures that you are a racist.
I’m curious as to why all the problems feminists complain about will be solved if they concentrate on the downfall of capitalism, but the problems that the MRAs ‘face’ won’t.
Good, why is making pathetic flyers pretending to be sarcastic about what you believe in wonderful activism which will lead to ‘true’ equality, but opening rape crisis centres and refuges mere busywork which won’t solve any real problems?
And I say this as an anti-capitalist anarcha-feminist who does, very much, exist.
Do we have an age on this troll, because I’m getting a 14-15 vibe from him.