So a helpful Twitterer told me that I was a frequent topic of conversation on A Voice for Men’s Honey Badger “radio” show last night — that’s the one hosted by Karen Straughan (Girl Writes What) and Alison Tieman (Typhon Blue) and a newer addition to AVFM’s FeMRA stable named Della Burton. Bored, I went over to take a listen to the archived show. Well, bits and pieces of it, anyway. Life is short, and every minute of this show felt about an hour long.
Anyway, I missed most of whatever it was they said about me, but I did manage to force myself to sit through a good chunk of the segment featuring none other than Nick Reading, the guy who’s running a joke campaign for city council of Edmonton Alberta as the “Patriarchy Party” candidate. You know, the dude we talked about just yesterday.
The gals did their best to play along with his over-the-top patriarchal schtick, proclaiming themselves submissive inferior females unworthy of his manly phallus, and so on. It was as gratingly unfunny as you might imagine, and it went on and on. Even the Honey Badgers, perhaps wondering if this whole segment wasn’t a rather apt metaphor for their own role within A Voice for Men and the Men’s Rights movement at large, couldn’t quite bring themselves to laugh at any of Nick’s, er, humor.
At least not until, about 49 minutes into the show, he brought out the rape jokes.
Take a listen:
Paul “The Thought of Fucking Your Shit Up Gives Me an Erection” Elam, meet Nick “If They Didn’t Scream No, How Else Would I Get an Erection” Reading.
In case you weren’t able to make all that out, due to the clear-as-mud sound engineering job of AVFM’s James Huff — you may remember him as the guy responsible for this amazing rant — I have transcribed the exchange below as best I could, cutting out a few repeated phrases and ignoring some remarks that got buried under other remarks.
Nick Reading: No never means no. It only means yes. That’s an understanding that we have within the patriarchy.
Karen Straughan: It is.
Alison Tieman: That’s true. Actually “no” should be stricken from the English language because it simply makes no sense. How could any woman ever say no to the holy phallus unless she was criminally insane?
Nick: Criminally insane, yes.
Della Burton [?]: Criminally, yes.
Karen: But, but we shouldn’t strike “no” from all the dictionaries and the lexicons of language simply because there are numerous times in the course of a day when a man loves to say “no” to a woman.
Nick: I would almost insist on striking it from the non-male vernacular but if they didn’t scream it, how else would I get an erection?
[Awkward pause]
[Laughter]
Della [?]: Oh my goodness.
Karen: Right, you’re right.
Della: I hadn’t even thought of that.
Karen: So no is still in.
A Voice for Men: Promoting Human Rights, One Rape Joke at a Time
EDITED TO ADD: Below, a video on YouTube about this episode of Honey Badger radio, which not only looks at the show itself but at what was going on in the official chatroom for the show at the time, which turns out to be even creepier than the stuff said by Nick Reading on the show itself.
Along with the standard MRA misogyny from some of AVFM’s regulars, there were bizarre sexualized comments directed at the so-called Honey Badgers themselves: one commenter went on at length about how he wanted to use Karen Straughan’s breast milk in his coffee (and spike her coffee with his semen). Palani provides screenshots and everything. Some of her commentary is a bit problematic — she refers to them as “retards” at one point — but if you’ve got 15 minutes it’s worth a watch.
[VIDEO REMOVED BY REQUEST OF VIDEOMAKER]
So, she agrees with you that she’s amazingly stupid.
This sounds right.
Fidel Bogen: I have spoken with TyphonBlue, and she very much concurs with my previous remark about the “awkward pause”.
She sort of has to, unless she wants to be kicked out of the club.
This is why we aren’t impressed with what you pass off as analysis.
@joyintorah18
No. I respond badly to threats.
Try telling me “The information you provided was incorrect, and I have the sources to prove it. My actual stance is so and so, and I personally believe this and this. When you say I am such and such, you are thus somewhat incorrect and mistaken.”
For the record, thank you for the correct. I am sure people will keep it in mind next time.
As for next time, try not to insinuate that anyone is your old nemesis or one of their minions. For all I know, you could be my old guildmate from World of Warcraft still out to catch me making a mistake between figuratively and literally, and that will literally never happen or I will figuratively eat my own hat.
This can’t be Fidelbogen, it’s too coherent. That said, Fiddles: you are an insider with a bunch of assholes. I’m sure that makes you feel great, but don’t try to pass that off as anything else.
What’s this “I am not a TERF shit?”
takshak — sorry, I should’ve said “not legal HERE” and I’m in the US and oh hey, we are not the whole world! My apologies. And lower abortion rate…let me guess, your sex ed includes proper birth control not just “don’t have sex”?
And just call me Argenti (and since we don’t seem to have been properly introduced, I use gender neutral pronouns — ze // zir, and don’t mind well meaning questions). *waves* so hi there person I’ve seen but apparently never spoken to directly 🙂
fibinachi: I thought about responding to that aspect of it, but decided I would wait. Threats, esp. in such a forum as this where credence is a function of reputation (for which pseudonymity is as good as veronymity) are a poor, even stupid, way to go about things.
What, after all, can the offended party do… yell at you? If they go too far the hose will ban them. In any case they can’t enforce the threat, so it is, de facto empty, and therefore creates a loss of moral power.
As you say, a simple statement of the erroneous nature of the initial charge is the best course; as it avoids the impression there is something being hidden, and the evidence of impotence.
@joyintorah18 YIKES!
While I obviously agree with you on certain fundamental principles and the sheer absudity of what the MRA’s in the video you critiqued were saying, you need to read up on intersectionality like, immediately. I knew in watching your videos that people would take issue with all the crazy talk, but beyond that, I think it would be wise to learn how to take constructive criticism in regards to how you’re simultaneously hurting others in an attempt to help women. The way you responded makes you seem kinda guilty and hyper-defensive in a weird way. Additionally, some of the comments on your video that went uncontested were really…. off.
@fidelbogen there was literally nothing to mull over with that joke. That joke was standard misogyny. I hear that joke on the internet regularly. You’re really trying to sit here and act as though they had to consider one of the most basic misogynistic jokes out there, as if it was some ground breaking new bit of humor? I can guarantee you that they’ve heard that joke before.
I would say I’m nobody’s minion, but as one of sir Pecunium’s Royal Assassins he may beg to differ on that. (An honor so granted by my invention of Spot! That! Fallacy! and my Victorian Time Traveller persona)
Speaking of which…
Pray tell, women are allowed to own property in this strange new era of yours, and have legal recourse if beaten or forced into sexual relations? Even if those sexual relations are with their own husband? I suppose this is the logical conclusion of granting them the vote. An inquiry, what has resulted from emancipation? I imagine former slaves can now own property as well? A far cry from being property! The vote, has it been granted to them as well? What of the other races?
Why you mean to tell me that in the eyes of the law neither race nor gender limits ones rights? What a strange change that is!
/Victorian
Honestly, besides slaves being called property and women not, I’m having a hard time finding a legal difference. Other than the fathers paid husbands in dowry systems to take the daughters, now wives, off their hands. Lots of things like that — where on paper slaves had it far worse than women, but in practice the differences where far less. Of course, there were the social mores and abusing your slaves, raping them and selling their children, all that shit was seen as commonplace, whereas selling your wife’s children wouldn’t have gone over well in polite society. And far more husbands did love and care for their wives than slave owners did their slaves. But legally speaking women had little more rights than slaves.
Now, things like children…knock up a slave and it’s her kid that you can sell or whatever as you please. Knock up your wife and it’s your kid that she has no rights to. So yeah, I’m not trying to say they were literally the same, but that legally the differences are small enough that discussing the fucked up seems valid.
That should be Sir Percunium, my apologies good sir for the lost capitalization!
Percunium?
I need a better sort of lackeys (I don’t do minions).
I blame auto correct!
Or that I seem up throw stray r’s into my Latin (see Ae*R*theri)
And what if I wanna be a minion? I like the sound of it better than lackey! (Also, one of my loach babies was Miss Minion so yeah, can I be minion?)
@faithfulbooger (and typhoidblue by proxy), An awkward pause would actually make you look better as human beings, but if you want to go with “it was a period of calm reflection after which we remembered rape is totally hilarious” well that’s your choice. #asswaffles_suck #feministarmyrising #what’s_for_dessert
Am I the only one who doesn’t give a shit if GWW, Typhon and all those other feMRAs were uncomfortable or not? they’re big girls, they know exactly the type of creeps they ally themselves with, hell they are those creeps themselves. They make a big stink about how feminists supposedly make women out as victims all the time, lets not do that to them. They’re assholes, plain and simple.
@Lionicle
I’m very “visual” which apparently, is usually only what men are according to PUAs and evopsych. I can’t be in a relationship with a man I don’t find physically attractive, even if his personality is amazing. Of course, this will enrage manosphere dudes, because only men can dismiss women who are awesome but aren’t attractive, it’s their biooolooogy. But women? on no, they are not allowed to. That being said, what I find physically attractive in a man varies. I’ve been attracted to skinny guys and chubby guys alike. I look at faces, I like faces lol.
I’m really sorry to hear about all the abuse women in your family have suffered through too 🙁 Hugs if you want them!
So Fidelbogan thinks people not being uncomfortable or disgusted, by a man “joking” that raping someone’s the only way he gets an erection is a good thing?
C’mon, fiddles, what’s so funny about rape? Tell us, we’re listening. Tell us why anyone should “reflect” on that so-called joke. Tell us why someone claiming they only get off on hurting or terrorising others is funny.
…Is anyone else just hearing this?
“I speak with authority as an insider. I know these people well, so my analysis trumps all of yours.”
I was just thinking about how funny this comment is if this is the real flickabooger.
Didn’t he say that Feminists could never “comprehend” themselves because they are inside the Feminist movement? Hilarious.
Oh, are we back on the ridiculous idea that women aren’t visual? Because I’d be happy to spam the thread with pics/videos of men I like to drool over to demonstrate otherwise.
(I won’t, but out of politeness and the wish not to bore the regulars, not because I don’t have eleventy billion relevant links to hand.)
I’m with Quackers in not really caring whether or not GWW and Typhon Blue are uncomfortable, embarrassed, or just awkwardly reaching for a response that attempts to make their movement look less horrible in the clip. Regardless of their emotional states at the time, the general awfulness remains.
Speaking of visual… I used to make powerpoint presentations of all the people I found attractive, they used to play as my screen saver… 🙂 I hope I’m not the only one who used to do that…
I’m not even going to admit how much space on my hard drive is taken up by images of men I find hot, but it’s a lot.
Don’t you know that being attracted to people is misogyny!? Some feminists you are! 😛
I have been reliably informed by many men that being attracted to hot men is in fact misandry, somehow. Apparently the category “men” does not include men who are attractive for protecting-men’s-rights purposes.
Oh fuck. What am I going to do? ::Goes back to Google Images:: M’oh well…
Can’t I just say it’s in my nature? If society collapsed I’m afraid all my walls would be covered in pictures of people I’m attracted to… You know, like they’re totally not now >.> <.<
Nope. I had a college friend who did that with her large collection of mostly Nathan Fillion.
Relevant.