One of the issues that many Men’s Rights activists profess to be Very Concerned About is prison rape. This alleged concern translates into essentially zero actual activism beyond the occasional indignant reaction to someone making a terrible rape joke about men in prison. But then they’ll turn around and make similar rape jokes themselves.
That’s right: MRAs don’t only joke about rapes in which women are the victims. Like many Americans, sadly, quite a few MRAs seem to think that rape is an appropriate — and even sort of hilarious — punishment for men they don’t like.
For evidence of this, one needs look no further than a recent discussion on The Spearhead, in which WF Price’s followers fantasize about disgraced “feminist” and confessed almost-murderer Hugo Schwyzer being raped in prison.
In his post, Price notes that Schwyzer, if convicted on felony DUI charges for a recent incident that left a woman seriously injured, will be facing time in prison. He takes the opportunity to speculate, with evident relish, on the possibility of Schwyzer being beaten by other prisoners for being, well, less than a real man, in Price’s eyes.
Noting that prisons have “sensitive needs yards” for those who might be at risk for being attacked by other prisoners, Price writes:
These special prisoners include gang snitches, celebrities, physically frail prisoners, child molesters and homosexuals. …
Although I’m not an expert on this, I’d assume Hugo Schwyzer would fit the sensitive needs profile. As a feminist, liberal white male with bisexual tendencies, I can imagine that many of the general population inmates would quite enjoy giving Hugo a beating, for the entertainment value if nothing else. There’s nothing that screams “hit me!” quite like a snarky, passive-aggressive white nerd in prison. If he is effeminate on top of that some form of violence is a near certainty.
Price’s remarks are merely the opening salvo. In the comments, various Spearhead regulars are much less circumspect about expressing their desire to see Schwyzer physically harmed — and, specificaly, raped — in prison. They don’t even seem to care much about his actual, confessed crimes; they want him to be raped for being a feminist. (Note: The comments quoted below may possibly be triggering, so proceed with caution.)
Dannyfrom504, who apparently has served time, starts it off by writing that
he’ll be happy to know there are in fact feminists in prison, but they dono’t call them feminists. they call them, “my bitch”.
Geographybeefinalisthimself hopes that Schwyzer gets raped so as to “set an example” for people like, well, me:
As for me, I hope that Hugo does NOT get special treatment when being incarcerated to set an example for all other male feminists (and I stand by my position that all male feminists are like Hugo, including Futrelle). …
I’d give anything to know Hugo dropped the soap in prison and got sodomized so often that he contracted HIV or an incurable STD and lost bowel control because of how many times he had been repeatedly sodomized. After all, why should his not being raped be more valuable than that of any ordinary inmate who doesn’t denigrate almost all other men for not being feminist enough?
Rotten jokes that
Maybe Hugo Schwytzer will come out of prison with a real understanding of Rape Culture.
And a commenter with the ironic name Ethical praises Price for writing such a fair and balanced post. No, really:
Despite Schwyzer’s habit of ridiculing issues affecting men who’ve suffered cruelly at the hands of misandrist laws, this article very admirably took the high road, refraining from wishing evil on the man. Incredibly magnanimous, given Schwyzer seemed to entertain himself heaping scorn and ridicule on men in the meat meat grinder of false accusations, paternity fraud, or alimony or child support slavery, even at the same time that more than a few of those men were being driven to commit suicide.
And then takes an even lower road himself:
While I admire the high mindedness of this article, I also believe that if Schwyzer does find his way behind bars there would be some justice in him being surrounded by at least some of those unfairly jailed for child support, false rape, or other causes he might have implicitly or explicitly ridiculed. As high minded as it is … articles like this can only help identify the man to a demographic that could not easily be more hostile to his contemptuous liberal self. And his identification can only increase the likelihood that one way or another, his sins will be very harshly addressed.
Once again I present to you: The greatest human rights movement of the twenty-first century.
Schwyzer, who has confessed to the DUI as he earlier confessed to almost killing an ex-girlfriend, deserves to spend time in prison. He does not deserve to be raped. No one does.
Anyone concerned about the appalling epidemic of rape in American prisons should visit the website of Just Detention International, an organization devoted to ending this barbarism.
Your post reminds me that the manosphere isn’t all fun and games. I’ve wasted my down time in the last couple of months pointing and laughing at their blogs (I read bits out at work sometimes), but actually, they’re a hate group. Comprised of very damaged individuals.
Hellkell, they have punched several holes through the planet in their digging past the bottom of the barrel. No horrible thing they say is a surprise anymore.
Bina, hi, have a Welcome Package! 🙂
@ Cthulu’s Intern: I was thinking the same thing about the Legos. Legos do suck to step on and are painful, so I decided that a combination of Legos, those tacks with the flat heads that are impossible to see, and those D&D dice. We could even stick some D30s and marbles in so that they might fall down or something.
Hi Bina! Please enjoy your welcome package!
Woah now that’s… I mean… woah! Think of the children! THat’s… that’s going to far, man. I mean, I know they’re insipid and foolish and wrong, but, I mean, we don’t… I mean what if someone of them are just a bit angry? Or…. 4-sided dice? I mean, the original 1864 Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition Of the Wounded and Sick banned that! It’s torture!
I mean, just one. Maybe.
Ninja’d by kitteh, but my link works so there! 😛
Yutolia, are you new too, or am I just forgetful? If new, please also enjoy the welcome package. If I’m just forgetful, just ignore me, I’ll just sit here in the corner forgetting things.
But those tacks, I have had so many accidents with those tacks!
The barrel is actually an enclosure set up to keep one from stepping into the tiny abyss that is these assholes.
Anyone who wishes rape on another for any reason is not even allowed to identify as an animal anymore. Straight to the Domain Bacteria they go.
Caltrops. Blunted, perhaps, since we don’t want to be too cruel, but yeah … caltrops.
So I wrote something about the MRM that was supposed to be funny, but the more I look at it, it just kind of feels…sad. :/
http://conservativenewswire.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/mens-rights-advocates-network-services-vulnerable-men/
Any thoughts on this? It has proven impossible for me to get through to MRAs by directly engaging them, and I feel that if some MRAs ended up reading this–whether they knew it was satire or not–it might just flip the switch for one or two, which maybe is all it would take. Maybe I’m being too optimistic, though.
PS I have been trying to figure out how the comments here work, it’s such a lively community but haven’t got the hang of engagement…any tips?
–Ben
I’m just feeling the water but am I the only person who doesn’t care if a rapist is raped? Ignore the Hugo focus of their topic but for those who have been convicted of raping I have zero sympathy when they’re assaulted.
Michael: That is both sad and brilliant. I keep talking to MRAs on one social network about the fact that yes, there are men who are seriously marginalized and need help. I’ve included links to groups that help men in situations of domestic violence, homelessness, mental health issues, overcoming childhood sexual abuse, and rape (including prison rape). I’ve explained the process of creating non-profit orgs that can help men in crisis, how to find expert help, and sent information on filing for grants. I’ve encouraged them to put their money where their mouths are, and donate to the groups that do exist if they have no time to volunteer. Or heck, at least write a SINGLE BLOG POST about the various organizations that DO help men in crisis, with phone numbers, email addresses, website information, etc.
So far, I don’t know of a single one of them who has actually volunteered for any of these organizations, nor attempted to start a shelter/subsidized motel room program, nor attempted to get the word out about groups that will actually HELP MEN. They continue to bitch and bitch and bitch about women and feminists, and do nothing concrete.
Such blowhard Internet Warriors don’t have any respect from me.
And really, they are “so-called” MRAs, because they seem to know absolutely nothing about genuine advocacy.
Or activism. 😉
I feel a Ruby coming on >.<
Michael, that's…words fail. That's how it should be.
Mama Sita – you may have realised that most of us are ignoring your comment. I’ll bite the Ruby-coloured bullet, though. If you take the time to read some of the comments further up, you’ll realise that yes, you are alone.
You just might be the only person here.
Do you believe in vigilante justice? An eye-for-an-eye (reciprocal justice)? Wishing for a rapist to be raped in prison is both of those. Vigilante justice often leads to innocent people being brutally hurt or killed, and reciprocal justice is just barbaric most of the time, even if the person being punished is guilty.
The blockquote monster is a sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of the earth. Its favorite diet is adventurers, but its insatiable appetite is tempered by its fear of light. No blockquote monster has ever been seen by the light of day, and few have survived its fearsome jaws to tell the tale.
Auggziliary, I agree with your point and that was my intent at the beginning, but then as I wrote and revised I felt that my audience became MRAs rather than other folks, and that if the article would have any effect as I intend, that it would be a diversion to point that stuff out–keeping it in the bounds that I did hopefully minimizes their tactic of painting anti-MRAs as “misandrists.” Also, the fictional organization being named, “Helping Men Instead of Hating Women” hopefully has enough straightforwardness to get that message across.
Stuffed Fantod, MRA is definitely a misnomer. More accurate might be, “Men’s Social Superiority Keyboard Warriors.” And yeah, I was in the comments section of one of the recent articles about the MRM, I think the Daily Beast one, and I made similar points to the ones I made in the article. I was promptly informed that creating men’s shelters and other services was just a “quick fix” and a distraction from what really counts. I presume what they think really counts is, “does it make women the Enemy, and is it mean and nasty enough?” Helping marginalized men is less than an afterthought, it is a problem for them–because if men had these services they wouldn’t have fodder for the fake statistics to disseminate across the internet. Elam&co need men to be alienated or they won’t have their income streams.
–Ben
@auggz,
Ruby was the handle of some one who used to comment. And stated that zie approved of prison rape. And would join in threads as if zie had never expressed that opinion. Regulars did not take kindly to Ruby.
@auggziliary: I’m not new, but I don’t comment as much as the regulars. 🙂
Institutional violence isn’t vigilante justice, it’s the weak and vulnerable being preyed upon by those more powerful. Revenge fantasies are understandable but don’t excuse indifference towards real-life violence. That violence only makes things worse by further damaging people who already socially maladjusted.
People need to remember that most prisoners aren’t serving life sentences and when they get out they will be someone’s neighbor, employee, relative, parent etc.
I knew I’d be ninja’d
Ruby was a persistent commenter here at one time. I can’t find the exact comments she made, but I found some quotes of them. Some of them were made on sites other than manboobz, but she definitely said some evil shit here too.
http://manboobz.com/2012/06/21/big-news-in-the-fight-agaisnt-prison-rape-mras-oblivious/comment-page-1/#comment-165386