One of the strangest things about doing this blog is all the things I ‘ve learned about myself in the process. I don’t mean all the insights into my inner being I’ve gained, though there’s been a bit of that. I mean all the completely untrue things I’ve learned from people who hate me.
For some reason, many of the people who most hate this blog– many of whom have never read it — aren’t satistfied with criticizing me for what I do and who I am; they find it necessary to make up many new and horrible and not-actually-true things to criticize me for: That I plant the things I quote on this blog to make Men’s Rightsers look bad, that I write all the comments myself (all the hundreds of thousands of them) to make Man Boobz look more popular.
Oh, and that I want all men cuckolded.
To those who hate me and this site, I and the Man Boobz commentariat have become what sociologist Stanley Cohen called “folk devils,” convenient scapegoats around which various urban legends — or in this case internet legends — have grown like mushrooms.
The ShitRedditSays empire on Reddit has developed a similar mythos of its own. ShitRedditSays started out as a subreddit to collect together and skewer the worst, most bigoted nonsense that regularly posted and upvoted on Reddit; it grew into a robust Reddit counterculture that’s really one of the only good things about the site.
But to most Redditors, it seems, the SRS folk devils really are akin to the devil, and they are accused of all sorts of preposterous things on a daily basis — many of which suggest that SRS wields vast and nefarious powers behind the scenes on Reddit and possibly even in the real world. There’s so much of this nonsense that the SRSers have started a whole subreddit devoted to the SRS Mythos.
Basically, all the preceding was sort of a long-winded preface to me saying that I just discovered SRSMythos and have been really enjoying reading it.
Here are some of the not-so-true facts about SRS catalogued there:
A claim that
my friend used to mod there [on SRS], he and his buddies from Stormfront.org started it as a joke to get people to hate politically correct liberals and black people.
The notion that SRS was secretly started as a joke by Nazis or other bigots is one of Reddit’s favorite conspiracy theories.
A claim from a Men’s Rights Redditor that one of the Men’s Rights subreddit mods is a secret SRS agent.
Another Redditor, familiar to anyone who reads the anti-SRS and/or Men’s Rights subreddits, offers a convoluted theory about how SRS is all part of a weird eugenics experiment.
Someone called againstSRS complains that “THEY’RE the ones who try to make fun of US for so-called “ridiculous” conspiracy theories? Our theories about SRS and women destroying society are more grounded in concrete facts than their entire sense of reality.”
Someone else asserts that SRS is a
horrible horrible subreddit full of Nazi Feminists that aren’t actually for equality. They hate all men, and think that every man is a rapist. I’ve seen people banned from it just for mentioning that they were a guy while commenting.
Actually, SRS did its own demographic surveys and found that most SRSers — -somewhere in the range of 57% to 59% — were dudes. Granted, that’s a low percentage of men for Reddit — which is overall 80% male — but not exactly evidence that SRSers are a bunch of man-hating feeeeemale separatists.
Check it out. There’s a lot of fascinating stuff there, whether you’re studying the sociology of scapegoating, or if you just like seeing Redditors post idiotic crap.
eohiken, hi, have a Welcome Package!
Alice – to me racism more or less implies the majority group that has the privileges and power, but the “only whites can be racist” would mean nobody gets discriminated against in China for not being Han, or any other minority in any other country, ditto. It seems a very US-centric assumption, doesn’t it?
LBT – This is essentially my opinion as well. I’m aware that much of the oppression stems from the group which is in power (rich over poor, male over female, heterosexuals over GSMs, etc), but that doesn’t necessarily mean that if a black person says that Asians are all submissive that they’re not being racist. I’ve heard this particular argument even from people I consider my friends though, and I go “seriously? Are you telling me that if I went around wearing blackface that I’m not acting like a racist douchebag? *roll eyeballs*”.
kittehs – It very much is a US centric assumption, now that you mention it. It’s like how the term minorities to refer to Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, indigenous peoples, blacks, etc. presumes that whites are the majority — which isn’t the case in numerous countries e.g. South Africa.
RE: Alice
Yeah, you pretty much said what I meant, only more concisely. Pretty much. I guess I just don’t have that much to talk, since I’m white and would rather not say, “Well, instead of paying attention to MY racism, I’ll focus on the racism by other people and wrap it in trappings of social justice!”
” But then again, I’ve seen enough trans women treated terribly that I can’t really blame them, either.”
Of course, but I just don’t understand how that’s a reason to hate all men in existence – including the ones you’ve never even interacted with.
RE: Alice
Yeah, that’s why I tried to hammer it down in the US. There is plenty of racism in the world in non-white countries, I’m sure. I just don’t live there, so it’s none of my business to ignore the pike in my eye.
OT: Barbie’s Dream Tree is up!
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the pike out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the sardine out of thy brother’s eye.
– St Pool, Letters to the Cetaceans
Whoot, nuclear-strength pink glows! I like!
Also, am I the only one tired of seeing trans lesbians say “There’s nothing wrong with hating men because it’s valid for oppressed people to hate their oppressors?” Because I see that shit very often. Ugh.
Uh, this is not a Tumblr thing. This is pretty much SOP on ShitRedditSays and the rest of the internet feminist community as well.
RE: DefJam
Really? I had no idea there were SO MANY trans lesbians in the world, and ones who hated men as well! Seeing how uncommon trans folks are in general, of any orientation, I’m astounded to discover they’re SOP.
(Also, seriously, you choose an issue in feminism and choose THAT? At least choose RACISM, which is a much larger problem!)
“Also, am I the only person who reads SRS to mean Sexual Reassignment Surgery, every goddamn time?”
Thank you! I get all “wait, what?” and couldn’t place wtf my brain was seeing cuz I’m used to GRS not SRS.
“And then there’s people who claim that they totes have autism/OCD/PTSD/whatever”
And this is why my psychs aren’t sure that I’m not malingering. Because people do legit fake PTSD, so anyone with it might be faking. Particularly if they stand financial gain from the Dx (yes, seriously, anyone)
“The “wall of shame” had stuff like a goth girl having diamonds above her eyebrows for a photoshoot.”
Wait, goths doing fake/enhanced eyebrows is appropriating the bindi? HUH? Those aren’t remotely the same thing!
Fuck off, DefScum. No one here hates men. But I’m pretty sure we all hate asshattery, and you’re soaking in it.
Really? I had no idea there were SO MANY trans lesbians in the world, and ones who hated men as well! Seeing how uncommon trans folks are in general, of any orientation, I’m astounded to discover they’re SOP.
I was referring to the more general idea that it’s acceptable and/or encouraged for the “oppressed to hate their oppressors”. Duh.
It’s my fault, I introduced Def(initely not fun) to the bug’s thought system. And now he seems to think that this is some standard thing. Or that she’s right, or something.
RE: Argenti
Oh man, don’t even get me STARTED on the malingering idea associated with DID. It’s an ass and a half, compounded by the fact that even though it’s been goddamn decades, there are STILL people in the industry claiming it doesn’t exist. Fucking False Memory Foundation… *shakes fist*
RE: DefJam
I still consider racism to be the much larger problem.
My experiences suggest otherwise. I’ve mostly seen that stuff on Tumblr. It’s almost as if not everyone’s experiences with online feminist spaces are exactly the same.
I still consider racism to be the much larger problem.
I was just pointing out that there are probably quite a few commenters on this very blog who would agree with those Tumblr trans lesbians.
O RLY? Citations needed, DefScum.
I haven’t really seen this often outside of Tumblr, either. Let’s just say that, as a trans girl who has spent a decent amount of time in many other feminist trans-friendly spaces, Tumblr gave me major culture shock.
My god! I just realized…
ONE OF YOU MUST HATE ME! But who is the betrayer? Who is the mole? I MUST KNOW!
*flees into bunker deep underground in the depths of my modem, covered in camo and wielding a machete* YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE, FEMINISTS! My testicles will never come into your boxcutter-wielding clutches!
This dude is an insult to jam, which if properly made is smarter than he is.
He’s an insult to jelly, too.
But is he an insult to jellyfish?
Well, yeah. Jellyfish are at least pleasant to look at while they’re stinging you to death.