Here we go again. Like small children who have just discovered the power of the tantrum, the terrible people at A Voice for Men seem to have realized that the only reliable way for them to get the attention of the world is to act like complete assholes in public. And so some fans of AVFM have decided to bring back the “Don’t Be That Girl” campaign — you know, the witless and misogynistic “parody” of the successful Canadian “Don’t Be That Guy” rape awareness campaign. Now they’re postering in Halifax.
But there’s one difference: this time they’ve put the logos of the real sponsors of the real “Don’t Be That Guy” rape awareness project on their phony posters. (You can see the whole list by downloading one of the pdfs of the real posters on this page.)
So far, two of the organizations listed on their phony posters – the Bryony House shelter for victims of domestic violence and the Halifax Police Department – have made very clear that their logos are being used without permission.
https://twitter.com/BryonyHouse/status/448148862193389568
@Allisomething Tk u for reporting. We're not a sponsor of this campaign and find it deeply troubling. We'll be looking into this further HT
— Halifax_Police (@HfxRegPolice) March 24, 2014
It’s a pretty safe bet that the other organizations whose logos were appropriated feel similarly.
I’d like to encourage anyone who can afford it to follow up on a suggestion from Cloudiah in the comments and donate to Bryony House so that some good can come out of all this.
Now, I’m no expert on Canadian law, but it seems rather unlikely to me that it’s legal to simply stick some organization’s logo on something and pretend that they have endorsed it. Especially when that organization is the police.
Apparently some MRAs disagree with me on that:
https://twitter.com/AVoiceForMen/status/448225043026149376
“Your consent is not required” seems to be the operating assumption of a lot of those drawn to the Men’s Rights movement.
In later tweets, Elam claims that using the logos is legal because of “fair use,” which is not actually a term used in Canadian law, and promises that the “[p]osters will continue, cupcake.”
I guess we will see. Here are several more photos of the posters. There’s more discussion of this in the AgainstMensRights subreddit.
Lots of real comedians around town apparently… pic.twitter.com/P92KmW3I41
— Handsome Adam Barrett (@im_adam_barrett) March 24, 2014
and one more before I vomit everywhere pic.twitter.com/jEJTXSSHXG
— Handsome Adam Barrett (@im_adam_barrett) March 24, 2014
EDITED TO ADD: Elam has now responded to the critics, and promises to bankroll any legal challenges against the posterers. It’s pretty clear that he doesn’t understand why the logos are a problem.
EDIT/CORRECTION: It’s not completely clear that this postering campaign originated with AVFM. It’s pretty clear, though, that it’s supported by AVFM, and that those involved in it are supporters of AVFM. I’ve made a few changes to the headline and first graf to reflect this.
Ask for brain bleach and you shall receive!
LOL at 0:36, mamma giraffe gives a nuzzle and the baby is like “MOOOM! People are watching!!”
Thanks for that!
I LOL’ed at that part, too, gillyrosebee.
Anyone else even just a little surprised none of them have accidentally made an on-point “Don’t Be THAT Girl” poster that went something like:
“Just because you’re dating, doesn’t mean he wants it. His consent is important, too
Don’t be THAT Girl. ”
Because, like, that would be pretty legit. But, that would require them to actually give a shit about male survivors and not just be raging misogynists who want to be able to rape women without being called rapists. So. You know. Guess I’ll keep holding my breath.
I find it a little strange that they’re equating “Hey, if a woman is drunk, she can’t give consent, so you should probably wait until she’s sobered up before having sex.” with “All men are evil, nasty rapists. RAWR!” Consent for sex while drunk is an actual issue that perhaps many people, both men and women, haven’t given much thought to.
Personally, I’d never thought about it prior to lurking and posting here.
Zoon,
“It’s of the form “You don’t want to do X, Y is a kind of X, so you don’t want do Y.” But, they’ve interpreted it as simply “Don’t do X.” Which is why their parodies don’t make any sense.”
Exactly! Just so “I agree women shouldn’t beat kids…..and your point?”
Maybe the baby thing is an anti-abortion poster? Abortion is free (for Canadian citizens) and legal in Nova Scotia.
How’s Paul going to afford that? Bake sale?
Stephen Jarosek:
So you’re saying the Halifax Police Department peddles lies and is absurd?
Your understanding of what parody is seems to be on a par with your understanding of Canadian copyright law: very little.
@Stephen Jarosek, I’d back Halifax Police Department to have a better understanding of Canadian law than Elam, any day. You do know that Halifax is in Canada, right? And that therefore USA laws and FREEZE PEACH do not apply.
Because Canada? You know, somewhere in the world that is not the USA?
Oh, and I’m betting that Elam’s knowlege of USA law is no better than yours. Because free speech doesn’t cover libel, sweetie.Go look it up.
Rats! Ninja’d. 🙂
Nope. Bake sales are misandry.
He’ll finance it by selling the patent for his assfax machine, one hopes.
And talking of the law and Elam – anyone explained to him about Texas and paying your tax, yet?
Dreams of Al Capone…
I conclude from their reaction that they have (or at least would if given the chance) raped a women who was too drunk to consent. And that they believe that this is what every man would do (yep, gay men don’t exist in MRA-land). Therefore, to them, pointing out that this is rape is the equivalent of saying that every man is a rapist.
@hellkell – maybe they’ll try to “satirize” a feminist bake sale and instead of making cute cupcake vulvas they’ll get caught up on trying to make baked penises that outdo each other and then it’ll all topple and they’ll be smoten under a tsunami of spongecake and chocolate ganache?
^ or “woman” even. MRA grammar seems to be infectious.
Halifax police are already asking anyone seeing someone hanging posters to call their non-emergency line. Wetherby posted a statute above that seems to cover this misappropriation. Stephen Jarosek can call this parody and say Elam is “on it,” but, no.
On a couple peripheral notes, this is across the harbour from where Rehtaeh Parsons went to school. Loretta Saunders was recently abducted by her roomates in Halifax and found murdered on a highway to New Brunswick. She was and aboriginal woman researching her thesis on the murders of aboriginal women. I live here. What the ef is going on in the Municipality of Halifax?
And, if AVfM is closed for business, how exactly is Elam taking donations and funding law suits?
AVfM closed for business? Did I miss something?!?
What all these terrible feeeeemal…I mean feminists don’t understand is that these very clever posters are parody! So they could have just as easily put up a bunch of really racist posters instead of the confusing slightly misogynistic posters!! Don’t you see!!!!! MEN ARE AN OPPRESSED GROUP! PARODY! WE LITERALLY HATE EVERYONE AND HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF ANYTHING!!!!! YOU SEE!!!!!
Question: So, these posters seem to come from the Men’s Rights group in Halifax, not directly from AVFM, right? So wouldn’t the smart thing for Elam to do be to totally disavow knowledge and involvement with these posters, rather than thumb his nose at the Halifax Police Department?
I mean, if AVFM isn’t directly connected I guess they can’t be held liable for copyright infringement, but still. Baiting the police is really not a good idea. Just saying.
Wow, that’s a dick move even by AVFM standards. But…does that mean I can hang up feminist posters and slap Paul Elam’s picture on them all?
The answer is no of course, and I wouldn’t do that but it goes to show how stupid their line of reasoning is. If that weren’t already self-evident.
Donations go through his girlfriend, I believe. And he probably does business under his own name rather than through AVFM, LLC. But it might be worth asking him that question directly.
@Stephen Jarosek, What are the lies, exactly? It’s only a parody/satire if the people making the posters don’t actually believe what they’re saying — and it’s pretty clear they think most women are abusers, baby killers, and prostitutes. So on the one hand, we have posters saying that there’s a subset of the group “guys” that are rapists, and decent guys shouldn’t be like them; on the other, we have a group saying women are generally terrible.
I’m sure you’re one of those hit-and-run trolls who poops in a comment thread and it makes them feel like an internet tough guy, so I don’t expect you to come back and actually answer questions about what you said. Coward.