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.
Just because you’ve heard the words “parody” and “fair use”
Doesn’t mean you know what they mean
Don’t Be That MRA
I know that this is mainly aimed at consumers and purchasers, but I wonder if deceptive or false advertising law could be applicable here. This poster campaign certainly is designed to mislead the viewer, and it advertises AVFM…misleadingly.
lol…I’ve been practicing coding and apparently I’m overapplying!
Words, wot do they mean?
It only takes me a half hour to get to Detroit. I think I’ll show up to take pictures.
The other thing about the posters…
The point of “Don’t Be That Guy” was to create/reinforce a social idea that date rape is both immoral and illegal (not the same thing, incidentally–think of the way people think of those who go 10 MPH over the limit on the highway) and therefore (a) educate “accidental” rapists (who I don’t think are common at all and (b) discourage predators by removing their ability to hide behind “misunderstandings”.
There is a strong consensus that dumping babies is immoral, and a less strong (but increasing–I think) consensus that child abuse is wrong–especially the kind of overtly violent abuse shown on the poster–so there is no point to that, though I could see a public campaign (created by people other than MRAs) about subtler forms of abuse that sneak through more often and/or about warning signs of abuse.
The prostitution one really makes me want to move to Halifax and open a fast food joint. Then whenever a person pulls through with avfm bumper sticker or suchlike, we’d say:
“Just because there is demand, doesn’t mean we have to offer.”
Hand them a copy of the joint’s right to refuse service policy, with a script quote at the bottom, “It’s not our fault you were willing to pay for burgers we were unwilling to sell you!”
Close window.
Make sure fast food place is right next to police dept, so we don’t get killed.
Talented AMRista notes that two can play at that game.
I have done no research at all into this, but I had assumed that since youtube can pick up what song you’re using as background music to your cute kitten video and make a note of it in the page, that the artist would be getting a royalty from it out of all the ad money.
That of course is different to posting an entire video with no alterations, which I guess is what you were talking about.
Haha, cloudiah!
@Kim – no. YouTube isn’t responsible for sending artists money for something you (generic) uploaded. The identification of music is mostly there so that the artist can send anyone infringing on their copyright a C&D letter and take legal action and cover YT/Google’s ass.
It wouldn’t really matter even if the artist did get royalties; zie still has the right to choose where and how zir work is used.
contrapangloss – I love your fast-not-food idea! 😀
cloudiah – that’s a great AMR poster.
I’m kind of hoping someone with more Twitter followers than I will tweet that poster out and include Paul on it. I can only imagine the keyboard-mashing and spittle-flooding that would ensue.
All I got from it was “sex workers are to blame for prostitution, while johns are just a nebulous, disembodied ‘demand'”. Because even when you get that close to acknowledging that sex work exists in part because men are willing to pay for sex, it’s still women’s fault somehow.
“Your consent is not required”. Those words are fucking chilling.
@cloudiah
Oh I wouldn’t actually stoop to their level either. Though their meltdown would be funny. And besides, now I’m more intrigued by the prospect of legal action by the Halifax PD. But I don’t know as much about Canadian law as Judgy Bitch does, so someone might have to explain it to me…
Okay, just saw the AVFM parody poster cloudiah linked to. That’s pretty awesome.
More fair use posters! More! I demand it!
http://www.shaenon.com/avm_steinem.jpg
ooh, nice one, Shaenon!
Between that “Your consent is not required” and the nebulous “demand” for paid sex, I’m getting a distinct whiff of rape lobby off of Elam & Co.
I wonder if the police department in Halifax is aware that AVfM is the same group that for a long time hosted a manifesto under the “activism” section of their website where the author encouraged men to firebomb police stations and courthouses because men’s rights.
Very nice, Shaenon!
Reblogged this on Black Metal Valkyrie-question male-identified bullshit and commented:
MRAs are deluded assholes.
Looks like fraud to me as a criminal matter. Civil matters going on there too, but AVFM claims credit and further claims endorsement by law enforcement. People have been arrested for less.