The jig is up. I and my collaborators have kept it secret for a long time now, but for reasons I will explain in a moment, I feel I need to come clean about this now, before it is too late:
I created Paul Elam.
That is: “Paul Elam” is a character created and developed by me and my friend Paul Henderson, an amazing improvisatory actor who has taken on the task of playing “Elam” in YouTube Videos, radio shows, and on a few occasions in the real world as well.
I first came up with the character of “Paul Elam” — “Elam” is just “male” spelled backwards — some seven years ago after reading Warren Farrell’s Myth of Male Power and wondering what an updated version of Farrell would look like today as a YouTube ranter. I brought the idea to my friend Paul Henderson, a feminist comedian who was already doing an “angry white man” character in his comedy act.
After a bit of workshopping, we created “Paul Elam” and his “Happy Misogynist” YouTube channel. I wrote the scripts, and Henderson read them out. As time went on and as Henderson got more into his new alter ego, he began adding bits of dialogue of his own. Sometimes when he got too deep into his character of “Paul Elam” he started to scare me a little.
After some success on YouTube and at Men’s News Daily, we decided to set up A Voice for Men. Shortly afterwards I set up Man Boobz, mainly as a way to promote AVFM and generate traffic for “Elam’s” site.
Since then, things have just snowballed. Henderson put me in touch with an amazing group of Canadian improv comedians called the Pouteenagers and the characters of Girl Writes What, John The Other, Typhon Blue, and DannyBoy were born.
Not all of those at AVFM are in on the gag. Dean Esmay for example, is completely sincere, as are most of the recent additions to the AVFM roster.
Up until about a month ago, the whole “Paul Elam”/A Voice for Men project seemed to be going swimmingly, generating buzz — and even a good deal of cash, much of which we have been donating to an assortment of feminist charities.
We kept piling absurdity on absurdity — like adding “human” to “men’s rights activist” to become “men’s human rights activist” — but no one ever guessed that it was all an elaborate prank! We were prepared to let the whole thing run for at least another year, getting sillier and sillier, before fessing up in a joint press conference with me and “Elam.”
But something terrible seems to have happened to my old friend Paul Henderson. After 7 years of playing “Paul Elam,” he seems to have become lost in the character he and I have created. Paul Henderson, in other words, has become Paul Elam.
He used to joke with April Fulieu, our makeup wiz, about how horrified he was each time he looked in the mirror and saw “Elam” staring back at him. But after we shot the last video with him he refused to let April take the makeup off, and when she went to tell me about this he fled out the back door of the studio.
We haven’t heard from him since. At least not as Paul Henderson.
I’m not sure what to do. He’s changed all the passwords on the AVFM server, so I can’t shut it down from my end, and I haven’t been able to contact any of the Pouteenagers either. I worry they too may have gone over to the dark side as well.
I can only hope that by posting this I can give him the wake-up call he needs – or at least arouse enough suspicion that the “sincere” AVFMers will confront him and possibly jar him back to reality.
He’ll deny it all, of course.
But at some point his fake beard will fall off.
That’s what I’m counting on, really.
Also, Elam isn’t personally responsible for misogyny. He’s very effectively tapping into a deep cultural vein of misogyny, but he didn’t create it, it already existed. Framing things as if he’s responsible for the misogyny of his followers lets them off the hook – he isn’t making them be misogynistic assholes, they’re following him BECAUSE they’re misogynistic assholes.
@Laudanum
[Content note: rape]
The joke was made in response to conspiracy theorist MRAs who think that their movement’s horrible, bigoted image is the work of feminists who wish to discredit and persecute MRAs. He is trivializing the notion that there is actually a feminist conspiracy. In particular, he’s ridiculing AVfM supporters who think that all of the accusations of bigotry against Elam are lies made up by feminists.
This is not the same as a rape joke, whose punchline is the suffering of the victim. When someone jokingly says something like “I’m going to rape you” (which people have said to me before), the “funny” part about the joke is that the joke teller wants to sexually violate me and cause me pain.
If you have ever paid attention to this blog, you would know that David has never made any rape jokes himself – or really, any kind of joke that makes light of oppression.
The thing that really amused me about this is that when Elam reads this (and you know he will) he’ll be absolutely livid!
If only…
This definitely gave me a chuckle. 🙂
Now when I look at those pictures up top side by side, I can’t help but see the second one as a reaction shot of Elam seeing his clean-photoshopped face in the first.
Also, the more we joke about MRAs and how ridiculous they are, the less seriously people take them. Humor is powerful, and it makes light of its target. Discrediting MRAs and their kind can only be beneficial, and it helps highlight the importance of resisting the patriarchy.
I do the same thing for TERFs. I mock them because they (even moreso than MRAs) are very threatening to trans people, especially AMAB trans people. The things they say to us are deplorable, and they are very much capable of abusing us, harassing us, and exploiting our common fears. The things I have read that are written by trans women TERFs in particular have been highly distressing to me.
So alongside my criticism and hatred for TERFs, jokes about them and their ridiculous gender essentialism are, in a way, helpful to me and other trans women. When we point out the absurdity of their transmisogynistic ideology and show how extreme and ridiculous they are, we can help counter the fear they instill in us. Joking about them helps us demonstrate how they deserve to be opposed and marginalized.
There is no harm in jokes that punch upward towards those who support oppression. In fact, they are beneficial for not only many of us on a personal level, but they also have utility in discrediting and marginalizing oppressive people who wish to gain legitimacy and cultural hegemony.
RE: cassandrakitty
Also, can we not compare things that aren’t rape to rape? Thanks.
As a rape survivor, I concur with this.
It’s always kind of funny when someone does that.
“OMG you’re so insensitive!!!”
(Proceeds to say something really insensitive.)
At the risk of being insensitive, I thought I’d derail by offering a pretty amusing April Fools Day joke from an institution of higher education:
http://www.mst.edu/
Only visible for one day, so visit now!
The saddest part is, I guessed from the headline some other manosphere faction had accused you of this, and not an April Fools Day joke. Because that’s totally how things go down in the Manosphere. 🙁
I thought it was just a joke making fun of Doosh’s recent clusterfuck jail “joke”.
I keep saying that they’re impossible to Poe effectively because they’re just too ridiculous.
I am celebrating April Fool’s by throwing my writeathon on the theme of foolishness! That way, I get to celebrate the day without worrying about confusing or upsetting anyone. Instead of mischief, there is cute cyborg animals and jesters!
@cloudiah, thank you so much for sharing that XD made my day.
Sometimes I think many people in this society are addicted to feeling offended.
Yeah, apparently we’re all either a group of a dozen or so crazy cat women with like 8 or 9 sock puppets apiece, or we;re all just socks of David’s. The manosphere has even coined a new adjective, “Futrellian,” to describe things that they don’t like (there really isn’t a more coherent definition than that). I’ve taken to mentally replacing “Futrellian” with “super super scary” when MRA’s use it.
Now I totally want to enroll at Missouri Science & Technology.
@teality
It takes a special kind of privilege blindness to think that people take pleasure in being offended. I’m Jewish, and when I take offense at an insensitive joke or remark, I’m not doing it out of glee,I’m doing it because I don’t want to hear that shit.
Has it ever occurred to you that there are many people in this society who are addicted to doing the offending? You know, people who think that being a racist or a sexist makes you edgy?
laudanum, puhlease. David has spent years exposing and mocking Elam and all the other scumbags of the scrotosphere. Did you not read the blog header – “Misogyny. I mock it.” at all? Or read the responses of other women here?
The idea that Elam is so out there with his misogyny makes the idea that he’s just performance art a plausible joke, not to mention “if only”. I didn’t see this as David exercising blinkered male privilege at all, let alone being an arsehole.
Nor is this remotely like a rape joke. It’s mocking and scorning Elam.
If we’re living in a Futrellian society, does this mean there’ll soon be a book called 2014 featuring posters like this?
Non-April Fools variety silliness: how dogs react when a magician makes their treats disappear:
(I have it on good authority that the biscuits later magically reappeared, and that much petting was involved.)
@kittehserf
Don’t be ridiculous, the gynocracy would never let a male kitten rule over humanity. It’ll have to be Big Sister demanding treats and offerings of string from the nations of the world.
@Tesformes
I’m not sure who you think you’re replying to, but there is nothing about me that would be classified in “privilege” status at all.
However, assuming someone is referring to you when they aren’t, or assuming that because you don’t do something that no one else does, could be.
In view of the fact that many, if not most of those in the manosphere “think” they are a victim and constantly perceive offense, and that there are other people with different issues who do the same thing, to deny such a thing exists is naive, at best.
Thanks for the support! I think a lot of you explained Man Boobz better than I did.
Also, that video with the dogs is amazing. It reminds me of this one.
Dogs can do this too.
Cloudiah: A couple of those dogs give him such reproachful looks.