The We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive continues! If you haven’t already, please consider sending some bucks my way. (And don’t worry that the PayPal page says Man Boobz.) Thanks! And thanks again to all who’ve already donated.
Over on the Men’s Rights subreddit, the neverending struggle against imaginary feminists continues apace. Today, one brand-new Redditor, a self-described former feminist, won himself several dozen upvotes from the regulars by bringing them a literally unbelievable tale of his adventures with a coven of slap-happy feminists.
I stopped calling myself a feminist a few years ago when I went to a meeting and was told “men are inly allowed in this safe space if they participate in a slap circle.”
The idea was that it would be harder for me to intimidate with my six foot stature if all the women had a chance to slap me in the face. I left.
Another guy actually did it.
It’s all true. I WAS THAT GUY.
BUT WHO WAS PHONE?
Actually, no. If this dude’s story is true, I will literally eat my cats.
While most of the Men’s Rightsers commenting in the thread seem to have swallowed this story whole, “slap circles” aren’t actually a thing in feminism.
They are a thing, though, amongst bored and/or drunk young men (and sometimes women) around the world, as countless videos on YouTube can attest.
As as site called Hungry Teen explains, a “Slap Circle” is
A great way to bond with friends, release aggression and stimulate the face. The Slap Circle is a game made for the more hardcore, daring person and can be used as a test for finding the manliest of the group. Although adopting female fighting techniques, the slap circle appeals far more to men. Nothing is required for this game, other than a hand, a face and a set of balls.
All you do, is stand in a circle and slap the person to your right in the face, while waiting for a slap from the person on your left. If you’ve had enough, you step out of the circle and the last two standing fight it out for the winner.
I eagerly await stories in the Men’s Rights subreddit detailing Andrea Dworkin’s demand that all men and boys be forced to take the Cinnamon Challenge and all those insidious mandatory nut shot seminars being forced upon all college students unfortunate enough to be born with a pair of balls.
Thanks to Cloudiah for the heads up, and the good people of the AgainstMensRights subreddit for the Hungry Teen quote.
Just as long as we don’t have drunk bull elephants rampaging around. They’d be almost as obnoxious as MRAs.
kittehserf
What with rise of homeschooling to prevent impure thoughts, I suspect that they can’t read, which probably explains their bewilderment when asked to do so.
What does the sign say?
Stevie – LOL! I don’t know how much homeschooling is a thing here, but I did wonder afterward why they were handing out pamphlets when reading didn’t seem to be their thing.
cassandra –
No Door-to-Door Sales
No Charity Callers
No Hawkers of Anything
(It worked on the JWs last time they came around.)
If I got a lot of them I’d be tempted to put up a sign saying Hail Satan.
Dream on.
Stevie,
Did I ever mention to you that I homeschool?
I’m a progressive atheist who homeschools.
I’d appreciate it if you’d stop insulting my kids.
Wait wut
Let me guess, that was rancid nads saying we’d like to slap him?
Nope, don’t want to dirty my hands on any troll, thanks.
Whoops, we missed rancid’s last post just above. He quoted me then wrote this:
“I’m sure a lot of you would like to slap me.”
Wishful thinking, pal.
Can someone tell him the going rate of a proffessional dom? I think that’s what he’s actually going for.
Is there not some kind of 1-800-FIND-A-DOMME service we can refer them to?
Not that it’d help if there was. No domme would waste time on these losers.
Criticism of homeschooling is valid and not an insult to anyone’s kids. And the comment was specifically directed at parents who use homeschooling to keep their kids isolated and “pure” of any pesky Actual Thinking.
cassandrakitty – I have a Darwin fish on my door. it’s worked so far.
Lea
I’m sorry that you feel that my suggesting that pushy fundamentalist religious kids who have had very poor homeschooling actually demeans atheist kids who have had home schooling.
I would assume that you school your kids rather better than the ones who turn up on doorsteps to try and convert people to their particular brand of religion.
Of course, as always, I may be wrong.
Also, he lurks here. I guess just in case we mention tips on getting laid.
Omgoodness the idiocy. *sigh* I recognized davidbyron from that redit thread. I think he’s on either alternet or huffpo. He’s never identified as mra in our discussioms but note to self. Actually, in the past wk I’ve been all over various blogs and websites including some mra sites and it’s been an eye opener for me bc several guys I used to debate with frequently on huffpo have been commenting on these sites I’ve visited including the mra sites despite their constant claims in huffpo debate that theyre not an mra or even know what mrm is all about. It’s intriguing to me that I’ve found them out!
@kittehserf
When I first bought my home two men from a local church stolled by my house, wtf they were checking property records regularly?!? Anywho I was nice and told them hey im a jew (though I identify as atheist but didnt tell them that) and admittedly their response was pretty funny “we love jews!” I use the mug they gave me with my cup buddy (google bucket buddy but for cups) in my office. All in all not a fan of proselytizers at my door but too lazy to put sign up.
No Rancid, we just want you to go away.
Rancid, we wouldn’t waste a slap on you. We’d just like to see you banned.
No, it isn’t and I will happily never come back here again if that shit starts up.
Private schools are often used to isolate and brainwash kids in an insular community.
Public schooling can also be used to keep kids from learning critical think or that they can ever question authority. Just because it is a method of education that is sometimes used by fundamentalists does not mean that calling homeschooled children illiterate is OK.
That’s where the line is for me. You want to call me names and mock me? Go for it. Back the fuck up off my kids.
*thinking*
Stevie,
No nonapologies please. No “I’m sorry you feels”. Either walk it back or don’t. I don’t need to like you or for you to like me. Lay off the “They can’t read ‘cuz they’re homeschooled, hur, hur” shit. That’s all.
You can keep your assumptions to yourself.
I hope you call them out! A lot of trolls spout MRA talking points constantly and then play innocent when you someone calls them an MRA. It’s really telling that they feel the need to hide it. I’ve never denied being a feminist when someone calls me one. Because it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Even MRAs know their “human rights movement” is nothing of the sort. They’ll never admit it, but they know.
@weirwoodtreehugger
Weird, it’s almost like they’re ashamed of being an MRA.
I guess you can’t defend misogyny, while pretending there’s no such thing as misogyny, while admitting you’re in a group associated with misogyny.
The veneer of obscurity has been pushed away slightly because of the shootings, I suppose. I wonder how long it will last.
I mean, it’s not like anyone needs a secret pass to read their boards. Actually, I’m betting more and more people are reading their boards — along with all the PUA stuff.
kittehserf
Before I forget I should say that I spent a great two days in San Diego in March before I got on a ship for the very long journage home; it was wonderful. I got to spend time in Balboa Park, but I was constrained to spend some time trying to take photos of the Amtrak station, and the trains themselves, due to a friend of mine being seriously into them.
I would just like to point out that we all have our personal preferences; I lke sparkly things to attach to my person and he likes trains. And trams; I diced with death getting the pictures. As far as I can see San Diego has decided that safety barriers are for wimps. On the other hand my dicing with death does increase the supply of sparkly things so I figure we are equal.
re: homeschool
homeschool is a tricky thing for me. I was “homeschooled” the last three years of highschool, during which i learned barely anything. Mostly because I was literally too depressed to do anything.
I also took school from home online, and i learned a lot and it helped me get out and prepared myself for physical school.
our states homeschool is completely unmonitored. If your parents say you’re doing homeschool, you can do it, but there’s not really any tests or anyone who stops by to make sure we’re learning stuff. on one hand, tat’s how i liked it back then, on the other hand, if someone wanted to keep their kids intentionally ignorant, or only learning their ‘preapproved’ knowledge, there would be nothing stopping them. Ofc kids are already learning lots of like, altered history and lack of sex ed in public schools (in my state), so people in public and private schools can keep kids intentionally ignorant, too
i’ve talked to quite a couple people who have ‘dropping out of school pretty early but we just said i was homeschooled’ stories.
So… Tl;dr i think homeschool can be really great, especially if you’ve got a disability that prevents you from getting to physical school or whoever your teacher is is just awesome, but it can also be pretty useless. depends on the teacher (who’s often the parent :P) and state requirements i guess. :/
lea
yeah. Lots of problems homeschools can have, public and private schools can have, too.
..
urg this entire thing is feeling like a braindump and i can’t tell if i am making any sense.
i have a lot of thoughts about the education system.
blooooop and i realized that was probably just a long wordy off topic b/c it had nothing to do with what brought it up, which was calling homeschool kids illiterate, which is a shitty thing to do no matter what you think of homeschool. (and it also seems kind of shitty to be using illiterate/haha can’t read as an insult anyway)