MRAs seem to think that they can spin their way out of pretty much anything. And on the internet, particularly in their own little echo chamber, they can kind of get away with it. It’s when they venture out into the real world that they run into some trouble.
Take, for example, the mad spinning that accompanied the implosion of the Canadian Association for Equality’s “E Day” concert scheduled for last weekend. CAFE, you may recall, is a Canadian Men’s Rights group that’s probably most famous for organizing a series of talks by Men’s Rights-friendly folks on Canadian campuses that, well, caused a tiny bit of a stir.
Oh, sorry. The group says that even though its “focus is currently on men and boys … [W]e do not consider ourselves a Men’s Rights Group.”
Anyway, so this non-Men’s Rights group decided to hold a concert on Toronto Island celebrating “Equality Day,” a holiday they made up just for the occasion. They found a venue, got some sponsors and even managed to convince a bunch of bands to sign on.
Everything was ready to go until a few days before the concert was scheduled to happen, when some of the people who had been roped into the event discovered just what they had gotten themselves involved with.
A headline from the Huffington Post sums up what happened next with admirable succinctness:
The exodus from E-Day kicked off after a post appeared on the lefty Canadian news site Rabble.ca pointing out what CAFE was really about. Musicians and sponsors quickly distanced themselves from the event, and CAFE lost its venue as well.
CAFE’s response to all this? A press release stating:
CAFE received overwhelming support from musicians, sponsors and the general public for Equality Day. After several months of productive collaboration, the original venue Artscape Gibralter-Point cancelled the use of their location after receiving a small number of misinformed complaints.
That’s a rather … odd way to describe what happened. According to a good number of those who had originally signed on for the concert, it was CAFE that was actively spreading misinformation about their own event and hiding its Men’s Rights agenda.
The musical group Giraffe posted a statement on Facebook saying:
We feel that we were not fully informed about what it was that is being supported here, and also that calling it a festival that celebrates “equality” as opposed to “men’s equality” was intentionally misleading to us in it’s effort to entice us to play this show.
Hogtown Brewers, one of the sponsors, offered a similar explanation for why they pulled out. “We’re kinda surprised that an event that built itself on being for equality turned out to be anything but that,” the president of the company told the The Star. “The minute that it came to our attention that it wasn’t a concert in line with our values, we moved to remove our support. We regret any involvement.”
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Artscape, the venue that was to have originally held the event, told The Globe and Mail that
[t]he premise of the event as it was given to us was a fair and equitable event that was family-friendly and a lovely music festival. It has since turned political and we anticipated that there could be health and safety concerns as well.
Perhaps the most amazing revelation: Jagermeister, which had been listed as a sponsor on CAFE’s publicity materials, said it had never agreed to be part of the event in the first place:
Thanks @amirightfolks for bringing this to our attention. We did not approve a sponsorship to this festival nor approve the use of our logo.
— Jägermeister Canada (@jagermeisterCA) May 30, 2014
CAFE’s creative, er, spinning continued in an interview the group’s outreach director Denise Fong gave to NowToronto. I’m not even going to summarize this one. Go read it.
A scaled down E-Day celebration of sorts did go ahead last weekend. It consisted of some CAFE volunteers standing on a corner handing out pamphlets and talking to passersby about their support of “boys, men and families.” (That’s a strangely limited notion of equality, huh?)
In their press release last week, CAFE announced that
Equality Day musical activities will be postponed to next Sunday, June 8. Details to be announced.
So far no details have been announced. But, hey, they’ve still got a couple of days to go.
On a totally unrelated note, I will be holding “E-Kwalitee Day” in my apartment sometime this afternoon. I am proud to announce that I have managed to book some outstanding musical acts for this extravaganza. They don’t know it yet, but I have written their names down in my appointment book.
Here’s the headliner:
I support kittens, cats and families. Ask me why!
Splitters!
Oh, wow, the freethoughtsblog says that the Denise person on the phone is *engaged* to the Justin person on the phone.
Sorry, I mean she is engaged to Justin Trottier, who is not at all the same Justin as one the phone.
I’m looking through the comments. The amount of gaslighting that goes on is headache inducing.
Big slap in the face Irony: when they finally get sued, all the money will go to groups that help male victims that were started by feminists.
Yeah, I am being accused of making the threats now because I keep exhorting conference attendees to report the threats if they are, in fact, real.
I, too, am surprised no one has been sued over the numerous forgeries.
In a country with a fraction of the U.S. population, I just can’t understand why there is a disproportionate amount of MRM “activism” in Canada.
not enough guns to fondle?
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before (very possibly in one of the Halifax discussions), but the openly racist British National Party were indeed sued by Unilever after using one of their trademarks without permission in an explicitly political advertisement, and reportedly settled out of court for £170,000 – a sum that they didn’t exactly have lying around in spare cash.
So when Elam claims “your consent is not required”, what exactly is he basing this on?
welp, thanks for reminding me of how much i detest the old huffpost. it was bad enough when they merged with aol, but the move several months ago requiring that we log into HP with a verified facebook acct and give them our identities, phone numbers as well as access to our friends was a big goodbye message for me. i have not even looked at them in months, but i will say that participation appears quite low.
the other thing that pushed me over the edge, was the invasion of the MRKCP (that’s mens rights keyboard commando pestilence) which can be seen in full force on the linked article and those on HP considered as relative. the logical fallacies and duplicitous thinking abounds, and makes me want to run. far, far away. now, i would just like to mount my menstrual horse and escape to someplace where we both could get high.
I’m just wondering why Jaegermeister? I mean, the logo is a stag’s head and I guess that’s pretty manly, but why not, I don’t know, Red Bull or Bud Light?
Wait, we’re overlooking the big question here.
Does that cat do Xena’s theme song?
Katz, isn’t CAFE a student group? Jager is very popular with college boys.
Or, yeah, it could be the manliness implied by “master hunter”.
Viscaria, that makes perfect sense.
Jagermeister always reminds me of the Jagermonsters from Girl Genius.
Who, despite being actually monstrous, are more appealing than MRAs.
Back on topic, I’ve read the piece at FreeThought Blogs. The image of someone asking Denise (IIRC) a question by telephone, then hearing her asking Justin Not-Trottier the question, hearing him tell her the answer, then hearing her repeat the answer – that’s just ludicrous. As my mother would say, they have no idea what they look like.
Plus, Jag is German and thus appeals to the white supremacist that resides within most MRAs.
Hey, have you guys seen this? There’s a bill in California mandating that colleges have written policies on sexual violence that include a part about both parties having to explicitly consent, and Breitbart reported it as requiring written consent for sex.
Now this bullshit is all over the Internet.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/06/04/College-Students-May-Need-Verbal-or-Written-Consent-to-Have-Sex-on-Campus
Because of these groups, I wish I would have died.
8 years of domestic violence with one attack that almost killed me.
I am a female. My abuser is being prosecuted. The abuse got worse.
I tell women now just don’t bother telling it asking for help, just go home and honestly give up and wait until your time to go.
Nobody should have to live what I’ve been through.
I wish I would have died. I don’t care to try anymore
@fauxmy
That’s when I stopped posting on huffpost as well. It kind of disgusted me that their reasoning behind “verifying” your account with Facebook would promote civility is absurd especially given the vitriol of right wingers on that site. And the MRAs on there, whew boy, don’t get me started! *sigh*
Hey now, I get that you feel that way. You’re allowed to. It sounds like you tried very hard for a very long time to improve your circumstances and that there was little support. It sounds heartbreaking and exhausting. There are people who want to help you though. You’re not all alone in this.
Yeah, what can we do to help, Just Give Up?
@Just Give Up
Please let us know if you would like support of any kind. I am so sorry to hear you went through all of that.
Shit, that feels like going backwards in time. That was a far, far worse place than now.
In what country are you based?
That’s your abuser talking. Abusers are masters of convincing you that you don’t matter, that you don’t deserve better, and so on. They want you to hate yourself, so you won’t stand up for yourself when they hurt you. BUT IT’S NOT TRUE. You deserve to live, and to be happy, and you will get there. You wouldn’t be trying to get away if some part of you didn’t still believe that you were worth fighting for.
Just give up
I am so sorry but you or anyone shouldn’t give up because giving up, to me, is the same as being dead.
GOOD.
And to hell with the CAFE scumbag who’s denying knowledge of Rodgers. Way to to try to be coy, asshole.
@Just Give Up
Adding my voice to the offers of support. My heart goes out to you and I am so sorry for what you have endured.
And you are absolutely right. No one should have to experience that type of abuse. There is an enormous community ready to help in any way we can.