Does anyone here understand string theory and dark matter and all that physics crap? Because I am seriously beginning to wonder if Men’s Rights Activists literally live in an alternate universe that only partially intersects with our own.
In the universe I live in, Canada is a lovely and somewhat uncannily polite country to the north, the home of Rush and Kate Beaton and, I’m pretty sure, a lot of bears. To MRAs it is a land under the bootheel of a radical feminist gynarchy in which men cower in elevators because they are deathly afraid of being accused of sexual harassment.
No, really.
I was skimming through an old interview with good old Erin Pizzey, A Voice for Men’s pet domestic violence expert, probably because she’s the only one who thinks jokes about eating “battered women” — you know, like batter fried chicken — are hilarious.
In the interview, she was telling Dean “Long Tie” Esmay about a speaking tour she’d made in Canada — a place she describes as “one of the worst countries in the world.” No, really. Here’s what she had to say about her harrowing ordeal:
I did a six week tour, with Senator Anne Cools, all across Canada. And there were some wonderful … uh, men’s groups, just struggling to keep going. And as we traveled and talked to men’s groups, we realized how terribly dangerous it is because it’s almost as though the entire government and the judiciary–the same people–had been infiltrated by very radical feminists out to get men. And I talked to people all the way across Canada. You know my mother was Canadian, and I’m half Canadian, and it hurt actually. See I was a child in Toronto, and my feeling as we went through is real fear. I remember I was working with Anne in the Senate and I walked in to the lift, and this man who was in the lift with me was cowering over in the corner. And I came out and I said to Anne, “What on earth was that about?” And she said, “Men are frightened. They just don’t know when they’re going to be told they’re sexually harassing somebody.”
I’ve highlighted several of the passages which I think may have entered our universe from the Bizarro Men’s Rights multidimensional wormhole of misandry.
But, seriously, what planet does this woman live on? Does she actually think something like this really happened? Was there really a man in an elevator with her who was literally cowering in the corner because he thought she would accuse him of some sort of sex crime? Was there a man there at all? Was there even an elevator? Is Canada a real country? THEN WHO WAS PHONE?
Speaking as someone with 3/4 of their family being from rural Ontario, yeah, the Confederate flag thing is a rural identity thing. I bet you half the people who put it on their car or hat or whatever couldn’t tell you much about it besides “it stands for being proud of where you’re from” or whatever. A lot of people get it from the Dukes of Hazzard, or country music stuff, and haven’t given the CSA a moment’s thought.
Not that it’s a good excuse, but there’s plenty of Americans who think that way and ought to know better as well. (The other half, by the way, are open racists)
@Emmy Rae: Buildings with more than one floor are misandry! Why did men let the evil gynocracy drag them out of harrassment-accusation-free cave living in the first place?!
Actually, we men just like looking at your butts while you’re climbing stairs. Multi-story buildings are just another example of the patriarchy in action – sorry about that.
@Lea
That’s a huge problem, but I think a… not bigger problem, but problem that helps support the other problem, is that those men who don’t harass women don’t know, nor do they know what it looks like, and those who do harass, and do know, are making those who don’t think they’re being unreasonably targeted. That, for example, simply being attracted to a woman is objectifying, that asking her on a date is harassment. By the Douglas Adams style description of politics, it’s “I kill my brother, and tell my other brother that your brother is telling everyone that he did it so he’ll kill him for me.”
Dear Penthouse AVfM
I can’t believe this happened to me….
Damn, that was supposed to be a strikethrough on the Penthouse.
THIS. Until embarrassingly recently, the confederate flag had no context for me other than the Dukes of Hazzard and occasionally as a truck grill cover on semi’s. And I’m fairly well-read.
Canada, the spiritual home of ice hockey and the Mounties. The men there are constantly cowering in fear of women. Yep. I mean, look at this guy, does he not look oppressed?
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c8/8a/c4/c88ac4441f5f991675050a0c068bfcef.jpg
It’s tragic, really.
Ohmigawd, look how young Mr. Gross was.
A guy harassed ME for taking an elevator the other day. He got in and when I pressed the 1st floor he got all angry and snarkily asked me ‘You need an elevator to go to the 1st floor?!’
Well, there is a button labeled ‘1’ dumb dudebro. If the elevator wasn’t supposed to take people to the first floor that ‘1’ button would be gone.
Wasn’t the woman who got sexually harassed while wearing a snowsuit in the Shroedinger’s Rapist thread in Canada? Perhaps someone saw that incident and got confused.
I hate it when people do that. There’s no law or even norm against using a lift for one floor.
The only proper response is to make firm eye contact and reply “Yes”. 🙂 That really gets under their skin.
There’s also the fact that some women never use the stairs because they feel like it’s unsafe.
Also, and this has happened to me, you get to the door out of the stairwell to find it’s locked and you don’t have access.
So you walk back down the stairs and catch the lift anyways.
Some people have not-obvious physical disabilities which means stairs are out for them too.
I wonder about people that make comments like that. If they’re out at a restaurant with their partner, do they say things like “that’s a lot of food, you should leave some” or “do you really think you need dessert?”. Or, “do you think you’ve put on some weight” or “no, your boss isn’t a bully, you need to toughen up”.
Because they’re fucking rude.
It reads like something out of an Ayn Rand novel.
“But why is this seriously implausible thing even happening?” asked Erin
The Senator looked at her, steelely eyed. “Because even more implausible reasons.” she grimly replied.
What? I like the time I spend in Canada. Yes, it’s a bit more feminist than the US (when a radio station ran sexist ads, they were defaced as quickly as they went up; with the dudebro message called out).
I have to say I was not worried in the least about being accused of harassing women; and the women I saw seemed less worried about me; which made me feel more relaxed and comfortable.
There are plenty of elevators around here that only service two stops, particularly at Metro stations (where they’ve been since the beginning for handicapped, stroller and bike access). I don’t use them often (because Metro has escalators, too), but I’ve never run into anyone complaining about able-bodied people using them.
Given where most of her ideas come from, it was probably Uranus.
Oh cringe, did he say that?
It certainly is. I’ve seen Confederate flags in Melbourne, Australia. Former neighbour used to fly one from his car. Old bloke I used to see on the tram wore a Confedrate hat. I’m pretty sure it’s all about racism here.
Also, magnesium wins the thread.
Lee – is that Metro as in Melbourne? Yeah, I’ve never heard anyone complain about able-bodied people using the lifts. If anything the complaints are about how slow the lifts are. 😀
Re Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III:
The Senator looked at her, steely eyed. “Because even more implausible reasons.” she grimly replied.
… okay. No exaggeration, I laughed at that to the point of pain.
… I’ve now got this image in my head that somewhere, downtown, in the halls of the senate, in the vicinity of Sen. Cools, there is a strange bubble of alternate reality, in which, in fact, everyone talks like they’re in an Ayn Rand novel.
Wow, David. It’s like you’re not even trying anymore.
I was momentarily confused, thinking of “snowsuits” in Finnish sense aka white camouflage suits used by soldiers in winter conditions.
Obviously, if you get sexually harassed, you should’ve worn better camouflage…
The South will rise…er, sink even deeper down under!
*checks to ensure this is the relevant thread in which to post comment, confirms*
I just use the Gugel to look at the Finnish snowsuit. Holy moly, those things are hot.
LOL!
What the Confederate wannabes should do is keep going south, to the peri-Antarctic islands, as long as they’re not nature reserves.
Clearly I’m missing something, because when I google “Finnish snowsuit” I get this.
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Finnish-Army-Winter-Snow-Suit-Ski-Suit-Winter-Warfare-Snow-Camo-Special-Forces-/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/UJsAAOxyM89Sa5HS/$%28KGrHqUOKogFJ,%28jqH9QBS,5HSbw1g~~60_35.JPG
When I read the original comment about the snow suit, I imagined a puffer type, or something like this.
http://www.miksovsky.com/Japan/1999-10/Snowsuit%20Model.jpg