Woah! Just wanted to pass along this news from the Motor City Muckraker:
A controversial conference for a men’s rights group in Detroit appears to be in jeopardy after a fallout with downtown’s Hilton DoubleTree, which planned to host the event from June 26-28.
The inaugural conference at the DoubleTree has been canceled for unknown reasons, and organizers of the first International Conference on Men’s Issues haven’t said yet whether it will be moved to another hotel and conference center.
“At this time, they are not booked with us,” Larry Brown, manager of the DoubleTree, said this morning. He declined to elaborate on the cancelation.
There’s nothing on A Voice for Men about this latest development, though Esmay hinted during his Fox News appearance that they were possibly going to reconsider the Doubletree. But as of right now, AVFM is still selling tickets, as if the Doubletree convention is still a going concern.
Are they going to try to book the convention elsewhere? Or are they going to take the $29,000 they raised for “security” and, I dunno, send Esmay to a better stylist?
One other, ah, interesting detail in the Motor City Muckraker story:
When asked Tuesday whether the event would be moved, an organizer responded: “The DoubleTree GM (general manager) actually said that he has ‘feminist phobia’ and sort of laughed but in a nervous way. So its being discussed.”
It’s questionable whether this conversation ever occurred because the general manager is a woman.
Yeah. Seems like a lot of things about this convention have been pretty questionable from the start.
UPDATE: Well, one thing’s a bit clearer now, though. I called the Detroit Police and they confirmed that the Doubletree did indeed report to them that it had received threats. Who sent them, we still don’t know, but I think we can all agree that whether the threats came from some misguided feminist or “progressive” or from an MRA trying to stir shit and make feminists look bad, whoever made the threatening calls is a shithead who deserves to face the legal consequences for what they did.
UPDATE 2: According to the Detroit News, Elam says they’ve got another venue:
“We have scheduled another venue and will make an announcement on the site this evening,” group founder Paul Elam said in an email Wednesday.
So far no announcement on AVFM; I’ll post about it when there is one.
I’d predict a major meltdown of AVfM as all the members realize they’ve been ripped off, the conference was never really meant to happen, and Elam is laughing all the way to the bank, but that hasn’t happened any of the 20 or so other times this has happened.
I just want to know why this fairly small number of guys even had 29K to spare. Wish I was that kind of oppressed.
The good thing is that some sort of protests do work. The Doubletree does not want any bad publicity about their company so they backed out of holding the conference. DoubleTree is owned by Hilton I believe so as a public corporation they do not want to have their reputation damaged by holding a conference for a group of misogynists. So all the negative feedback that DoubleTree heard about MRA’s was not for naught. They backed out and now .Yaay.
Esmay and his cohorts will try to choose another hotel. In my opinion I cannot see any hotels/convention/retreat centers allowing this conference on their grounds. They will know based on the DoubleTree incident that it is not worth it given all the chaos and bad publicity that will ensue. Thankfully it could happen that avfm may not be able to find a suitable location for their conference. I would not put it past them to cancel the conference and keep all the deposit money they received from their fellow gullible mra’s.
There is a troll on the event page and on news website comments libeling the hotel manager already.
I called the hotel and left him a message.
I posted this exchange on an older article but it’s relevant to this.
I know who I believe. 😀
The manager? I thought she’s a woman?
Who could have ever predicted this turn of events? No one ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of MRAs. Well played Elam.
Anyone surprised by this turn of events?
*crickets chirping*
Yeah, me neither.
Sweet, sweet schadenfreude!
If you’re going to lie in your press release, MRAs, at least get the facts correct that can be checked.
And trolls in the comments are torn between accusing feminists of terrorism whilst claiming the AVfM cancelled because the Doubletree wasn’t big enough to hold all the attendees.
Oh, AVFM.
Whaaaat? Well I never. After all this time of being upstanding pillars of society, AVfM are revealed to be less than perfect? I shall never believe it! NEVAR!
@Auntie Alias
I like ScaaarBeeek’s comment above that one… apparently we are engaging in a proxy war against AVfM with government backing. Soon the Rebellion will be crushed, and young Skywalker will be one of us… or something like that.
The general manager is a woman. This is another manager.
HAHAHAHAHAHA. I am soooooo shocked at this turn of events.
Maybe they can use the money to fix Dean’s grill and get him a new suit for public appearances.
I just made a Schadenfreude Pie. Would anyone like a slice? It’s huge.There’s enough for everyone.
Sounds delicious! I’ve been meaning to make misandry cake myself…
Opinions were divided among MHRAs, between those who thought that radfems – and their male poodles – would be so STOOOOOOOOOOOOOPID as to seek to force the venue to not host the world’s first-ever conference on men’s issues, in a bid to censor free speech and thereby hand a huge PR gift to AVfM (and the MHRM more widely), and those who thought the radfems wouldn’t. Our experience has been that it’s generally worth putting money on the viciousness and stupidity of radfems, so this comes as no surprise to us.
I look forward to speaking at the event, whenever and wherever it’s held. No MHRA of my acquaintance has the SLIGHTEST concern about the integrity of Paul Elam, Dean Esmay, or any other key figures in AVfM, which is why the $25,000 fundraiser met its target in 22 hours. It’s a safe bet to say the event will attract MORE delegates and media attention, after what’s happened. Happy days.
That’s because you’re fucking stupid and gullible. Go away, you sad little man.
Hey Mike, how do you define “radfem”?
I would like some of that delicious pie.
I may actually make popcorn too.
My favorite bit was that JB must be at fault because she’s a woman.
She’ll never be able to hate other women enough to make her MRA buddies stop hating her for being one too.
A key difference between radfems and MHRAs is that while feminists seek to stifle free speech, MHRAs would be happy to see live streaming of radfem conference speeches onto the internet, and I’m sure would go to some trouble to advertise the speeches to the maximum possible audience. After all, anyone with an IQ above that a goldfish would surely laugh at the nonsense radfems believe in.
You didn’t define radfem. You just described a difference between MRAs and radfems.
You’re here and your frozen peaches are being exercised, so just stop lying, asshole.
So what’s your cut of that $25,000, there Mike? Whatever you all do, don’t collect any donations that might go to helping a man that isn’t yourselves. You wouldn’t want to risk it helping a man who doesn’t meet your specific standards of appropriate man-ness. Just keep coming up with new insults that attack their masculinity. That’s how I know you care so much about men’s rights.
Man, I’m in the wrong profession. I have to go to a job every day and do work. These guys are raking in 80’s televangelist cash,and all they have to do is be angry on the internet for a couple hours a month.
Ally S
Radfem – an American feminist, Christina Hoff Sommers, wrote in ‘Who Stole Feminism’ (1994) of equity feminists – like herself – and gender feminists. The latter seek female supremacy and relentless advantaging over men on the grounds of gender alone – so why shouldn’t they get £20,000+ pa grants to study engineering at postgrad level? Something nobody last night on another comment stream objected to, from memory. After all it’s men who pay 72% of the income tax which finances that lifestyle option, and they can quit when they have their first kid.
To all intends and purposes gender / radical / militant feminism are the same – all female supremacist ideologies driven by misandry, and enabled in the main by male poodles.
Guess you won’t be watching.
I think you’re confused about what free speech means Mikey.
MRAs have the right to speak and hold their repulsive opinions. The rest of us have a right to disagree with you and speak out. Free speech works both ways. The Doubletree is a private business and has the right to make business decisions. They seem to have concluded that hosting a hate group is bad for business.
As an aspiring politician you should really learn what free speech actually is. You’re starting to sound like Britain’s version of Sarah Palin.