Keep your distance from A Voice for Men’s conference at its new location in St. Clair Shores.
That’s the basic message the organisers of the original June 7th protest against the AVFM conference want to get out to anyone thinking of protesting the conference this Friday and Saturday. In an open letter posted on Amanda Levitt’s Fat Body Politics, the original organizers urge would-be protesters to boycott the conference and stay out of St. Clair Shores.
While the original organizers reaffirm their opposition to the conference and to “the horrific and vile hatred that A Voice for Men spreads on their website,” they are concerned about the safety of anyone who might be considering protesting:
We have had numerous people reach out to us to let us know of the very real danger we could be in by protesting. Due to concerns for physical safety we have decided the best way to oppose the conference that is now going on in St. Clair Shores is to keep our distance. With AVFM’s history of attempting to provoke protestors, harassing individuals by following them to their cars or home, and filming or photographing them in order to release their private information online we don’t feel that protesting at the VFW hall could keep people reasonable safe.
While there may be others who decide to protest the conference, we want to make it perfectly clear that there are real concerns for safety. If you are planning to protest the conference, please make sure the people who are coming are informed enough about the kind of vicious tactics that AVFM has used to derail and trivialize the response to their own ideology.
Be in solidarity with us this weekend as we ensure the safety of our organizers and other protesters by tweeting to #NoMRA about why this conference and the beliefs of AVFM shouldn’t be tolerated.
Emphasis added.
I should say that I agree with this approach: DON’T protest AVFM’s Conference in St. Clair Shores this weekend. Speak out against AVFM’s misogyny, and against its efforts to intimidate its critics — on social media and any other way you can.
But unless you are covering the conference as a journalist, don’t go to St. Clair Shores. Not only do you risk being doxxed and harassed by AVFM and its supporters, but you also will be giving AVFM what it wants: a confrontation, and yet another excuse to play the victim.
Make no mistake: AVFM and its supporters want to see protesters at their conference this weekend. Don’t give them what they want.
You will be far more effective critic of AVFM if, instead of confronting them in person, you speak up online, through letters to the editor, and by spreading the word in other peaceful ways that don’t involve actually going to the conference.
I don’t personally oppose AVFM’s conference taking place, but I think it’s very important to show the world what AVFM, its supporters, and its invited speakers really stand for.
I urge you to do what you can to publicize the video I helped to put together in collaboration with Mancheeze.com that highlights the hatefulness of a number of those scheduled to speak at AVFM’s conference– link to it, embed it on your blog, whatever you can do.
You can also help to spread the word by posting the graphic I’ve pasted in below, after the jump, which collects together the statements quoted in the video. You can click on it for a larger version.
*holds out package of goldfish crackers to placate the blockquote monster*
Crap, typo on your nym. Sorry, Auntie Alias!
No worries, Flying Mouse. I didn’t even notice!
I was hoping it meant Vice was going to film some of the conference. If not, this article is a nice consolation prize.
David is the Borg. EVERYONE HAS BEEN ASSIMILATED.
Vice is going to film the conference. That’s a separate thing.
But looking at the article — hey; it’s caricatuers of Paul and Dean! — I was struck by one of the pictures of the rally in it. Well, I was struck by the fact that Dean was wearing long pants in it. In other pictures of the rally, he’s in shorts. See here:
https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2013/09/28/speaker-at-mens-rights-rally-of-the-century-in-toronto-calls-on-mras-to-take-up-arms-against-communists/
Now, I knew that Dean had made a switch from long to short pants at some point during the day. But now we have evidence that it happened DURING the actual rally, er “rally” itself. HOW DID HE DO THAT? They were in a park. WHERE DID HE CHANGE?
Also, here is Judgy B’s OFFICIAL reaction to the news of the protester boycott:
https://twitter.com/JudgyBitch1/status/481906432716320769
She retweeted this one too:
https://twitter.com/LostSailorNY/status/481916321891102720
So yeah, she’s trying to, I guess, tease protesters into showing up?
Clearly a master of PR at work.
Oh, look, speaking of twitter, here’s THE GREATEST HUMAN RIGHTS LEADER OF THE MILLENNIUM offering his take on my appearance on Al Jazeera:
https://twitter.com/AVoiceForMen/status/482050181886525440
Wait…isn’t that misandry (if that were an actual thing)?
When I clicked that link, Mary Sue threw some petition plea on my screen. When I closed the plea, Firefox threw me back here.
Obviously, it’s because men are not allowed to learn about this secret technology.
(I remember reading some time ago about some Chinese “sperm extractor” that was quite obviously meant to be a publicity gimmick or perhaps a we-don’t-call-it-sex-toy.)
Ah, good. I wonder if the misters will change their minds on that after the not-so-flattering article (which was an uncanny reminder of undfreeland). I loved the illustration!
You’d think on the eve of this historic conference Elam would have better things to do than hurl personal insults on Twitter.
The comments on the Vice article were comedy gold. The article mocked the mister’s tendency to respond to criticism with “shut up, slur!”, and the mister’s respond with “shut up, slur!” They really do not have any self awareness, do they?
The best part of the Vice article really is the people mocking the pissy MRAs who’re commenting with their usual blather. Think for a moment about who Vice’s core audience is. If the misters can’t sell the MRM to the guys who love Vice they’re pretty much doomed.
It really doesn’t help that whenever they’re accused of misogyny, they respond with more misogyny. Gee whiz.
Ho ho ho ho ho, ur ugly, ho ho ho.
Goddamn, these guys are full of fail.
You’d think on the eve of this historic conference Elam would have better things to do than hurl personal insults on Twitter.
he
Elam is so stupid he is self sabotaging this conference. On one hand Elam and his fellow moronic mgtow’s are boasting on their blogs about meeting each other in person and how the public will finally see these idiotic mgtow’s in person how suave and hip they are and how the media coverage will be a good thing for this conference.
But on the other hand, Elam has set himself up for a fall by making hateful comments on the eve of this conference. He also is attempting to censor legitimate reporters such as DarkHorseSwore by trying not to allow her inside. What the heck is Elam hiding? Deep down Elam know that the media will report the truth that avfm is a bunch of bigots. I think some interviewers will be successful in recording some hateful stupid comments by the men at the conference. This will make avfm look bad. I hope someone can get into the conference whether it is DarkHorseSwore or an their obvious other reporter to transcribe all the misogynistic, hateful comments that will go on inside the conference. That would be awesome having a throng of mgtow’s in Detroit all comment to reporters their hateful views. This conference is going down, and the reputation of avfm will take a even a worse hit after the conference. Just wait for the hateful comments to reporters from the bitter stupid men there.
@jared
Well, the press conference is this afternoon so fingers crossed!
I wonder if anyone will ask Pauly why he’s insulting the appearance of a critic on twitter?
I would assume that JB has no intention to get a job any time soon, but still…does she not realize that nobody would ever hire her in any professional capacity after looking at her twitter account? That twitter accounts may disappear but screenshots are forever? I mean, even if you are a hate group, at least be smart enough to borrow from the playbook of legitimate organizations. You don’t see :
Amnesty International: Turkish protesters warned against potential arrest
Turkish government: @amnisty Yo bitches! Scared? Mwahahahaha…
You just don’t brag when you scared off people, ever. You don’t nag them on the public place. Not if anybody who can google can find legitimate reasons as to why people have every reasons to be cautious. Its like saying: I am bully and I am proud of it.
JB recently linked to the Redhead vid where it took me like 10sec to find:
“Throw this red cow into a wood chipper. The so called “equality movement” are the most hateful and divisive. “
They have been harassing that woman for over a year and they wont let go. How stupid are they for thinking nobody will notice?
And for Paul Elam comment on David…wth…at least be smart enough to pretend respecting your opponent by not attacking him on a personal level on the public place.
Its like the South African government saying: Mandela… Smandela… who cares? The guy looks like a wrinkly rectal wart anyway.
This is just a textbook case on “How not to do public image damage control“.
So I was looking through the AVFM’s old “What We Stand for Article”…
And I think the only thing one could gauge from this is that they stand for men being extrapolated from their responsibilities. It’s founded on unresolved rage and self-pity, and that seeps through every pore. It ranges from a hyperbolic narrative about what being falsely accused of rape might do to you – being raped by White Knight prison thugs, thus causing the man to become a murderer himself – to accusing chivalry of turning men against men, making men batter each other at the lady-folks behest.
They insinuate that many men are falsely imprisoned on grounds of DV; the argument being that women provoke them by instigating the violence first, until the poor fellow lets go, and gives her one back. Oh, and men are more often seen as being violent because women bruise more easily. It’s biology, right?
Do they honestly believe weaving a victim narrative can somehow mask their actual grievance?
They want women to be financially self-dependent, yet bellyache about how women “don’t need any man” and long for their lost provider status? They make claims about women ruining the working environments, and constantly try to get women out of their favourite fields. (I’m not even getting into the fact at how many of them don’t even have their own jobs).
I’ve absolutely no clue how they’re going to restrain themselves. Just about every word out their mouths is toxic, exaggerated, self-pitying rubbish used to bemoan that there are now certain social critiques towards behaviours that are used to hurt and belittle women. They show a spectacular lack of understanding about biology, psychology, human history and feminism.
I wonder if they will take the time at the conference to honor this woman, who saved a man from an angry mob:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/woman-braved-angry-mob-to-stop-attack-witness-says/Content?oid=2203293
I mean, this is a perfect example of the kind of world they’re hoping for, right?
I think the world they’re hoping for is one where a woman is beat up by an angry mob to save a man.
They want women to be financially self-dependent, yet bellyache about how women “don’t need any man” and long for their lost provider status? They make claims about women ruining the working environments, and constantly try to get women out of their favourite fields. (I’m not even getting into the fact at how many of them don’t even have their own jobs).
Toolbox no matter where they stand on avfm it is all the same anger. Esmay and Elam have said that they are against conservatives and traditional gender roles and they are paranoid about the institution of marriage. They even started this term “marriage strike” . The point even when they rant against conservatives over at avfm it still comes out as repulsive rubbish. I have seen mra commenters calling for gender separatism. That is why Elam I read erased the avfm archives so to hide this heinous stuff. The scary part is these same dudes will be beginning a conference in a few hours to try to mask the repugnance. They are trying to con the public to make it seem like they are advocates for mens issues like male suicide. But as Amanda Levitt wrote this is just a façade for men who are looking for a scapegoat for their plight.
So I am with Auntie Alias in keeping my fingers crossed that the mra’s will sound utterly ridiculous at the press conference later today and their true colors will come out.
@Toolbox
Pecunium recently said that he believed avoiding responsibility was the root of their anger and I’ve been thinking about that a lot. Rape, DV, and child support are at the top of their grievance list so it certainly fits.
When they run out of accountability issues, they make stuff up to make themselves sound more victimized; e.g., selective service is slavery(!), shorter life spans, no campaigns for prostate cancer, and higher suicide rates. The circumcision argument is a fair one but then they screw that up by pretending women are to blame for infant circumcision and by making it out to be worse than FGM.
Like you said, they’re walking contradictions and refuse to acknowledge their inconsistencies.
David, take it from an old crone with a good memory: you look quite handsome.
It reminds me of their outrage over acknowledging women as victims of warfare. Interestingly, they seem shocked – shocked – that losing your husband and children might be psychologically traumatic, and feel inclined to prove that having your leg blown off is a worse fate. Personally, I think most caring individuals would sacrifice their own leg to keep their loved ones safe. And that’s before we get into the war crimes that have targeted women for centuries.
It’s interesting how they’ll bring up imagery of a smiling middle-class woman, sitting at home and drinking tea, trying to contrast it with a man trying to hold in his own guts. It’s as if these women sent them there to die, whilst they giggled about it and hopped into bed with the hot conscientious objector next door.
But this goes back to their hypocrisy: soldiers and fire-fighters are oppressed as they do more dangerous jobs, which women don’t due to their lady privilege, but they’re also masculine heroes who we ought to admire for their willing courage. What I can’t wrap my head around is why they think other men’s achievements are a reflection on the gender as a whole. It’s just…what?
Because MRAs have nothing positive under their belt to hang on except the connection to the same gender that fought in a war some time ago or did dangerous labor (which they do nothing to alleviate).