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a voice for men harassment misogyny MRA

DON'T protest the AVFM Conference in St. Clair Shores, say the organizers of original June 7th action

The June 7th protest. Original photo by Steve Nealing;  click on pic for more.
The June 7th protest. Original photo by Steve Nealing; click on pic for more.

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.

W1zg80i

 

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Falconer
10 years ago

I didn’t even bother with the comments. I am not surprised to hear they are full of blame.

Falconer
10 years ago

But the reporter obviously isn’t a Mammotheer. He wondered where all of the protesters were.

Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III
Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III
10 years ago

The Lennon anecdote works best if you imagine John in full Sgt Pepper’s Band regalia.

bunnybunny
10 years ago

The Lennon anecdote works best if you imagine John in full Sgt Pepper’s Band regalia.

And now I’m not-so-silently laugh-crying in my cubicle…

LBT
LBT
10 years ago

RE: WWTH

They also came to the conclusion that he was lying about being sexually harassed. Even though they claim to care about male victims and complain that they aren’t taken seriously.

Like I said, they’re only interested in using guys like me as a whipping stick for feminism. And only if my history happens to play into the exact paradigm they desire, which it doesn’t.

Lea
Lea
10 years ago

From now on when we have debates, the debaters will just stand on stage and the one judged most attractive will be the winner. Who cares what they have to say? From now on important issues will be solved by swimsuit competition.

That’s just how human rights activism works. Amirite?

Lea
Lea
10 years ago

I’m on good terms with my breasts, but I agree that boob sweat is the worst.
THE WORST!

opium4themasses
10 years ago

Given what I have heard about Lennon’s treatment of his first wife, thinking of him as a proto-MRA is not too far off.

sadiesummer
10 years ago

A view of the crowd at the @icmi14 conference pic.twitter.com/7CTHObmW3i— JanetBloomfield (@JudgyBitch1) June 27, 2014

jb tweeted this

bunnybunny
10 years ago

Yikes. Still not 300.

sadiesummer
10 years ago

listening to some of the audio, barbara kay said most campus women lie about being raped/assaulted, calling it “buyer’s remorse.” I’m done listening.

Toolbox
Toolbox
10 years ago

I’ve heard a lot of troubling things from this conference already. Cools apparently went on a patriarchy hug-fest, bluntly stating that women should stay at home for their, uh, ‘protection’. Erin talked about the evils of feminism and how they’re using it to take advantage of women through DV shelters.

sadiesummer
10 years ago

anne cools is a senator does she realize that’s untradtional?

katz
10 years ago

Oh dear. Yes, the turnout is predictable, but a corner of my mind was still going “They’ve worked so hard on this and they’re so excited. Maybe it won’t be a total train wreck.”

pecunium
10 years ago

katz: You’ve got your -grads crossed. Leningrad was under siege. Stalingrad was fought over but not besieged. /pedantry

&UUml;ber-pedantry: It was besieged, by the Russians, who managed to encircle it when Hitler listened to Göring telling him he could keep Paulus 6th Army supplied from the air. So, from Nov-Feb, the Germans were trying to raise the siege. It’s possible an attempt to break out, at the onset of the encirclment, could have succeeded, but that would have meant pulling back, and Hitler wouldn’t allow it.

Secondary Pedantry, this was a large part of the reason the Russians decided to try and blockade Berlin: since Germany hadn’t been able to keep something so trvial as an Army supplied, certainly the West didn’t have the airlift needed to keep a city going.

pecunium
10 years ago

Farrell then told an anecdote where he met a man who was depressed by the fact that he couldn’t take time off from his job to be with his son — he was afraid to ask his wife if that was a possibility. It was only after talking to this man for an hour that Farrell realized he was talking to John Lennon.

What? Farrell is spouting six kinds of bullshit. The only time that could have been possible was if this was while the Beatles* were still together, and the son was Julian.

Given that Lennon’s relationship with Julian was always strained (as I recall he said something in an interview about it being hard to know that one only existed because one’s parent’s got drunk and screwed in the back of a car) and he spent all his time with Sean, even writing a song about how much better his life was because he was, “no longer on the marry go ro-ound”, this is bullshit.

*And I find it hard to credit this sort of long talk with Lennon in 1965-66, which is when it would have been.

pecunium
10 years ago

We had more than that last weekend for a filk convention, which had a lot less press than this has had.

We also had a lower budget.

jared
jared
10 years ago

Lol ,They have a workshop at this so called conference going on now called “Men’s unique way of healing”.

Yeah right healing translated by the men at a voice for men is being miserable and blogging on the internet about how horrible women, gays, jews, blacks and whoever else are rather than going to therapy or some other healthy way to heal. But those at a voice for men sort of relish in their misery. These guys will never be happy.

sadiesummer
10 years ago

their claiming feminist “manufactured gropes”

https://twitter.com/MocoDelMono/status/482619984309280769

damselindetech
10 years ago

My kingdom for some popcorn.

damselindetech
10 years ago

On a serious note, though, it would sure be nice if the extra funds they raised were to go to something tangible and helpful, like trying to set up one of those DV shelters for men they keep talking about not existing. They apparently have the ability to fundraise significant amounts of money in short periods of time. Howsabout they build something tangible and lasting?

sarah
10 years ago

Why would Paul spend his hard-scammed money on helping other men?

Toolbox
Toolbox
10 years ago

Yeah, he needs to purchase a Lexus so he can mow down people he catches misandering.

Auntie Alias
Auntie Alias
10 years ago

More lies told by Paul Elam. http://animalnewyork.com/2014/inside-first-international-conference-mens-issues/

A Voice For Men founder and conference organizer Paul Elam stated that the cop cars parked outside were there because of more death threats. ”I’m getting tired of the death threats,” shouted a staff member.

Outside, I spoke to St. Clair Shores Officer David Burmeister about the alleged death threats. He said that no specific threats have been made at all.