If anyone feels compelled to discuss the AVFM conference, do it here.
I’ll post links to any articles and blog posts and interesting tweets and pretty much anything of note I see about it; if you run across any, feel free to post them in the comments and I can add them to the post.
Here’s the live audio stream for the conference, which is off the air. And the video stream, which isn’t working at the moment. Apparently they’ve packed up for the day. (Friday, that is.)
There was no protest, as the organizers of the earlier protest called for a boycott
The official twitter hashtag is #icmi14. For some wonderful Janet Bloomfield PR professionalism, see @JudgyBitch1 and @icmi14.
Highlights so far:
A Detroit MetroTimes reporter says he was literally molested at the conference:
An older man came up to me and immediately complimented my hairy arms (a first). He then started telling me all this crazy shit about how he was from California and he makes movies and he wants to take me to Malibu. Regardless of sexual orientation, it was pretty weird. People started filling up the seats around us and I didn’t want to make a scene, so I just politely accepted the compliment and tried to deflect. The dude kept petting my arms.
It was at this point that I realized this is the kind of creepy shit women deal with … everywhere … every day. A part of me wondered if the feminists had planted this guy to hit on rape-apologizing MRAs to teach them a lesson about “rape culture.” If that is the case: well-played. Unfortunately I think I was just dealing with a garden-variety creep.
HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM! On Twitter, several others said they’d also had, er, encounters with this guy.
Here’s Janet Bloomfield’s response:
Paul Elam saddened to turn away a clearly troubled man in search of human contact because of accusations of "molestation" from MSM #icim14
— AVfM Conference 2014 (@icmi14) June 27, 2014
Sworebytheprecious, despite donating the cost of a ticket to charity, has not been let into the conference, despite assurances from Dean Esmay that she would be. Here’s her twitter feed, and her explanation of what happened on Reddit.
i put on my nice heels, a dress, and did my hair and makeup. the lyft was called and i arrived promptly at 3. my breath tight, i introduced myself to the police and to security. inside was a small table, two chairs, a man and a woman. i noticed a small vaporizer on the desk. we used the same tank.
i introduced myself by first name and last name, not knowing if Esmay had put my name down. last i heard i was not allowed on the premises even with a ticket and a video declaring me welcome. no matter who i was reporting for, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. if anything else i wanted to make myself available to the MRA. im still here.
a very large, gruff man appeared and quickly asked me to leave. his bass carried. he looked like Esmay. i asked why i should leave, was cut off, and he repeated himself in a louder voice still. i thanked everyone for their time and exited the building. i took one single photo as proof i was there, and quietly left. the cops followed me out and seemed curiously bemused by my presence. i wondered who they expected.
Janet Bloomfield had this to say about Swore’s treatment:
https://twitter.com/JudgyBitch1/status/482599155986997249
https://twitter.com/JudgyBitch1/status/482608296222662657
https://twitter.com/JudgyBitch1/status/482608815758528514
Follow the links to Twitter to see even more from JB along those lines.
I will post more as I find it.
UPDATE 1:
AnimalNewYork.com has a report with a number of quotes from last night’s press conference. The reporter also quotes a St. Clair Shores police officer saying that no specific threats have been made against the conference.
By the time yesterday’s planned 3pm “press conference” got going 25 minutes late, there were only about 30 people in the audience, most (but not all) white middle-aged men. A handful of them were reporters. The rest were true believers in a “War on Men.” There was a disco ball in the center of the hall, draped with white paper streamers.
“Point the camera that way and that way only,” said one of the three security guards armed with superfluous walkie talkies, reprimanding someone taking video footage of the attendees, which was prohibited. The organizers introduced the speakers at great lengths, taking pride in their various appearances on Fox News. 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. The cops were contracted to be there by A Voice For Men. It appeared that they weren’t there to protect them from specific and imminent danger, but to give the illusion of it.
Hmm.
Well, so much for that whole “No trash talking women” thing.
I honestly expect that the VFW will have more people at bingo night than at this shitshow
Didn’t take them long to give that up, did it? :/
I followed on twitter. Amazing PR wizard JudgyBitch seemed to spend most conference time picking fights and retweeting opponents on the official handle and her personal one. That doesn’t seem like the most effective use of time, but whatever, I guess.
She did tweet some conference stuff. I don’t know how to link stuff here, but this one stood out to me:
“Barbara Kay: LGBT community is a branch office of feminism #icim14”
#probsshouldnottweetthatwhenyouretryingtogetLGBTsupport
That’s some good human rights activism right thur.
Ive only listen for 23 minutes…and gosh the group is really nuts. Glad to see that they are been picked apart by this awsome community and others.
A PR person who calls people whores on publicly viewable media. Human rights movement!
Erin Pizzey: As the feminists organized themselves, and they are extremely highly-organized, they moved into every… they feminized the judiciary, they feminized all the service agencies, schools, universities, and now we see 40 years of wreckage above us.
That honestly sounds like the narration to a Sci-Fi horror movie.
Maybe the MRAs tricked the feMRAs into doing the trash talking so that they could claim that all women are the ones who are misogynists and not them? Who knows…
I’ve said this many times before, but I think it begs repeating – have seriously none of the people involved in M(H)RM taken any marketing or PR courses? I’m sure they can find some to be taken online for a relatively low cost.
The first course I’d recommend: “So you want to be taken seriously as a human rights organization? Maybe you should use your official accounts to call people cunts and whores… 101.”
The second course, “So you’ve been using your official accounts to call people cunts and whores and your followers have called you out on it. How to react, and not double-down with the insults and slurs… 102”
The third course, “Seriously, we’ve spent over 100 hours telling you ways to get your messaging across and none of our advice included calling people cunts and whores. Why the fuck are you wasting your money and our time if you are just going to keep calling people cunts and whores and don’t see a single problem with it?… 103”
Is it just me or do the MRM have the worst PR ever. OF ALL TIME. I have seen modern Nazi’s with better PR then these guys have. Is not the point of hiring someone to take care of your twitter to prove the group is not bullshit? This is almost anti-PR.
Telling, isn’t it? Normally a PR person would spend their time explaining what the movement was about, what they’re doing, and why you should care, and when a big event is happening, there should be no shortage of material for her. But that never even occurs to her; she honestly thinks that attacking people she doesn’t like is What PR People Do.
[blockquote]In 69 percent of media portrayals of men are negative. They are seen as rapists, perverts, weirdos and just mean. If you want men to do the responsible thing, you need to make it a more appealing proposition.[/blockquote]
Helen Smith needs to watch more movies.
Is it appropriate to have the name of the (alleged) creeper shown in this site’s comments? I understand someone else tweeted this information, but it seems to me his name should be blurred if his picture is linked here.
ZombieBear,
They didn’t hire JN; she’s an AVFM fan/contributor who they’ve declared the official PR person for the conference. I can’t imagine she would last a minute as a real PR professional.
JB, not JN.
Also, I don’t want the name and/or pic of the alleged creeper up here. Will delete the comment.
@Toolbox – if you take into account that the media overwhelmingly covers men as good guys, bad guys, bystanders, background noise, etc, then maybe she’s right but for the wrong reasons. 😛
I don’t know how I feel about the alleged creeper being outed here.
Thank you, David. I felt very uneasy about that.
Really men are seen as negative in the media that often? Men are almost always the hero/lead role on tv, movies, comics, etc. -_-
Here are some photos of Dr. Tara Palmatier’s slideshow by Adam Serwer:
https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/482561932235243520
https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/482560691790827521
Some people literally can’t communicate without expressing maximal contempt for women, it seems. There was also this roster of Honey Badger quotes:
https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/482617659972792320
didn’t they no woman bashing allowed at the conference LOL
Funny how they can’t even talk about a man violating other men’s personal space at their own conference without casting him as a victim and using scare quotes to cast doubt. But they’re all about counteracting “victim mentality”.
JB tweeted 2hrs ago:
What the actual fuck?
Is she that misinformed or just that dishonest?
Feminism is literally a movement that says that no gender is inherently more nurturing than another. It is patriarchy that says women are meant to be nurturers rather than men.
How can she even think making these claims makes her and her “movement” look anything but comically dishonest and willfully stupid?
That hastag is hilarious. Y’all have got to check it out.
Meanwhile, can’t you just feel the love in JB’s tweets?
I sure am glad there’s no offensive comments about women being made…
And again with the ‘negative’ husband portrayals. It’s funny because American Dad is in the background just now, and the wife is the dumb one there.