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.
If there’s no evidence this guy did anything wrong, why’d they turf him and, if there is, why are we supposed to feel sorry for him? Either way, lame.
Pricless. Keep talking MRAssholes. Don’t ever change, unless you go away. Going away works for me.
From what I’ve gathered, the “ur so rapey lol” pic is a private selfie of Miley Cyrus when she was thirteen or so. The only reason AVfM has this picture to use is that someone else illegally disseminated it.
That’s a layer of gross, covered with hate, topped off with unethical, and then another sprinkling of gross on it.
Why is JudgyB speaking on behalf of feminists?
The whole goddamn point of feminism is gender equality. That would mean women are capable of writing software and men are capable of nurturing.
Seriously, did she just pull that out of her ass? Feminists don’t think men can love whaaaaaa?
I am and have been loved by many a good man, JB. You don’t speak for me or feminists in general. The fact you’re awful as are your colleagues needn’t imply I think men are awful in general.
It looks like the results I’d get if I asked a 13-year-old to make me a slide-show on why girls suck.
JB’s delightful tweets somehow remind me of Edina Monsoon’s line, “I PR things, darling!”
I think Patsy would be a better choice for PRing things than JB.
I feel kind of like a jerk for even calling this out because I have dyslexia and it’s totally a mistake I would make once or twice, but I am also not the PR guru of a hate speech factory and JB makes the mistake with frequency:
It is #icmi14, not #icim14. If you’re trying to brand and trend your hate, at least get the hashtag right.
On the bright side, AVFM is going to get their asses kicked in the press. It was thoughtful of them to invite so many journalists.
Wow. That’s a hell of a turnout they have.
Also, the disgusting hypocrisy of not allowing recording of the attendees when AVfM thinks doxxing is a legit tactic makes me mad. So posting bounties on the personal information of people who criticise you (not even try to shut you down, just use their right to free speech unflatteringly in your direction!) so your followers can “fuck their shit up” is all hunky-dory, but seeing the faces of the men dedicated to this so-called human rights movement is unconscionable? I don’t even.
@auntiealias:
Feminist conspiracy! All a plot to make the conference look bad! But seriously, I think the boycott did AVfM a favour … it would’ve been embarrassing had the protesters outnumbered the attendees. 😀
JudgeyB is always gonna JudgeyB, but she really outdid herself with her epic PR work. Her Tweeter feed is hilarious and hair-raising, I’m guessing she listens to a lot of right wing talk radio and doesn’t realize that most people aren’t invested in that sort of brainless ideological verbal combat.
Yay! Please keep this thread running for as long as possible. Your work is very important to us and we appreciate your support.
Lol!
Has JB been drinking? She seems*much* worse than usual, as if she’s let go of even the pretense of acting like an adult. Most teenagers have more poise and self-control than that.
As someone who maintains a Twitter account as part of my job at a large human rights-based organization, I just… wow. Just wow. This
I mean, there are a small number organizations that use inflammatory tactics to their advantage, even though most people find it reprehensible (PETA springs to mind). But the key here is consistency. What’s funny about AVfM is that half the time they are trying to maintain their so human rights, such official, very professionalism, wow facade, and then they’ve got their PR manager calling a journalist a whore for trying to attend their conference and it’s just like WAT R U DOIN PLZ LEARN HOW TO INTERNET.
I suppose I, and everyone here, already knew this, but the circus of stupid around this conference just drove it home.
MRAs’ stupid actions seem irrational in that the means they choose don’t match their stated ends. JB’s “PR” is a great example. Being hateful fucks doesn’t help men. Even if you want to attack feminism, calling people whores just makes it easier for people to dismiss you.
But, really, the hate itself is their end goal. They hate women, they enjoy hating women. Hate is fun. The whole confused ideological edifice they’ve constructed is only to justify their hatred; so they can see themselves as the victims rather than the victimizers. They’re fighting the good fight against false accusers rather than kicking people that have survived traumatic experiences.
It’s not that their hate is an ineffective way to achieve their goal of helping men, it’s that their bullshit talk about helping men is effective in allowing them to wallow in their hate.
So, judgybitch, do you think that calling women who disagree with you or with the overall AVFM message sexist slurs is the way to bring good publicity for said message? Especially since conference attendees were told in advance not to trash talk women?
And jsyk, JB, I’m neither a slut nor a whore, but an honorably married woman (13 years in May!). So you’re gonna have to get a bit more creative if you feel the need to cast slurs in my direction.
With regards to the Metro Times article,
Um, no. Teaching people a lesson by sexually harassing them would not be a particularly feminist thing to do.
Interesting. All the more interesting considering John Lennon is known to have been physically abusive towards both of his wives (and he admitted it). I’m sure, though, that he was definitely afraid to ask them for time off from his music career that they were secretly in charge of.
JB has to be the worst PR person in the history of PR people. She can’t string together two sentences without screaming “whore” and “cunt” as if she’s in a constant state of foul mouthed toddler tantrum. What a sad life she and this Lauren woman have. Having to trade their dignity in exchange for head pats from the men who are only using them must be so draining.
So JB, what was the attendance? 30? 40?
It guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Fidelbogen commented, “The creepy dude at the conference was eventually booted out of there. The consensus is, that he was planted in order to provoke an incident.” Everything is a freaking conspiracy with these guys.
JB continues the “whore” tirade (her whore score is three!) on twitter and accidentally linked to the wrong David Futrelle. I hope the poor guy doesn’t have to deal with any MRA trolling.
Ouch. Poor guy.
Those chairs look decidedly hard, actually.
More feminist conspiracy!