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.
damselindetech:
It’s very telling that the only dude who engaged with your (very salient and compassionate) tweets was like “yeah, but FEMINISTS HATE MEN.” And then quickly lost interest when you made it clear that you wanted to have an actual constructive conversation about helping men.
I hitch a ride to my parents’ house and you all have fun without me!
Fromafar and Katz–
Those are amazing. I saved them all to send to my fiancé; he’s a big Star Wars nerd and was listening to the Cupcake bit with me. Truly awesome.
A note on baking and the Conference to End All Conferences:
I’ve seen baking come up twice in the twitter feed of JB/ICMI14. The first was JB using it to fatshame FatBodyPolitics and now there official account has a new hashtag from the speaker in question: #notallcupcakes. I find it very interesting that something that is traditionally associated with the feminine is being used to bash women. I’m sure that they’re not with it enough to make the association on a conscious level, but I think it is telling.
From the twitterfront:
JB retweets David on the whore issue and on thanking PE for appointing such a colorful PR professional, proving yet again that she has no concept of PR or professionalism.
ICMI14 tweets some backward, incoherent blog post about why it’s good to blame feminism, proving nothing, per usual.
With love and WTF,
Your Friendly Mammothhood Confused Correspondant
So… lessee…. Three cops, and it’s a daytime only gig.
So lets assume the city bill $100 per hour, x 3 x 3, and call it ten hours.
$9,000
That’s a tidy little sum Elam gets to pocket by way of the difference. If the billing rate is more like $75 per hour, he gets to pocket another couple of grand.
But, with regret, he is asking for more money to “keep them afloat”.
“pay bills for general operations, and to cover the almost endless stream of things from the conference”
Yessssss. Don’t be too evasive will you Paul.
Also, is Pizzey pronounced like pissy, but with zz’s?
Guys I need money for things and operations and stuff. Cough, not a scam, cough.
Hey hey, one of the WHtM-sourced tweets made it on the ICMI14 account! Yay Mammothers, making great strides for men and boys, all without spewing hate or raising questionable funds!
Sounds legit! Where’s my wallet…
I wonder if Dave Sim (the celebrated cartoonist who is most definitely not a misogynist*) knows about this hootenanny. It might be a bit much even for him.
*Just ask him! If you don’t agree that he’s not, he doesn’t want to hear from you.
Ope, just kidding–just mixed messages, though it is good when “ANY thought makes it through” our “skulls thickened with violent feminist ideaology.”
Thanks for the clairification, JB. I thought for a second AVfM might actually approve of helping people.
That’s a tidy little sum Elam gets to pocket by way of the difference. If the billing rate is more like $75 per hour, he gets to pocket another couple of grand.
But, with regret, he is asking for more money to “keep them afloat”.
Could you believe this charlatan Elam could be making a six figure income from his chauvinist fanatics at avfm? How could his disciples be so gullible? This is an outrage, a guy getting wealthy and living an affluent life off of his diabolical nonsense. Elam should be investigated by the irs or the government at this point with all his money. I know at least avfm was exposed by the SPLC as a hate group.
Has this been posted yet?
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/mens-rights-conference-feminism
I just read that article!
Please tell me why they keep using the “we have women in our group so we cant be misogynist” excuse??? It annoys the crap out of me.
Notes from Twitterland:
–AVfM’s PR Guru seems to have abandoned actually covering the conference happenings personally and is instead re-tweeting coverage from other sources on the JB account. Who can blame her? Starting twitter fights and using the ICMI14 Super Official and Legit Account to broadcast said fights is hard and in much better interest of the group than doing the job that the PR Guru was actually assigned to do.
–JB posts an image of violent feminist rhetoric, seeming to forget that AVfM is a whole site of violent anti-feminist rhetoric.
–JB accidentally starts fight with supporter of AVfM/Conference to End All Conferences; sort-of-kind-of-apologizes by saying that Twitter, Feminists and herself are bitches.
–JB suggests FatBodyPolitics be sent to the front lines of war to die? I don’t know, her thinking is very difficult to follow.
HUMAN RIGHTS AT WORK, YA’LL. THEY ARE FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT.
Also, JB said something about feminists not thinking fathers can love. One, that’s bullshit. Two, for a conference that is offering mental health CEUs, there doesn’t seem to be a sound grasp of mental health going on here. Love, be it from a father or a mother or a grandparent or a great uncle/aunt twice removed, is great, but not all love is healthy love. There’s all kinds of space for really unhealthy, toxic things under the umbrella of love. While they’re doing a festive job of portraying women as expressing this kind of toxic love, they’re not discussing the expression in other genders. They can talk about the family unit all they want (side note–is AVfM against or for the “traditional” family? I can’t tell; the stance varies so often, depending on what kind of woman they’re trying to demonize), but sometimes love really isn’t enough for any party involved.
Why does it not surprise me that they’re going after Hilary Clinton? I knew the high probability that she’ll be our next president would start bringing the misogynists out of the woodwork the same way the Obama presidency has brought racism from simmering to boiling (mixed metaphor, don’t care).
Sadly, I predict the MRM will gain new adherents in the US if she wins the presidency in 2016. Membership in racist hate groups rose when Obama won after all.
Presumably the MRAs will all support whoever the Republican nominee will be despite the fact that he’ll almost certainly be opposed to gay rights and for Jim Crowesque voter ID laws. And we’re supposed to believe the MRM is not racist or homophobic at all? Right.
@cloudiah–THANK YOU. That article is amazing. Hopefully David will update with it soon!
Also, another Twitter gem from PR Guru JudgyBitch (just copying the text here and removing others’ names):
UnnamedTwitterTweeter: She may be referring to rape/abuse within the armed forces. I’ve not read up on it enough to pass judgement.
JudgyBitch1: Oh, date rape or getting your ass grabbed. Totally worse than combat any day. #seemslegit
…so much for taking rape seriously.
Sorry to post so much, but SPLC has this up, as well:
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2014/06/28/the-first-international-conference-on-mens-issues-day-1/
just read that article!
Please tell me why they keep using the “we have women in our group so we cant be misogynist” excuse??? It annoys the crap out of me.
Cloudiah thanks for the article link.you know after reading the more I think a voice for men is like a cult group. It seems whoever it is whether Dr. Tara, GWW. Esmay, they all seem loyal to a voice for men. They seem to love him and idolize him like he is some sort of charismatic figure. They do not see the aspect such as Elam taking their money and using it for his materialistic lifestyle. They are blinded to that he is in it all for the money for he seems like he is constantly asking for another donation. Perhaps avfm should be on a cult watch.
Look at the comments in the article how they seem enchanted by Elam and “drinking the kool aid”. How can an educated woman like Dr. Tara be so loyal to this blatant misogynist?
In a way it is eerie that He is able to cast a spell over them. It’s a cult over there.
What’s sailing right over JB’s sweet little head is that many female and perhaps even more male service members have to endure both sexual assault AND combat (modern warfare often sees to that; even if there isn’t supposed to be a front-line component to your job, the front line can be pretty much anywhere now). And let’s not even get into the golden opportunity she has to actually raise some awareness about those male survivors. Especially since in super-macho military culture, male SA victims have an even harder time coming forward.
Yeah, JB, way to stick up for the troops. Can’t let helping a vulnerable group of men get in the way of putting down a woman you don’t like and throwing even more women under the bus.
@Jared the “movement” would probably fall apart almost immediately if elam ever got arrested for a crime (fraud, violating various anti-cyberbulling/Cyberstalking laws via doxxing, etc)
i’m not a lawyer but i’m fairly certain that 18 U.S. Code § 875 has REGULARLY been violated by mras doing “activism” http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/875#c
Of course, what you have ignored is that the man in question was promptly asked to leave by Paul himself. It’s a testament to the conference’s professionalism that the issue was dealt with through proper channels.
Shut up Woody. That was in fact addressed.
Woody, you always make me smile.
Shut the fuck up, Woody.
Lol, Woody.
That article is every goddamnedthing I hate about today’s journalism: just straight fucking reporting of the propaganda line, without even bothering to fucking google the group putting the conference together.