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.
The SPLC article was disappointing.
Woody, it was swell to see all your pals flock to the comments section to proclaim it was a false accusation or a feminist plant(!). No one expressed a shred of concern for those who the man targeted, including Paul Elam. Some human rights movement. It boils down to: men can do no wrong.
Woody:
I am reading JB tweets and my gut reaction is that cant be for real.
I don’t know if what she is doing should be called PR, it’s like Bizarro World PR.
why did they kick him out? no felony was committed, isn’t that the standard? “felony reported to the police?”
For some reason, this song becomes an earworm every time I think of this con:
I somehow managed to listen to their interminable press conference in hopes of critiquing it, but the whole thing just sucked the life out of me. It didn’t help that Fox News favorite anti-feminist and Phyllis Shlafly’s niece, Suzanne “War on Men” Venker was not only there, but also dominated the Q & A. The whole gist of the press conference was that feminism isn’t the “sole culprit” responsible for the social ills effecting men, as Venker says at the end, it’s just the main one. They specifically point to “radical feminism”, which they claim is some all powerful force that took over Western Civilization in the 1970s. There just a variation of grand conspiracy reactionaries, similar to those that call Obama a radical Marxist, claim the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the US government and trying to impose Sharia law, and/or homosexuals are trying to remake society through their radical agenda. It’s hard to engage with people who have, or pretend to have, no idea of the world actually works.
Warren’s Lennon story was endless and he was really fucking boring, but I was amazed that he blames teenage boys interest in porn on teenage girls ignoring and/or rejecting them. Elam did a variation of “sorry, not sorry”, his appalling “not comparing MRM to the Black Civil Rights movement, comparing MRM to the Black Civil Rights Movement”. They really had a bee in their bonnet over paternity fraud, with Cornel Smith expressing outrage over how some husbands are victims paternity fraud while wives never experience maternity fraud. Yes, carrying the child is a big giveaway when it comes to the question of parenthood.
Helen Smith and Venker were as annoying as ever, I wouldn’t have watched this fucking thing if I knew I was getting that particular double shot of anti-feminism. Our favorite crank with five websites, Mike Buchanan, did light it with numerous false claims, including the torturous reasoning he used to explain how the British Parliament, where women make up 1/5 of the MPs, somehow has female over-representation.
As I said, they pushed their reactionary message as anti-feminism and not anti-women, then portrayed modern feminism as an all-powerful “Evil Empire” of radical female supremacists. Feminists are portrayed as anti-male, anti-female and even anti-non feminist female, with Pizzey really pushing it at the end by blaming everything on “radical lesbians”, rather than radical lesbian feminists. I guess she wanted to cut out the middle man, or middle woman in this case.
***Whoops I meant to write “feminists are portrayed as anti-male, anti-family and even anti-non-feminist female”
Oh, my god.
Was watching the closing pannel. I am so angry I am shaking.
Janet Bloomfield:
“Yes, we doxx people, and radical feminists should be afraid.”
Seriously. Seriously.
@brooked
Thanks for taking one for the team! I wanted to watch Molyneux’s speech but forgot the time difference and I missed it.
@WatermelonSugar
Are you freaking kidding me?? What an idiot she is. I still can’t fathom why they didn’t kick her to the curb after the obscenity she falsely attributed to the VFW. I get that the misters like having token women they can hold up to refute misogyny accusations but JB is a walking disaster and there are plenty of others eager to serve their masters. (barf)
Thats more of a concrete threat than anything they’ve blamed the feminists for.
the day the legal system slams down on them cant come soon enough
@Auntie
I am not kidding. At all. I wish I was.
She also said, on Agent Orange and Radfemhub:
Janet Bloomfield:
“Yes, we exposed their identities.”
Like seriously. Seriously. That is how they closed out an otherwise pretty mild panel session. By admitting to doxxing and telling radical feminists to be afraid.
If it makes anyone feel better, while this conference is going on World Pride is continuing on in my city (big parade tomorrow!) and the conferences and events that have been happening, and the associations and organizations and artists and everyone involved, have done more good for men (and will continue to do more good for men) than the MRM could even fathom. And they’ve done it without hating anyone else.
Kee-rist.
Keep on being open and honest about what it is you’re really about, MRM. Let the sun shine in.
@WatermelonSugar
It’s frustrating that there’s no permanent record of the speeches or panel discussion we can point to as evidence. The only hope is that it’s reported in the media and I won’t hold my breath on JB’s comment making it.
The YouTube link is still up and active. I don’t have the ability to record it. Does anyone else here? I can write down a transcript but that is about all.
I hope there were still press people there.
@Tracy
“Let the sun shine in.”
Now I cant help myself imagining these ghouls vanishing in a puff of ashes like in the good old fashion vampire flicks. Anybody noticed if the blinds were down in the conference room?
Ahyhoo, you’re all tougher than me, I could not stomach more than 5 minutes of the live stream.
Here’s the exact quote:
JANET BLOOMFIELD: I want to address the elephant in the room. I think we need to talk about the complete immorality and unacceptability of doxxing radical Islamics who say they’re going to fly planes into buildings and put pressure cookers at marathons ‘cause they’re just kidding.
[laughter, applause]
I had the very great please of reading through Agent Oange’s files that he collected from the RadFem Hub and just from memory, he said—he collected screen caps of things like “Men should be killed, their carcasses flayed and boiled for glue. They should be stabbed. They should be shot. They should be aborted at birth. We should consider developing a virus to exterminate them. Perhaps we can keep them in cages, just maintain 10% of the population as sperm donors.” Yes, we exposed their identity. I think you need to be held accountable when you engage in hate speech like that. What do we need to happen before it becomes ok to reveal the identities of hate mongers? Yes, we doxx people. And yes, radical feminists should be afraid. If you are going to go into chat forums and advocate for the extermination of half of humanity, you’re going to answer for it.
[applause]
Oh, I meant the nbc article, not the splc one.
RE: magnesium
John Lennon is known to have been physically abusive towards both of his wives (and he admitted it)
Really? D: Source?
RE: Tigerbos
the ‘creeper’ just naturally assumed since this was mostly a man’s group who has a notorious reputation for hating women that he thought it was attended by gay men?
I don’t equate ‘misogynist’ with ‘gay,’ but you know, that’s just me.
RE: damselindetech
Fucking do something useful!
Well, there’s your problem right there. You’re expecting them to DO something. Something USEFUL, even! How entitled of you.
RE: Woody
It’s a testament to the conference’s professionalism that the issue was dealt with through proper channels.
I knew I could count on you, Woody.
Not sure how they went about the doxing, some can be legal, but some definitely not. Just them admitting to it deserves a criminal investigation, imo. Anyhow, its still a good pr day for us and a bad one for them in Twitterland 😀 : http://topsy.com/analytics?q1=%23icmi14&q2=%23kitten&via=Topsy
See, I created this really adorable thank you gift for your guys with the help of my photographer sister. It was a handful of cutesy funny pictures of me bathing in the veritable bounty that was delivered to me by dustedeste on behalf of the Mammotheers. It was a ridiculous, over-the-top, silly photoshoot. My hair and makeup were done 50’s-style and I wore stockings and heels and a halter dress with with a big circle skirt. A couple were me in a bra and huge cotton floral underpants sitting with my care package, looking surprised by the camera and trying to protect my modesty. Two were nude with me using various items from the care package to censor parts of my body. They’re hilarious and cute. They’re not remotely sexual but they’re a little bit sexy on my terms within my comfort zone. We had a lot of fun. The plan was create a public photo album and share it with everyone for a laugh as a thank you.
But I won’t be doing that because, as JB has made clear, as a poster here, I’m a target of harassment and abuse by AVfM. They can’t do anything to harm my education or career because I haven’t actually done anything wrong. The vast majority of the people AVfM targets haven’t though and I’d just rather not have to deal with their bullshit soooooo gotta keep my identity under wraps.
MarineRachel,
At least it sounds like you had fun doing the shoot! That’s what counts.
At least the shoot was fun! Cutesy funny pictures to remind yourself that people care are always a good thing, even if the only one who ever looks at them is you and the photo-sis.
And, yep, me also coward; I’m fine sharing info with people I trust, and I’m fine sharing my proxy email that’s disconnected from everything but WP, but I’d never post my info where someone like JB, Undies, or anyone MRA could see it.
I don’t want to put up with their harassment. I don’t believe that any of my former employers or any of the people who know me would believe half their claims, for even a second. But why the heck would I want to open them (and myself) up to receiving threats, tons of junk emails, insults, and general awful?
@LBT — avid lennon fan here. i read an autobiography by his first wife, cynthia lennon where she did say that john was abusive, extremely jealous and did hit her on occasion.
i have also seen interviews where he admitted as much himself. check out old interviews of dick cavett interviewing john and yoko, i think you will find it there. he clearly realized he had a problem, worked on it and came through to the other side. i think the cavett show where he performed ‘woman is the nigger of the world’ touched on these issues. (also a note to MRAs — anyone who would write and perform that song, is clearly not on your side.)
it is also well known that the household arrangement with yoko attending to business matters because she was better at it and john attending to child/home matters was a deliberate choice. lennon had clearly abandoned his elder son, julian, and was determined to not repeat that mistake. there is also interviews (perhaps the playboy article that came out in dec. 80, the month he died?) where yoko had said that carrying the baby for 9 months was her job, but that she expected john to take care of the rest. clearly the arrangement worked for the whole family.
now, i did not know lennon, although i have friends who did, i find farrel’s assertions to be absurd. at the very least, the story has migrated and been embellished over the years.