Well, the AVFM conference is over. I thought I’d post links to some of the media coverage today. I’m not sure Paul Elam and co have quite attained the level of respectability they were going for with the conference. It probably didn’t help that their PR gal, Janet Bloomfield, kept posting about “whores” and then, during the final panel discussion, delivered a passionate defense of “doxxing.”
Anyway, here’s the press coverage today:
Men’s rights conference takes aim at feminism, by Adam Serwer, MSNBC.
Serwer presented a sardonic take on the conference, full of revealingly awful details. Some highlights:
What animated most of the speakers at the conference was feminism and how it needed to be defeated. …
At the conference, feminism was responsible for turning wives against their husbands, bleeding them dry in divorce proceedings and separating them from their children, levying false accusations of rape and abuse against good men, or creating an ever-present culture of hatred where men are vilified.
Though men’s rights activists who hosted the conference often say sexual assault against men isn’t taken seriously, the audience laughed when speaker Fred Jones mentioned his fears about his son being raped after being arrested in New Orleans.
“He’s kinda small and kinda cute, good looking, you know what I mean?” Jones said. “You know what they do with –” Jones cut himself off. But the audience laughed.
Barbara Kay, a columnist for Canada’s National Post, argued that … [r]ape on college campuses … was a myth perpetrated by man-haters …
“The vast majority of female students allegedly raped on campus are actually voicing buyer’s remorse from alcohol-fueled promiscuous behavior involving murky lines of consent on both sides,” she said, drawing chuckles from the audience. “It’s true. It’s their get-out-of-guilt-free card, you know like Monopoly.” The chuckles turned to guffaws.
The First International Conference on Men’s Issues: Day 1, by Arthur Goldwag, Hatewatch
On the SPLC’s Hatewatch blog, Goldwag — who wrote that famous SPLC takedown of the Men’s Rights movement — delivered up a surporisingly straightforward account of the first day of the conference. Some highlights:
A Voice for Men’s Paul Elam warned attendees to keep low profiles, lest they be harassed by protesters, and made much of the police presence he had secured. There were indeed uniformed policemen on site, and quite a few black-shirted security guards. There were camera crews from Vice and a number of reporters. But the only sounds to be heard outside the VFW Hall were chirping birds and the hum of passing traffic—there wasn’t a protestor in sight. I counted between 150 and 200 people in the hall. …
The Canadian Senator Anne Cools, who opened the conference, spoke at great length about how feminism has hijacked Canada’s family courts, quoting Blackstone on women’s rights, the song “Frankie and Johnnie” and even Euripides to give lie to the supposed feminist myth that women were historically oppressed. Frankie and Medea, she implied, both gave as good as they got. Erin Pizzey, the well-known novelist, ex-feminist, and founder of Chiswick Women’s Aid, one of the first women’s shelters, indicted the movement she had once helped lead as a radical Marxist plot to turn women against men, destroy families, and create a billion dollar social welfare industry.
My Experience at the First International Men’s Conference So Far, by Helen Smith, PJ Media
And then there was “Dr. Helen,” writing on her blog on the right-wing website PJ Media. Dr. H, one of the speakers at the AVFM conference, described her time amongst the MRAs as “quite a delight.” Indeed, her account was so chipper I found myself wondering if she had even attended the same conference as Serwer and Goldwag — or the conference I watched several hours of online.
The crowd of what looked to be about two or three hundred people were diverse and ranged from all ages to all ethnic backgrounds. There were more men there but almost as many women it seemed! … I was in awe and amazed at the great group of intellectual speakers and the audience who asked questions that were critically thought out and challenging.
Yeah, definitely a different conference.
She did have one worry, though: that other people were there to report on the conference besides her.
My only concern with the conference was the media that was present. It seemed that reporters from Time, MSNBC, GQ, and Vice.com were there. I got an uneasy feeling about a few of them though I suppose their stories could go either way, though I think I know which way to bet. There were a couple of women from Vice.com that we sat with at an appreciation dinner for speakers who seemed very nice but frankly, a bit clueless.
I’m guessing those women from Vice.com are a lot less “clueless” than Dr. H thinks.
See the AgainstMensRights subreddit for more discussions of the conference. I borrowed the pic for this post from here.
Thanks everyone. This church is so awesome on so many levels. I think I’m going to have to complain. I’m willing to bet it pissed other people off too. I hate that I was the only one to walk out (that I saw). I’ve ignored this shit for too long. Lies. Lies. Lies. Sick of it.
Yeah and planned parenthood does more to prevent abortions than these idiots. With this little thing called FREE BIRTH CONTROL.
B,
It is in the schools though. In states that teach abstinence only education fundamentalists forced birthers are brought in to tell the kids that abortion is murder and all the usual lies. That included my teen’s high school.
BTW, the word “consent” was never even muttered.
Only straight sex and cis gender people were discussed.
The priorities are clear.
@Nitram
I am mostly a lurker, not really a confident commenter here, but I want you to have my cyberhugs anyway because you totally didn’t deserve to have some ill-informed douchebag make you feel shitty about the fact that you made the right choice at a difficult time in your life. I’m sorry that it made your church not feel like the safe and supportive community space that it should have been, and I really hope it was just a one-off. Jesus never woulda pulled this kinda shite on his followers, so Christians shouldn’t try to pull it on each other either.
I’m just a stranger on the internet, but from what I can tell you know that you made the best choice for your life back then, and even though you shouldn’t have to ever deal with this shit from other people you are strong enough to get through it without internalising their ugliness and general crappiness.
QFT.
Nitram,
I bet you were not the only one who felt this way. Your church is lucky to have a member who will stand up and fight for it’s integrity.
Women do a lot of unpaid work to support causes they believe in. I think Elam has recognized this.
Men also do volunteer work, and I don’t intend to disappear them, but in my experience, volunteer organizations tend to be majority women.
@Nitram, that sucks. I’m sorry you had to be exposed to that.
Dear Nitram, I’ve been in the same place and this is why I finally gave up on church. If you find church otherwise satisfying, I hope you can find one that doesn’t do this OR I hope you are able to repair the thinking in the one you are in. Best of luck.
_______
“She said Americans pay for Canadian’s great social nets by the massive spending on the US military to keep Canadian’s safe.”
What are Americans keeping Canadians safe from? Bears? Americans?
I don’t see the association between Molyneux and Elam’s MRM as accidental. They both make a living of a borderline cultist fan base. I had not thought of Molyneux for many years until I saw his name popping here. Back then he was not perceived as a misogynist but from 2008 to 2012, even from the libertarians a la Ron Paul, there were warnings going around about his methods and he was accused of being a cult leader look alike The Guardian wrote a pretty good article about one specific case: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/15/family-relationships-fdr-defoo-cult . Maybe he is just an opportunist who changed his target after riding the Libertarian horse for a while. Honestly, I am not sure to whom these guys present the greatest danger, feminists, or their own followers. In any case, its not wise to let their influence grow unchecked. There is a site that has acted for a long time as a Molyneux watchdog, here is the link on a recent thread speculating as to why Molyneux is jumping on the MRAs bandwagon.
http://www.fdrliberated.com/forum/index.php?topic=760.0
For those not willing to waddle in that muck, here is an interesting bit:
“And there is the nettlesome phenomenon of the frequent times when Molyneux’s logic has been completely savaged by women. The ratio of men to women in FDR is extremely skewed towards men, but in spite of that, it has always seemed to me that the ratio of men to women who mount heroic and effective fallacy-exposing campaigns on FDR seems skewed toward women.
So what if Molyneux says, “look–it’s clear that my core audience is and will remain young men who struggle with relationship problems. My #1 goal now is to make money to pay for my nice, new house. My secondary goal is to have forum posts that praise my genius. Why don’t I just pander exclusively to young men by telling them what they really want to hear (that they have relationship problems because they are good and women are bad)? If I do that, then they will give me both money and praise by the bucketful.” “
Thanks everyone. Your words have truly helped. Never thought I was someone who would need a trigger warning but holy crap you’re right. Totally triggered me. Now I know the sensation. That fucker shoulda come w a giant trigger warning sign. I’ve never had such a strong reaction before. All the lies and hypocrisy was so hard to take.
Lea, I know it is in the schools and government, but I guess what I meant was that I’m kinda okay with it being in churches? Like it sucks but I would not protest a church for that the way I would a school or government policy.
However, I find it equally appropriate for a man’s group to educate women that they create a lot of rapist through ever more casual life preference decisions like choosing to have a child out of wedlock or leave a marriage.
Women who get divorced deserve to be raped? The hell? That’s a new low even for MRAs, dude.
Is there any “men’s rights” issue that doesn’t boil down to “waaah, I don’t get to own women like I own my car?”
@Nitram
So sorry you had to go through this situation. Not only the trigger, but also being made feel judged and unwelcome in your own Church. I often think if the Catholic Faith, in which I was born, had been more opened, and not so profoundly misogynistic, way more people such as myself would have stayed into the fold. So I really wish it will all work out for the best if you decide to approach your faith community with this issue.
http://motorcitymuckraker.com/blog/2014/06/29/7-ugly-observations-about-conference-on-mens-rights-in-metro-detroit/
This is a good article
@Shaenon
Nope, they dont fucking care about anything that ACTUALLY effects men that arent abusive garbage.
the only time issues like men not seeking help for mental health because of fucked up gender roles saying a man is weak for wanting help come up is when they can try to use it as a weapon against feminism (which in this case is somehow pro traditional gender roles)
Thanks sadiesummer for the link. This article so far was the most truthful in exposing the conference and a voice for. It must be a local blog. This is a quite from the article
“Paul Elam, who organized the event and is the founder of A Voice for Men, regularly calls women “cunts,” “whores” and “rotten crotches.”
This is what we need more of the truth. I think in a few days when the hype of the conference wears off, there will be enough anti mens rights campaigns on twitter and other social media. I have already seen a lot of anti mra, a voice for men stuff on twitter and other blogs so far which hopefully they will to give a good smear campaign to these guys and they are not even will be taken seriously by the mainstream media.
The biggest leverage and juice that Elam and his group is they have a lot of money. They have a lot of guys over there at a voice for men who donate big money to Elam.
That just means we all have to be tenacious in trying to stop these guys whether it blogs like this, or other ways to expose these bigots for who they really are.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/29/sparsely-attended-mens-rights-soiree-arrives-at-source-of-their-problems-hint-its-women/
the rawstory article also isn’t flattering.
Nitram: I’m sorry about the sucky suck at your church.
Justin left another wall o’ text, this time “rebuttal” of everyone’s critiques and a demand for open debate, over on the Erin Pizzey article. Should anyone tell him that he’s on the wrong thread, or should we let him figure it out himself? (I vote for the latter).
Nevermind, Fibinachi’s already taking care of him.
Jared — first, can you not call them crazy? I’m diagnosably nuts and would prefer not to lumped with this assholes. Thanks!
Yes, he definitely preys on people who’re vulnerable and looking for an external factor to blame. He also preys on those who sorta agree on general points though, not everyone over there is someone he caught up in his shit while they were vulnerable — plenty of them found his shit while looking for confirmation/affirmation of their similar views. As for trying to recruit more women, I think it’s a ploy to make them look less like the misogynists they are. Because if a woman says it, then it can’t be misogyny, not according to them anyways. Even there though, some of them seem a bit like maybe they want to protect men in their lives (good motives, stop listening to Elam! Come join us, we have SCENTED FUCKING CANDLES!!) but most come off as “I’m not like those other women”. Which is cute enough when it’s a little girl who wants to play with the boys so she denounces pink and skirts. Not so cute when it’s a grown ass adult denouncing the idea that most rape victims are women and men commit most DV.
Oh and you blockquote
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Nitram — the only thing I can add is…*drags over the barrel of hugs, tops it off with eeyore plushies* (I apparently hit goodwill right after someone donated their collection!)
“Let’s have a real debate.” Nope. Still not going to pretend misogynistic nonsense is a valid point of view.