Heh. I’m on my annual semi-vacation this week, and was planning on keeping my postings here fairly light. But the news waits for no one. And by “news” I mean the daily parade of ridiculousness coming from the Men’s “Human Rights” camp. So here’s a quick report on the latest bit of high irony involving A Voice for Men.
Well, I was wrong. I’ve often noted that the Men’s Rights movement in general, and A Voice for Men in particular, doesn’t actually provide any real help for any real men. Sure, as far as I can tell, precisely zero of the hundreds of thousands of dollars A Voice for Men has raised from donors over the years has gone into providing actual services for men — say, funding a hotline for troubled men or some other practical program that doesn’t primarily involve yelling at women online. But never let it be said that none of this money gods to help men.
Because, it turns out, that money has been going to help men. Or at least that subset of men that consists of one Paul Elam of Houston Texas.
After being pressed for details about A Voice for Men’s finances by anonymous commenters on Reddit, a certain Twitterer named @DavidFutrelle and a journalist from MSNBC, Elam has finally fessed up and admitted that all the money donated to his website goes directly to him. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Elam had to say in a post from yesterday:
Every dollar donated goes right into my pocket. I spend that money on this website and on activist efforts at my own discretion, considering the opinions of the AVFM management team that volunteers to help run this place. … I depend on the site for my living, and to do as much FTSU as possible while I am at it.
In the past, of course, Elam was a bit more, well, elusive about where the money was going, talking about the costs of paying for web hosting and stock images rather than, say, the costs of paying the mortgage of one Paul Elam. Maybe “elusive” isn’t the correct word. “Deceptive” might be more like it.
You may also recall this pitch he once made for donations (I’ve put the best parts in bold):
I am tired of seeing a comparative handful of men and women cough up the lion’s share of financial assistance when most, even some who come here every day to read and cheer on FTSU, won’t cough up five fucking dollars to help us out; who are just fine as long as none of the burden, even a trivial part of it, is on them. …
[T]he longer I am at this, the less patience I have with dead weight, those who think AVFM is a fucking source of entertainment, or a life preserver for when the tables finally, inevitably turn against them.
In a way, I feel even worse now for most of the men who will make contact with AVfM looking for that lifeline. Unless their story is one that has the potential for me to exploit and gain media attention to THE CAUSE, then all I will have for them is a link to this article.
Well, and perhaps this piece of advice.
If the system has ruined your life, join the club. You are now in the ranks of men you have ignored your whole life. My advice to you is simple. Take your fucking quietly and with grace. Expect the same compassion you have always extended to those men who wore the shoes you are now wearing.
If you want things to change, then stock up on Ramen, get cozy in your studio apartment and join us in the fight to fix this shit. Don’t ask us to help you, but rather give your life the only meaning it may have left, as someone ready and willing to turn your meager existence into helping others who have been similarly screwed over.
In other words, Elam told troubled men turning to his site for help that they should stock up on Ramen noodles — and pay his bills. Oh, and on several occasions he’s boasted about taking donations from people taking the money from their unemployment checks.
As for the other people who put in so much time and energy at his site? As far as I can figure it from Elam’s evasive post yesterday, they earn nothing but a “thanks.”
At the end of each day, even with the incredible levels of help I get from people like Dean Esmay, David King, Al Martin and every one of the incredible people who work at AVFM, I am still target number one. I am a target for feminists posing as concerned MHRAs, yellow hacks like David Futrelle, and a target for many in the media who would love nothing better than to publish my personal financial information after putting their disgusting spin on it.
As you might have gathered from that quote, Elam remains indignant that anyone would even ask where the money goes.
And that goes for the money he recently raised that was supposedly earmarked to pay the security costs of AVFM’s conference. About that, he says only:
we hired four police officials (three officers and one supervisor) for coverage of the entire event and also hired a local attorney, paying his retainer in advance. We also had to engage our regular attorney, and have not yet been billed for their services.
In effect, we spent the money raised on precisely what we said we would spend it on, and have set aside what little remained for the next conference.
Really? According to costhelper.com, off-duty police officers generally cost $40-60 an hour; this Sheriff’s department puts the costs at $27-$31 an hour for each of its officers, including administrative fees. Even assuming that AVFM paid at the top of this range — $60 an hour — it would have cost them only $7200 to pay for four officers working ten hours each of the three days of the conference.
The amount that AVFM might have paid for legal fees depends on how much their lawyers charge per hour, and how many hours they worked. Assuming each lawyer charged $200 per hour and worked thirty hours over the three days of the conference — which I highly doubt — the cost for their legal assistance would have added up to $12,000. If AVFM actually paid even half that for legal fees I will eat my cats.
Even with these extremely generous assumptions, AVFM would have paid out only a little over $19,000 for security and legal fees. AVFM raised more than $30,000 for “security.”
In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I also ask readers for donations. But I’ve always made clear that aside from donations specifically earmarked for other things the money goes to me. (And the cats.) And I don’t demand that donors pay me $20,000 per quarter — $80,000 a year — on top of whatever donations come in between the quarterly fundraisers, not to mention special “security” fundraisers.
I’m very grateful to those who donate to me — and indeed to everyone who’s contributed time and effort and knowledge and artistic skills to help the site — but I take in only a fraction of what Elam evidently takes in. And I don’t ask for money from those who are themselves broke.
In the comments on AVFM, the regulars are of course rallying around Elam. Then again, I can’t imagine anyone critical of what he does with the money would remain unbanned there for long.
That’s not ableist at all. o_O
Doug, honey, you realize your argument boils down to “I don’t know what they’re doing, so it’s probably something good?”
Did Woody change his name to Doug when I wasn’t looking?
Wait… is Doug Spoonwood really Woody? Is this a diabolically clever attempt to spread his message of “Yay, Paul!” through new and exciting means?
Ninja’d by contrapangloss!
Sure, Doug. You keep telling yourself that, buddy.
Oh Doug, sweety. Look, we’ve all been there, okay. You bought a product you thought wouldn’t suck, you donated to an organization that you thought was being straight with you, you lent some money to that “friend” who will totally pay you back any day now, etc. And you know, you feel bad, because you got tricked or lied to or conned, and we live in a society that likes to blame people when they get screwed over, and so to defend yourself from accusations of being a “rube”, you’ve got to defend the initial expenditure. But, the thing is, you’re not fooling anybody. We can smell the confirmation bias from here. And it’s sad, man. Real sad. It’s okay to be angry when somebody takes your money under false pretences. You didn’t know. It’s not your fault, man.
This really, really upsets me. I think it might be because all his quotes and responses and his general temper tantrums at the most benign requests for accountability remind me of my dealings with my narcissistic sister.
Complete inability to have empathy for anyone but yourself…check
When challenged, you feel attacked and go for the jugular…check
Assume the motives of others without ever really asking what those motives are…check
Bathe in the ecstasy of imagined victimhood, martyrdom. Imagining that those you are hurting, are actually hurting you…check
Unintentionally revealing your crushing insecurity while self aggrandizing your importance…check
Ok, I have a very unhealthy relationship with my sister. I recently placed a “boundary” on our relationship (which she predictably took as an attack) that she has to acknowledge and apologize for the horrible things she’s said and done to and about me. I’ve already gotten the non apology. (Sorry you feel that way). Since then, I’ve been painted as the cruel meany pants sister who “abandoned” her in her time of need. (Which is always, btw. I don’t have times of need apparently). So I’ve been missing her. It’s been nearly a year. And then I read this shit. So, so triggering. I so fucking loathe abusers. I just can’t wrap my head around it. Which maybe is a good thing.
Please do! We accept donations through Purrpal.
Doug Spoonwood, use blockquotes. It isn’t fucking difficult.
It’s really creepy when he tells the people he’s suckered that they deserve none of the compassion and help he’s been swearing that they’ll only get from him and his ilk, and that if he can’t ‘exploit’ (his exact word) their stories they are essentially useless to him unless they live in physical deprivation in order to donate money to him.
Does Elam live in a ‘cozy’ studio apartment? By the looks of the books and things behind him, almost certainly no (and if it is a studio apartment, it’s quite a large and nicely maintained one). Does he live on ramen? I thoroughly doubt it. But he expects it of others. Charming.
Oh, I almost forgot the most important narcissistic trait: a big fat epice biting the hand that feeds you syndrome. That’s what encapsulates all this. I can’t even count how many times I’ve “loaned” her money, and her gratitude almost immediately wears off and it’s back to the “my world, my rules, my conditions”. Ok, I’ll stop projecting.
@Nitram – So many hugs if you want them. My mom’s side of the family is chockablock full of narcissistic jerks, too. 🙁 She’s by far the least toxic and purposefully mean, but she still shares a lot of personality traits with your sister. It’s hard when you love somebody who sees you as mostly a prop for their ego.
“You have them take, say, 30 minutes to draft a letter,”
So, the law firm I worked for? That’d be 15 min lawyer time, 15 min Argenti time — and I was $80 an hour (and making more like $10, but let’s not go there) — so that letter? About $75. Not 12k.
And besides some research, which you get $100-$150 an hour law clerk to do, idk wtf he’d need in advance of the conference besides contract review, and again, that’d be $500 max, if it were 2 hours of complex.
kittehserf – I feel foolish, but could you explain to me what the format is for using blockquotes? I’m fairly new to this.
@kittehs
May I offer you a basket of fresh muffins (or scones or other baked comestibles) kept warm under a linen cloth topped with chubby kittens for your devotion on the subject of at least attempting block quotes? With an accompanying cup of tea, natch. Or a shot. Or both.
Ok, caught up. Let’s see, building the Borg, had I charged for it…*things* flat rate for a project that ended up involving a whole new sort of PHP silliness…a grand maybe?
The couple articles I did that required research on par with college research papers? Even at $20 an hour (which is an absurd rate for a web site author, who tend to get paid flat rates and cheap ones) — works out to maybe $100.
Toss in another couple hours a month making sure the thing isn’t broken, the author’s aren’t borking WP (all too easy), and doing security shit and in 8 months I’ve put, say, $320 into editing and such (again, at $20 an hour).
So, high end, my work on the Borg, to date, would be maybe $1.5k — know what I’ve charged for it? Badgering people to write for it, that’s it. Because I’m doing it as a labor of love, not to make money! (*hint, hint* write things people! Nobody wrote shit for June. Nada, zip, zilch)
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Jenny – see Argenti’s answer above! 🙂
Now all I need to do is remember the code for writing blockquote instead of actually making one.
piratejennie, thank you! ::nom nom nom::
Just to jump in as someone who was also clumsy with HTML starting out there are plenty of user friendly sites for basics like blockquotes, strikethroughs, bold type, italicizing, etc.
This is also a very forgiving group who appreciate the effort and understand the voracious nature of the blockquote mammoth, devourer of all attempts to make sense.
PS Jenny, don’t feel foolish for not knowing how to blockquote – I learned it on this site, too – it’s people who’re posting walls of text and ignoring repeated requests-mit-explanations to use them who’re annoying me.
Huzzah! 🙂
piratejennie, you’re not wrong about the voracious blockquote mammoth. Did you see my epic fail that resulted in the longest unreadable string ever?
You know, I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with people running community websites as a job, with the payment coming from donations or fees from community members. No problem whatsoever. There are a lot of activists who do this work as their job and solicit donations and sell products from their websites and that is totally fine.
But you shouldn’t be squirrelly about what you’re doing. You shouldn’t act as if you are asking on behalf of some group, and not on behalf of yourself. If you believe in yourself and your work, and your community believes in it, they will be okay with donating to you and not some organization.
But you should say what’s going on. You should let yourself be held accountable. You should say something like, “I spend X hours every day creating this community you love and organizing events for you. This website costs X a month to maintain, and various expenses above and beyond that to make it a better place for you. And like anyone else, I need money to pay the mortgage/rent, car payments, etc., as organizing this space for you is my full time job, and I depend on your donations to allow me to continue the important work I do. With that in mind, I’m asking for blah blah blah”.
That is TOTALLY FINE.
But that’s not what Paul is doing. His current solicitation is vague, and asking on behalf of some undefined “we”, which reads to me as if he is talking about a group in an official capacity, like a non-profit or a corporation or something other than an individual human’s personal checking account.
You’re welcome!
Kitteh — <blockquote> … <blockquote>
So, I got bored.
From here — http://www.cultwatch.com/cultic-warning-signs.html — ones that, imo, apply to Elam are in italics.
So um, yeah, he’s certainly ringing all the alarm bells, though being ‘net based does probably make him less dangerous.
@kittehs
No, I missed that 🙂
My biggest gaffe so far was bold typing 3/4 of a post when I meant to only emphasize a single word. Made me seem very emphatic about some pretty neutral statements.