Jessica Valenti – Guardian columnist, Feministing founder, non-man-hating feminist – has been fending off an unending torrent of harassment and abuse since she tweeted a picture of herself wearing an ironic t-shirt a couple of weeks ago.
Last weekend, a seemingly innocent tweet from her– asking her readers if they knew any countries that provided free tampons – set off yet another wave of abuse. Her question, and the cogent column she ultimately wrote on the subject, arguing that there are legitimate health concerns that justify government subsidies for tampons, inspired countless thoughtful comments from her critics. Like these:
https://twitter.com/skzdalimit/statuses/497828918851043330
https://twitter.com/adam_mcphee/statuses/497892354331000832
These sorts of comments (and there were many more along these lines) are sadly typical of the sorts of things feminists – particularly those of the female variety – get whenever they happen to state their opinion about anything online. (If you click on the second one you can see the Tweeter defending his vagina remarks against assorted critics.)
But a reader pointed me to something, well, interesting about that second tweet: It came from a fellow named Adam McPhee, a self-professed “egalitarian” who just happens to be a board member, and the official spokesperson, for a group we’ve discussed here before: the Canadian Association For Equality (CAFE).
CAFE has won itself a certain notoriety in recent months. In May, you might recall, the group’s planned E-Day festival fell apart after its sponsors and some of the musicians scheduled to perform at it discovered that they had unwittingly signed on to a Men’s Rights event.
The group has also organized talks by antifeminist speakers, including the now-notorious appearance of Warren Farrell at the University of Toronto, which inspired some, well, let’s just call them counterproductive protests that we’ve been hearing about endlessly ever since.
But CAFE has been working hard to gain itself a bit of respectability. It somehow managed to win itself charity status from the Candadian government, and has raised money to start up some sort of men’s center. And it has been trying to distance itself from one formerly close ally, A Voice for Men.
Indeed, McPhee himself recently gave an interview to the Toronto Star in which he described AVFM’s harassment of some of those who protested Warren Farrell’s talk as “completely wrong.”
So it seems just a tad ironic, to say the least, to see McPhee happily harassing Jessica Valenti on Twitter.
PS: Adam, I agree with Jessica on that whole tampon thing. So feel free to Tweet me your thoughts about my gaping vagina.
Not that I took MRAs seriously in the first place, but it’s especially difficult to pay any mind at all to people who don’t have a middle school level amount of human anatomy knowledge.
Does that guy think tampons are used like a gauze bandages? We must stop the bleeding while our uteri heal! What does he think menstruation is?
Also, he said “your you-know-what.” How mature. His middle school health teacher needs to do a better job.
Women get gynecologists!? What about TEH MENZ!?
I just wish every mister who is somehow convinced tampons and pads aren’t essential would read these stories about the difference they make in developing nations (Content note: some pretty awful mentions of sexual coercion as well as abhorrent substitutes for hygiene products).
Of course then we’d just get concern trolling about how “Western feminism worries about trivial things, but those women are GENUINELY OPPRESSED”. Sigh.
I’ve seen outright MRM trolls who actually are better at the PR game and spokesperson-deal than the people who hold these opinions in an official (cough cough) capacity.
I’ve read some U.S. frontier memoirs (1870-90s), and found this “joke” multiple times. It was ancient even then.
Women get gynecologists!? What about TEH MENZ!?
They’re allowed gynecologists whenever they have their vaginas examined too.
For people who love evo-psych, they really do ignore the fact that humans have a cerebral cortex that enables us to rise above instincts.
MRAs: the ones who argue that men have the self-control of amoeba (yes, I purposely chose a eukaryote).
Cis men sorry fixed it.
Do these guys ever consider that if their idea was correct, everyone who has ever given birth would have a vadge the size of the baby’s head, forever?
Or do they think that’s what happens?
Do they?
Which is precisely what they want.
Oh, just a urologist’s lubricated, gloved finger up the bum. And yearly PSA tests.
The poor oppressed dears.
I thought that CAFE’s charity status was being appealed. Does anyone know what happened?
strivingally – remember when Howard the scumbag & co. introduced the GST? People were asking WTF??? then about pads and tampons being taxed. IIRC, the then health minister dismissed them as … cosmetics.
Yup. And also, because nothing is as withering as a bewildered look and an innocent “Is it in yet?” when they’re already in up to the hilt.
Either they are truly that clueless, or they fancy that theirs is some kind of universal dilator that would stretch even a cow elephant out of shape.
Or they engage in one hell of a lot of wishful thinking.
(They also seem to think that all the semen of all the guys who’ve ever been there before them sticks around, building up into a huge and horrible mass, forever. Tomorrow’s anatomy lesson is that of the miracle of the self-cleaning vagina.)
I rather like the idea of semen evolving into the MRA’s-dick-eating version of the Blob.
as a Canadian kitty, ai ashamed of dis public example and display of douchebaggery….maybe they just really, really hate that their _entire existence_ could have ONLY happened because they were born out of bleeding vagina? ai’m just speculating here….
I’ve never commented here before, but I’ve been following this site for a while, and I had to jump in and comment on the hilarity of the “gaping vagina” idea that these dudes have. According to them, the more sex you have, the more stretched out your vagina gets, but somehow this only applies if they’ve decided you’re too promiscuous.
Slutty McWhorePants has sex with 50 different men 1 time each = her vagina is ruined forever because it’s so stretched out from all that horrible slutty sex she’s been having.
Woman in a committed relationship has sex with 1 guy 50 times = her vagina’s just fine.
MRA logic at its finest.
WARNING: I may be the only person on earth who finds CAFE’s leadership page kinda sad in a genuinely hilarious way.
If you compare these names to the staff listed below, you’ll notice the board is littered with staff members. Not a good idea, BTW. For a small organization you should have an independent board with 3-5 non-staff directors. Naming a chair to head the board helps too.
This is a frigging mess, how about a executive director or are they really titling the chief executive role as “spokesperson”? Assuming he’s the executive director, I love how McPhee also tosses in “Director of Blogging” to heighten his overall prestige. Four of the six “officers” all work in communications or PR. Or five of the six, if you throw in the guy allegedly doing a podcast.
So while Robert fills out the donation paperwork, the rest of the staff focuses on blathering about their doofus organization to anyone who will listen. That’s so very MRA.
So, I look at vaginas professionally. Found some frozen peas in one today. Delicious.
Anyways, vaginas seem to confuse everyone. There are the people who believe the vagina reverts to it’s virginal state after any amount of usage. It doesn’t. Stuff like sex and pushing out a baby cause permanent changes. Then there are the people who think every time someone has sex their vagina get bigger and bigger and, over one’s lifetime, inflates like a great balloon. That’s not the case either. It bounces back a lot of.the way most of the time. A dick is not going to weaken the support structures of a vagina that’s already had sex. Likewise every dick it meets won’t carve out another hole in it, making it even larger.
Vaginas are confusing but these guys’ ideas about vaginas are just whack.
Amazing display of maturity there. What a guy.
They just keep shooting themselves in the collective foot, don’t they?
Egalitarian AND classy! Now that’s a winning combo, and so becoming of MH*RA.
*H is for hideous.
@marinerachel:
The more we know! 😉
Vaginas can be exercised and become stronger, that’s what kegels and frog squats do.
Confidential to Adam:
Good news! “If you suffer from Kolpophobia, then help is available.”
http://www.anxietymatters.com/symptoms_of_anxiety/phobias/phobias/k/Kolpophobia.htm
@YoullNeverGuess
That’s certainly the case in Britain.VAT is added to sanitary products (although at a reduced rate). They’re apparently seen as a luxury item!