If the Men’s Rights movement is looking for a celebrity endorser, I think I’ve found just the guy for them: the mixed martial arts fighter, and erstwhile porn actor, War Machine, currently sitting in jail on charges of brutally beating and attempting to kill his ex-girlfriend, porn star Christy Mack.
Men’s Rights activists should be able to look past these criminal charges; after all, as they remind us all the time, women are forever falsely accusing innocent men of all sorts of terrible things.
And in so many ways War Machine is perfect for them. An MMA fighter, he’s already only one letter away from being an MRA. A misogynistic asshole with rage issues, he’ll have no trouble fitting in with the Men’s Rights crowd. And, especialy important for a movement that has a lot of trouble getting any good PR, he’s a bit more comfortable on camera than the Paul Elams and Dean Esmays of the world, with experience on television (on the reality show The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra), and in seven films (albeit pornographic ones).
Best of all: he’ll need no ideological education from what A Voice for Men likes to call Fuck Shit Up University. War Machine – real name Jonathan Koppenhaver – is already an outspoken proponent of many of the Men’s Rights Movement’s core beliefs.
Consider these selections from a little Men’s Rights manifesto War Machine wrote a few years ago during a previous stint behind bars, serving time for felony assault after two bloody bar fights. His rant, which a friend posted to the internet, would fit right in with the sort of stuff we’ve seen regularly posted on the Men’s Rights subreddit, or The Spearhead, or A Voice for Men. I’ve bolded some of the Men’s Rightsiest bits:
The oppression of MEN is worse than oppression of Jews in Nazi germany, worse than the slavery of Blacks in early America…
There has always been the oppressor and always the oppressed. Before, it was blatant … NOW the oppressor has learned to disguise his evil. You can see man, but you can not see MEN. How easy it is to oppress a minority that is invisible to the eye! How genius of the oppressor! And what a better target too! …
Men challenge injustice from Government, MEN fight for their Constitutional rights, that are slowly being taken away every year. …
And they don’t just oppress us by making more laws and taking away more freedom, they are far more clever than that! Ask yourself what your REAL dream was?? If you gave up on this dream, why? Because of the brainwashing of the Government, that’s why! They taught you to “play it safe.” They told us a responsible man has ONE wife, a house, good credit, good job, and kids. How are you supposed to chase your dreams while maintaining all of that!?
Men are supposed to take risks and be aggressive! What accomplishments have ever come of a man scared to risk it all!? None!? Where would the world be? Still ‘flat!’ Still ‘Earth at the center of the universe!’
If any of you have your Men’s Rights Bingo cards out, I’m guessing you might already be close to scoring a bingo. We’ve got a comparison to slavery that could have come straight from the pages of A Voice for Men, a marriage-is-death-to-male-dreams rant that could have been borrowed from any MGTOW forum, and an evo-psych-esque argument that men are the true risk-takers and the world’s real innovators.
And I don’t think War Machine would have much trouble with Paul Elam’s “Bash a Violent Bitch Month,” either.
[I]t’s Christmas day and I’m laying in my bunk wondering “Why in the hell do American men get married!?” … If your wife is being a bitch you can’t slap her, if your wife is yelling at you, God forbid you yell back … Next thing you know it will be illegal to fuck your wife! LMAO! Maybe then, MEN in this country will get the fucking hint and MOVE! This country forces you to be a bitch!
In another online posting, War Machine touched on another Men’s Rights hobbyhorse, the notion that the justice system is stacked against men:
[L]ook at the prisons, they are FULL of MEN, not women. Are men “evil” and women not? Or do the laws target and attempt to restrict NATURAL MEN’S BEHAVIOR? How many of the HEROES in American history would avoid prison if they lived today? Davey Crockett? Thomas Jefferson? David Bowie? General Grant & General Lee? Shit, George Washington. … Laws target MEN and men’s behavior. Women want to bitch and cry about their rights and equality… LMAO! MEN are the ones locked away like animals, while women run free!
Someone might have to explain to War Machine that David Bowie is not actually a famous American HERO but a famously androgynous British musician who once recorded an album called “Heroes.” (Mr. Machine may be thinking of James Bowie, a well-known 19th century American frontiersman and slave trader, and the guy the Bowie Knife is named after.)
But other than that, he seems ready to go.
There is, of course, that whole attempted murder charge to deal with.
It’s true the Men’s Rights Movement has had few problems in the past rallying behind men with histories of violence. But War Machine might be a harder sell as a Men’s Rights hero. His alleged attack on Mack left her with a cracked rib, a ruptured liver, numerous broken bones, missing teeth and her eyes swollen shut. (See here for photos of her injuries; obviously this link is NSFW and could be triggering.)
While Mr. Machine denies attacking Mack, he joked to a TV host last year that if she were to leave him “I would just kill her” and get a tattoo saying “Rest In Peace” above the tattoo of her name he has on his neck.
And several hours after allegedly trying to murder her, War Machine tweeted this lovely message about his ex:
https://twitter.com/WarMachine170/statuses/497663075831787521
War Machine does seem to be at a low point in his life. Even aside from the charges he faces, and the time he seems likely to serve, his career in porn is almost certainly over. The “Alpha Male” clothing line he helped start wants nothing to do with him. Nobody but the prison system seems to want this guy.
In other words: Men’s Rights activists, this is your chance! War Machine may not be the, er, hero you want. But he’s certainly the hero you deserve.
He is such a shining individual, and I hope he spends the rest of his life rotting in a jail cell for what he did to his ex and her boyfriend.
The world’s first MMRA!
So, natutal male behavior is a man acting like a jackass half the time, and the other half the time abusing the people around him? Better tell my boyfriend he’s not natural! lol!
This guy wants to think he’s all “oppressed” when society tries to stop him from hurting other people, when his ex is in agony because of his violent actions toward her. I feel sorry that she ever got involved with such a toxic person to begin with and I hope she heals.
Throw away the key.
I mean, seriously. I don’t see how such a broken person can be redeemed. Nor can I see ever letting him out again among others.
(Sadly, the other _criminals_ don’t deserve to be locked up with such a shitty failure of a human.)
Just now on the local news I learned a 19 yr old tried to shoot his girlfriend through a closed bathroom door last night and another was grabbing women and girls in a Wal-Mart and trying to kiss them.
I’m sure they can sit in jail together and talk about how oppressed men are.
Meanwhile, the woman The War Machine physically disfigured to the point she’ll need reconstructive surgery and nearly killed is being blamed by misogynists on the internet. There is literally nothing men can do to women that is bad enough that these hateful sacks of excrement won’t blame women for.
Meanwhile, is anyone else gobsmacked by this asshole protesting that men could not possibly be evil enough to be in prison (I don’t think that’s the case either. I think black men and poor black communities are targeted by the cops.), then goes out and commits an absolutely evil crime, all the while declaring his manliness?
Ah, the personification of the logical conclusion of their beliefs has arrived! And he’s just as shittastic as you’d imagine.
I also hope his two victims heal and move on to much happier lives.
@Lea: An attempted shooting and sexual assault… I just wonder how in the world these people think any of this is a good idea, let alone okay! I mean, really, who were their PARENTS? Who were their TEACHERS? Who were their FRIENDS?
How are these even real people?
Sometimes I’m ashamed to be lumped into the same spcies as these people…
Having had an ex cheat on me while she was doing a foreign exchange back in my Uni days, I’m somewhat flabbergasted that none of these men pause to consider what might inspire the infidelity. Yes, this is also residual fury from the Quinn thread.
Your partner cheats on you. That violates your agreement(s), ruins your trust in them, and makes you feel devalued. I get it! Believe me. But consider that you and your partner likely have different needs, and if one of you cheated, it’s because one or both parties never communicated and consequently understood those needs.
Rather than blaming yourself for being inadequate or the other party for being… well, various things themed around “selfish,” why not analyze your relationship, figure out what was missing, have a civil conversation about it, and move on with that knowledge?
You know. Try *growing* like a human fucking being?!
Jesus H. CHRIST. Dude leaves her with 18 broken bones, a bruised liver, both eyes blacked, several teeth either damaged or gone, and he slashed off her hair (a classic slut-shaming gesture) — and HE’s the one “fighting for [his] life”? When he fucked off like a coward, and the cops got onto him? Gimme a fuckin’ break.
Oh, and marriage is so horrible and oppressive to men, yet he claims he showed up to present her with an engagement ring before he caught her (why, that ungrateful bitch!) with that unnamed male friend?
And on top of that, didn’t he dump her before this all happened?
And he still claims she’s his “property”. Must be the fault of that rubber-stamp tattoo she hasn’t been able to get lasered off yet.
On the bright side, at least her friends have raised several thousand to help pay for her care. Lots of other battered women aren’t nearly so lucky.
As for him, he’s headed for a different kind of cage match altogether…although probably not for nearly long enough, considering that what he did to her looks an awful lot like attempted murder to me.
This… this is just awful. I completely agree, David.
Dear MRAs: look at the misogyny. Look at the self-importance. Look at the ego. Look at the rhetoric. Look at the attitude. Look at the persecution complex. Look at the hatred and entitlement seeping out through every pore in his body.
All the male firefighters, athletes, police officers, freedom fighters, inventors, scientists and whatnot who you’re trying to claim as your own? Forget them.
Look at this man. He is one of yours.
I can only add my disgust that such a human being exists. I can only hope we continue to, all too slowly for my tastes, struggle past a culture that can create a man like this.
I imagine that the aristocratic white males this history scholar mentions would do just fine avoiding trouble with the law, assuming they had access to some source of wealth that worked as well for them as slaves and land ownership. Davey Crockett looks like he was a pretty decent guy by modern standards. As for James Bowie, the only reason he wasn’t hanged for murder when he lived is because the law turned a certain blind eye to dueling.
David Bowie? David Bowie?
Uh, you mean Jim Bowie, right?
Imbecile.
I can’t see a single thing in those quotes that would NOT be in-line with ‘mainstream’ MRM propaganda.
It’s early where I am, and I accidentally read that as David Bowie and was very confused.
You aren’t confused. Look at War Machine’s actual quote. He wrote David Bowie. Seraph just corrected him.
And David Bowie’s duels are more a duel of the wits, really, if the Labyrinth has taught me anything…
Ah, yes, that great hero of American machismo David Bowie.
Also, ugh, this guy. Can someone just go drop him down a really deep well please?
More seriously, everything about this reads as MRA doctrine writ large. This is everything they are and stand for.
Men’s HUMAN Rights Advocates, folks.
Well, this guy is everything they aspire to be. I wonder if most of the MRA keyboard warriors realize that if they ever met a great hero of MRA machismo like this in real life he’d probably beat the crap out of them too?
I fully endorse a David Bowie (AMERICAN HERO!(TM)) vs. War Machine microphone battle.
sorceressensorcelled,
Well the young man who attempted to murder his gf did so in his parents home while they tried talk him out of it. I don’t know about the young man who was grabbing women and girls by the face and trying to force kisses on them.
But who told them that their behavior was OK? That would be our patriarchal society and especially misogynist assholes like the ones found in the manosphere.
He’s everything Paul Elam wishes to be. Violent, empathy-less, virulently self-absorbed. Yes, it’s quite clear that this is the face of the MRA “movement”.
Men like him terrify me. And unfortunately, you meet far too many in martial arts circuits. I used to love classical jujutsu but I kept on meeting guys at training who honestly, worried me. There’s a really deep misogynistic culture in it all. A lot of insecure little boys take it up to try to make themselves feel powerful, I guess. (It didn’t stop me training, by the way, and I got really good BUT other things in like took up my time so I stepped back.)
@Lea: I know it’s the patriarchy, but considering there are a majority of guys that never go on these sorts of entitled rampages, I’m wondering if they somehow got some other influences mixed in there as well… Particularly violent influences that made them think this… I don’t know. I’m just in shock.