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.
@GrumpyOldMan: there’s a long distance between a few people saying something and most of the commenters leaping in.
This:
implies that most people commenting around that time jumped in. That’s not true.
I realise that it wasn’t you that said that. But that was the comment I was addressing, and you apparently disagree with me.
Isn’t it possible in some states to work as a drug counselor without a MSW or any kind of similar qualification? I had always assumed that Elam was the didn’t have to get a masters and go through licensing hours kind of counselor.
“Wasn’t a big deal TO YOU, you meant to say. Us silly ladies, always chiming in when no one wants to hear it.”
Nothing silly about the response; we just have a minor disagreement about the strength of the response — we men didn’t really feel that she intended to offend, that’s all.
By the way, does anybody else see the delicious irony of all you “man-hating” feminists coming to the defense of men so enthusiastically? I wish InanityBytes were here; I’d bet her head would explode.
So – it’s okay for person A to say something (two somethings, in this case) but not for persons B, C or D to say they’re wrong, or criticise it at all?
Funny, I didn’t think we did that here.
I don’t know what the rules are in the States, but in NZ it is possible to practice without a degree. That’s why we have counsellors and psychologists. In NZ, the term psychologist has a narrow legal meaning too /glares at the clinical psychologists.
cassandrakitty- I don’t really know for sure but if you can practice midwifery in the US with no training or accredited certificate, then I’m sure you can do the same with counseling. (*note: not bashing anyone who chooses a midwife just saying some midwives don’t require the same level of training as nurse midwives).
The reason I assumed (perhaps too optimistically) that he wasn’t the licensed kind of counselor is that part of what the licensing system is designed to do is weed out people who have, well, let’s just call is personality issues that suggest that counseling may not be the career for thm.
So I scrolled back and read the comment Ally posted and the reactions and … I agree there was a bit of a dog-pile there. Even after she walked it back, the dog-pile continued. So yeah. We can do better.
On the AVfM stuff, I used to be in an organization that had lawyers on retainer, and this smacks of some risk-averse lawyer saying “You need to be careful, blah blah blah.” Thing is, we were smart/ethical enough to push back and say (paraphrasing), “Your role as our lawyers is to help us manage risk, not avoid it completely. Our mission is to [switching gears to pretend I am a MHRA] prevent male suicide, and therefore if someone presents as suicidal we are going to encourage people to support and help them. How can we do this most safely?”
In other words, our priority was to actually help people. Their priority is to keep Elam’s revenue stream safe.
I did.
Y’know, I get the strangest feeling that while Elam may be a shit counselor, he’s quite the expert on staying just this side of the law. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he got the boilerplate disclaimer advice from some two-bit shyster. After all, so much of what he does is centred around enriching himself while doing fuck-all for his widdle ass-barnacles. Why wouldn’t he take this lazy, legalistic way around it? It fits right in with his general pattern of Fucking Their Shit Up™, while keeping his own ass covered.
(Shut up, Woody!)
GrumpyOldMan: Gotta say, I’m really not loving what feels like tone policing.
pallygirl- There is a similar distinction in the US. Counselors aren’t the same as psychiatrists/psychologists. I don’t think they go through as much training in the sciences. I’m just generally afraid that people like Paul Elam can become counselors. He should not be counseling ANYBODY EVER LOL
So yeah. Should we do better in general or just to protect the feels of a regular making shitty blanket statements?
@kittehs, I don’t think it was wrong to say something, it was just kind of overkill. Especially for someone who is most definitely not a troll.
@ Bina
You’d almost think he’d consulted a lawyer, wouldn’t you? I keep wondering if the rest of the manosphere will ever figure out that he’s basically PT Barnum wearing Jack Nicholson’s costume from The Shining.
Hellkell: I try to avoid tone policing but I have to admit that I’m hardly perfect in policing my own tone. But yeah, I think we could have been somewhat gentler, and if that’s tone policing, I’m guilty.
hellkell, that isn’t what I said. My problem was with the criticism continuing even after she walked it back.
cloudiah, I was more annoyed about the scrotosphere comment, frankly, and not everyone was jumping in on that. And yes, annoyed is the word. There are times when “if it’s not about you, it’s not about you” really does apply to more than dominant groups.
Oh, I’m sure he has.
I’m also sure that the lawyer in question wasn’t a very good one. Any reputable one would run screaming out of his presence like their hair was on fire.
@hellkell:
I literally meant “not a huge deal” as in “not a troll comment.” I wasn’t trying to say that it wasnt significant to people, I was just trying to make a point about how something can go from no comments to 10 very quickly.
I’m one of those people who agree it wasn’t a good thing to say, but wouldn’t have said anything if nobody else said it.
@kittehserf:
Again, I was just making a point about how something can turn into a dog-pile pretty quickly. I didn’t mean to say that the response shouldn’t have happened or wasn’t ok.
Nor did I say the response shouldn’t have happened or wasn’t okay.
This entire thread must be driving Woody wild. 😀
A CADAC (certified alcohol and drug abuse counselor) was a certificate program that *DID* allow you to work in the field, with people, in Texas, in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I believe more is required now.
I was in chez nutter once, and that when I was 17.
…Do you know they seemed to equivocate good mental health with makeup and big hair? *GAH*
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I took her remark to be not a philosophical statement about men but an emotional reaction to her own abuse in a thread that dealt with a particularly vile and horrifying male abuser. It is my impression that on this blog we do not question an abused person’s emotional reactions to abuse, full stop.
I am attempting constructive criticism knowing full well that it is not my strong suit. I have said what I have to say and am now more than willing to let the matter drop.