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.
Oh Tyler Durden, what happened to you?
I almost put up a link to this guy’s ranting here the other day, but most people were talking bout the shooting then, and it seemed wrong to disrupt that conversation.
I see that he’s calling for a People’s Revolution to overthrow the current government and replace it with a socialist paradise where you can chase your dreams without having to worry about trivialities like where you’re going to live or how you’re going to pay for stuff. (The “ONE wife” and “kids” parts are already optional so I’m not sure why he’s blaming the goverment for that.)
I’m not sure that would be a good idea, but I have to say that it’s a lot better than the half-baked Libertarian nonsense that the rest of the MRAs are pushing.
So I take it by the caps that he’s outraged by the fact that polygamy isn’t legal, but at the same time his ex is his property? Yep, he’s an MRA alright.
“That’s my p***sy and I’m going to take it back now.” Yeah, this guy definitely thinks that women are property and are basically sexual objects. Sounds like an MRA to me.
This guy is a piece of shit.
Still trying to get over David Bowie as a great American icon of machismo.
Poor widdle fing, whining about how he doesn’t get to keep even one woman as property, let alone multiple ones. And bragging about how many (other men’s) wives “tired of wearing the pants” he’s fucked.
Yeah. He’s SO oppressed.
David Bowie is not longer alive today. Nooooo!!! No one told me :O
One thing I’ve found disgusting about the coverage of this is that Kristy Mack’s career as an adult actress is always stressed while WM’s isn’t. It has the effect of hinting that she’s a slattern who kind of had it coming.
It would not surprise me if this guy has spent time in the manosphere. He’s just too good at reciting all the talking points.
Wow, he makes it crystal clear that MRA ideology and patriarchy are inseparable. Men are fucking terrifying.
@ Anarchonist – “All the male firefighters, athletes, police officers, freedom fighters, inventors, scientists and whatnot who you’re trying to claim as your own? Forget them.”
QFT! This! This is the face of the movement! Say what you want about egalitarianism and justice! This is the true face of misogyny, hiding under the sad, grand rhetoric.
Also, if marriage is so oppressive, why get married? Who’s forcing you? My mom tried to force me into marriage when I was 17, but I escaped. If a 17 year old girl (and I really was a girl, back then. My parents did everything they could to make me inept and dependent) can escape forced marriage, then why can’t these manly (so very manly) alpha males escape it? To hell with them! This is not about male liberation, it’s about female oppression! If they don’t own a feeeeemale, they’re oppressed? Fuck that noise!
Sorry, room, if that was TMI or rambly. This shit stain’s behaviour has left me very, very angry!
I wouldn’t be remotely surprized if the manosphere adopted this gristle brain as their latest martyr. You can be sure they’ll all be blaming Mack for the violence, saying it was her fault for going out with him in the first place.
At least he’s too stupid to wriggle out of this, everything he says just digs him in deeper.
“All the male firefighters, athletes, police officers, freedom fighters, inventors, scientists and whatnot who you’re trying to claim as your own? Forget them.”
^^ this.
The unwarranted self-importance of manospherians is really grating.
The scrotosphere will simultaneously blame her for his violence (haven’t there been multiple screeds about how all mens violence is the fault of women?) and at the same time be outraged that anyone would connect this nasty fucker with them, like with Elliot Roger.
I imagine a post is being written as we speak about what a meany wehuntedthemamoth is for daring to compare the two.
The only thing preventing me from nopetopusing out of here is the David Bowie thing (HA) and that his pathetic vest in the top picture needs an ‘s’ on the end. What a pathetic waste of space. I hope he has a great time in prison.
TW: abuse, rape
I find this paragraph the most frightening because, according to Christy Mack, he also explicitly told her “I’m going to rape you”. (He only decided not to do it because he couldn’t “get it up”.) Now here he is talking about sex in terms of “fucking your wife”, which completely lacks any sense of mutual consent (as opposed to “having sex with your wife”).
BTW, for additional context, he also made a joke about raping her once and defended himself by saying that it’s ok for a man to rape his female partner, even going as far as saying that “Real men rape. (Their GF’s and wives, not strangers, don’t get your panties in a bunch.)” He said that was a joke, too, but I don’t believe him one bit.
This seems relevant
@daintydougal
Can you please not use the word “scrotosphere”? I know you’re intending to use it in a way that highlights the male entitlement inherent in the manosphere, but it inevitably associates trans women with cis men on the basis of sharing reproductive organs.
weirwoodtreehugger, you are exactly right about the double standard. She’s in the adult film industry, so she must have deserved it (which is not true), but no one wants to talk about how the industry may have affected *his* behavior. I don’t watch porn, but from what I’ve heard, it’s generally not flattering or empowering to women. Do you think that may have contributed to his views (like the idea of owning women) or to his behavior?
Sorry, Ally, I’ve seen it used here a lot but not seen it been stopped. I try to be considerate but so much stuff just flies straight over my head. What you mentioned wouldn’t even have occurred to me. I will keep trying (if thats ok?)
But while we’re at it, I’m not overly comfortable with you saying ‘men are fucking terrifying’. We wouldn’t say that about any other blanket group like that.
Yeah, I’m not either. Knock it off.
@daintydougal
It’s cool! I’m not upset or anything. I just thought it was important to point that out since cis-centric language isn’t always easy to identify – and to a lesser extent, trans people face the same difficulty.
That’s not sitting well with me either. I get that in your experience, men have been terrifying and awful, and that’s valid. I don’t agree.
Also, I think you’re wrong about “scrotosphere.”
I thought it was clear here that saying “men” doesn’t necessarily refer to all men, and I’ve seen people here use that term the same way I just did. But I apologize, and I’ll just say instead that a lot of men are terrifying.
There’s something extra ridiculous about saying “men are fucking terrifying” on a post made by a man who is not, in fact, terrifying, a fact that I presume Ally has noticed.
We’re all such terrible language police pc gone mad feminazi pinko commies SJWs. SIGH.