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.
She did? I must have missed it or left the thread too early, pallygirl. Though I’m glad she did get pushback from someone besides me; I was worried I was being too harsh.
There were some earlier comments to yours. I went to page 4 of the comments but they appear to not have posted a second time – don’t know if they read any of the comments.
I don’t even know what’s going on in this thread, but I’m really not liking it.
I’m seconding LBT and Historophilia.
RE: pallygirl
Pfah. My memory’s shittier than I thought. My apologies. Serves me right, using a comment as ammo when I obviously didn’t remember it properly or try to double-check. (I’m amazed I even remembered the poor woman’s handle right.)
Not sure if someone else already said this within the 400+ previous comments, but…
Women get put into a separate prison, dumbass. That’s almost as dumb as this guy’s tweet:
http://chickpea-sarada.tumblr.com/post/92221588777/misandry-mermaid-mydarling-baital
And is he saying that stealing, raping, murdering, etc. (things the laws are restraining) are natural behaviors for men? As in they are by nature thieves, rapists and murderers? Who’s the misandrist here?
How can you ruin someone’s sexuality? O.o
I don’t know if transsexual people tend to enact sexuality in a less physical and more cerebral way then?
At any rate, I ended my marriage because I determined that my ex was highly likely an asexual in denial. I could not be happy being monogamously married to someone who did me like a chore…We were not good for each other at all.
My sexuality and self esteem needed a tune-up, but I’m doing better.
*shakes butt at blockquote monster* Nyah nyah nee-nyaah nyah~!
Lolz, BritterSweet.
RE: blahlistic
How can you ruin someone’s sexuality? O.o
Well, you know, if Mac only likes women and then bangs me, that means that he’s not really bi, he’s just straight and having a fling! Because it’s not like I COUNT or anything. (I am actually quite honored that he saw me as worth changing his sexuality for, though he has expressed interest in a select few other men as well. But barely any.)
I don’t know if transsexual people tend to enact sexuality in a less physical and more cerebral way then?
Not so much that. Just they’re less likely to be transphobic, so you don’t have to spend tons of time explaining your genitals, your dysphoria, and hoping they won’t freak out upon your coming out. (Though there are plenty of transphobic trans people around, they are high unlikely to try and murder you if they find out you’re trans as well.)
Yeah, I get the sentiment (for the same reasons), and I knew what Ally meant, knowing where she’s coming from and what she’s been going through (I feel a little weird talking about her when she isn’t here – Ally, sorry if this is weird). She backed off when asked, and this seems to have taken on a life of its own now.
I wasn’t upset about it, but did wince, and Shrodinger’s Rapist is partly why. How much time have any of us spent trying to explain, over and over, that it ISN’T a generalization about men? That it DOESN’T mean that all women find all men terrifying and threatening at all times? I dunno – I try very hard not to generalise (and I bugger it up sometimes, as we all do) because of this, and because blanket statements about any group are often harmful, and never fair.*
I know that isn’t at all what she meant and was speaking from her own pain (as LBT and others have pointed out). I also think calling attention to it was legit, although done a bit harshly. I agree with emilygoddess that it’s good to talk through these things, as long as we’re all keeping our heads.
*With the exception of the Furrinati, as long as they are glowing, worshipful blanket statements. And they get to lie on the blanket after.
Really? They are transphobic of other trans people? Why? *boggles*
RE: Tracy
Honestly, I would be a little concerned if a guy could not handle the idea that one woman on the face of the earth was intrinsically frightened of him. Or even a significant fraction. There are three billion woman in the world, dude. Your ego will survive. (Not meaning you, Tracy, just hypothetical dude.)
RE: Tracy
Really? They are transphobic of other trans people? Why? *boggles*
*hides face in hands* Lord, where do I start. Well, there’s the Harry Benjamin Syndrome jerks, who believe that they have a medical condition unlike those OTHER trans people who are just faking and making it worse for them. There are the strict Type V Transsexuals who look down on anyone who doesn’t have the requisite binary identity and mass amounts of dysphoria. There are apparently non-binary people who look down on trans women and men for reinforcing the gender binary, but I have yet to personally encounter one of them. There are the people who insist they aren’t trans because they fit their gender role SO well that they feel actively uncomfortable around other trans people, who obviously aren’t as good at being real men/women as they are.
I could go on for a while. Suffice to say, there’s a reason I don’t go to any of the local trans groups in town, unless I have someone else with me as a meat shield.
Just catching up on this thread, and I’m basically agreeing with LBT here. The objections to scrotosphere make a lot of sense to me. And I understand the objections to Man Boobz as well; it obviously wasn’t meant in a transphobic or body-shaming way, just as a pun, but I can certainly understand the objections to it and that’s one of the reasons I changed the name. Probably should have done that a lot sooner.
On the men thing, maybe a better phrasing might be “men can be terrifying.”
OHHHH! One ruins someone’s sexuality by suddenly rendering it unable to fit into a tidy little box labeled “gay” or “straight”. Bisexuals, pansexuals, and asexuals are just confused.
Yeah, because, you know, binary trans people don’t really count as their actual gender.
I’ve always been deeply grateful to my husband that he’s seen me as a man for our entire relationship, and has always been very up-front about that, without needing to add addendum about my sexual skills, looks, or behavior. To him, I am who I am, and he loves who I am. End of story.
@kittehserf – “It’s saying who lesbians should be willing to…”
On the gay side of the hill, it’s not just whom, but there’s also another conversation about how, if that explains it enough.
I’m honestly finding this thread extremely triggering, so I lack the energy to respond to everything. I’ll try to address the two main things being argued about here at the very least. And maybe some other appalling stuff in this thread if I’m up for it.
I know the origin of “scrotosphere”. I’m not stupid. I have made the most charitable assumption about the people who made that term – that it was never intended to include trans women.
But here’s the thing: intent doesn’t erase meaning. The word itself associates men with trans women by virtue of their commonly possessed “male” reproductive organ, and that is the problem with the word. I said that it reinforces “the notion of gendered bodies” in that it reinforces the idea that bodies determine gender. That’s why it’s transphobic. It’s also most likely triggering to a lot of trans women for various reasons, one of those being related to dysphoria. Tacitly coding my own private parts as “male” is transphobic, regardless of intent.
I find it highly hypocritical of some of the people here to insist that the word is benign because of the intent behind it, in spite of the history of literally every regular commenter on this blog criticizing MRA dudebros for saying the c-word while claiming that they aren’t misogynistic because they don’t intend to demean all women.
I chalk up this hypocrisy to privilege. Everyone calling me out in this thread is, as far as I can tell, white and cis. Despite claiming to be allies of trans people, it seems to me that the most important thing that informs your judgment is your own perspective. But being an ally requires you to stop privileging your own view of things. Am I right about literally everything about transmisogyny and white supremacy? Obviously not. But if you are privileged, my opinions on the oppression I face should be given more consideration than a terse, close-minded hypocrisy-fueled dismissal along the lines of “I don’t agree with you.” Not even a “I don’t understand how you think that’s transphobic; can you explain?” Just outright rejection of my objections. Like some feminists have said before, allyship is a process, not a status. Being an ally requires you to be self-critical and to reject the assumption that you will inevitably reach the point of being The Greatest Ally with little to no effort.
And this case, my opinions on that word should be given a great amount of consideration since I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of transphobic language myself. Who has a better understanding of transphobic language: someone who has lived all her life as a trans girl or a cis woman who reads a few articles about transphobic language?
This behavior is appalling and not reflective of the tolerant, sensitive atmosphere that I thought would always be here ever since I started commenting. Clearly I was a fool. Note that this kind of shit has happened before in response to me saying that something is transphobic.
And about me venting about my fear of men: I find it strange that I have seen countless commenters, regular commenters, say “men” without any qualifier like “some” or “most” and they have never faced any criticism. Yet when I do likewise, people get upset at me. I can’t help but feel that this antipathy is rooted in some unconscious bias against trans women who express their fear of male aggression.
And kitteh, I brought up the issue because I call out transphobic language whenever I find the opportunity to do so. That’s something I have always done as a trans woman. I do it offline and online in order to help people understand the harms of transphobic language.
As for the cotton ceiling, I’m honestly shocked and hurt by the fact that you are basically repeating one of the most common TERF talking points – that us trans lesbians are pressuring cis lesbians to have sex with us. There was a whole fucking thread about this and I thought I made myself clear that I never advocated the violation of consent and boundaries of cis lesbians. I only pointed out the importance of recognizing that attraction can be influenced by privileged subjectivity and oppressive attitudes. Y’all get angry (and rightfully so!) at PUAs who complain about being pressured by feminists to have sex with “fat women”, so why the double standard? Don’t y’all understand that there is a difference between saying that “fat people” are entitled to sex from thin people and saying that there are unfair, fatphobic biases that tend to influence people’s attraction preferences? Why not apply the same reasoning to us trans lesbians? I don’t understand.
Also, of course trans women face the brunt of male violence. Their population size relative to that of cis women is irrelevant. Someone here had a great example of saying that, while black POC face the brunt of police brutality, other people still suffer from it.
Do I also need to point out that trans women also count as wives, sisters, daughters, etc. AKA women in close relation to men, that trans women are disproportionately represented among sex workers, that trans women of color face violence of a magnitude several times greater than that of white trans women and indeed cis women (white or of color)?
I was a fool for thinking this was a safe space. Maybe there’s just something wrong with my head, but I can’t but feel that I’ve been singled out due to hostility against me. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since I have upset people here numerous times during various other conflicts I’ve had here on WHTM ever since I became a MBZer/Mammotheer.
Lastly, things like this are why I seriously consider leaving this place. The animosity I face here from time to time is becoming too much to bear, especially these days. What has happened in this thread is merely one example of said animosity. People can tell me that I’m being childish for leaving over “just a disagreement”, but y’all know that fundamental, bitter disagreements are always inimical to communal cohesion. My views are too personal for me to just push disagreements to the side, especially when so many people here are ones I have been fond of (or at least used to be fond of). I have literally had people here who saved me from a life-threatening situation with my abusive father, and now I have to deal with so many folks here having this disproportionately antagonistic attitude towards me. Maybe I deserve it, but either way it hurts.
I may or may not come back to this thread. If I don’t, y’all know why.
Ally, I can totally understand if you don’t come back. I’d miss you though, and I’m sorry about the animosity you experienced.
LBT, I’ve met the non-binary people who look down on binary trans people. My ex lost a lot of friends when she transitioned (she identified herself as genderqueer prior to transition) for that very reason.
Nobody’s immune to being an asshole. But it seems more personal to turn on a friend for doing what they have to do to be happy and healthy.
Shit, that’s dark. Uh, for something happier, check out Julia Serano’s new book, Excluded. It’s really good.
Hey Ally, you’ve never been anything but kind to me and I’ve constantly observed what a good soul you are in general. And I know I’m not alone. So wherever you end up, I hope you can take that with you.
Don’t worry Ally, your feelings will always be front and center.
It’s been real, kids. I’m out.