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.
@ Unimaginative
If this pattern keeps repeating itself, like the last part of this thread, I’m not back for long. Nope, not doing this again. Want to join an email group instead? It’s nifty.
UGH, misunderstandings keep piling on. I already rescinded. Drop it.
Coffee —
“It is, dare I say it, a privilege, to have the language to describe oneself at all, never mind in neutral terms.”
So binary trans people have more privilege than us non-binaries? Cuz my gender identity is “um, neither? I don’t like this system, can I have another one?”
In short, you’re using an awful lot of words to say we need new words, while not providing any new words. I had more to say, but other people covered it well enough, and I’d rather be watching QI than tending to my virtual stable of teal deers and ableist unicorns.
——
Cassandra —
“Ambiphilic makes it sound like we’re attracted to frogs, so yeah, let’s not use that term.”
They have colacea, it could never work. I’m sorry.
“Also, in terms of the the topic of male socialization, the reason that came up the way it did is that Ally has been very firmly instructing the people on this blog that trans women did not and could not have received any male socialization for quite some time.”
Yeah, that. Because let’s face it, gender socialization starts in infancy, before you have a concept of language, forget about gender.
Cool, now we’re getting orders. Bye for now, guys.
Auntie Alias: You said it all. Were you in my head, and if so did you enjoy your stay?
*cloaca
I can spell real good! I swear!
I said it was a possible misunderstanding. The only clarification that was needed was whether the comment was directed at Ally as a response to Ally’s material, thereby confirming that I imagined the entire thing and would apologize.
Bye, Cassandra! Hope you get awesome hugs from the kitty!
PS: please come back later, hopefully, when it’s a better time and stuff.
If more than one person is misunderstanding you, the problem is you.
Drop it? Ohhhhhh-kay.
Argenti: when will there be fish pics?
Cassandrakitty doesn’t make indiscriminate personal attacks. She attacks trolls, and she gets very short with people she thinks are behaving badly. With everyone else, she’s amazingly patient and generous.
She’s put up with a lot of shit and abuse over the years from people who stir up shit, and from people who don’t get that they’ve been shit-stirred by the stirrer until they, hopefully, finally get what she’s saying. She’s very clear-sighted about people, and I’ve found over the years that if she’s telling you you’re wrong about something, you really need to shut up and listen.
I don’t want to set her up as some kind of infallible goddess of human interaction, but if she cares enough to keep hammering at you about something, then take the gift, and learn something.
It’s like you drew that out off head, auntie alias.
Now I’m thinking about anteochoanal nasal polyps being excised and pulled out through a nostril.
@hellkell
Yeah, your exit line was a signal that I wasn’t alone in the way I was feeling.
I dunno about email groups. I can’t follow yahoo email groups for love or money, but I’ll ask one of the mods to send you my email and see if I can keep up.
hellkell, I’m really glad to see you back, by the way. 🙂
@hellkell And an apology would be accepting responsibility for that blunder made by me, would it not? This is still detracting from anything that I said earlier that was trying to explain where the origin of exclusion was coming from. That’s why I’m agitated. That, and the condescension.
I’m pretty sure Condescension Avenue is a two-way street. May want to check yourself.
Thanks, Alex.
Everything Auntie Alias said. Exactly. Like I said previously, I’m sorry I didn’t back you ‘evil’ folk up more – at the time it seemed pointless and frankly intimidating, not being a ‘regular’ poster. I had no idea other ppl were feeling the same way I did about how things were going around here.
@coffee
Please don’t order people around.
I think that’s me.
Was there something in particular you were curious about?
I was the same, Tracy. I thought everyone but me was OK with the way Ally conducted herself and how everyone conducted themselves around her. Didn’t feel like rocking the boat until, instead of just monopolizing discussions and making people feel their challenges were being diminished, she started spewing potentially harmful things that no one was allowed to rigorously criticise. Now we’re all transmisogynists. Pity.
@Auntie Alias
I misunderstood something that cassandra said. I blew it out of proportion. I was wrong. We got distracted by my mistake, I got agitated by the distraction, and issued an inappropriate ultimatum as a consequence. I am sincere in my efforts to understand cassandra’s perspective, even if they haven’t yet yielded fruit.
Can we please return to the discussion at hand?
Just as I am sure you will forgive me for pointing out that putting words in my mouth in order to take yet another cheap shot at cassandrakitty really does not fly in this community.
I am a little bit hypersensitive to the “you must be attracted to whomever or you are a bad person” argument. I am asexual. Everyone, not everyone, seems to think they are entitled to police my lack of sexual attraction. Asexual yesterday, asexual today, and blimey if it don’t look like asexual tomorrer.