Men’s Rights Activists have become known, not without reason, as belligerent assholes whose main forms of “activism” consist of harassment and threats.
One bold Men’s Rights Redditor known as El Rellok thinks he’s come up with a way to counteract this perception and deliver a powerful men’s-rightsty message at the same time.
He wants MRAs to send feminists … pictures of bloody feathers. No, really.
Now, to most people, getting a bloody feather in your email inbox would seem to be the digital equivalent of having a bloody horse’s head left in your bed. But in El Rellok’s world it is a rational and reasonable way to express “outrage” at feminist evil, and anyone who might possibly think otherwise is by definition unreasonable.
Let’s let him explain, because I certainly can’t explain how sending pictures of bloody feathers to someone you hate could be construed as anything but threatening:
The idea that men are violent, rather then the primary victims of violence, is being used to discredit men’s issues.
Well, actually, what’s being used to discredit the so-called Men’s Rights Movement is the simple fact that its members don’t seem to know how to engage in any kind of “activism” besides harassing individual women.
It is glaringly obvious that we need a method of clearly expressing unbounded outrage that cannot be construed as a threat by any reasonable person.
I don’t know that expressing “unbounded outrage” is really the most important goal for any activist movement, but the part about saying things that aren’t threatening sounds good to me.
Gentlemen (and ladies) i propose The Red Feather Campaign.
To paraphrase Groucho Marx, why a feather?
None here should be unfamiliar with the “white feather girls”.[1] , one of the most craven and deplorable pro war campaigns in human history.
In case you aren’t completely up-to-date with all Men;s Rights hobbyhorses, he’s referring to the Order of the White Feather. Founded in Britain at the start of World War I, this was a group of women that hoped to shame men into enlisting by presenting them with white feathers, a symbol of cowardice.
Though the White Feather campaign happened literally a hundred years ago, at a time when the general public in Britain and elsewhere was rabidly pro-war, and thought it hardly won universal support from the suffragettes of the day, MRAs like El Rellok have turned it into a symbol of the intrinsic evil that lurks in the hearts of feminists today.
The white feather campaign was about mens obligation to sacrifice to women, a socially imposed gender role. Feminists, while declaring their total reprobation for all gendered roles, continue to demand that men sacrifice for women by ceding anything described as privilege, regardless of whether the “Privilege” is earned, a “Privilege” at all, or whether a society without the thing described as a “Privilege” can be understood as just ….
Sorry, I nodded off in the middle of that. He finally gets to the point:
SO, I propose we return to them their feathers covered in the blood of the men mercilessly and ruinously sacrificed to their agenda.
Well, he doesn’t mean this literally – he means PICTURES of feathers that look like they’re covered in blood – but we’ll get to that in a minute.
We make this present with the following message.
“This blood is not your blood. To think it is, is a refraction only of your narcissism. This is the blood of men, sacrificed to females, by females, for generation upon generation. When you speak of sacrifice, before our eyes flash visions of bayonets, within our nostrils the waft of trenches, our ears recall the scream of artillery coming to shred our bodies. That is what sacrifice means to men; agony, suffering, death. This feather is a reminder of your inhumanity towards men, your lack of compassion and understanding, and your hypocrisy in declaring gender roles obsolete while commanding men to fulfill the most destructive of all gender roles, the gender who gets sacrificed.”
I dunno about you, but this is creepy as fuck. And more than a little threatening.
Why this tactic? First, the consistent theme seen presented by SJW/feminists is that men are “Violent oppressors who refuse to compromise.” This meme makes clear that it is not us being oppressive, and that the compromise being asked is not just.
Yeah, sending women pictures of bloody feathers accompanied by an over-the-top mini-manifesto charging them with narcissism and cruelty and blaming them for all the death and misery of war (and who knows what else) is definitely going to convince the world that you’re not violent creeps.
By turning the oppression meme around upon the feminists, it creates equal footing in the debate space.
Yes, that’s right, he thinks the way to win the debate is to quite literally argue “nuh-uh, you are!”
Second, it supplants the current “MRA send death threats” meme. MRA’s do not send death threats, MRA’s send pictures of blood covered feathers.
I’m sorry, what?
MRA’s do not send death threats, MRA’s send pictures of blood covered feathers.
That’s what I thought you said. You people really don’t understand how PR works, do you?
If your message does not include said feather, that was not an MRA, as anyone who understands the MRA position would understand the symbolism and necessity of the red feather campaign.
Yes, that’s right, a woman getting El Rellok’s unhinged message along with a picture of a feather drenched in blood is going to say, ah, yes, this isn’t a threat. This is a Men’s Rights meme, and a perfectly rational conversation-starter on the important topic of why women deserve blame for all the wars in the world because a small number of women in Britain in World War I handed out feathers to men who weren’t enlisted.
Third, it allows us to fracture the feminist movement and more clearly identify those feminists who actually want equality and are just being blind, from those feminists who are actually misanderist (i use that term hesitantly, but as i have not had time to create a new term to describe my view of this branch of feminism, so it is necessary). If we can separate the equality feminists from the misandarists, then we can actually start working with reasonable people to begin wide scale social reform on gender issues.
Trust me, any woman who sees your message as anything but the unhinged rantings of a possibly dangerous crackpot is not any kind of feminist.
Depending upon the response I get here, the above shall be sent to AVFM with a proposal for a “Feather Drive” asking submissions of drawings of bloody feathers we can then use.
This, El Rellok’s concluding sentence, is also the first sentence of his that makes any kind of sense. This sounds right up A Voice for Men’s alley.
In a followup comment, directed at MRAs who weren’t completely convinced that sending pics of bloody feathers is the best way forward for the troubled Men’s Rights Movement, he added:
OK, There are multiple people Doxxing and sending threats to feminists (and others). We need a way to signify that this IS NOT US. We need a way to signify this IS NOT US while still sending a reply of some form. Sending death threats is not useful, and no, sending a picture of a feather with a message clearly stating it is about mens sacrafice is a threat only to people who would percieve any responce at all to be a threat. So unless you are saying we just need to grovel before our new feminist over lords, tell me what the hell else we do. DO you understand the concept that feminism is not simply going to go away if you ignore them? We need a symbol representing male disposability, to counter arguements that we are privilege defending mysoginists. And it needs to be a historically poinant one, or its not going to stick.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Also, have you ever heard of spellcheck?
Men and females. There it is.
Upon receiving a body part soaked in blood and an angry message, the average person would interpret that as, “I’m going to do something violent to you,” rather than “I want equality*.”
*Pffft.
Why not just send a red feather? You could get a pack of a hundred at any crafts store. Why does the feather have to be soaked in actual blood (or drawn that way, anyway)?
My second thought is, when will the PR manager actually do any PR managing? You’d think it’d be wise to run a campaign like this by someone first to make sure you aren’t recreating the scene from South Park and the lower-case T.
. When you speak of sacrifice, before our eyes flash visions of bayonets, within our nostrils the waft of trenches, our ears recall the scream of artillery coming to shred our bodies
Bullshit. He’s pretty obviously an American male. No trenches in his memory. No bayonet charges. Maybe (just maybe) if he’s a vet, he knows what it sounds like to have mortars coming in.
Hyperbolic stotweasel.
Dave, he doesn’t use spell check because it doesn’t work. It keeps flagging “misanderist”.
I love how he intends this as a way to show how the MRM is willing to, “compromise” with those nasty feminists who won’t. It’s like they think they have rights instead of permissions.
Have the MRAs actually outlined anywhere what this “wide-scale social reform on gender issues” actually looks like for them? That might be scarier than a picture of a bloody feather.
As Cassandra points out, most people receiving a red feather would be puzzled, more than scared. I think it’s hilarious, do they really think that their “memes” matter?
The “problem” (and I mean THEIR problem) is that if they are not violent and rabid, they are laughable, because they have no issues to push, no political or social agenda to support. Without harassment, violence and abuse they are NOTHING. A bunch of babies crying because they share the same genitals of some poor people who died in a war 100 years ago, and they’re deluded enough to think that it’s all the evil females’ fault.
Once they realize this, they will become even more rabid and violent, I’m afraid.
So one guy gets to decide that all of feminism is responsible for a shitty shaming campaign that happened last century?
Does this work the other way? Can one guy absolve feminism of the blame? ‘Cause I just talked to Mr. FM on Skype, and he says everything is fine.* He’s even a combat veteran. If this thing gets underway, maybe we can reply to the red feather emails with a “No, big misunderstanding, we’re cool.”
*If anyone is concerned about nepotism, he also said we could put my case up for independent review while he cleared everybody else.
If they do include an explanation on the meaning of the red feather in their message, it’s at best going to elicit a facepalm and a “not this bullshit again”. MRAs really don’t seem to understand that nobody outside their little circlejerk is going to be dazzled by their rhetoric.
It’s like their desperate attempts to create “gender equivalent” versions of Don’t Be That Guy. When they for once try to avoid blatant victim-blaming, they just sound bizarre and nonsensical to any normal person unfamiliar with MRA arguments*.
*Note to any MRAs reading: The same cannot be said for feminist arguments, which, as opposed to MRA talking points, do make sense in the real world without having to rely on a series of logical leaps and a bunch of non sequiturs.
Oh yes, MRA’s remind feminists of the terrible war sacrifices made by men. But don’t bother to push for policy changes that might keep military men out of armed conflicts. And certainly don’t push for better medical care and other services for veterans. Because throwing their sacrifice in the face of of feminists is sufficient “caring” about them enough, I’m sure.
Alas, Logic. He knew it well. Then he turned into a total crazy MRA headcase.
@jbgarner58:
Please, no ableism. MRAs are illogical shitheads because they are hateful bigots who twist facts in order to justify their desire to control and abuse women, not because they have a mental illness. Thank you.
I think during the first world war some of my family were miners, so were forced to stay behind and keep working. Is mining more misanderous than soldiering? Also in the second world war both my grandads were in the navy. Why do these mighty keyboard warriors never complain about that?
Can someone please remind me how many of the major players (leaders, generals etc) were female? We all know Duchess Francine Ferdinand was murdered by an unknown woman, but other than that…
My country was on the bad side on both world wars, and I only know my mom’s side of the family, but:
WWI – One of my great granddads was a shepherd (and according to family legends had the tendency to be chased away by angry mobs) the other miner, both with over 10 children, so probably not one of them was in the army, but in Hungary even being civilian wasn’t easy those days.
WWII – My maternal grandfather was a miner too, so he was only called in to fight as the last resort (and almost deserted, but was to concerned about his family to actually do it). He never reached the front lines, the Russians intercepted the train and poor guy was sent straight to Siberia for three years.
Oh lookie, my herd of ableist unicorns got a few new friends! Somebody else explain why MRAs aren’t crazy head cases please.
“…before our eyes flash visions of bayonets, within our nostrils the waft of trenches, our ears recall the scream of artillery coming to shred our bodies.”
No, no, and no. He did not just claim that men, all men, as a fact of being men, have flashbacks to the trenches of WWI. Right? I didn’t actually wake up and this whole post is the result of a cat sleeping next to me? It’s all just some strange dream resulting for rolling over into something furry?
…Nivi just lumbered by the front of zir tank, so apparently nope, he really did say that cuz yep, I really am awake. The fucking fuck?
—
In other news, my 55g FINALLY has an established ammonia cycle. And I have zero faith in fishless cycling, despite all logic saying it should work. I should get up and make sure Nivi did end up swallowing zir fish dinner, it being frozen was no problem, but last I saw ze still had a tiny bit of tail sticking out. And with their lack of real teeth, either it went down whole, or it’s fouling the water.
“If it was pictures of feathers, plural, and I knew it came from an MRA, I’d think “Here’s a man who managed to lose a fight with a feather pillow.” ”
So now I owe the library a new keyboard…
Wouldn’t it make more sense just to have a link or tagline with “real” MRAs (or AVFM MRAs?). Like, a link to an MRA 101 post or a tagline like, “The needs of one are the needs of all: MRA”.
I mean seriously I just came up with a really great idea and I’m drinking Starbucks and slept for 4 hours and I’m a feminist.
Ain’t that the truth! Mining and the navy at wartime both seem like no joke.
And if I remember correctly some British men were conscripted to be miners in WWII, weren’t they? And those men weren’t released from their posts until years after combat ended. I’m not sure if that kind of service was required in the U.S. You don’t hear much about those men from any quarter.
Conscientious objectors from the World Wars are overlooked, too. You’d think MRA’s would love them some stories about men who refused to fight for those manipulative unappreciative feeemales. Especially since a lot of conscientious objectors had their own horrible wartime experiences to relate.
I think the OP’s screed is the closest I’ve seen to anything acknowledging the men who didn’t go to the front… and he’s not really praising them or their principles, just using them as a springboard so that he can splash into some gory battle imagery. Hm.
Sweet baby buddha! I am so screamingly, achingly tired of these ass hats attempting to appropriate the deaths of others as somehow entitling them fucking anything. Unless you are a soldier who has or is serving in a battlefield capacity the sacrifice of those soldiers buys you exactly jack shit when it comes to credibility.
Why does every image these clowns use have to be drenched in blood and using the pain of someone else? I should stop before this just degenerates into me mindlessly cursing.
Why would I think it was my blood? Oh right; getting unsolicited pictures of bloody objects is massively threatening. Yeah, that’s why people would naturally assume its meant to signify their own blood. Narcissism has very little to do with it.
@daintydougal But the blood shed by soldiers throughout all of history is totally El Rellok’s blood, that’s not narcissism that’s just fact because… reasons.
So, say you’re a member of a social or protest movement. You wish to communicate with persons standing against your cause. You are freely permitted to do this, but unfortunately, many persons who are not formally part of your movement are communicating with the same persons on the same matters. To avoid confusion of your peaceful organisation with these violent fringe elements, you require an unambiguous statement of the source of your communications.
SIGN YOUR NAME. SIGN YOUR NAME AND THE MOVEMENT YOU COME FROM.
If anonymity is necessary, you should still NAME YOUR MOVEMENT.
This misanderist advice brought to you by duckbunny, a member of the Campaign for Common Sense and the Plain Language Oppressers. Please note that these are grassroots movements and I cannot speak on their behalf.
I don’t really feel like working so I decided to help this guy out.
CONTENT NOTE: blood, feather, bad Shakespearean English
http://i.imgur.com/fx0RXQi.png
Dorothy Lawrence, a woman who disguised herself as man to enlist in World War I and serve on the front lines.
Hey, somewhat slightly OT, but couldn’t help it thinking of bloody bird feathers, but has anybody read Daphne du Maurier’s short story “The Birds”? Yes, it’s the basis for the Hitchcock film, but substantially different and actually much more ghastly and hopeless.
Crap, I thought that would just be a link. Sorry to the squeamish!
Ooh!
Love du Maurier’s short story The Birds!
Reminds me a little of Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes, except without the happy ending.
Honestly, that is much better than they probably would design. wouldn’t surprise me if they steal it. It is surprisingly difficult to make graphic designs worse than MRAs.