Congratulations, A Voice for Men. You are having an impact upon the world.
Or at least upon one organization in India, a truly reprehensible group called Masculinist India, which has adopted the histrionic rhetorical style, and even some of the specific arguments, advanced by AVFM and other North American Men’s Rights groups for a series of graphically challenged “masculinist” memes posted on Facebook and on the group’s web page. Masculinist India has even adopted AVFM’s preferred nomenclature, describing its members as “Men’s Human Rights Activists.” They are of course the complete opposite of “human rights” activists, campaigning instead against basic rights for women.
The influence of AVFM and other Western Men’s Rightsers can been seen again and again in Masculinist India’s posts and memes, which have all the sophistication and subtlety of Chick Tracts.
The “feminists made me a misogynist” logic of the meme above, for example, echoes the argument made in “Hate Bounces,” an influential MRA screed by MRA/MGTOW elder “Zed,” and by countless other MRAs including former AVFM Number Two John Hembling.
Other memes borrow not only the arguments of Western MRAs but recycle the same tired stock photos, like the angry woman in this meme, a favorite amongst Western MRAs.
Masculinist India’s graphics-makers are as obsessed with this “argument” as is AVFM’s Paul Elam.
And they share AVFM’s fondness for threatening rhetoric — in this case complete with violent imagery.
And while AVFM’s Elam argues that men serving on juries should vote to acquit all men charged with rape, even if they’re obviously guilty, in order to protest an allegedly “misandrist” court system, the Masculinist India crew celebrates a court decision allowing married men to rape their wives with impunity. The following meme appears on their website under the taunting headline “Know Your Role, Girls.” [TRIGGER WARNING for rape apologism, offensive imagery.]
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I don’t even want to know why they chose bloody fingers for this graphic.
This meme, meanwhile, suggests that it’s an injustice that men are not allowed to forbid their wives from wearing blue jeans.
Human rights: You’re doing it wrong.
Unfortunately, Masculinist India is not some obscure little group with no influence in the world. Its Facebook page has nearly twenty thousand “likes” — several thousand more, that is, than that of AVFM itself.
Apparently in India as well as the United States there is a market for this brand of hatred.
NOTE: Thanks to Cloudiah for bringing these memes to my attention.
The two finger ” up yours ” started as a taunt to French soldiers by English longbowmen. The longbowmen were tremendously effective against the French.
Therefore, the French had adopted the practice of lopping the two bow fingers off of the right hands of the English captured, then sending them back to the lines to consume English resources without providing fighting power.
So it was literally ” I’ve still got my fingers, you bastards.”
I’m wanting to say that was the battle of Agincourt, and the king was Henry? But not certain.
I did not get the digital rape thing because I thought the hand looked superglued or sutured back together, after presumably having been mangled in some sort of apparatus.
Yes, you can superglue wounds shut, 3M vetbond is specifically alcohol-free and for wound gluing.
No, I did not look this crap up, but I have had my coffee now.
*blink*
*blink*
… whut. Pretty sure the “hatred and bigotry” part has already been addressed, but as far as the “loyal opposition” bit goes, this is how I feel whenever any of these fuckers starts talking on behalf of men, or of gamers. I feel like screaming “YOU DON’T REPRESENT ME, FUCKER! STOP PRETENDING I’M ON YOUR SIDE!”
Emcube
Oh. Sorry i wish I could help. Hopefully someone will help you or you will figure it out.
That child is either some sort of fairy or zer her parents are giants.
Sorry got my pronouns really mixed up.
Yeah, I’ll go right ahead and agree with whomever said those bloody fingers were serial killer level fucked up. Unfortunately the MRAs in the west are probably jealous of their graphics.
Where’s Kali when you need her?
“your husband should not be your source of income”??
what? doesn’t misogynists, sorry, traditionalists always argue that women should stay in the kitchen? where the heck are “feminine” Red Pill chicks gonna get money from, if not from their husband?
And silly David, these MRA’s a campaining for human rights, a mans right to rape his wife, that is. Those poor, oppressed saps.
Hi! First time I comment here, but I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and I like your articles a lot.
I’m from Latin America, and the misogyny is huge here. This article reminded me of something published on a social network called Taringa (popular in all of Latin America) on a group for “masculinists”.
So, I bring you some jewels! Amongst the things they propose (translation of http://www.taringa.net/comunidades/masculinismo/8874164/Difundir-Activismo-masculinista-actualizable.html):
– “Don’t join the army (no matter how much you love your country). Let the women die defending the system that oppresses us for being men.”
– “Don’t join the police that works to put innocent men in jail.”
– “Don’t hire women. We’re already forced to hire them because of “positive discrimination”. If they were so efficient they wouldn’t need it.”
– “Don’t teach or educate women. They say they’re smarter and that they’re a majority in universities. Besides, they get help ‘only for women’.”
– “Don’t raise or take financial care of children of single mothers. Remember the father has been legally kicked out and his rights have been taken.”
– “Don’t get married.”
– “Pay as little of taxes as possible. This will reduce the capacity of the government to transfer payments to women.”
– “Don’t have children, since it legally means to lose your house and big part of present and future income when your woman decides it.”
I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.
@fruitloopsie, Rex kitties in the bath! ::swoons from teh cute::
@clouidiah, I’ve never listened to Jay Smooth before – that video was great. He nailed it.
@blahlistic
I’ve read about it coming from Agincourt (Henry V); it would make sense to have derived from then, as the longbow fire essentially won that battle, iirc. It’d be a Hundred Years’ War thing, anyway.
Speaking of the Hundred Years’ War reminded me of this:
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=353
Why does jeans = nudity girl have a maple leaf tied to her bikini bottoms?
Yes, I realize this may be the least nonsensical part of the whole thing, but at least there may possibly be some sort of explanation for the maple leaf.
@cassandrakitty – I was wondering the same thing. It made me think of the Canadian flag – maybe a reference to evil western culture?
“It is a kick on your nasty brain, accept it”.
Steven Seagal would be proud!
So serious thoughts on the jeans thing.
This is part of a really insidious line of thought: The “but the way in which I’m controlling your life is so small and reasonable” argument. Same as the sammich guys who go “I’m only asking for a sammich, I’m not demanding you make a three-course meal or anything.”
It casts the man as a totally reasonable person who is only asking for things that no one could possibly object to and implicitly shifts the conversation from the man making the demand to the woman refusing to do it — while still establishing the framework of the argument that women, in general, ought to do what men, in general, tell them, even if it isn’t small and harmless.
Heh, so much for the myth that MRA is a just merely a WHITE thing only, eh?
Maybe the dude who designed the poster is a colorblind hockey fan and really likes the Leafs? And the Pillsbury Doughboy is holding a gavel and a law book because, um, dude also really likes frozen dinner rolls?
@Elektra Kenway,
welcome! yeah this shit really seems to be everywhere…It’s amazing how similar it is, too.
Privilege is privilege. I think the criticism about MRAs being mostly white in white dominated countries is about the privilege and the way they seldom get involved in defending the rights of non-white men who are being exploited. It’s about the selectivity of the rights defending that goes on.
As the story goes it was Agincourt, yes. I would take that story of its origin with a few grains of salt, though because 1), the most easily verifiable part of the story, the cutting the fingers off of prisoners bit, is missing from any historical accounts of the battle, and 2), there’s a couple very similar and definitely false stories that purport to be the origin of the word ‘fuck’.
My fiance is from India. From what I understand in talks with him and his family, it’s not much to do with MRAs here having any influence there, but from major social upheavals going on in the country. The political party that’s recently become the majority is one known for its chauvinism and pushing for a return to “traditional” roles. He also points out that while it’s not a great place to be a woman, it’s an especially horrible place to be a lower class, poor woman.
Hey, first time de-lurker here. 🙂
short anecdote:
I’m from central europe so I don’t really know America’s history regarding the criminalization of marital rape, but a professor a year ago pointed me to the protocols of the discussions that took place in our national council (our legislative organ) in the seventies. marital rape was not legal back then, but it was not classified as “rape” but as “Nötigung”, which is not a sex crime but is basically whenever someone uses force or threat to get someone else to do what he wants. i read the protocols and they’re just horrible. some men there just refused to acknowledge that forcing someone to do sexual stuff in a marriage is a (sex) crime.
they said stuff like “well, my wife is not always really happy to make dinner for me but she still has to do it, so what’s the big difference if the situation is regarding sexual things?”
another quote was about them being “worried” that if forced intercourse in a marriage was qualified as rape, everytime someone heard a woman’s screams from a bedroom they might call the police, even if the woman might only be having amazing sex with her husband.
People can be so awful sometimes…
@Tyra Lith – Hi! No doubt one of the regulars will welcome you properly. I’ve just come back in myself.
Your comments reminded me of the conversation about rape and “unwanted sex.” There’s a trend here at the moment, when talking about people who decide to provide sex even though they don’t want to, in order to avoid violence or abuse or whatever, to say “unwanted sex” rather than just call it rape. Generally it’s young women talking about boyfriends, which is a lot of my concern. People are taught that it’s okay to coerce or force someone to provide sex and if you question that, you’re a horrible whinging selfish cow, or something.
@Syburi: nice to meet you!
yeah, I know what you mean. this idea that women have to provide sex for men just won’t die. like sex with women is a resource every man needs and automatically “deserves”, kept in a box, and we are sitting on it stubbornly. something detached from our bodies, so theoretically we could hand it out like candy if we weren’t so damn selfish.
it’s a mindset that creeps me out to no end when I think about it, but as a young woman sometimes I notice that I myself am affected by those ideas.
The English two-finger ‘V-sign’ is given with the back of the hand facing the recipient (as with the US ‘middle finger’), not the palm. Trigger warning for just fucking horrible, but two fingers with the palm facing forward means ‘victory’ (in the UK at least), which I’m afraid may be the point this scumbag is trying to make.
Tyra Lith, and any newcomers/delurkers I might have missed – Hi, here are your Official Welcome Packages!
@Tyra Lith – An old friend of mine used to refer to “the rage stage.” When you start to become aware of quite how much you got snowed by that cultural bullshit as a young woman, and start to get really angry about it. I was in my twenties before I realised you were allowed to say “No.”
Hearing men in positions of leadership argue defending those sort of ideals is truly creepy. And then you get all the dicks who agree with them walking around loose on the street. Probably mentally working on a way to trade in their own wife for someone younger, who’s still not awake up to it. Hence the other thread on that creepy ex-pat.