How often has this happened to you? You’re reading a thoughtful blog post or comment from a Men’s Rights Activist and you find yourself thinking:
“Gosh! This post or comment on how women are a bunch of malevolent parasites/men are the real slaves if you think about it/women were never oppressed because they could just get maids to clean the house is so witty and wise. I only wish it were 50 times longer, and that I had to pay money to read it!”
Well, I’ve got good news for you: Now you can!
A Voice for Men, having already given the voiceless male gender a way to express itself online, has now launched A Publishing House for Men to give them a way to express themselves in book form!
Well, e-book form.
A Voice for Men’s new publishing house has just published its first book – well, e-book — a slim volume of thoughts on Men Going Their Own Way, written by Peter Wright of Gynocentrism.com with help from AVFM’s Paul Elam, using some material already published online!
Well, technically speaking, this is a relaunch. AVFM Press originally launched last October with the publication of this same book. But Elam decided to call a do-over. No, really.
On October 25th, you see, a bulletin on AVFM proclaimed that AVFM Press was publishing Go Your Own Way: Understanding MGTOW — an e-book it predicted would be but “the first of what will surely become a lengthy series of ebooks (and some hardcovers as well). … let’s get AVFM Press on the map as the iconic source for true red pill appetites.” (A source for appetites? I thought the source for appetites was an empty stomach?)
One day later, Elam announced that he was recalling the e-book.
What I have discovered … is that there were several procedural, legal, and formatting errors that should have been addressed before launching the book.
I made a whole bushel of lemons, folks, and the fault for that lies squarely on me.
But I do make some pretty good lemonade, which I am in the midst of doing as we speak.
I have pulled the book from Amazon Kindle for the time being, and I am removing purchase links from every place they now exist.
After the deficiencies with the product have been corrected, it will be re-launched at a level of quality that AVFM readers deserve, which is the very best possible. All the other issues will be corrected as well.
Please accept my apologies for the mistakes. This whole process of publishing is quite complicated, actually.
It is, Paul, it is.
Happily, Elam announced, the eager customers who’d hurried to buy a copy of the defective book on its first day of publication would be given a copy of the corrected book when it came out. All twelve of them.
That last bit isn’t a joke; according to Elam himself, there were literally twelve of them – less than half the number of those on AVFM’s masthead.
Elam also decided to call a do-over on AVFM Press itself – or at least its name — declaring that
AVFM Press is actually a working title for our publishing arm and will likely change very soon.
But now all the details have been sorted out, right? Well, mostly.
Yesterday’s big announcement on the launch – the real launch, this time – of AVFM’s new publishing house did not actually provide a name for the venture. At least not one that I could find. On Amazon, the publisher of the revised edition of Go Your Own Way is still listed as AVFM Press.
But never mind, because the book is getting rave reviews on Amazon!
For example, a woman named Suzy McCarley declares that the book “was worth the wait!”
Ok, so McCarley is an AVFM staffer who’s given 5-star reviews to everything she’s reviewed — from self–published books by manosphere blogger Aaron Clarey to Avalon Extra Moisturizing Fragrance Free Conditioner. But not all of the rave reviews are written by AVFM staffers under their own names. For example, a fellow calling himself xtime Past gushes:
There is great content for Men and Women of all ages. Most of red pill are apprehensive in reading this book since Paul Elam is a part of the MHRA arm of the manosphere. The read is great for MGTOW to better understand going their own way.
So I would like to congratulate AVFM’s Possibly Still Unnamed Publishing House for Men Who Don’t Write Good for getting off to such a strong start, at least if you ignore that first start that didn’t go so well.
During AVFM’s last donation drive, Elam declared that:
This year will see AVFM go into commercial ventures that will fund even more activism. I cannot go into any details at this point, but rest assured it is coming, and as with most everything else we have set out to do, we are going to pull it off. This track will ease the pressure on some of our larger donors who have always seen us through donation drives.
AVFM’s Possibly Still Unnamed Publishing House for Men Who Don’t Write Good is the first of these new money-making ventures. Because as everyone knows, a vanity publishing house that so seriously fucks up its first e-book launch that it has to do it over again two months later is pretty much guaranteed to be a massive cash-generating machine.
It kind of needs to be, as AVFM’s last donation drive (which just ended) didn’t do quite as well as Elam had hoped, at least according to this little thermometer graphic posted on AVFM.
I can only assume that authors will be rushing to sign up with AVFM’s Possibly Still Unnamed Publishing House for Men Who Don’t Write Good, so that AVFM’s Possibly Still Unnamed Publishing House for Men Who Don’t Write Good can put its name (which may be changed) on their ebooks – and take a share of the profits, if any, hopefully without introducing too many formatting errors in the process.
No, I can’t see how this could possibly go wrong.
Kudos, Paul!
Oops, shortened my username and got caught in moderation, my bad. Take two.
… Quite literally, given how vomitously racist MRAs like boringtroll tend to be.
Lea: he’s not arguing the same points as boringtroll, he’s of the “feminists want to oppress men and ruin mah videogames” variety.
Aaaand he’s just dived into “women lie about rape” territory. Think I might abandon this fool soon.
That’s so true.
sunnysombrera ,
http://i.imgur.com/z93Cq.gif
@kittehs: Thanks! 😀
@Lea: *fistbump right back atcha!
@PoM: This is just one of the reasons I love this blog. I’m learning so much from you people here!
PoM – very good description of namus culture! It ties in with a bit of pseudoscience I read about recently. Telegeny is the belief that a woman’s reproductive system is permanently affected by every sexual encounter that results in semen being deposited within her vagina. Thus, a white woman who has had sex with a black man will never have pure white children, even if the child’s father is white. You can imagine how distressed this belief makes certain people.
This argument comes up so very much, and it is so stupid. It’s the same basic idea as the guy claiming that the PUA a while back didn’t RAPE the girl who was saying no and gently pushing him away with fear in her eyes – it’s a strategy she’s employing, see, she’s playing hard to get. How will you know unless you keep pushing? THERE WAS NO WAY TO TELL FOR SURE!
Okay, let’s ignore the fact that you are probably wrong. Let’s just set aside the bit where, since there was talk of filing a complaint, clearly she was not extremely aloof, and most likely there was indeed a way to tell, if not for sure, then past reasonable doubt.
Even if you can’t tell? Even if she’s playing some kind of game? Back off anyway.
Why would you want to be with someone who toys with you that way? Why would you want someone who essentially forces you to violate her boundaries? Yeah, there is a cultural narrative that says women “should” do this, and yes, some women do indeed play idiotic games to reassure themselves that they are not “slutty”. I don’t think there are as many women employing this strategy as people seem to think, but sure, let’s say you’ve encountered some. Okay? You with me? Pretend that she was indeed just being aloof, but on the inside was totally into you, and wanted you to keep pursuing her.
DON’T DO IT. IT IS A BAD IDEA. She is using an awful strategy. She has some extremely unhealthy approaches to romance and sex, and that is sad, but the only way she will stop doing that shit is if it stops working. The only way girls will stop playing coy and saying no when they mean yes (if that even really happens very much; I’m speaking hypothetically here) is if people collectively shrug and walk away when they say no, instead of trying to turn it into the “yes” she “really means.” Just walk away, dude. If she really wants it, she’ll seek you out.
“Oh!” you say. “Oh, but if I don’t keep pursuing, I will be forever alone!”
I hate to break it to you, honey, but if that’s your argument, you are doing it wrong. And if all the women you meet want to play dumb mind games with you instead of telling you what they really want, why would you settle for that anyway?
I AM SO SORRY FOR THE TEAL DEER
Ah, but Mouse Farts, they don’t see women as people, therefore it doesn’t really matter if a woman is playing games or genuinely wants him to leave her the hell alone. Or rather, it matters in that it’s a useful way of dismissing her genuine wish for him to fuck off forever. All that matters is that he wear her down one way or another and get his dick wet. Relationships, future behaviour – what does any of that matter as long as he’s getting the sex he’s entitled to from the womanthing of his choice?
Lea – ah, yes, very different context, isn’t it? (Your glasses sound awesome, btw.) Getting those sort of “endearments” or that sort of aggressive over-friendliness would get massive side-eye here in a social context, and in a work context, hell, that’d be “call me that again and I’m going to HR”.
Aside from that, I’m not thinking of women in any context complimenting my appearance; I’ve had that at work and just on the street (usually for my spectacular Aston coat) and that’s fine. But this specific context of a man who’s had, by his own account, little to do with the woman, but makes such a personal comment? That’s creepy.
Notice, too, he changed his story? It went from him complimenting her glasses to suddenly her having only just got her first pair, and everyone in a suddenly very small office (how could he have had so little interaction with her in an office of five people?) paying attention because she’d told them she was getting glasses.
But gosh, what am I saying? This would imply that trolly’s a lying liar who lies. What a terrible thought.
I actually have a pretty hard time believing that in an office of only five people, everyone would have gone “oh noes! Ladytoes says BoredTroll has been making her uncomfortable for six months! I have never seen any hint of anything resembling inappropriate behavior from him, no one has ever witnessed him saying such things, and he has always been a model of perfect behavior! CRUCIFY HIM!”
In an office that small, if you make an unfounded allegation, everyone knows. This is not some corporate firm with thirteen floors and six HR directors, okay? If she was making shit up and being “oversensitive,” the person taking that report would have done some investigation and maybe had everyone involved take, like, a seminar or something. Taken BoredTroll aside and said, “dude, I know you mean well, but when you do such-and-such-thing, people can get the wrong idea. I need you to work on that, because work should be a place everyone feels comfortable,” and maybe talked to Ladytoes a little bit about what constitutes inappropriate, given her some coping strategies.
I find it hard to believe that she could just make that up in a vacuum and everyone would ostracize him if there was nothing to her accusations, you know?
I wondered how many people hinted to him that the workplace is not the dating pool before he “almost” got charged with sexual harassment in the workplace and creating a hostile environment. We wonders.
I dunno, maybe it can be contextual? Sometimes? I met Mr. Farts at my then-job, but we worked for a huge chain with multiple departments; I was in one department, he in another. And there wasn’t any creepy hinting or anything. One day he was teasing me about a product, and I blurted out, “oh, that’s – wow, your eyes are really pretty. We should go out sometime.” And then I hastily made my exit because I didn’t actually mean to say that, and the next day I asked him out. (I might have actually made up an occasion for the excuse to do that…)
But that was a much bigger company, and I was very straightforward in my approach. Kind of like the friend who just comes right out and says “hey, you wanna go on a date?” is far, far less awkward than that one dude who hangs around you and pines and sulks if you date anyone, but if you call him on it, he insists that no, he has no pantsfeelings! Why would you even think that? omg you are so arrogant, lol, that’s super vain, the world doesn’t revolve around you, you aren’t even my type!
Or maybe I was just inappropriate toward Mr. Farts. I’ll have to reflect on that.
Any guy who thinks that all women’s actions can be “explained” that way, DESERVES to be Forever Alone. Because if he thinks we’re “gaming” him, he is sure to be hellishly obnoxious and very likely trying to “game” us himself…when he’s not all pouty and resentful of all these “double-talking women”, which in itself is a nasty bit of mindfuckery and a game NOBODY wants to play.
@Mousefarts
I don’t think that asking someone out ONCE is necessarily innapproprrate (though it certainly can be if the asking out in preceded by creepy behavior or if there’s a big power gap between each other). Generally harassment and things are defined as behavior that continues over time, so:
-asking out coworker (not subordinate) who you are on good terms with once, and accepting their answer if it comes out negative = generally okay
-repeatedly hanging around co-worker who make it clear they are not comfortable around you, does not respond to attempts at conversation, or who has previously turned you down = NOT OKAY
So I think you’re doing alright, but it never hurts to examine one’s behavior for problematic elements.
I just read Anarchonist’s long rebuttual to the troll on this thread while playing that Vergil theme song ( It was the first time I’d heard it). That made for some truly epic reading! XD
As a strange sort of side effect, Anarchonist is now obscenely cool in my head.
“This year will see AVFM go into commercial ventures that will fund even more activism. I cannot go into any details at this point, but rest assured it is coming, and as with most everything else we have set out to do, we are going to pull it off.”
I have mixed feelings about this claim. My immediate thought is that they haven’t really pulled anything off – they managed to host an event in a veteran’s hostel that didn’t sell out, but failed to arrange protests that attracted more than a couple of dozen site regulars anywhere else. They have failed to provide support for men consistently – but then, have they even claimed that they would do that?
I read somewhere that AVFM pays a lot of money to bump up its Google ratings, which seems sensible for them (and probably explains the Alexa discrepancy, David?) but seriously, what have they set out to do? I might well have missed it, I’m not a regular on the site, but there isn’t really anything tangible that they can point to and say “we did that” is there?
AVfM’s just a scam to line Paul Elam’s pockets. In that respect, it seems to be successful. In anything else, nope.
The “some people are just aloof” thing makes my eyes roll so hard. I’m aloof…with people who I don’t like. With friends/Mr C/coworkers who I actually like, nope! If someone is being aloof towards you, consider the possibility that this is because they don’t like you very much and have no interest in getting to know you better.
(Also, people who’re genuinely aloof towards everyone don’t tend to have an office full of adoring coworkers who will support them in sexual harassment cases. Chances are she wasn’t aloof with them, buddy, and there’s a reason for that.)
Even if the “some people are just aloof” thing had any truth to it – what’s so hard about leaving them the fuck alone?
Oh, but women aren’t allowed to be aloof to dudes who want to fuck us, of course. Misandry!
Mouse Farts, what Catalpa said. Also, in trolly’s case, I read thebewilderness’ remark less as a general “don’t date coworkers ” rule and more of a specific “dude, I’m talking to you to get X info I need on project Y, not because I want a date. “
I’m a little shy and socially awkward. It reads as aloof to people who don’t know me well. However, I’m still perfectly capable of engaging somebody who is speaking to me in conversation if I actually want to be talking to them.
That’s the thing, it’s not that the messages aren’t clear (in this case “no, and I wasn’t interested the last 5 times you asked me either), it’s that the man receiving them doesn’t want to hear them, so he looks for excuses to ignore them. Happens all the time.
I’m an introvert by nature, socially awkward on occasion…and I get mighty pissy when clueless oafs think that’s “aloof”. It costs me a physical effort sometimes just to sit still and not bolt when others are eating up all the air in the room with ordinary conversation. If I were aloof, I wouldn’t even BE there. But just because I haven’t bolted doesn’t mean I’ll put up with (or put out for) clueless oafs who think that no “no” means “yes”, or that a dozen times “no” will eventually lead to a “yes”. Nobody is under obligation to like everybody else, and no woman is under obligation to dispense sex to any man who asks. Especially if he keeps pestering for it.
Didn’t he say he was “almost” reported for harassment?
How did he know that unless she said something along the lines of: “Look, this is the last time I tell you no without reporting you for harassing me”.
Even that still has is drawers in a twist all this time later.
No, indeed, not opposed to office romances. I realize there are very few places outside the work environment where people have the opportunity to form friendships, so it is perfectly natural that they would do so within the work place. The thing that struck me about “almost” d00d is that speaking to someone six times in six months in a workplace of only five people is not credible. He got the cold shoulder every time, he says, and decided that she was aloof, which seems to be his euphemism for professional. Welp, that is what we do isn’t it? Maintain a professional relationship until we get to know people well enough to decide if we want to see them outside the workplace. If he only speaks to his coworkers six times in six months it seems to me that he is the one who is aloof. I suspect his coworkers were giving him the side eye right along because of how oddly he was treating this one person. After six months of him being weird the side eye turned into the stink eye and almost d00d still did not learn anything useful from the experience. Amazing.