A Voice for Men’s ongoing campaign to convince the world that “Men’s Human Rights Activists” are a bunch of petty, malicious, sexually insecure douchenozzles continues apace.
I mean, that must be what they’re really up to, right? Because no one who actually had any real interest in human rights of any kind would produce “memes” like the one above and all the rest below, delivered to your eyes straight from AVFM’s Fcebook page.
At their best, AVFM’s memes are merely baffling …
… or ridiculous.
AVFM also loves appropriating the images of famous people, and pretending that these people are somehow on their side. But their choices of imaginary celebrity endorsers can be a bit, well, ironic. A couple of days ago in one of my posts on the iconography of the “Cultural Marxism” conspiracy theorists, I posted a neo-Nazi meme showing a crudely photoshopped picture of Star Trek’s Kirk and Spock endorsing Adolph Hitler — a rather odd conceit, given that William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are both Jewish, and that the original Star Trek series promoted tolerance and a very 60s-liberal sort of multiculturalism.
Well, here’s AVFM’s attempt to make Spock an MRA:
Dudes, hate to break it to you, but Nimoy is actually a … feminist. Really. In the 60s he demanded that Star Trek’s producers pay actress Nichele Nichols the same as her male counterparts on the show. And as a photographer today, Nimoy acknowleges that he is heavily influenced by feminism, partiularly the writings of Jewish feminist Letty Cottin Pogrebin, one of the founders of Ms. magazine.
So that’s not really his “listening to feminism face” at all.
An astonishing number of AVFM’s memes are so sexualized that they are more or less soft-core porn. Even their anti-male-rape memes, ostensibly attempts to raise consciousness about the rape of men by women, feature seductive, scantily clad women, undermining whatever message they are supposed to be getting across.
But the most, er, revealing memes are the ones that hint at deep sexual insecurities on the part of the meme makers and those who “like” them on Facebook. (The images that follow are mildly NSFW.)
This meme, for example, actually features the dreaded vagina dentata:
[slightly risque meme removed]
And this one attempts to shame male feminists by suggesting they enjoy being penetrated, an act that’s really only “shameful” if you have some rather fucked-up notions of what is and what isn’t appropriate male sexuality. And a certain degress of hatred and fear of female sexual agency.
[slightly risque meme removed]
AVFM meme-maker John Galt also continues to be weirdly obsessed by me.
And then there’s this lovely meme, intended as a joke at the expense of a feminist activist who’s been on AVFM’s enemies list ever since she told some AVFM dudes to shut up at a demonstration several years ago. (I’ve crossed out her face, because no one really deserves to be made into an AVFM meme.)
[slightly risque meme removed]
The joke is obviously supposed to be at her expense, suggesting that she is so unattractive that she makes penises wilt. But you don’t have to be Sigmund Freud to realize that this isn’t the real story here. This is a woman demonized by AVFM and other antifeminists because once, several years ago, she shouted down some dudes. It’s not her appearance that frightens their penises; it’s the fact that she wouldn’t put up with their bullshit.
Guys, you’re not fooling anyone, except yourselves.
Funny how AVFM’s idea of “equality” all translates to blatant misogyny. Especially that last one, which is funny as hell considering how they tell us that “Respects is EARN!”
@ wordsp1nner
I like the ‘there would be a male contraceptive pill’ one. That is literally a feminist reproductive rights talking point.
And ‘men would live 6.4 years longer’ as if feminists have some kind of magical influence over average mortality rates (typically based on chronic diseases associated with aging).
It’s a train wreck. Not a normal one, but a sailing-off-a-cliff explody one. Fun fun.
Wordsp1nner : that list is a load of what the fuckery. A few points are valid but some are just ridiculous.
Men should have due process when accused of rape.
Men DO have due process when accused of rape. And on the theme of things this list wants that already exist: women DO get punished for killing their husbands and committing violence against men. Have you been living in a cave?
Men would graduate from college at the same rate as women.
They would, if they put the work in. If you don’t do the assignments or you drop out, you don’t graduate, and that’s the same for everyone.
False rape accusers would serve 50 year jail sentences
That’s more than ACTUAL RAPE. More than murder in fact. I see you have your priorities straight. Also, do you mean proven false accusers or accusers whose rapists didn’t get prosecuted? Because I have a bad feeling you’ll lean towards the latter.
Baby girls would be circumcised at birth.
OH HELL NO. Do you even know what the difference is between male and female circumcision? Apples and oranges, douchebag!
Men would live 6.4 years longer.
You do realise nobody can control life and death, right?
College campuses would have to cease their hostility towards men.
What hostility?! Wait, are you…referring to how colleges treat accused rapists?
Restraining orders would not issue without a man first having a hearing.
I don’t think you know what restraining orders are for, or that women who request them have to provide proof that they are in reasonable fear for their safety. Nope, you just want to be able to stalk the woman of your choice and then deny it before a judge.
I will finish off my analysis tomorrow, I really need to sleep.
“The white House would have a council for men and boys.”
Isn’t that called “Congress?”
http://glukkake.bigcartel.com/product/vagina-dentata-pre-order
I was never jealous of women. Until I found out they could buy underclothes like this.
I… I just… I can’t…
What the fuck?
“There would be a federal law punishing Women who commit violence against Men;”
Either this is a reference to current criminal law, which is gender neutral, or it’s a reference to the Violence Against Women Act, which is also gender neutral, in spite of the name.
“Women would have to register as sex offenders for making false accusations;”
That is not a sexual crime. That doesn’t even make sense. That makes about as a much sense as requiring someone to attend drug counselling if they lie about someone else being a drug dealer.
“Rehabilitation programs in Women’s prisons would receive 1600% less funding;”
1600%? You want to take all of it, then force the program to pay back another 15 times? Or do you just not know how percent works?
This, right here, is about as clear as it gets: they have no intention of helping men.
Oh, divines, that image…
1. Actually, feminists are heavily against the draft, so perhaps we could just abolish it altogether, and that way no one has to be forced to die in war.
2. Men already are. The problem is that they and people around them silence their victim into not speaking out or going to court, convincing the victim that they’re “ruining his life” and “You were asking for it anyway!”.
3. Good. People should receive equal sentences for equal crimes to a point. Obviously if someone commits murder in the name of self-defense, they should get a lighter sentence than say someone who murdered because of a hate crime or someone who planned their murder beforehand.
4. Actually, men do win the majority of custody battles. When men ask for sole custody, they usually get it. The thing is, they ask more:
http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/dv.html
5. Source please? Also, I’m pretty sure that if men stopped being pissy about women getting into jobs they say women can’t do, that number might lower considerably (considering men are more likely to be reckless).
http://tinyurl.com/owzwbmb
6. Source please? Also, many men, from what I’ve seen, are going into fields like electricians and other jobs similar to it, which don’t require college degrees, because the economy isn’t that great, and technical labor jobs like that require far less training and are always in demand.
7. According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2013, prostrate cancer was given 255.6 million dollars in funding, while breast cancers were given 559.2 million. So, yeah, prostrate cancer doesn’t get as much funding.
However, they also say this:
Source: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/NCI/research-funding
So, quit whining at feminists about this, and go whine to the NCI. They’re the ones who decide how the money gets spent.
8. Really? Wow. That’s an awful lot. But, I assume that you’d make sure that the person who is accusing is really lying beyond a shadow of a doubt, right? And you’re going to make sure that people who get falsely accused of other crimes are punished with this as well, right?
Also: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/13/false-allegations-rape-domestic-violence-rare
http://www.buzzfeed.com/charlesclymer/5-things-more-likely-to-happen-to-you-than-being-f-fmeu
Meanwhile, one in four women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes.
9. Again, this is going to rely on proof, but so good to see you finally give a shit about male victims of rape (even though you are using this as a lame “gotcha”).
10. What is there to circumcise on a vagina? I don’t think you know what one looks like, person who made this listicle nonsense.
FYI, feminists are against male circumcision as well.
11. Okay, does that mean if my male partner is also proven to be the father of someone else’s baby, that he gets some sort of punishment for it? Or do you just want to punish women for supposedly cheating on their partners because you think women are are lying whores?
12. Good, so that means I can get an abortion if I’m impregnated because of rape, right?
13. Nah, women have no control over that. What does cause men to live shorter lifespans on average than women?
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/10.01/WhyWomenLiveLon.html
This article says that men are more likely to smoke and drink, are more reckless, and have testosterone?
Also, men used to live longer than women until we made childbirth safer.
14. Oh, so we’re not circumcising vaginas anymore either? Because that’s “genital mutilation”.
15. Only if they are wrong to do so, yeah. If a woman has concerns about the father of her children demanding visitation, and he’s not a fit parent, then she should have the right to raise concerns, and vice versa.
16. Why more than half? I thought this was supposed to be about equality?
17. What does this even mean? We already pay for birth control and are blamed for being raped and assaulted.
18. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=male+contraceptive+pill
Already exists, genius.
19. Not as long as the fetus is residing in my body, he doesn’t. When he’s carrying the baby in his womb, then he can decide if we keep it or not. Until then, I get to say. My womb, my choice.
20. Good. Are you going to get off your collective asses and fund/run them, AVfM, or are you going to keep funding Elam’s lifestyle while sitting at home bitching about feminists on the internet?
21. Or, again, we could abolish the draft all together, because we don’t use it anymore, and feminists have opposed it for some time now.
22. What “hostility”? I don’t see men getting targeted for being men. If by “hostility” you mean telling you you can’t barge into women’s bathrooms while pretending to be a janitor so you can vandalize the place, then…no.
23. The White House already has a “council for men and boys”. It’s called Congress.
24. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=assault+laws
Again, already exists. Want them to be enforced better? Stop telling men to “man up” then proceeding to mock them, and help them when they come to you and talk about their abuse.
25. Yeah, because every woman wants to be in the same room as a person she wants nothing more than to get away from.
And why should only a man get a hearing? Why not women as well, since we’re talking about “equality”?
26. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=innocent+until+proven+guilty
You really need to learn how to use Google.
27. Then they shouldn’t be able to name names period. If someone’s accused by anyone, the media shouldn’t name names until after the trial is over.
28. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=punishment+for+murder
Gettin’ real tired of this shit.
Unless you’re talking about when a woman specifically gets off because of self-defense? Because then go fuck yourself. If someone gets hurt/killed in self-defense, that person should be let off, period.
29. Committing a sex crime =/= falsely saying someone committed a sex crime.
And, again: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/13/false-allegations-rape-domestic-violence-rare
http://www.buzzfeed.com/charlesclymer/5-things-more-likely-to-happen-to-you-than-being-f-fmeu
There are punishments for making false allegations, however.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=punishment+for+making+false+allegations
30. Why should rehabilitation programs of ANY KIND receive less funding? And why by such a drastic amount?
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/17/local/me-rehab17
This is what happens when rehabilitation programs get cut. It’s not fucking pretty.
31. Why do there need to be as many women in prison as men? How is this “equality”? What would you jail these supposed women for?
32. Women already do. We just don’t respect men (or persons of other genders) who think like you. Suck it up, buttercup.
Sorry for the Teal Deer, folks!
Aaaaand I’m wide awake. Great.
One big problem with the list, aside from the frothing misogyny, is that it doesn’t consider the potential problem of ‘the man’ being an abusive asshole. It demands equal custody, punishment for women who deny visitations, an attempt to block restraining orders and that a father have a choice over whether the mother carries the child to term. Not once does it consider that some women and children could be in serious danger if a violent man is allowed all these things.
I got ninja’d by a whole bunch of people. D:
About that “swimming in asphalt” meme. It’s a favorite MRA talking point to claim that men are given longer sentences than women for equivalent crimes (while also claiming that women aren’t held responsible for their actions, but whatevs). Does anyone know if this holds true when race and class are factored in? Do middle/ upper class white men really serve the same amount of time as poor men or color for similar crimes? How about the same white men vs. poor women of color? And so forth. I’m too much of a lazy slug to do the research.
@sunnysombrera
Thanks!
Oh, I agree, but you know, as David mentioned the (painfully obvious) sexual insecurities of MRAs, I thought it was worthwhile to mention the need for female attention.
Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with needing attention from other humans; it’s a fundamental human need. But I think a piece of the implicit sexism of the last few millennia has been this notion that men are the actors, and women are their audience. “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them.” Virginia Woolf talked about it in A Room of One’s Own–men looking to women serve as mirrors in which they see themselves reflected.
Or maybe I’m overthinking. NAH, IMPOSSIBLE.
Wow that AVFM poster deserves it’s own post. There’s just so much wrong.
Why is due process in scare quotes if they think it’s a good thing?
Baby girls should be circumcised? What the fuckity fucking fuck? Even if you grant them the false equivalency between male and female circumcision, why is their goal for girls to undergo FGM? Shouldn’t they just request that the circumcision of boys be outlawed.
How could life expectancies possibly be legislated? Perhaps encouraging men to seek medical health when they need it rather than toughing it out would even things a bit. But if that didn’t work, the only way to make sure would be to kill elderly women.
So, my takeaway is that AVFM is prohibited FGM and pro killing old ladies. Lovely.
Medical care, not medical health.
Touche.
BTW, that was me: stacydianne=Lady Mondegreen. WordPress baffles and confuses me.
(No, really, I think I’ve got it fixed now.)
They will probably claim that this is because men’s occupations are more stressful than women’s, but in fact even when you control for all kinds of variables–assuming, for example, that the executive’s job is more stressful than the secretary’s, you could compare the life spans of male to female executives (or secretaries)–women still live, on average, longer. Hell, I’m pretty sure I remember reading that most female MAMMALS are longer lived than the males of their species–again, controlling for variables, and all other things being equal. Nobody’s quite sure why, but it may have to do with hormones.
Sorry, MRA dudebros. You want to whine about biology? Get back to us after you’ve given birth.
(Not that I believe the executive’s job IS necessarily the more stressful one, just saying that job differences like that have been controlled for.)
Also, how could the funds for prostate and breast cancer research be evened out? Sure, some of the funds come from the government but a lot of funds for cancer research are private. Do they want to force people to donate to prostate cancer research? Do they want breast cancer research funding to be outlawed if it’s ahead? Do they want the government to make up the difference? Because all of those things contradict their typically libertarian values.
Also, isn’t breast cancer deadlier than prostate cancer? That would explain the discrepancy.
Funding and awareness around breast cancer was a something women did for themselves. It used to be a shameful topic that nobody spoke of and that made it very deadly. A bunch of women finally decided that this wasn’t okay and it snowballed from there.
If MRAS are worried about prostate cancer and want something done about it, why don’t they organize fundraisers? Why don’t they just do some fucking activism instead of expecting us to do it for them? Because they don’t give a shit about it. They just want to whine about mean feminists caring about our own health.
Wow, just wow.
People have covered most of the points and to be honest I feel like I’m responding to a lkst saying things like:
‘It should be OK to strangle kittens’
I mean, do we even need to do this? But anyway, just so I can feel included here’s my contribution:
Compulsory FGM!
But at least you get an immediate 50 year sentence for doing it.
That mandatory 50 year sentence crops up a lot. Suppose it saves on stationary (the judges could use pre-printed standard forms) and that’s good for trees I guess.
I like that every homeless man could have a choice of so many individual residences. Maybe somewhere in the Hamptons for Summer and another in Florida for the Winter?
The 6.4 years additional life expectancy seems reasonable, so ladies, if you wouldn’t mind chipping in with 3.2 years each.
I’m willing to give women one last chance to stop murdering their husbands; but any more shenanigans and there may have to be some sort of consequence ok; we’ve clearly been letting you get away scot free for far too long.
It’s good however that it will be the law that you have to respect us. That saves all the hassle of having to earn respect by, oh I dunno, treating you decently?
I’m so tired of MRAs going on and on and on about circumcision, false rape accusations and the draft. All three are debunked repeatedly but they still keep banging on like a broken record that refuses to listen to facts.
That said I really don’t know a lot about the whole circumcision thing. Does it happen as much as they say it does? Cause I always thought it was done at the decision of the parents, not an oppressive feminist regime.
It does seem like female cats live longer than males. Because everything comes back to kitties eventually 🙂
It was only twice. Jeez.
Well, ok; but third strike and you’re definitely going on the naughty step.
I notice that the list includes both “Baby girls would be circumcised at birth” and “Genital mutilation would be punished by mandatory 50-year sentences.”
I don’t think any further comment on that is necessary.
Yeah, exactly. (And, dudebros? Men get breast cancer too.)
I think it would be GREAT if there were as much awareness, and comparable funding, percentage-wise, for prostate cancer as there is for breast cancer. But it’s not like women working to fight breast cancer are trying to hurt prostate cancer victims. It’s not a zero sum game.
Ninja’ed by Alan Robertshaw. Good to know I’m not the only one who noticed it.