So Parks and Recreation had its Men’s Rights episode last night.
Well, sort of: A gaggle of MRAs made a few appearances in the ep, as one of the obstacles that Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) has to contend with as the wife of a political candidate.
There were a few great moments:
The leader of the “Male Men” – as the fictional MRAs called themselves – announcing to the world that “men have had a very rough go of it for… just recently. And it ends now!”
The MRA leader on a local news show, asking plaintively “can we have ONE conversation about feminism where men get to be in charge?”
The magnificent Ms. Knope finally getting a chance to tell the MRAs what she (and no doubt Poehler herself) really thinks of them:
But in some ways the episode fell a bit flat, because, as wrong, and cranky and, yes, ridiculous as the “Male Men” were, they were nowhere near as wrong and cranky and ridiculous as MRAs in the real world.
Take a look again at the fictional MRAs in the pic above. Then look at the real MRAs at their only real rally so far, this poorly attended soiree in Toronto in 2013.
Yes, that’s A Voice for Men’s’s Dean Esmay, sans fake Twitter followers, at the mic, and AVFM head cheese Paul Elam in the back, with an unreadable sign and an I HEART FTSU t-shirt. (FTSU stands for “Fuck Their Shit Up,” a good slogan for a movement of bullies whose emotional development stopped at the age of 15 or so.)
Then compare the signs of Parks and Rec’s fake MRAs with the actual graphics work of the real Men’s Rights Movement. Like these classic A Voice for Men posters, which I can assure you I am not making up:
I’m serious. THESE ARE REAL. I DID NOT MAKE THEM UP.
On the Parks and Rec ep, the “Woman Against Feminism” representative was a somewhat dowdy and deferential middle-aged woman – a bit of a stereotype, really.
In real life, the woman who was the public face of last year’s #WomenAgainstFeminism campaign calls herself “JudgyBitch.” She’s a proudly dishonest ideologue who has attacked the teenage victim in the Steubenville rape case as a “dumb fucking whore,” described the late British entertainer and serial child sexual abuser Jimmy Savile as the victim of conniving teenage girls, and gotten herself permanently kicked off of Twitter (no small feat) for her “targeted abuse” of feminist writer Jessica Valenti (some of which is detailed here).
On Parks and Rec, the Men’s Rights leader embarrassed himself with a few foolish outbursts on a local TV chat show.
But if you want to see a real-life public relations disaster for the Men’s Rights movement, well, take a look at Esmay’s appearance on a Fox affiliate in Detroit.
Or JudgyBitch aka Janet Boomfield’s hoarse-voiced and overly animated appearance on the Today Show, seemingly reporting live from some sort of underground bunker. (Her appearance starts 38 seconds in, if you’re in a hurry.)
In a way, though, I feel a bit sorry for the writers of Parks and Rec. If they had portrayed the Men’s Rights Movement as it really is, it would have been dismissed by most viewers as ludicrously over-the-top. Unless you’ve encountered the real Men’s Rights movement up close and personal, it’s almost impossible to believe it’s as ridiculous and terrible as it really is.
Oh, the other thing wrong with the show? The MRAs actually showed up for a demonstration. In real life they would have simply swarmed news articles about Lesley Knope’s campaign appearances with a thousand incoherently angry comments, then doxxed her.
Hell, they’ll probably spend most of today swarming articles about the Parks and Rec episode, showing the world with each new comment just how hard they are to parody. (Happily, they won’t be able to dox Ms. Knope, as she is a fictional character.)
In any case, any sitcom writers in search of more embarrassing details about the real Men’s Rights movement are invited to take a stroll through the archives.
H/T — Jaclyn Friedman, for alerting me to the episode; nothing safe is worth the drive for the Knope pics.
I *wish* real MRAs were of a “He can do it too!” style.
Is that a WBC poster in the back there? XD
andiexist: Looks like their style, at least–not quite a rainbow spectrum. Probably had something less graphic than most of the WBC’s stuff, though. Still, good job on the writers and prop workers making an appropriate parallel, there.
David,
Just a quick note. The link that is supposed to go to the JB video actually goes to the posters page on AVFM.
Though I must say, I did enjoy the fact that the “most successful” poster was described as having only 7 words on it and was printed in black and white, making it cheap. Unfortunately, they don’t actually show that poster, so we can’t see what a “good” AVFM poster looks like.
The fact that Ms. Knope is a fictional character just means that they’ll doxx Amy Poehler for daring to utter such statements. We already know that their ability to tell fact from fiction is somewhat stunted.
Why is Esmay wearing shorts and a jacket to give a speech in public? Is it cold enough for a jacket? Warm enough for shorts? Is the message “my wife would have dressed me, but women are icky. am I right, or what?”
anemonerosie: good point. They’ll probably argue that if she was really for equal rights she would have refused to read those lines or take part in the episode at all. Because apparently actors have the final say in what they do and refusing to work doesn’t have consequences (if you’re Elam).
Even if they are just a little too smart to be that stupid, they’ll definitely use Lesley Knope in a meme about how the gubmint is being run by feminists or something.
Ok, I see it is actually a dress shirt over his extremely casual otherwise attire. Still confusing, but a little less so.
Shalimar – I think he might be following a variant on a style that was really popular with guys in the 90s, except the ‘over-shirt’ was usually casual rather than dressy.
Amy is also a writer on the show, and a pretty huge feminist. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the lines about the MRA lookalikes in the show were her idea 100%.
Just another reason to love her. 🙂
I adore Amy Poehler, but how dare she BRING THE HULKSTER INTO THIS, BROTHER?!? HOGAN HAS BEEN TEARING SHIRTS AND DROPPING THE BIG LEG FOR 30 YEARS TO HELP ALL REAL AMERICANS, MALE OR LESSER, AS HE FIGHTS FOR OUR RIGHTS!
That photo of Esmay and Elam is amazing, by the way . Esmay looks like a very weathered and extremely misguided Joss Whedon there.
Alls I can say is, if I knew I was going to be giving a speech in public, I would dress up, not down.
“In a way, though, I feel a bit sorry for the writers of Parks and Rec. If they had portrayed the Men’s Rights Movement as it really is, it would have been dismissed by most viewers as ludicrously over-the-top. Unless you’ve encountered the real Men’s Rights movement up close and personal, it’s almost impossible to believe it’s as ridiculous and terrible as it really is.”
Poe’s Law indeed.
I think casual wear is okay for a speech at an outdoor event. But the clothes should be clean, fit well and be somewhat nice.
I fixed the link to the Bloomfield video, thanks.
If you haven’t watched it, trust me, it’s something! (And her segment is very short.)
The real mystery w/ regard to Esmay’s outfit: in some of the pics of the rally, he is wearing long pants. At some point during the rally, he changed into shorts. They were in a park. WHERE DID HE CHANGE? Or were they breakaway pants, you know like male strippers use?
Well, hopefully they will be tricked into doxxing a fictional character for long enough to distract them.
Maybe he used to be in Hot Cops. What an unpleasant thought.
@WWTH: Esmay would probably tell anyone who asked about that outfit that he was “keeping it real.”
Is the character’s name really Ms. NOPE? 🙂 I love it
Elam looks super confused in that picture.
Pear Culture poster: TEAL DEER.
Dudes, your problem is your message. It’s long, it’s messy, it’s stupid, it’s not worth bothering to read.
Also, your collective fashion sense could use some work. As in, A LOT.
Also, what is up with “Free Recipes for Life”? I don’t get it, and I suspect that whoever made that crappy thing didn’t, either.
And you may find yourself living off your girlfriend’s money
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself at the head of a lucrative website
And you may find yourself in an expensive apartment, with a girlfriend you mooch off of
And you may ask yourself-Well…How did I get here?
(with apologies to the gods of meter)
Yeah, as said earlier, they could easily try to doxx Amy Poehler. While it’s not doxxing, this kind of thing (hate for the actress for what the character did) has happened before. Like, back when Breaking Bad was on, Anna Gunn has said she’s seen forum postings of people saying they want to hunt down and kill Anna Gunn. Not Skyler White. Anna Gunn.