Is this the holy grail of MRA infographics?
Designed — if that’s the word for it — by an MRA and #GamerGater who calls himself BJSparky, this lovely “poster” offers up a 2000-word wall of text in such tiny type it’s impossible to read.
Well, not completely impossible. I snagged the largest version of the poster I was able to successfully download on BJ’s Deviant Art page and enlarged it until the text was a more reasonable size for reading — albeit a bit blurry. (There may be a larger version, but I got a broken image when I clicked on his download button.)
A quick scan reveals that this particular wall of text seems to have been built mostly with straw: it’s a list of allegedly feminist beliefs that no feminists actually believe. (Admittedly, I didn’t read every example; for all I know, the entire right side of the poster might be made up of passages copied from Supernatural fanfic or James Joyce’s Ulysses.)
Here are some of BJ’s straw feminist nuggets:
As you can see, BJ is as elegant a writer as he is a designer.
I would kind of love to see these straw feminist nuggets blown up and used as signs at some straw feminist demonstration.
Over on the Men’s Rights subreddit, the poster has gotten a more enthusiastic reception than I have given it here, garnering more than 100 upvotes and inspiring this amazing comment:
Sorry, bro, but I think there is a definite possibility that you have low and/or unusual standards.
H/T — the awesome chewinchawingum on r/againstmensrights
details, like scented candles, are misandry
Okay, so I can find a smattering of outrage over the alleged proposal by the Swedish Sormland County Council Left Party that they wanted public toilets in county council offices to be sitting only and gender neutral. The original article is conveniently gone. All that’s left is the outraged “reaction” articles that link back to it. I see The Daily Caller, The Free Republic, and A Voice for Men “reporting” on this news, yet I see zero evidence that it ever actually happened or resulted in any legislation. That was from 2012-2013. And yet MRAs are still whining about it.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/352108
This is kind of like a straw version of a gish gallop.
True believers will (maybe) read a couple and nod along saying “word” and to any sane person there is too much to refute and you would waste time even trying because the point is not to have a real discussion.
This is kind of like a straw version of a gish gallop. (A strawish gallop?)
True believers will (maybe) read a couple and nod along saying “word” and to any sane person there is too much to refute and you would waste time even trying because the point is not to have a real discussion.
sorry for the double post.
(grumbles to computer)
The office of Mr. S. Trawman just called, they want to double their donations!
Ah, yes, because if something isn’t illegal, that means it should be encouraged and is in no way immoral or frowned upon. The law is the clear arbiter of all right and wrong.
Oh, but it’s misandry to try to pass any kinds of laws that prevent ‘natural male sexuality’ or even mention women in the name anywhere. And some laws, like age of consent laws, are clearly ridiculous and ruin the lives of people who get ‘seduced’ by non-sexually mature teens/tweens. /sarcasm
Also, there are some comments on people’s appearance that may not necessarily be viewed as harassing. Something like “Oh, those are really neat earrings!” or “That shirt brings out your eyes.” These comments are what are referred to as ‘compliments’, actual compliments, and are not objectification, because they come from a place of wanting to make the other person feel happy or flattered about their appearance. It’s about THEM. Objectification comes from a place of making people feel scared or powerless and is all about YOU, and how their body exists only as something meant to please YOU. I refuse to believe that these assholes are unable to comprehend the difference. Though I suppose if you see every other living human being as a faulty NPC to your main character, thinking about the thoughts and feelings of other people may not come easily.
But general rule of thumb with compliments is that you compliment something that the person is in control of, that they chose. So clothing, hairstyle, accessories, etc. People didn’t choose the body parts they possess, so commenting on them is congratulating them on luck at best, and being a creepy objectifying asshole at worst.
And, honestly, if you’re someone who claims he can’t tell the difference between genuine compliments and harassment, just don’t compliment people. It’s not a mandatory thing. Cripes.
I do think it’s a good, thorough compliation of all the most strange and incorrect assumptions most anti-feminists have about feminism. Best to get it all out of the way nice and neatly (and certainly very pinkly).
@Lolly:
True. You could take the exact same poster, replace the title with “We are Straw Feminists! We are the imaginary beings anti-feminists think are real! We like closets and going “ssssss”!”
Leave the middle text exactly as-is, then replace the bottom with something revealing the joke.
Boom. Still eye-bleeding colors, but at least the content becomes ok.
Man, they should name this “I don’t understand Feminism.”
Wait, I think his point is right. IF you actually believe these straw arguments, then you are NOT a feminist. I think feminists should present this very list as beliefs real feminist do not have. Make sure you thank this MRA for showing us things that are not feminism.
My favourite part is the complaint that feminists want women to make the same as their “male counterparts, regardless of their career choices, hours worked, qualifications…”
Do you not know what “counterpart” means?
http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/what-is-that.gif
On what planet? If this “infographic” is anything to go on, this guy’s not a professional anything designer. If I were to present this in one of my graphic design classes, my teachers would have ripped this guy to SHREDS. And rightly so. He did alright with the margins and alignment, but any good poster designer needs to understand: Less is more. We don’t need your infographic Gish Gallop, no thank you.
I am tempted to go through and try to rebut each and every one, but there’s far, far too many. So, I’ll make do with David’s selected bits: (Pardon my teal deer, my feminist friend Katie said it was okay.)
_____________________________________
Ew, no. In a perfect world, no one would be hitting anyone. However, I find that MRAs don’t give a shit about women hitting men or getting help for men who have been abused by women (let alone admit that men abuse other men), they just want to be able to “bash a violent bitch” or throw it in a feminist’s face as some sort of lame “gotcha” when they want to derail an argument or a discussion about female abuse victims.
It always seems to come down to “So, if you want equality, does that mean I can hit you?” Why the fuck are these men so eager to learn when they can hit women? Why do you need to hit women? Why can’t you just refrain from hitting?
Well, if a woman was in fact, wrongdoing, then she’s in the wrong and should be punished. And if a man does good, then he should be rewarded. And vice versa. I have never seen a feminist say otherwise on the grounds of “Women can do no wrong!” or “Men are always wrong!” That’s a strawperson right there.
The problem comes in when someone (usually an MRA) comes in to a discussion and says a man did nothing wrong when he does something terrible like rape/beat/otherwise assault a woman, or a woman has committed all sorts of wrongdoing when she rebuffs a man’s advances or something as equally “sinister”, but turns around and says that a man who was raped by a female teacher or something is “lucky” and “a player” or “a legend”.
In other words, it’s not that feminists want to say that “women can do no wrong and men only do wrong”, so much as it’s MRAs and their ilk going “Women are doing everything wrong and men are just innocent all the time!”
So, nice projection there.
Okay, so only the creators should get a say in media creation, and everything has to be judged in a vacuum?
Alright. I’ll create a comic where men are only there to help the female protagonists, but only here and there (because no one wants to read a comic about men, ew, they have cooties!) and don’t contribute anything to the story beyond their looks and a small quip or a question that proves that they’re just there to be eye candy and don’t have any brains! And you can’t say anything about it because you didn’t help create it!
See how silly that sounds?
Wut? Okay, so what kind of “wrongdoings” would you be talking about here? I have never heard any stories of a woman doing anything “wrong” and blaming it on her period.
Unless you’re mad that our periods just make us less inclined to deal with your bullshit, because pain, hormone imbalances, and bleeding are not fun activities, and dealing with a bunch of whiny dudebros on top of that would only make us even less chipper.
Now you’re just grasping at straws. What little straws are left after you constructed this giant straw-feminist that is this entire poster.
_____________________________________
Long story short, thanks for telling us what feminism isn’t, dude! Don’t worry your pretty little head, we got this shit.
Legibility is also misandry.
“Legibility is also misandry.”
Certainly. Because if this poster were legible, everyone could see that it’s just saying “Feminists are meanie pies” in 100 slightly different ways.
By the way, is it even English. For example, how can a woman be “judged by her menstruation”? Does she dress the tampon in a little black robe?
Re: Menstruation and PMS.
I think it is… telling that the biggest “symptom” of PMS in popular culture is irritability, something that is really rare, from what I can tell from talking to actual menstruating women. But you know, it effects important people (cis men) and it makes an excellent excuse to brush off a woman’s concerns. If she’s emotional? Its just PMS. If she isn’t? It isn’t that big of a deal.
Talking to, you know, people who menstruate, the biggest effects of PMS/menstruation usually involve pain and hassle, but those don’t effect men, so culture does not give a fuck.
Here is my infographic in the form of a word search puzzle:
KMIXO
BATHE
VLIND
TEARS
Looking at the rows and columns, that’s about 100 different statements. 100! Ignore the fact that they’re ridiculously straw-y for a second. (Easy enough to do, since it takes some effort just to read them.) Take virtually *any* position and put 100 different statements that contradict it that aren’t completely ridiculous, and I think almost anyone would be guilty of thinking at least one of them. (I hate how “Everyone’s racist” is used as a deflector of racism, but it is generally true that virtually everybody is guilty of some form of hypocrisy, bias, fallacies etc.) That doesn’t mean the whole cause is wrong, it means it’s supported by humans.
This is beautifully tragic. Clearly whoever made it has better graphic abilities than your average MS-painting MRA, but they took that much time to make something that unreadable?
No one truly understands feminism, because feminism is a word hidden behind by lots of people with lots of different agendas.
Chie Satonaka: that proposal was made jokingly, by a MALE party member, who was tired of the mess in the men’s restroom.
There’s a better way to sum up what the Manospherians believe: parody a Village People song!
http://www.amiright.com/parody/70s/thevillagepeople52.shtml
@Spindrift:
Ooh, could be! That would be the usual, “I have exactly one counter-example which entirely outweighs every one of the millions of examples of the opposite, because it was a man experiencing it”.
Aw, please make them stop! The main mrightsers say such stupid things and I feel kind of embarrassed on their behalf, when I’m not feeling annoyed at how awful they are.
Matthew Chiglinsky | March 6, 2015 at 12:28 am
Translation: “I don’t understand the fact that feminism is made up of a bunch of different people with different thoughts, feelings, and needs about all kinds of subjects, and thus is a very complex topic that covers lots of other topics. Since I can’t understand it, no one can, because I’m obviously the most intelligent individual here.
I could ask for help with my understanding, but instead I’m going to be lazy and just not bother because that would involve me challenging my own world-views. But I don’t want everyone else to think I’m lazy, so I’m just going to blame feminism’s complexity on the feminists and go sulk.”
ParadoxicalIntention: And of course he’ll use the word “agendas” to make it all more sinistery and selfish.