I‘ve said it before, but the imaginary feminists that Men’s Rights Activists spend their lives fighting bear about as much resemblance to real feminists as the imaginary Elders of Zion do to actual Jewish people.
But even by typical MRA standards, the meme above (from A Voice for Men’s Facebook page) is a doozy. It’s hard to say which of these imaginary feminists demands is the most ridiculous. That idea that feminists demand “the entitlement to rape men and young boys” or “the right to take money from men under any pretense?” Or that they want “20 men in prison for each woman who commits a crime?”
As ludicrous as these are, I think the most insidious of the bunch is the complaint that feminists want women to have “the right to intoxication with no consequences.”
No, feminists aren’t campaigning for women to be able to drive drunk with no legal repercussions. The “consequences” being referred to here are, of course, rape and other forms of sexual assault. Yep, AVFM is angry that feminists don’t think that women should face the “consequence” of rape if they go out to a bar on Saturday night. AVFM is angry that feminists want the actual rapists to face the consequences of their actions.
The March of the Straw Feminists continues with more AVFM memes from their Facebook page, below.
(Straw) Feminists want to take away funding for prostate cancer:
(Straw) Feminists like to make shit up, as this made-up example illustrates:
(Straw) Feminists demand that fire departments hire women wearing “sexy firefighter” Halloween costumes.
I … don’t even know what the hell the point of this next one is supposed to be. That it’s wrong to talk about the dangers of rape? That women can’t have successful careers and happy lives unless they have children? That … I give up.
At least this one is clear: DANGER! DANGER! (STRAW) FEMINISTS WANT TO CUT OFF YOUR FINGERS!!!!
You’d think the guy would have noticed. I mean, those finger-clipping shears are fucking gigantic.
For more, many more, straw feminists, check out the rest of the memes on AVFM’s Facebook page.
Or maybe it was Midnight Oil.
I’ll have to ask Mr. Tantrum if he feels his genitals were mutilated. I checked this morning and his equipment seemed to be working fine? I understand there’s some loss of sensation at the tip, and there is a real debate to be had about whether that’s a worthy price to pay in countries with low HIV risk. I also think it’s both medically unnecessary and ethically troubling to routinely circumcise baby boys, and if it were up to me I would raise the age, ideally to adulthood, for even religious circumcision. Of course that’s just me and I’m not saying the Joos are mutilating boys or whatever the hell these incoherent rants are meant to get across. (I agree with M. that there’s a strong current of anti-Semitism in there.)
Here’s an article I read about circumcision. http://mosaicscience.com/story/troubled-history-foreskin Two fun facts that I took away from it:
1. Evidently a major predictor for a given scientific paper’s stance on circumcision is whether the scientist himself is circumcised. (Great argument for women doing this research, yes?)
2. When a circumcision program was started in Tanzania, “Men feared circumcision would leave them impotent, or automatically convert them to Islam.”
See, we could be having such constructive and interesting debates about issues that affect men. It’s just another way MRAs are doing men a disservice, by whipping up men into a fervor against women instead of aiming to make life better for men.
Yet according to White Men Can’t Jump men just want to solve things, not talk about them. Definitely not MRAs – they want to talk, not solve.
my worldview can’t possibly be wrong, so that must be the explanation!”
I see that often from conspiracy theorists. “The lack of evidence is the evidence!”
@PussyPowerTantrum
I completely agree that we could have a very constructive conversation with them about circumcision-if they were actually serious about it, that is.
I have 2 sons who are not circumcised specifically because I absolutely forbid it when the conversation came up while I was pregnant (my partner wanted to have the first boy circumcised). Bodily autonomy is incredibly important to me and that includes everyone. If my sons ever dicided they wanted it done, I would support their decision.
Every feminist I know who has a son did not get their son circumcised either. In my younger years, I worked with a group of midwives (many of whom were feminists), and they counseled their clients not to circumcise their baby boys either.
As per usual, their beef is really not with feminists but with the society at large. Then again, sadly they really do not care about men and boys as a group and that becomes glaringly obvious every time they open their mouth.
I couldn’t agree more, Myriad. It should be discussed on a very constructive level, but it’s so hard to engage someone who not only has deluded themselves into thinking that you’re evil, wrong, want to “kill, maim, and berate”, and you don’t want anything good for them.
And it’s hard to discuss something with someone convinced that they have all the answers as well.
@Paradoxical Intention
Yep, I don’t foresee having any discussion with them for the reasons you cite. I get the feeling they really don’t want to do anything about it. They just want to bludgeon feminists with the topic. Because doing anything else, would mean they would actually have to expend effort and make convincing real world arguments. And we know that ain’t happening anytime soon.