As A Voice for Men’s latest failed fundraiser whimpered towards its sad ending last week — with less than half of its target amount raised — everyone’s favorite Men’s Rights hate site did have a little bit of good news to report: AVFM’s Paul Elam has managed to snag Paul Elam as a speaker for AVFM’s upcoming “Men’s Issues” conference and probable fiasco.
As the official conference site notes, Mr. Elam is the prestigious “founvder [sic] and publisher of A Voice for Men.”
At the conference, Elam promises, attendees will be able to
[h]ear provocative, fascinating speakers and enjoy shared meals and social festivities with the idea in mind that we can put society back on track to move forward instead of just continuing to set bridges ablaze.
Wait, they’ve been doing what to bridges? I’m just going to assume that’s a metaphor.
So who are these “provocative, fascinating speakers” that AVFM promises will be on tap? Brace yourself, as AVFM has managed to score a number of other speakers who are nearly as notable as Elam, including:
- August Løvenskiolds, A Voice for Men’s food columnist
- Tara (“Dr. T”) Palmatier, a therapist who does an online “radio” show with Paul Elam
- Tom (“Licensed Clinical Social Worker T”) Golden, a therapist who does online “radio” shows with Paul Elam
- Jonathan Taylor, a “former college instructor” and blogger at AVoiceForMaleStudents.com
- “Andy Bob,” some dude from Australia who comments on A Voice for Men a lot
The keynote speaker will be none other than Harry Crouch, president of the National Coalition for Men, an organization whose website, according to Alexa, gets roughly the same amount of traffic as Brony.com (and considerably less than this blog).
They did manage to convince Men’s Rights granddaddy Warren Farrell to stop by as well.
So what important “Men’s Issues” is this conference going to take up?
The shameful epidemic of rape in our nation’s prison system, which, given the demographics of the prison population, mostly affects men? No.
The drug war, which has led to the incarceration of millions of young men of color? Nah.
“Stop and Frisk” and other police policies that disproportionately affect young men of color? Nope!
As Elam explains on the conference web site:
On October 30 and 31, 2015 in Houston, Texas we will start corrective measures in earnest by initiating a more complete and honest dialogue; one that includes key factors that have literally been elbowed out of the way for half a century. That is male disposability and female sexual power.
Yep, that’s right, they’re cribbing both “key factors” from a Warren Farrell book written more than two decades ago. Apparently feminists have “literally been elbow[ing]” men trying to talk about these issues, with their literal elbows.
“Male disposability” is Farrell’s upside-down notion that historical restrictions on the jobs women were allowed to do, as well as on military service, were in fact a sort of female privilege.
“Female sexual power” is a slightly fancier way of talking about what Farrell once called “miniskirt power, cleavage power and flirtation power.”
That’s right: he thinks that women control men through the hypnotic powers of their boobs and butts.
Farrell is especially obsessed with women’s ass power. The e-book edition of his “The Myth of Male Power” features the word “Power” in the title being shattered by the nude posterior of a woman. During an “Ask Me Anything” appearance on Reddit, Farrell explained why he chose this image:
![DoloresCruz1982 86 points 22 hours ago (174|87) Why is a woman's butt on the cover of a book about problems faced by males in our society? permalink save report give gold reply [–]warrenfarrell [S] 2 points 20 hours ago (184|182) i assume you're referring to the profile of a woman's rear on the new ebook edition of The Myth of Male Power. first, that was my choice--i don't want to put that off on the publisher! i chose that to illustrate that the heterosexual man's attraction to the naked body of a beautiful woman takes the power out of our upper brain and transports it into our lower brain. every heterosexual male knows this. and the sooner men confront the powerlessness of being a prisoner to this instinct, we may earn less money to pay for women's drinks, dinners and diamonds, but we'll have more control over our lives, and therefor more real power. it's in women's interests for me to confront this. many heterosexual women feel imprisoned by men's inability to be attracted to women who are more beautiful internally even if their rear is not perfect.](https://manboobz.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/warrenbutt.png)
Good to know that when it comes to the deadly threat of sexy lady parts, A Voice for Men is on the case.
But that does raise a question: when members of AVFM’s Twitter squad recently Tweeted a topless photo of one of their female colleagues at AVFM to an assortment of feminists, including me, were they trying to hypnotize us?
This dumbass meme that when men are horny they can’t be held responsible for their actions need to fucking die already. I’ve been horny plenty of times and I don’t recognize this at all.
Take that, children. :-/
But mostly I am just enjoying the fantastic misuse of the word literally.
Well I’ve done some pretty daft stuff in my time; but I have managed not to foist myself on anyone.
It’s like there are lots of artworks I admire, but I don’t try to steal them.
[Not since that kicking I got at The Louvre anyway]
I can’t figure out if these Guys are mostly misogynists or misandrists (they don’t seem to have much respect for men’s intelligence!). Maybe they are just generel gender racists??
It’s tragic, in a way. They see that they’re letting themselves be jerked around by their inner animal–something everyone has–yet they refuse to take responsibility for their own need to develop self-control and instead blame “female sexual power” for that failure to develop self-control.
“Men’s Rights Movement” has long been a misnomer. In this case, dare I say the correct name would be “Little Boys in Grown Men’s Bodies ‘Rights’ Movement.”
I’m increasingly of a mind that these boys in grown men’s bodies who take no responsibility for their inner animal’s actions should be taken at their word that their inner animal makes the decisions and accordingly kept in kennels.
I call bullshit on these guys who claim they have stopped working so they don’t have to pay child support. Every U.S. state calls that “voluntary impoverishment” and it is NOT grounds for being exempt from child support. The court is supposed to (it doesn’t always happen, but it is still the law) order the same amount of child support that the parent would be paying if they were earning what they were earning before, or what they should be earning.
Of course, some judges do fall for bullshit, and when parents are self-employed, all sorts of shenanigans go on.
@suffrajitsu, to be honest, I think these older men are predators, Paul Elam especially. They use their age and the “wisdom” that many assume to come with age to spread pretty lies to young men to make them feel their nervousness is both unnatural and the fault of women and girls. They do this for power, money, recognition, and whatever other reasons predators have to prey on the vulnerable.
@ Isisdore13
Elam’s techniques are pretty bog standard radicalisation tools.
As to his motivation; well who knows? I still subscribe to my thesis that the main players in the MRA movement don’t actually *want* anything. Their methods are not a means to an end. Terrifying women for kicks is the end in itself.
That was scathingly funny. I like your style, David.
BTW I think I know what the code words mean. My granny, Keira Knightley, worked with Turing on Enigma and taught me a few things. It only took twelve seconds to figure out that “Disposable men” and “female sexual power” are code for “I know we vehemently claim that we only attack feminists, not women generally, but the MGTOW are all caught up in this “Gynocentrism” thing which means blaming women generally, and our last fundraiser was embarrassing, so we’re going to jump on that bandwagon and blame all women overtly instead of covertly but we won’t use the “G” word yet as it gives us away as anti-women, not anti-feminist.”
flagalicious, thanks! Elam’s actually not that shy about the G word, because as he sees it it means “woman centric” so complaining about it isn’t anti-woman in his view. He mentions it a couple of times in the announcement, including right after the bit I quoted:
Look at those eyes.
Just look at them, for fuck’s sake.
Today’s inanity, brought to you by a nobody named Joe:
I am immune to the hypnotic powers of feeeemales boobs and butts. But, if she’s wearing strapy sandals…
Yes, mistress. Your wish is my command.
I’m surprised they are even bothering with this year’s convention especially with Elam admitted that the MRA have no intention of actually helping men and boys.
Are they going to organize outreach programs with counseling for men who have been raped in prison? Nope. Are they going to raise money, network, and organize shelters for men who have been abused? Nope. There is no point in wasting more money on a convention that will lead to doing nothing.
” There is no point in wasting more money on a convention that will lead to doing nothing.”
It is an ego trip for Paul Elam, and that’s reason enough in his “mind”.
Not to mention the delicious schadenfreude for anti-MRAs.
Considering the comedy of errors last year, I wonder if this conference will be taking place in Houston Texas, or *near* Houston Texas.
Paul Elam, putting the “con” back in “conference”.
If I were anywhere near Houston in October (honestly I can barely plan my week, October might as well be in another universe) a perverse curiosity might actually make me want to see a train wreck like this in person. That is of course assuming the event doesn’t fall apart or get cancelled in the coming months.
I feel like I would end up watching the “lectures” with smug incredulity tinged with pity. In all honesty, I do feel a *very* small amount of compassion for these MRA guys. Nobody enjoys the feeling of being rejected or dumped, and breakups are never nice. In my darkest hours of a breakup I’ve thought bitter and hurtful things about a woman I’d cared about and loved, to my shame, but I also recovered and moved on and bear no ill will or grudges.
That being said, what little compassion I do have for these guys’ pain and loneliness usually gets steamrollered by the breathtaking hate, hypocrisy, bitterness, and lack of introspection that accompanies it. Getting hurt or angry during a breakup or rejection is a universal experience, but building a community and a for-profit industry and blaming an entire demographic for your troubles? Now that’s just… well, that’s just something.
Holy shit, $399 for a ticket and that doesn’t even include food?!
In regards to the above, y’all can forget about it. I can think of WAY more fun things to do with four hundred bucks in Houston.
Y’know, it’s funny…I have both miniskirts and boobs, and I’ve been known on occasion to flirt with guys I like, but somehow they’ve just never wound up under my feet, even when I’ve got all three going on.
I must be doing this “female power over teh bonerz” thing all wrong.
@Joe
“strapy sandals”
I think you meant “rapey sandals,” because if a woman was wearing something that sexy she’s clearly asking for it, or rather COMPELLING him by adding the power of the ankle to the already irresistible boob-butt-vag trinity. /sarcasm
Incidentally, my husband literally calls me “mistress,” or “my lady.” I’d love to see the Rightsers blow their tops over THAT.
(No he is not actually servile, nor are we in a dom/sub relationship. There’s a story behind it, and I call him “my lord” or “my love” so it’s hardly one-sided.)
So, are straight women not attracted to men or something? I thought it was women that were slaves to their (ugh) “‘gina tingles”? Isn’t that the whole point the hypergamy thing?
What’s extra hilarious is that Warrell basically says, with that “internally beautiful” bit, that dudes aren’t paying attention to all the “Nice Gals.” When women do that to Nice Guys™, they’re horrible harpies destroying civilization, when men do it to Nice Gals™… it’s because women are evil sexy harpies destroying civilization.
@Sandy Lee
Apparently $399 is the current discounted ticket price. It was originally a beautiful, hilarious $650.
What the fuck does that ticket price even cover though?!
I imagine that’s not covering hotel stays, airfare, and Sandy Lee already said it didn’t cover food.
Or is this a sad, sad ploy to make up for the fact that Elam didn’t get the money he asked for from donations?
@Sandy Lee
Wait, wait, wait. It’s REALLY $400 for a ticket?
How are his target audience gonna afford that when they don’t have jobs?! :O