The Honey Badger Brigade — the all-female-except-not-really gaggle of antifeminist YouTubers — has been raising money, and quite a lot of it, to pay their possible legal bills as they seek “legal redress” against the Calgary Expo for booting them from the event.
So far they’ve raised nearly $14,000 of their goal of $40,000, which they say “will be used for legal costs and costs directly related to our ejection from the Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo,” whatever that means. That gives them some wiggle room. As “victims” go, they’re pros.
On the group’s fundraising page, the Badgers accuse the Expo of tossing them out
due to our Men’s Rights Activism and unpopular view of modern feminism. Therefore it is our belief that the actions taken by the Calgary Expo staff were of a political nature and contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in particular freedom of conscience, freedom of thought and freedom of association.
Apparently this is one of the most important civil right struggles of our time.
While the Expo hasn’t given a clear reason for why the Honey Badgers were evicted, I’m guessing it’s not for the group’s “view of modern feminism” but because the group came to the expo flying the figurative flag of GamerGate, a loosely organized but highly virulent harassment campaign disguised, not very convincingly, as a campaign for “ethics in game journalism.” Oh, and possibly because they seem to have gotten into the expo under false pretenses.
Even if we were to assume that the Honey Badgers were booted for being Men’s Rights Activists, there is a teensy bit of irony to their complaint. You see, the HBB is closely tied to Men’s Rights hate site A Voice for Men. Indeed the two most visible HB’s — Alison Tieman and Karen “GirlWritesWhat” Straughan — are volunteer staffers on the AVFM masthead, as is HB hanger-on Sage Gerard.
Last summer, most or all of the HBB attended AVFM’s first conference, held outside Detroit; Straughan spoke at it. Here they are posing with their AVFM comrades.
You know who wasn’t at that conference? Feminists, whom the event organizers made pretty plain were not welcome. Indeed, as journalist Jeff Sharlet noted in his remarkable account of the conference in GQ, attendees seemed to be obsessed with defending their little event against an angry mob of feminists that never materialized.
They keep saying, “No feminist better try coming here!” Local police have dispatched four officers, and the conference attendees have deputized even more security from their own ranks. “Security” wears black polo shirts, and there are a lot of black polo shirts, but since the line is slow, security decides to sweep us all in with a request to return for a “check.” Nobody does. Only one feminist later attempts entry, an activist who goes by the handle “Dark Horse Swore.” The black shirts eighty-six her.
Only a few of these dastardly feminists made it into the event, posing as journalists. Oh, wait, they were journalists. Somehow I suspect that security at AVFM’s planned conference this year will be tighter.
I also suspect that the Honey Badgers will be there, recounting the story of the terrible injustice done to them by the Calgary Expo.
H/T — @idlediletante on Twitter, who’s been keeping tabs on the money so many #GamerGaters are raking in.
You have Sage Gerard’s, uh, charming smile though.
10 to 8, aye?
You could not make these people up. I was honestly surprised to learn that. I don’t know why I was surprised. It’s so them.
From a legal point of view representing the Calgary Expo organizers, I would drool at getting the various Honey Badgers on record in a deposition and then at trial, after they have rambled on for hours and hours on YouTube. There seem to be subtle shifts in what they convince themselves happened every time they talk.
Their lawyer is going to have a nightmare trying to present a coherent narrative for a jury or judge that isn’t contradicted by what they have already claimed before.
I can’t wait to see their conspiracy theories when their lawsuit fails.
‘Evil harpy feminazis infiltrate court ranks just to deny honey badger women their rightful private event spaces. Also– actually it’s about ethics in expos’
These days, even small volunteer-run cons are generally run as chartered corporations, both for legal protection and to provide an official entity to handle the event and money that’s separate from any of the individuals who may or may not be involved any given year. One of the many reasons why convention organizers tend to talk to each other a lot on how to set things up.
In the case of the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, that corporation appears to be ‘Alberta Entertainment Expo Inc.’. I bring this up mostly just to show that the convention has already had to run their charter and documents past lawyers for verification.
Really, there are only three things that seem to be at any possible issue here:
– Did the Honey Badgers violate the rules/regulations/policies of the event? (Probably)
– Does it even matter? (Not really; conventions like this have pretty wide latitude in who gets let in.)
– Are any of those policies illegal on their face? (Not really. This is the only real way the Charter of Rights and Freedoms gets involved, if they were racist or sexist in their policies)
From http://www.calgaryexpo.com/faqs/ under ‘Conditions for Entry into the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo’:
Gaah, my first blockquote mammoth. I shall treasure it.
Sarah,
I had that same thought. Personally, I don’t care what any of them look like. But I have to wonder why they would want to be part of a group that thinks they’re worthless for not being long haired under 25 models. How do they not suspect that they’re only welcomed because they provide free labor and give them the “but we have female members so we can’t be misogynist” card to play?
It’s weird to me that they’re not going the obvious route and crying breach of contract. I guess the Canadian equivalent of free speech claims attracts more attention, but surely if they were thrown out unfairly, they could at least yell that it’s in contravention of whatever agreement they signed to get a booth in the first place. I’m sure the contract has provisions to address this kind of scenario, but I bet they could still get mad sympathy points for “we just wanted to make our voices heard and they tricked us into this onerous contract” in that case.
I imagine they’d try that if they even thought they had a chance, so I’m guessing they see already the writing on the wall for their “legal battle.” But whatever, the legal market is bad everywhere so who am I to say they shouldn’t make more work for us lawyers?
“There are 18 Honeybadgers in total.
If 8 of the Badgers are female, how many are male?
Did you get 10?
Yay!
8 is what percent of 18?
Did you get 44%?
Yay!”
Math class is hard…
Last I checked, “legal redress” is money. So…they’re asking for money so they can go demand money.
They did, actually. By their own admission.
The two main rules they broke are:
1. They lied about what they were setting up the booth for.
They told one of their backers who paid for them to go that they were in “stealth mode”, knowing that they wouldn’t be allowed, or at the very least, discouraged from going in in the first place due to their very open connections with a hate group.
So, they signed up for the booth under one of the HB’s webcomics, Xenospora. However, as photos show, they were selling Honey Badger and GamerGate merchandise. Turns out they had later changed the name of their booth closer to the show so the organizers couldn’t do anything about it before the show opened.
2. They harassed, heckled, and attempted to derail a panel they didn’t like (and they recorded it).
Panelist Brittney Le Blanc on their actions:
“Waaaaaa, we’re VICTIMS! Send us MONEY MONEY MONEY!” — the Money Badgers, damselling like mad…
Feminists are the “professional victims” amirite? ????/s
“Not everyone wants to see a hero who looks like he’s built like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. They also accused us of presenting all women as victims, which was an outright lie and derailing tactic.”
Wait before they were complaining that men are feminized now they’re “Gastons”?
Bins
Damsel means woman or girl so you really saying that their “woman or girl like mad” XD
Come to think of it these honey badgers are the same women that they and other male mras are complaining all day every day. Ironic isn’t it?
If you register under false pretenses you can be ejected. No matter why when or how. Your commuting fraud. I’ve never worked a comic book convention, but worked construction supply conventions, and oddly this came up frequently. I can’t imagine Canadas laws are that different. It’s fundamental the Free Speech does NOT protect fraud.
Rich, innit? “Damselling” is their made-up verb for “acting like a helpless ladything”. So yeah, here’s this mostly-male group, acting like a bunch of the whiny girls they hate so much yet can’t stop whining about. It is to snicker…
Bina
“Damselling” is their made-up verb for “acting like a helpless ladything”.
Oh sorry my bad.
Reminds me more than a bit of AFA’s One Million Mums, which at its higher levels (the last time I checked) includes a dozen or so old white guys and exactly zero mums.
The Honey Badgers were kicked out for breaking convention rules. This seems like an entirely procedural decision that has absolutely nothing to do with the nonsense they were spewing.
Also, do they seriously believe that laws protecting free speech require private entities give a platform for anyone who requests it? If this were the case, the I could submit an anti-GamerGate rant to the Honey Badgers and sue them for refusing to read it on their channel.
Karen Straughan
Hannah Wallen
Alison Teiman
Rachel Edwards
Brian Martinez
Sage Gerard
Kristal Garcia
Kelsey J. F.
Kat Rocha
Surya Prakash
Phil Johnston
Doctor RandomerCam
Yul Tolbert
J Kream
Europa Phoenix
Brian Martinez
Observing Libertarian
Jessica Kenney
POP QUIZ!
These name start off pretty normal, then it turns into a list of the worst superhero and/or DJ names ever.
As the owner of four dachshunds, when I see Honey Badger, I think of this video.
*names
@Sarah
“Well for a bunch that denounces how ugly feminists are, and how women should mostly care about looking good for their men, they don’t seem to be following too closely all those PUA’s prescriptions for female physical appearence.
(As a feminist, I think they can look any way they feel like, but the irony is too blunt. )”
I thought the exact same thing. I can only imagine the tirade of insults they would throw at these women if they identified as feminists.
Funny how MRA types will endlessly call Sarkeesian, Quinn, Wu and others targeted with systematic harrassment “professional victims”. First thing these worms scream when they feel they’ve been victimized? “WAHHHHHHH!!! GIVE US $40,000 BECAUSE ‘WAHHHHHHHH’!!!” Good lord, you can at least try not to be such baldfaced hypocrites!
SJWd – Social Justice Weiner dog