Men’s Rights hate site A Voice for Men has a long history of fat shaming: apparently, like Roosh V and assorted other Red Pill douchebags, the good folks at AVFM consider the existence of fat women to be an assault on manhood, and possibly civilization itself.
Because that’s just the sort of human rights activists they are.
But even by AVFM’s low standards for logic, their latest little meme campaign against the evil fatties is a bit puzzling. Take the meme at the top of the page, found on AVFM’s Facebook page.
As an assault on “double standards” it’s a little odd, assuming that people find male employment and female thinness to be similarly sexually attractive. As an antifeminist “gotcha” — as I imagine its creator intended it to be — it makes even less sense. Feminists aren’t the ones telling men to “man up” and provide for women like the patriarchs of some imaginary golden age.
And if MRAs don’t want women to look to men for financial support, well, they could stop handwaving away the very real gender wage gap. And give up their endless attacks on child support as well as their fantasy of “financial abortions.” It’s hard to blame single mothers trying to raise kids on their own, often with inadequate or even non-existent support from the fathers in question, for thinking twice about dating guys who could end up demanding financial support themselves.
What makes the meme even weirder is that AVFMers don’t really want to give up fat shaming. So the overall effect of this meme is to … justify throwing shade at men who fail to live up to the traditional provider role that AVFM ostensibly opposes.
The meme below is an even more ironic variation on the theme.
Why is it more ironic? Because there actually are men out there interested in “dating” homeless women — and by “dating” I mean exploiting the desperation of young women living on the streets who are willing to trade sex for food, shelter, or drugs.
How do I know this? Well, aside from having heard stories from several women who were themselves exploited in this way, I know because guys aspiring to exploit homeless women keep showing up on this blog.
Several years ago, you see, I wrote about an incredibly skeevy post on Matt Forney’s old blog In Mala Fide touting homeless girls as a frugal alternative to pricey prostitutes. The author of the post, calling himself Advocatus Diaboli, suggested focusing on “freshly homeless young girls” with hippie inclinations, reporting that
a decent round of drinks, snacks, money for pot, a small necessary item of clothing, decent dinner with booze will almost guarantee you a good lay (or at least a couple of BJs).
Ever since I wrote that post, my blog has gotten a small but steady trickle of visitors who’ve found the site through Google searches for things like “homeless girl paid to have sex,” “homeless prostitutes,” and “how to get the homeless to have sex eith [sic] you.” These are all real examples from the past week; I see a handful of queries like this every time I take a look at my stats.
So congratulations, skeezy dudes, you’ve managed to overcome the prejudice against homeless people, with your boners.
Meanwhile, back on Facebook, AVFM is expanding its fat shaming crusade to include men as well.
In the United States, we should note, more than two-thirds of men (70%) are classified as “overweight” or “obese” — a rate even higher than that for women (57.6%). Apparently AVFM’s much vaunted “compassion for men and boys” only applies to 30% of them.
I don’t mean to be rude, but there are a number of AVFM staffers — male and female — who are themselves, well, “overweight” or “obese.” I wonder how they feel about volunteering for a site that regularly portrays people like them as little more than walking punchlines for unfunny memes.
They probably feel full of cognitive dissonance, like the FeMRAs. Somehow they are the exceptions, the special snowflakes, for some reason exempt from judgment.
Holy shit, the only one is the last one that makes any damn sense. : /
How is being okay with your body comparable to being homeless? Like at all?
I think the last meme is trying to tell feminists to stop their verbal attacks on overweight men. *snrk* That’s what it means by ‘end double standards’.
Also EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW A MILLION EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWSSSSSSSSSSSSS AT GUYS WHO PREY ON HOMELESS WOMEN FOR SEX.
MAY THEY DROWN IN A POOL OF LEGOS.
Hey ladies, if you want fat girls to be liked, you have to like fat GUYS, too!
Sitcoms and romantic comedies notwithstanding.
Last I looked, fat men WERE being presented as sexy. John Goodman, anyone?
Meanwhile, fat women? …(crickets)
Is this for real, or am I missing some sarcasm? Because I have yet to hear anyone argue that fat women need to be “liked” (sexually I assume). Fat women need to be left alone and not mocked or shamed. I assure you that there is a middle ground in between fat shaming women for not pleasing men’s boners, and men being required to put out for any woman who asks.
When it comes to tubby dudes, its these creepy PUA types who are obsessed with male beauty.
I’ve heard more talk on their sites about neck circumference, jaw lines, height, than I’ve ever heard from a woman.
I don’t have to like fat guys. They don’t have to like me. Everyone gets to decided what type of person they are attracted to. But as POM said, I can demand that men don’t fat shame heavy women, just like I would never fat shame a heavy man. And btw, being called out for being a horrible person is not the same as being fat-shamed…so if you’re wondering why no feeemales want to get on your boner, it’s because of what smug, misogynistic assholes you are.
I actually do like chubby guys. They seem a lot more huggable than the ripped dudes and also, we would match.
It’s also quite funny how these guys are all in a huff about “double standards” when they do it all the time!
“Women, don’t be whores!”
“Men, get laid as much as you want- it’s your god given manly right!”
“Women, don’t be prudes who don’t give it up!”
“Men, be careful one of those dirty dirty women doesn’t trick you into sleeping with her.”
I mean, really, these guys are fucking experts at having things both ways! (or thinking they should be able to)
I find myself, as I so often do when faced with the demands of MRAs, wonder “what the [expletive] are they trying to achieve here, and how the [expletive] do they think this is going to achieve it?”
I mean, I’m a fat woman (and reasonably comfortable with being so). If there were some miraculous change in my metabolism (such as, for example, a spontaneous remission of my thyroid problems) and my genetics which allowed me to become and remain slender I would not say no to it, if only for the greater range of clothing options it would make available in the long term, but overall, I’m pretty happy with my body and the way it looks, moves and so on.
Of the various “memes” shown there, the most successful of them is the last one (and actually, that guy looks pretty much like my younger brother in physique – he’s also of the “built like a brick outhouse” variety). The last meme offers an idea I can agree with – big is beautiful can apply to men as well as women, and often does (beauty often being an attitude and a state of mind rather than solely a physical quality). The other two? Straight up “WTF” all the way.
Here’s a free hint for them: telling me my size denies me the attentions of men like them is no incentive to diet. Rather the opposite, in fact.
These memes are ridiculous. Ending fat shaming has nothing to do with homelessness.
Paradoxical Intention-“How is being okay with your body comparable to being homeless? Like at all?”
Nope, it isn’t. Not at all. It is just yet another false equivalency that the MRAs have pulled out of their arse.
I don’t understand the last one. Since when has it been feminist women who fat shame men?
Not to reiterate the same point in every thread, but they really do love to project all the horrible things they say and do onto feminists and women in general. They assume that because the manosphere picks on fat women, feminists simply must be picking on fat men.
I think it’s really just: ‘I hate feminism, therefore feminism is also everything I hate’.
‘I don’t like it when people are cruel to me about my weight, so they must be feminists.’
‘Homelessness is terrible, so it’s caused by feminism’.
It’s about that simple for them. Kind of like an endless extension of the straw man effect.
I love Captain Awkward’s “it came from the search terms” monthly round-up. I’d already thought to myself that a Mammoth version would be like a peep into the pits of hell, but clearly it’s even worse than I could have imagined.
There are a lot of adorable fat guys. Kevin James is the latest box office success. True, he’ll not be getting precisely the same roles as a more ripped guy, like maybe Chris Evans (Captain America), but he’s in roles where he’s seen as attractive, and his romantic interest is a conventionally hot woman.
Where is the moral outrage at that from the MRAs? Since they are so offended by fat women having self-esteem, despite their size, it’s a double standard if they aren’t equally offended by guys like Kevin James having self-esteem, and in fact seeing him be a successful actor that isn’t treated like some pathetic fat joke (as often fat actresses are).
Policy of Madness, your comment about fat women needing to be left alone is exactly what I’ve been saying for a long time now. No one is asking a man to change who he’s attracted to. All that is requested is that he not harass and bother the women he isn’tattracted to. Leave them alone – is that too much to ask? Apparently so. I never would dream that the request that you leave another person alone would be an act of oppression, but that seems to be what these guys think.
My partner is broke and unemployed, and I find them sexy as hell. I’ve also known plenty of attractive fat guys. Can I have a free existing-while-fat pass now?
The part about preying on homeless women for sex is too fucking disgusting to comment on, so here is a tiny tortoise eating a strawberry, for brain bleach.
http://i.imgur.com/woPrnLb.jpg
I like chubbier guys too. Soft is nicer for cuddles.
Same here…
“Advocatus Diaboli”
Fuuuuuuuck now I’m regretting going so in the tank with my Latin naming theme. This is terrible; this is clearly what I used to use looked like to everyone else.
The third meme would make sense if they didn’t (predictably) conflate feminism with women in general.
It’s possible some feminists put men under the microscope in a way they’re unwilling to do for their own desires. preferences etc., but when it comes to MRAs and PUA types pointing out hypocrisy, pot couldn’t be any blacker.
Not that this is addressed to anyone on this Site but this was my Response to it all on my blog:
http://io9.com/science-shows-fat-shaming-doesnt-work-in-fact-it-oft-1633983247
Science Shows Fat Shaming Doesn’t Work – In Fact, It Often Backfires
I can just See Elam responding to this without mercy and saying “aww the fatty Says I’m the one making him fat.”
No the Science is saying you are and it’s a Fact and your will not to accept it is irrelevant.
you don’t have a Right Not to so Let me Shove the Truth down your throat while you Sit back Kicking and screaming elam.
YOU ARE THE CAUSE of Obesity.
And don’t give me that B.S. spin about How Fat people and obesity cost the government at end of life because fat people have higher medical bills they often cannot pay so “Shaming” them is moral.
Sorry, Jerkhole it ain’t so, Because half the Reason we Even pay those cost is because of your Shaming.
So actually it’s immoral to shame because it ends up costing the tax payers.
Stop Draining our Resources Elam. You Leech.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103113002047
In my lifetime I’ve seen a small number of women who believe that fat acceptance/fighting against body shaming is all about converting men’s boners by admonishing men into finding fat women attractive (and by this, I mean these women say this to support the idea not to discredit or make fun of it).
It’s the exact same behavior you see a *lot* more often in guys who think women should practically be required to be attracted to them for meeting minimum human decency standards. A lot of them see fat acceptance in the same boner-forcing way and find it unfair that they don’t have a similar movement at their disposal haranguing women into liking them.
Underlying beliefs in both cases:
1. Women/men who aren’t attracted to them totally could be if they wanted to but are just withholding their attractions to be mean.
and 2. Sexual attraction can and should be handed out charity style to those who for whatever reason don’t seem to get much.
As a really overweight man I’d like to say “Fuck you very much” to all the AVFM people: I’ve been doing much more “”””manly”””” and “”””rugged”””” jobs than these imbeciles and dudebros. The very same jobs those guys are literally praising and wanking over. I even bet I’ve worked more than Elam in the last 5 years than him during his whole life.