Men’s Rights Redditors agree: it’s tough to be a man. Well, a cis man, in any case. And those silly trans people are making it worse.
On the Men’s Rights subreddit, one concerned fellow has discovered a possibly insurmountable obstacle standing in the way of true gender equality: A “Women’s Room” at the University of Queensland that, as a sign on its door notes, is open to “trans*, intersex and genderqueer people as well as cis-females.” The horror!
The title of his post: It’s hard to call for equality between genders when stuff like this is so openly accepted by places like Universities.
Naturally, this being the Men’s Rights subreddit, his post received more than a thousand upvotes, and inspired more than 300 comments. This will give you some of the flavor of the discussion:
![Does cis not mean straight? I can't keep up with the bullshit they make up. permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]lanternkeeper 40 points 1 day ago It means a person who identifies as the sex they were born; i.e. a man who is biologically male or a women who is biologically female aka regular people. I kind of feel dirty writing that. permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]Endless_Summer 44 points 1 day ago So I was born with a penis, but I can identify as a lesbian woman and be free to use this bathroom? permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]ThePunHunter 43 points 1 day ago Sure you can, and if people tell you otherwise, just tell 'em to check their privileges (because you have it really bad)! This world, man. permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]AlphaBetaOmegaGamma 2 points 1 day ago So what are you telling me is that SJWs and feminists make up shit to do whatever they want with no consequences? Damn, I'm impressed. permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]pepe_le_pewpewpewpew 30 points 1 day ago Sure, up until you saw this room, your gender was a social construct forced upon you by society, once you saw this sign you realized you were actually a woman all along. As soon as you left, evil social conditioning got the better of you again and you were socially obligated to identify as a man again. Damn you patriarchy! permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]Odz2427 1 point 1 day ago Fuckin' cissy permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]krudler5 6 points 1 day ago Isn't "cis" a recently-coined term? I can't recall having heard anyone use the term "cis-gender" before the last 3 or 4 years... permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]Elvick 11 points 1 day ago As the "opposite" of transgendered, it certainly is. I learned about Transgendered people in my early teens, I'm 26 now and I only started to hear "cisgendered" because feminists were using it to dismiss and insult men with it. lol The term should die, it serves no purpose other than to shame people.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/cis1.png?ssl=1)
The lovely DavidByron2 — one of the subreddit’s most, er, colorful commenters — gets nearly 300 upvotes for suggesting that the poor beleaguered cis man who posted the picture should sue the school for sexual harassment. Naturally, this brilliant legal mind doesn’t actually know what cis means; he thinks it means “straight.”
Elsewhere in the comments, one fellow suggests that a cis man should make a point of going into the room and telling anyone who wants him to leave that they’re not allowed to discriminate against their gender identity.
Naturally, others are enthusiastic about this idea.
![jimmywiddle 13 points 2 days ago Me too, I would real world troll the shit out of that room. I would turn up in an elf costume once and claim I identify as elf kind and therefore don't even qualify as human. permalinksaveparentgive gold [–]mariners77 -3 points 1 day ago And that's why people like you shouldn't be allowed. Nothing wrong with what the parent comment suggested. Go in there, be quiet, and tell people not to assume gender. But trolling just creates more hostilities between sides and makes things worse.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/cistroll.png?ssl=1)
Yes, that’s right: the person suggesting that it might not be such a good idea to put on an elf costume and crash a room intended as a “safer space” for women, trans, intersex and genderqueer folks is the one that’s voted down — though even he thinks that invading the safer space would be just peachy.
Yet another commenter tells someone who identifies as a “gender fluid male,” that he “should go and see a doctor if your genitals are leaking fluid.” The jokester gets upvotes; the gender fluid male, who says he goes to UQ and that he “understands why [the room] exists,” gets downvoted below zero.
And Men’s Rights activists wonder why so many people think of their little movement as a hate movement.
H/T — r/againstmensrights
Goddamnit. I can’t computer today.
http://i.imgur.com/oy3EWmo.png
SEE? THAT IS WHAT YOU SOUND LIKE REDNECKCRYONICIST.
ALL. THE. TIME.
THIS IS WHY YOU’RE NOT A SCIENTIST.
@IanKoro, I’m not sure what your point is. The term “women’s room” is typically associated with bathroom facilities, I’m not sure how distinguishing ONE single room in Australia out of all the public restrooms in the world should minimize the fact that cis-men are not the ones disproportionately targeted for non-consensual picture taking, harassment, and sexual violence in the public sphere. Women are.
Even if the room isn’t a bathroom… so what? Does that mean the only kind of room a woman deserves to feel safe in is a bathroom? The room is designed to be a safer space, whether it’s a bathroom or otherwise. Replace “bathroom with “leisure room” or “place to go potty” with “read a book” and it applies all the same. (See, #GamerGate logic is a two way street, except mine is not a false equivalency)
Women deal with male supremacist related violence, period, the end, and that is the point. The rooms would not need to exist if transwomen, qenderqueers, ciswomen, and intersex women weren’t targeted for violence at the hands of cis-men. Why cis-men? Because it’s usually cis-men who have rigid attitudes about sex, gender, and conformity that translates to violence. That should not be our problem to deal with.
Good to know you take credit for humanity’s collective shrinking brain. The Patriarchy – it makes you stupid!
“Leaking” jokes about the term, “gender fluid”… Aargh. Grrr. Aargh.
They’d have much better manners if they’d been raised in a barn, so I won’t ask that question.
Aw, nothing about South Africa today from RNC. Pity.
They are so narcissistic and self centered. These people they see people having something that they don’t (even when they are actually the privileged ones) as a personal affront on them and pretend like they are the ones being discriminated against. They have an emotional age of a toddler. It’s pathetic.
http://media.giphy.com/media/QUVoMCLpFDDXy/giphy.gif
http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x373/shinyshinx/GIFS%20I%20use/tumblr_ljxwiqE4jo1qj9lxho1_500.gif
Just Plain Neddy-I think that is a very accurate description of them. They seem just like that dog.
Pandapool-They ARE dickish, aren’t they? They seriously think that having a dick entitles them to special treatment. I feel like saying to them “50% of the population has dicks, it hardly makes you special!”
Scented Fucking Hard Chairs-LOL!
These bright lights in the reddit thread don’t seem to have noticed that the sign doesn’t specifically BAN cis men from entering, it just states that it isn’t a safe space for them. Much like the WHTM comment section doesn’t technically ban MRAs as a group from commenting, but it sure as fuck isn’t a safe space for them and their views.
So sure, I suppose you can walk in as a cis male. You can also be chased right the fuck out again as soon as you open your mouth. 🙂
What I find really sad, though, is that this sign, explaining that gender identity can’t be judged by appearance and that trans and intersex and genderfluid people are welcome, is theoretically aimed at *the women using the room*. I really hope this was a preemptive measure to ensure problems didn’t arise, and not a response prompted by some woman refusing to let a transwoman in because she didn’t look feminine enough.
@RNC
Oh, okay! Here’s a rock and a zoo map. Go hunt the modern mammoth. Have fun getting arrested! But cops didn’t evolve as cops, so it totally doesn’t count, right? And don’t forget public indecency, since clothes aren’t part of your genetic makeup!
(In catly news, a kitten is nibbling my fingers as I post this.)
@Pandapool
Nice smackdown there…
“organic sexual hierarchy, the system that evolved through evolution”
OMG you should be a publicist!!
I noticed that, too.
The MRAs didn’t read the sign, that the room is reserved only for those who treat other people with respect. “By using this room you agree to not be a bigoted jerk.” That would dis-include cis-women who believe gender conformity is more important than acting like a decent human being.
As a UQ alumna, I can clear up a couple of things.
Firstly, it’s definitely not a bathroom. It’s a space to hang out away from men (it didn’t have to be defined as cis men in my day – obviously they’ve had to specify this due to some less-than-tolerant individuals, which is sad).
Secondly, it’s run by the student union, not the staff of the university.
@Luzbelitx
I thought so too!
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/fml.gif
Crip Dyke-Yeah, I noticed that too! I have seen this a few times with these MRAs. Just off the top of my head, they were recently going about how Mad Max was an important part of American culture when it was/is an Australian franchise, they were going on about the First Amendment and the constitutional right to ‘free speech’ when (in Canada) some men lost their jobs for shouting gendered insults at a reporter while on camera and now this.They think that everything is American, everything is made in America, and that American laws apply everywhere. Strange.
Like a lot of the stuff the MRAs say, this leaves me going: wait, wut?
A.A. Wils-Me too, Wils, me too.
Dammit! Forgot to check the notify thingy. I can’t computer today either.
Cerberus, I miss you on Sadly, No!
At first I thought this was a ‘women’s space’, as in a clubspace area for women only, such as is found on many campuses. Then I realized it’s the restroom…
These guys get all tied up in knots about not being able to use the women’s toilet?
(I feel like I’ve been talking under water – sheesh!)
It’s NOT a toilet, it’s a space to hang out. A room, with couches and stuff. Anyone using it for excretory purposes would be made to clean up their mess, then summarily removed.
As I said earlier, I am a University of Queensland ALUMNA! I attended it for four years and worked there, too.
Pay attention peeps!
I only buy organic sexual hierarchies. Factory farmed and genetically modified sexual hierarchies are too unethical for me.
RNC, you seem to have forgotten the part about evolution where things CHANGE. And where things continue to change, and adapt with changing environments. Has it occurred to you that equality is not a departure from human evolution, but just another adaptation to our ever-evolving societies? And one that is selected in favor of, if the poor societal health of countries that embrace gender-based hierarchy is any indicator.
weirwoodtreehugger-Not to mention all the nasty pesticides they spray on them. I am so tired of having to use my sexual hierarchy scrubber on everything I buy from the supermarket.
misseb47
And, frankly that would have been bad enough…though arguably correct since it did make a big splash in the states when it got there. However, it was worse than that. They were complaining that George Miller was “taking over” the Mad Max franchise while being completely ignorant of the franchise, and simultaneously that George Miller was infusing Mad Max with Australian culture and thus destroying its “americanness”. Even if it was an important part of US culture, it was never a US movie.
Complaining that an Aussie is making the sequel to an Aussie movie because their dads talked Road Warrior when feeling insecure about their peepees is bad enough, but George Miller was the original writer/director of Mad Max and directed (at least) both of the previous sequels. When you complain that George fucking Miller doesn’t know anything about Mad Max, you’ve hit the mantle: even if you wanted to dig yourself a deeper hole, it’s just not possible.
Well, I have a leg up even for a USian having actually studied Canadian constitutional law and gone on to do work in comparative constitutional law under a famous law professor who walked me through The Kiwi, Aussie, South African, US, and Canadian constitutions, so it would be just a teensy bit rude of me to dis them just because there exist some number of MRAs that comment on the internet without as knowledgeable a background.
But you have to ask, Does the go-ogle thing not work in the USA? Even without going to law school, you could kind of find out that Canada has more than one “constitution” (really it might be more fair to say that the “constitution” is the sum of several documents), that the “first amendment” to The British North America Act of 1867 doesn’t actually mention “redress of grievances” and a few more clever things.
Moreover, fuck being knowledgeable about Canadian constitutional law, the First Amendment in US jurisprudence doesn’t protect you from being fired by your private employer.
Period.
What kind of moron thinks that a guy can shout obscenities on TV and have the US government swoop in and save your job for you?
It’s not like they think US law applies everywhere…
…because they don’t even know US law. They think that What They Want For Themselves is protected by the constitution, because isn’t that what constitutions are for?
Nothing to do with the law, everything to do with entitlement.
Gits.