Never let it be said that the Men’s Rights movement does nothing to help men. Earlier this week, A Voice for Men’s CEO Paul Elam announced the launch of a new service for men. That service is that Elam, a noted former psychology major in college, will listen to you talk shit about women for an hour over Skype for $90.
Elam’s fans are excited to have a new talking point.
So what exactly does Elam’s new service, dubbed “An Ear for Men,” offer the discerning man who wants to pay someone who is not a licenced mental health professional $90 to listen to them for an hour on Skype? In his post announcing the service on AVFM, Elam explains that
Ostensibly the services provided will focus on life issues faced by men.
Ostensibly? “Ostensibly” is an adverb meaning “apparently or purportedly, but perhaps not actually.” Is this actually a phone sex service pretending to be a “consulting” business?
Services to be provided range from high-conflict relationships and divorce to substance abuse and other issues that disproportionately affect men.
Wait, Elam is saying that he will provide “high-conflict relationships and divorce to substance abuse?”
In the past, as that infamous Buzzfeed profile made clear, the often-divorced Elam has provided “high-conflict relationships and divorce” to women for free. Now men can get some of that Elam magic for themselves.
On the Ear for Men website, Elam spells out in a little more detail what his “services” will consist of. Of “Anxiety” he writes
Anxiety is one of the most common “mental health” problems worldwide. …
There are medications that can help reduce the symptoms of anxiety, some of which are either ineffective or addictive or both. …
The causes of anxiety disorders are not known. There are, however, many good reasons to believe that it is a problem rooted in brain chemistry, which is why I put “mental health” in scare quotes. …
As medical science develops a better understanding of anxiety we may see the day when it is treated much more effectively or even cured in most people. In the meantime there is no cure. There are, however, ways to cope with anxiety which help most people overcome the worst of its effects.
For more on that, you can read through the articles and links on this site dealing with anxiety.
There aren’t any articles or links provided.
If direct personal service to address this problem is what you desire, feel free to schedule an appointment with Paul.
“Direct personal service?” Now it sounds like he’s running an escort service.
On the pages devoted to most of Elam’s other “services,” from Anger Management to High Conflict Relationships, he offers … nothing. The pages are blank.
In a preface of sorts to his page on Self Respect, which he posted on May 28th, Elam explains that
This site is under construction. We are still populating it with content and working on the scheduling system. Thank you for bearing with us until the site is complete and services are available. We are hoping for official launch within three weeks of today’s date.
Wait, what? I guess you’ll have to cough up $90 to ask Elam how it is he has managed to launch this new site without actually launching it yet.
He starts off his discussion of “self respect” by writing:
Notice I did not title this with the tried and true psychobabble of “self-esteem.”
The URL for the page is anearformen.com/services/self-esteem, which suggests that he did in fact title his post “self-esteem” before thinking better of it. (WordPress — the blogging software that Elam uses for the site — gives blog posts URLs based on the title you give them; if you change the title later, the original URL remains unless you take steps to change it.)
It should be easy enough to schedule an hour with Elam in which to discuss these matters or any other questions you might have; as far as I can tell from looking through his appointments calendar, he doesn’t seem to have booked any appointments yet. Unless some poor soul has been scheduling appointments every day at 8:30 PM.
Inspired by Elam’s example here, I have decided to open my own “consulting” business, Three Ears for Men and Women and Maybe Cats.
Elam provides only a single ear for men, at the exorbitant price of $90 per ear, per hour. I provide THREE ears, at the low, low price of only $50 per ear-hour.
Here are the three ears.
And here’s how it works: Whenever you feel you have something to get off your chest, come to this web page, scroll down to the ears here, and talk to them for an hour. Then send me $150 on Paypal.
Never let it be said that I do nothing to help men. I mean, I’m a men, or at least a man, and I could use $150.
H/T: Margaret Pless, aka @idlediletante
EJ,
Point taken. I wonder what will happen to AVFM when Paul has to get a job?
WWTH,
Thanks for sharing that info. I hadn’t heard.
I hope so. That should be entertaining.
I guess I should say “Good for Reddit” but at this point I think the whole shebang should be shut down permanently.
BURN IT. BURN IT TO THE GROUND!
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/yb.gif
BURN IT AND PISS ON ITS ASHES BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/eevl.gif
Other than the ableist language in the headline, this is a pretty good rundown. http://internet.gawker.com/redditors-stage-insane-nazi-themed-protest-after-admins-1710630950
and this http://gawker.com/this-cartoon-contains-everything-terrible-about-the-red-1710861421
Mr. Elam’s new business is getting off to a rocky start, with a columnist in London blasting him today.
http://www.newstatesman.com/sci-tech/2015/06/male-rape-charity-has-had-its-funding-slashed-zero-where-are-all-outraged-men
How much is does an hour with an actual professional therapist cost in the US? On average? I’m just trying to put his price into perspective.
Depends on if your insurance covers it. In my experience they sometimes cut the price for private pay clients. Like $120/hr can become $80/hr.
I get paid less than this for actual phone sex. Greedy wanker.
Actually, I’m interested in a session with Tiny Therapist Cat. P-r-r-r…
@Steampunked
@Weirwoodtreehugger:
To totally rip you off, I propose the name for Elam biz:
“Alpha Malehood Crisis Center”:
Come in questioning your alpha malehood; leave with a crisis.
If I didn’t think Reddit should be burned to the ground already, the redditors response to having a handful of (not even the worst!) subreddits shut down would convince me that there’s nothing worth saving anymore.
I believe Paul Elam is fully certified in Anger Mismanagement, Mantrum Design, and Clusterfuck Organizing.,
Hey, guess who I found while browsing fstdt?
http://fstdt.com/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=109298
http://fstdt.com/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=109308
Mister Futrelle, care to analyse these quotes for this fine site? They’re…interesting! If you’ve already covered them, I apologise.
$90/hr is, in the US, a pretty normal price to pay — to see someone with an PHD or an MD. Maybe someone with a Masters? MSW’s seem to be cheaper, but that may just be because they’re kind.
Obviously these men need this. If they went to a real therapist, they might have their ideas challenged, and these open-minded individuals with awakened minds must not have their carefully planned narrative disrupted.
I’m so glad this wasn’t a thing back when I was into men’s rights. Instead, I had real therapy, and the therapists simply said I should stop actively searching for crazy TERF/Anti-Porner/Sex-Negative/Bully/Troll “Feminist” bullshit on Tumblr and that I was doing it because I was trying to avoid my much more prescient problems in life, namely that I just got out of college and felt extremely discouraged that I couldn’t get a job so I basically gave up and just lazed around my mom’s house. Since then, I’ve switched careers, and I’m now going into graduate school, planning on going into teaching.
tl;dr MRAs are probably doing what they do because their real lives suck and they’re depressed and they’re using men’s rights as a crutch to avoid their real problems.
If only they could focus their anger on capitalism instead.
@Bazia
Thank you for linking that article. I have signed the petition. And yeah, MRAs should get off their woman-hating and lazy asses and actually do something for men. This could be productive. Society treats all rape victims horribly..
Hahaha …So, this is what that slime-bag’s latest “project” is about.
I thought that “Ear for Men” was some sort of new buzz word of E-scam’s, when I first heard about it. $90/hour, Eh? And, all that men (or boys) will get for that price tag will be another backhanded way of being told that they’re fucked up.
The real agenda, of course, has been on the table ever since Farrell ran for governor. A Department of Men’s Health would be a nice idea. Unfortunately, every last deadbeat who once worked in mental health services is probably now loosely affiliated with Elam’s work from home in his underwear for Beer Money – and, call it Men’s Rights – umbrella. I’ve never endorsed Farrell’s sense of commitment to our cause – seeing him as little more than a paid speaker/author.
But, it has been seeming that there has been a clandestine drive for the rest of those bozos, who keep trying to hang their hats on his name, to repackage themselves as MRA counselors, in order to qualify and become relicensed for a piece of the Medicaid and insurance pie.
It’s the last thing the real MRM needs…….