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
To Paul elam:
Self esteem is not psycho babble, you dumbshit. It’s an actual thing on Maslow’s pyramid.
Now go to hell.
Sincerely,
Test post as I got signed out.
That site sounds like a mess. Elam’s clearly just trying to extract more cash from his followers after he failed to sell enough conference tickets or whatever his last scheme was.
I think men who need help would probably be better off with just about anyone else to talk to.
Even Dr. Zoe D. Katze would be better than Elam, Zoe was certified by the National Guild of Hypnotists, the American Board of Hypnotherapy, and the International Medical & Dental Hypnotherapy Association. She was a Professional Member of the American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists. I imagine her certifications have lapsed by now though, but I’d still trust her over Elam.
Here’s her picture.
http://img.ksl.com/slc/2489/248965/24896572.jpg
@Spindrift
She looks like a marvelously fluffy therapist that I just want to cuddle and rub the tummy of. <3
A Boner For Men – A charity that aids men with sad boners by giving them a space to complain women who are ugly, fat, short haired, dyed haired, tattooed or wear glasses or buns and women who please their boners but won’t fuck them.
Oh, wait. That is AVFM. And every other manosphere site.
This body parts thing is going to get really awkward once we reach
A Dick For Men –
…
So many possibilities.
Oh, ninja’d! Well, kind of 🙂
Love your work WWTH!
An Ass for Men – A charity that helps pump up them booties so the ladies are all about dat ass.
Protein for Men – A charity that gives men bench presses so they can take selfies in front of it and brag over Reddit. “do u evn lift bro”.
Products for “Men” – An ad campaign that compares “men only” and “women only” products to show they’re exactly the fucking same and how using targeting stuff like that actually takes money from your pocket because they charge you more for the same shit, but your masculinity is so fragile, you need to fucking buy Dude Stick.
Spanx for Men – A charity that discreetly delivers spanx to the door.
Spanks for Men – A discreet dominatrix service.
If Elam was ever a counsellor it must have been many moons ago, because his approach to anxiety and anxiety disorders sounds seriously outdated. Which is concerning (on top of the rampant misogy).
Depending on the individual’s personal definition of recovery and the journey they may choose to reach it, of course recovery from anxiety is possible. People self-report recovery every day, in a variety of different ways. ‘Cure’ is an old-fashioned concept, I haven’t heard anyone use it in years.
Yes, we actually know a great deal about the contributing factors to anxiety disorders – environmental stressors, childhood development, genetic predisposition, physical factors etc. You know, from research and shit.
@Misha
Pffft. Research is for betas.
David I see all 3 of your ears are man-ears. I even wonder if they are all your ears? Do you have a condition? Anyways I would prefer to whisper to a woman-ear, no offense.
That reminds me of this
@WWTH
Cha brah, whatevs.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gnarly.gif
Don’t you generally have to be licensed to charge for this kind of service? even “counselors” which are not actual psychologists, have to have some measure of training.
If only to know not to violate HIPPA.
I’m also going to train myself to say “brah” instead of “bro”. For reasons.
“I think this will help to end…”
I think NOT.
I have a picture in my head of a “Peanuts”-style booth with “The
DoctorListener is IN” on it, possibly set up in Mr Elam’s front yard.@greyskye: I find myself wondering whether the anger-management sector ought to be called “A Spleen for Men”?
I’ve never seen any evidence that Elam has a bachelor’s degree in psychology. I think you need a master’s degree in most states to have your own private practice as a certified psychotherapist.
He could still have a private confidentiality agreement, but there wouldn’t be any ethics board you could report him to for professional misconduct.
Hey, Elam finally succeeded at writing satire. Congrats, Paul.
Paul Elam wants to help men with anger management? Isn’t that like having a lion teach a course on vegetarianism?
An Earworm for Men
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SzBJmoVSIYE
Why is he charging so much? Way to take advantage of your clientele.
> I think this will help to end ‘… but what are you doing for men’? complaints.
Well, given I can see an *actual* therapist for $50 less, and it’s completely independent of the MRM, no.
And speaking of $50 less, nice to see AVFM’s practice of ludicrous pricing didn’t end with their failed conference.
As much as I might wonder about how anything remotely sensible could come from this, the fact is that if a Crisis Pregnancy Center can deliberately give entirely incorrect information to women about how biology works, if a ‘gay camp’ can claim to turn kids straight, etc, I doubt Paul has many issues with this being legal.