More signs of desperation over at A Voice for Men, the Men’s Rights/Lady Disparagement site that has apparently ceased to be the cash cow for its founder, the unlovely and untalented Paul Elam, that it once was:
1) Turgid articles on … Ethanol, and “Future trends in eyewear technology”
Get prepared to have your world shattered, people! Now, in addition to the traditional lady-hating posts, AVFM is now opening its pages to articles on “men’s interests” as well!
So far, this has consisted of a handful of posts on a seemingly random assortment of topics ranging from Ethanol to fishing mishaps, all of them badly written and all of them reprinted from Examiner.com, a site where pretty much anyone can post pretty much anything they want. (The post on “eyewear technology” smells an awful lot like a press release for “Eyeglass World, a leading retailer of affordable prescription eyewear.”)
While this might look on the surface like an effort on Elam’s part to pump up traffic to his site without doing any actual work, he’s selling it, hard, as a proof of a GIANT VICTORY FOR MEN’S RIGHTS. Then again Elam could probably convince his supremely gullible followers that a fart at a dinner party was a trumpet blast announcing the imminent fall of feminism.
AVFM is changing. Allow me to explain.
While we are still light years from some needed social changes and actual, measurable improvements to men’s rights are still lacking, we have accomplished one thing. Namely our job.
AVFM’s core mission has been to change the public narrative about sexual politics; to force a critique of feminism into the cultural consciousness and to chip away at the empathy gap when it comes to the sexes. We are starting to see that happen …
The growth of our message throughout the mainstream is now unstoppable because of you. …
The worm is turning. That opens a door for us and insists on ushering us through it.
That’s right: a worm is opening the door for them, like some kind of freaking worm butler. Which raises the question: How many worm butlers will there be? (One at first, but he’ll train others.)
This is the future for how AVFM pushes the counter-theory. It is fitting with what we have been saying for years. We ARE the media. We have proven it. The day when we can say we ARE the mainstream may or may not come, at least in my life.
But you can bet your ass I will keep swinging to the last breath.
Swing away Paul. Paul, swing away!
2) Elam is now soliciting donations so that he can charge people to talk to him
Last month, you may recall, Elam announced the launch of an exciting new venture: A Near for Men.
Sorry, I meant “An Ear for Men,” a “service” whereby Mr. Elam, a board-uncertified mental health unprofessional, hopes to charge dudes $90 an hour to talk about their problems with him on Skype.
I say “hopes to” because he’s having a bit of trouble getting dudes to agree to this particular proposition. Indeed, if you look at the appointments page on his site, you will see a vast sea of open slots. It’s not clear if he’s gotten even a single person to sign up, as what looks like a possible weekly appointment at 1:30 every Tuesday could just be Elam deciding to take a break from his gruelling schedule of doing absolutely nothing for men other than himself.
So Elam has added a “donation” page to his site (archived here) so dudes who can’t afford an appointment with AVFM’s chief snake-oil salesman can help support his failing business of charging other dudes $90 an hour to talk to him about how much they hate their exes.
I guess I’ll give him points for sheer chutzpah.
H/T — to the anonymous internetter who pointed out Elam’s donations page to me. Also, I stole the “A Near for Men” joke from someone, but I can’t remember whom.
Man. I thought Elam would have been able to get at least a few of his misguided, gullible followers to volunteer to be ripped off. I guess now we know that there is a bottom to that well.
I just somehow feel like this gif is fitting here.
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs4/3874024_o.gif
The worm is turning!!!!
Now it all makes sense. They get their gender politics from old episodes of The Two Ronnies!
Awwww yuuuss.
I declare today “International Popcorn Gif Day”.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/gallery/popcorn-gifs/bundy.gif
It’s a great day.
@Alan
Bizarrely fitting. wow.
Reminds me of a Polish “cult classic” called “Sexmisja”, which is even worse, but for some reason very popular in Poland.
You know, if someone wrote a story about a cartoonishly evil and inept MRA whose name is literally the word ‘male’ spelled backwards, I’d probably think it was too on the nose.
“Whelp, we’re not getting as much money as we wanted, and no one really pays us any serious attention (That meanie-pants mangina Futrelle keeps mocking us on his site, so that’s a plus), but, people are criticizing feminism! VICTORY FOR US! Now, open your wallet! Daddy Elam needs a new house.”
They literally think anything’s a victory, don’t they? Us mocking them is a victory simply because we’re warning people of their awfulness, people criticizing feminism (which feminists have done for fucking ages now) is somehow all because of them…
It’s like that thing they do where they claim all advances in society made by men because they are also men, and thus, they invented everything by virtue of penis.
Except now it’s like anytime someone says something negative about feminism (no matter how constructive, or if a feminist said it), it’s somehow a “victory” for them?
Kay.
@Alan Robertshaw:
Man, now I have a real hankering to watch the “Four Candles” sketch again. Or do I mean “‘Andles for Forks”? 😛
As for the OP… Well, suffice it to say that I rarely have enough spare cash to even think about spending 90 bucks on something like this, but even if I had it, I wouldn’t use my money to support anything P. E. is selling. *shudders*
@ Monzac
“It’s not the sort of restaurant if you *do* like rook” always makes me giggle.
@ Alan:
Hehehe. 😀 British sketch comedy is definitely up there amongst my favourites. Can’t get enough of it really.
@ Monzach
You might appreciate this
@ Alan:
Thanks for the link. 🙂 Love David Mitchell’s work. Such a dry sense of wit. 🙂
“In Centigrade it’s cold and in Fahrenheit it’s solid”
You know what’s sad? If only Paul Elam and his fellow AVfMers had spent their time doing something that would actually address men’s problems, they’d have something to show for it instead of nebulous “criticism of feminism” (which totally never existed until AVfM showed up). A men’s shelter. A suicide hotline specifically for young men. A forum where men whose partners have had an abortion can talk through their feelings *away* from their partner. Support groups for non-custodial dads that talk about how to make the most of their visitation time and aren’t seething hotbeds of misogyny. Hell, does AVfM ever boost Movember? Or One for the Boys?
Last time I bothered reading Judgypants she was bragging about writing for The Examiner. So is that not even a proper magazine?
And as for Elam, I wonder if anyone asked him if he was going to return all that ticket money from the conference that never was?
Elam started the fire.
It was always burning
Since the worm’s been turning.
Sorry, I’m a big fan of The Office (and Billy Joel).
How does the MRM have any kind of PR victory? These days, MRA don’t even admit to being MRA because it’s considered a joke to pretty much everyone. Even dudebros who don’t like feminism think they’re a joke.
Ugh, what a hideous picture THAT mixed metaphor calls up. (My subconscious insists on giving the worm the head of a dick.)
And, by golly, they’ve done it…they’ve made the gap wider! Women now enjoy LESS empathy than at any time after the mid-Victorian era! Good job, Paulie!
(That IS what’s meant by “chipping away at a gap”, isn’t it? Widening said gap? Because there’s no way that shitty metaphor could make sense otherwise…)
This is good for bitcoin.
Mine gives the worm a little bellhop costume.
Geez, I thought at the very least his biggest fan woody (shut up) would have signed up for daily sessions!
Worms make good butlers. They have such good manners.
http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/i/2013/09/12/best-lowly-worm-book-03.jpg
Ah, so this explains why there was an article about lighting a BBQ on AVFM. It was written by the British woman who was organizing the doomed convention, I think. Her advice was panned by all two commenters.
From the same AVFM page:
I shudder to think of what the membership rewards might be. Any idea what mainstream dime he’s talking about?
In sad news, a 35-year-old woman who practices family law was critically injured by a bomb in a package she opened at her office in Winnipeg, Canada today. I sure hope it wasn’t the act of a misogynist who felt screwed over during a divorce. Her romantic partner is a lawyer who was just disbarred and had worked at the same firm. It could be related to that but it seems like a long shot.