Is MRA thinking simply beyond satire?
Cartoonist Rebecca Cohen (@GynoStar on Twitter) recently decided to offer a satirical take on the false rape accusation paranoia that’s endemic in Men’s Rights circles, producing the list of tips below, designed to mirror some of the terrible advice that’s regularly given to women on how to avoid rape.
It turns out that Men’s Rights Redditors think she has some good ideas.
In a recent thread on the Men’s Rights subreddit, the regulars considered her list and decided to add some suggestions of their own. Only their suggestions weren’t meant as jokes.
Ted8367 offered six “Real tips to keep yourself safe” inspired directly by Cohen’s originals.
- Always Be Recording. That’s your real buddy.
- Try not to go out alone at any time. The more potential witnesses there are around, the better.
- If you must walk alone at night … stay on well-lighted paths where your camera will work better.
- If you meet a woman who has been drinking, leave immediately.
- I couldn’t think of one for this. How do false rape accusers dress anyway?
- Maybe just avoid college campuses altogether for social events. Go into town instead.
(Emphasis mine, because, woah.)
Elebrin had six suggestions of his own, “essentially for college students.”
- live off campus
- don’t date girls at your school
- don’t pick up women at bars or places that are serving alcohol
- keep your head down so the administration doesn’t have a reason to be watching you
- When you do go out, dress in a way that isn’t intimidating. The black hoodie pulled tightly around your face or the muscle shirt that shows off your gorilla arms is probably a bad plan. Your best bet is to learn to dress “professionally” and do that the majority of the time.
- know who the potentially dangerous people and groups are and stay away from them. If they are going to be protesting an event, don’t go to that event. Don’t participate in protests yourself – keep your honest opinions about controversial subjects behind a wall of anonymity.
If you see this woman, RUN LIKE THE WIND, obviously.
Other MRAs piped up with suggestions of their own.
don’t talk to women on campus unless its about school/work/emergency.
videorecord all your activities, even sex acts, using bodycam
I’m sure your dates will be thrilled when you strip down to nothing but socks and a plainly visible bodycam.
[N]ever touch an American woman under circumstances, and try not to be alone with them, always have witnesses.
Don’t fuck women in college. Ever.
Don’t fuck SJWs, ever.
avoid feminist women, outside of the classroom or the workplace, just stay away from them.
avoid women like the plague and never talk to them except for school and work related issues and topics.
I was going to make a comment about the incredible paranoia going on here, but, you know, it probably would be a good thing if all of the world’s MRAs actually did decide to avoid women altogether and perhaps all went and lived on an island together.
In another thread on “false accusations” a couple of weeks ago, other Men’s Rights Redditors offered some strikingly similar advice:
If you’re going to be intimate with a woman, make sure you have some sort of video evidence of the act.
Stay away from college girls. You can record and CYA all year long, but many times evidence won’t save you. The emotional maturity of women is plummeting. Obviously they’re not worth having anything to do with until they’re older. Probaby MUCH older, if at all.
Keep a camera running in your room if you have a female guest. Do not (obviously) share such recordings with any person other than for giving evidence. Do keep it stored safely in case of a later accusation.
Keep an alibi app running on your smartphone (there are many, but Alibi is one I know of on Android that’s good) and switch it on when in an intimate situation with a woman. This will give you extra audio evidence.
If a woman shows even the most minimal sign of reservation with you during intimacy, walk away immediately.
Still others had more original advice:
If you break up with a girl try to make it look that she broke up with you and not the other way around
Er, ok.
Turn gay. Worked pretty well for me.
Well, at least one of these guys is thinking outside the box.
Maybe we wouldn’t need to talk about rape culture if 1 in 5 women weren’t sexually assaulted in their lifetimes and if a rape ended in a conviction much more than 3% of the time.
@kimtsu Sorry. I linked the wrong article. Turns out alot of men are sent to jail for not actually raping anyone. i’ll see if i can find the correct artcile.
A lot compared to what? False rape claims are no more common than false claims for any other crime. Yet nobody suggests we shouldn’t prosecute robbery, fraud, etc.
Turns out a lot of people get sent to jail even though they didn’t murder anyone, too! Like these guys, who were facing fucking Death Row before they were exonerated by DNA evidence.
(A number of these are for murders and rapes that they didn’t commit, but point stands.)
Do we tell people to stop prosecuting murder because of false murder accusations too?
I really do hope they end up avoiding women permanently. Also, that cartoon is freaking amazing.
Seems to me like destroying rape culture is a great way to stop rape, rather than relying on a flawed and bigoted justice system. It also seems like a good alternative to the one some guy I was talking to yesterday proposed, which was, “women should carry guns and shoot rapists on sight.” He got it foaming-at-the-mouth ragey when I mentioned, “rape culture” too. I don’t get it. What do they think it actually means?
Should we also stop prosecuting robbery because there are some false robbery accusations? How about mugging? Stop the myth of mugging culture, you evil social justice warriors you!
Omg. We finally found something potential rapists fear enough to use as a deterrent: false rape accusations. Which, based on the avoidance criteria (drunk, non consenting women) would seem to be actual rape accusations, but hey, if they avoid doing it, that seems kind progress! Progress for stupid reasons.. But progress!
Although, I’d be amused if one of these guys actually DOES rape a woman and when she’s in court he brings up the video as “evidence” of his innocence.
That’s pretty much how Jian Ghomeshi was outed as a predator.
“See, your honour, she was too drunk to say no! That means yes, right?”
Sadly, two doctors who drugged a med student basically used this as a defence and got off. Even though it says right in the Criminal Code that people who are incapacitated can’t consent.
I’m thinking all these lads are virgins…
@marcus downly
Needs moar spell-check.
So no one else is kinda distracted by the weird, angular tumor on the neck of the guy in the picture? No? Just me then. Okay.
Wasn’t there an article a while back complaining that because of legal action against frats where women had been raped, frats had to implement such ‘extreme’ measures as preventing highly inebriated women from entering their parties?
A lot of this advice falls into the same category of ‘good move, shame you needed a legal threat rather than common decency…’
“Stay away from college girls. You can record and CYA all year long, but many times evidence won’t save you. The emotional maturity of women is plummeting. Obviously they’re not worth having anything to do with until they’re older. Probaby MUCH older, if at all.”
Hang on. I thought once a woman hit 25 her value was completely gone because of cock carousel blah blah feminism women suck SJW etc? You’re giving yourself a pretty tight window to work with there.
These guys, I swear. [scratches head] I’m so confused…
Within the framework of their world view, the notion of rape culture means they’re being forced to choose between celibacy and being accused of rape. Caring whether a woman wants to interact with them and altering their behavior accordingly doesn’t present itself as a viable option to them. If we expunge the idea from our culture that there’s this gray area wherein they can both not care if they have consent but also not be accused of rape, they get no sex. People talking about rape culture are people who don’t want to let them have that gray area.
That cartoon is pretty brilliant.
I’m beginning to think that instead of calling them men’s rights activists, maybe we should call them “anti-women’s rights activists”.
Dude, that wasn’t even a false rape allegation. That was a real rape allegation, that the police were too lazy and incompetent to handle properly.
But tell me again how women are the problem.
By all the gods, I think some of them may have been swimming through the lake of ridiculousness and nastiness to start seeing the other shore.
Not bad. Not bad at all. I wouldn’t say “walk away” immediately, but certainly DO stop immediately. It’s almost what feminists have been saying…
Reading your piece, the first thing that occurs to me is a situation that has, in fact, happened–some shady motel operators will set up cameras in their rooms covertly, to record sexual acts that occur there, without the knowledge of the participants.
This is a crime unto itself, of course–usually something along the lines of ‘invasion of privacy’. Now, if I read you correctly, if one of the persons involved knew about the cameras, then they would be guilty of rape–even though the other participants (the motel owners) would not? That’s… huh. I need to think on it, because it’s actually a bit appealing to me.
Yutolia: you mean anti-feminists?
Stop if a woman shows resistance? Dont fuck drunk women? Ironically that’s GOOD advice.
The few bits of good advice in all that mess essentially comes down to “don’t be an asshole”.
Wait, what?! There’s an app for that?!?
“The emotional maturity of women is plummeting.”
I’m reading this as ‘women are getting wise to my bullshit earlier and earlier’.