So the fellas on the Men’s Rights subreddit are kicking up a shine about a post one of them found on the internet that treats them like the joke that they are.
You see, a blogger on real estate site Estately.com decided, out of sheer boredom, I imagine, to assemble a list of Each State’s Most Embarrassing Google Searches.
As you can see from the map above, the searches range from terrible music (for some reason, Maine residents feel a need to track down Nickelback lyrics) to assorted penis-size related concerns.
In Colorado, the search term that made Estately’s Ryan Nickum giggle the most was “Men’s Rights.”
Nickum notes in his post that Coloradans were also interested in learning more about Vape pens and Crocs (the ugly shoes). He concludes from this that
If you’re a man in Colorado wearing crocs and puffing on your vape pen you deserve to have your rights taken away.
Actually, that’s not quite fair. It’s not right to lump vaping and Crocs with Men’s Rights. Vaping is much better for you than smoking, and Crocs, while atrociously ugly, are at least comfortable (or so I’ve heard).
Naturally, Men’s Rights Redditors were outraged by this assault on their basic human rights.
![[–]Clockw0rk 42 points 18 hours ago The "article" makes things worse. Analysis: If you’re a man in Colorado wearing crocs and puffing on your vape pen you deserve to have your rights taken away Oh really? Let's flip the details. If you're a woman in Wisconsin wearing open toed shoes and drinking flavored malt beverages, you deserve to have your rights taken away. Hmmm.. No, that still seems like a monstrous overreach that would have the writer fired before the end of the day. I mean, if we were talking about women's rights. permalinksavereportgive goldreply [–]baskandpurr 13 points 17 hours ago Easier than that. Searching for women's rights would be great and make you a wonderful person. Searching for men's right is embarrassing and makes you offensive. You consider the idea that 50% of humanity should maybe have better rights and that makes you evil.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/mensrightembarrassing.png?resize=482%2C445&ssl=1)
Poor babies.
Maybe the reason everyone sees you as a joke is because most people realize that men not only already have rights but also have innumerable privileges as a gender?
Or that they realize the Men’s Rights movement has accomplished literally nothing of value over the past five years of its existence? That MRAs in the US haven’t built a single shelter for men, or even set up a phone hotline?
That MRA’s virtually ignore the real issues facing young men of color in our country, from police shootings and gun violence to a misguided drug war that has left an unprecedented number of young black men behind bars.
That instead of actually doing anything about anything they would rather circle-jerk about spermjacking and friend-zoning and the alleged evils of assorted rape prevention campaigns.
Fellas: People treat you like a joke because you are a joke.
In the thread complaining about Nickum’s map, the only “accomplishment” any of the Men’s Rights redditors thought to mention was the fact that people are more aware of Men’s Rights activists than they were a few years ago. And I have to admit that this is true.
Congratulations, fellas, you’ve managed to successfully annoy the world with your stupid complaints, so much so that numerous sites are taking down their comments so they won’t have to deal with irritating abusive babies like you any more.
And you’ve given me an excuse to post this:
“Or that they realize the Men’s Rights movement has accomplished literally nothing of value over the past five years of its existence? That MRAs in the US haven’t built a single shelter for men, or even set up a phone hotline?”
Their one major accomplishment: Until recently, they have managed to keep Paul Elam from having to seek work as a “counselor” — a huge benefit to men, and society as a whole.
@ EJ (EOO) A similar idea on the internet is ‘people are just trolling’. Trolls do exist and should be ignored as they tend to be single entities seeking attention, but the term has been used way too often to minimize actual harassment. It is a sad fact to me that when women become online public figures it is NORMAL for them to become the target of sexual slurs and insults. To be fair, males who also become online public figures also get their share of internet harassment, but the real issue is that the internet has NORMALIZED the behavior.
We have become used to the notion this is the way things are and the way they always will be. ‘Trolls will be trolls’ is always brought up as a defense of the status quo way too often even in cases where it clearly does not apply.
There is an inherent inertia in the community that does not want to acknowledge the problem so they don’t have to deal with it. While it is true that the internet is a massive online forum where regulation is staggeringly difficult, I find it strange that there isn’t a more collective interest in dealing with this issue. The internet has spawned a rather ridiculous collection of passions and interests and so it strikes me as odd that this does not generate as much buzz when it is so pervasive and affects everyone in the community.
One of the other new things about the internet is that it allows these previously isolated asshats to connect with one another and create social reinforcement of such activities. In the real world where it is much harder for them to find their peers so they sometimes grow out of it by seeing that everyone around them thinks poorly of them. In the internet they can find one another and assure each other that they are not the asshats here – and the fact that they have normalized their behavior in the internet community as acceptable is downright disturbing. I do hope we do not keep moving our bar further and further down.
/my rant over, thank you for reading 8p
WWTH, I’m not sure whether it’s because I don’t dare to delve to deep (in case of Balrogs) or because the fandom is nice, but I’ve never run into anything too petrifying in the Lord of the Rings fandom.
Or the Doctor Who fandom.
Or the…
…I’m betting the answer is me not delving too deep.
Count me as another person who used to identify as Brony, but no longer does. I actually think that I’m way more embarrassed to admit to liking My Little Pony than any other “girly” show or book I like just because of the fanbase. Honestly it actully increased my love of Steven Universe just because they went out of there way to use different tags so kids wouldn’t see there adult art, of the series.
I don’t necessarily think all fandom are toxic, but I think I’m order to clamp down on the assholes, the community does need to be relatively small, and willing to address mistakes and disagreements.
Some years ago, I went through a phase of watching a lot of anime. But my first experience of online anime fandom almost soured me on the whole medium. Among the things I witnessed almost immediately:
* Guys posting their violent rape fantasies about fourteen-year-old characters.
* A non-sexualised ten-year-old character being described as “jailbait”.
* Earnest discussion about skirt length in school uniforms, including one guy inviting people to check out his street photos of real Japanese schoolgirls.
* Insufficient criticism of the above from less toxic fans.
I didn’t give up on anime, but I decided I wanted nothing to do with the fandom. And I was reluctant to tell anyone I was into it, lest they thought I was one of those creeps.
Now you must excuse me, because a DVD of The Tale of the Princess Kaguya arrived in the post today, and it won’t watch itself.
@ contrapanglos
Doctor Who fans don’t have time to waste on social issues and other trivial matters. They’re too busy discussing the stuff that’s really important; like what size the TARDIS windows should be.
Michigan: We’re aware that Amway is a pyramid scheme, we’re just not sure how to make it stop.
I don’t know if it’s Whovians or just random internet commenters, but there’s always a bunch of white male tears whenever it’s suggested that the next Doctor be a woman and/or POC.
@ WWTH
Ironically when Joanna Lumley played the doctor in an early Steven Moffatt thing; everyone raved about how brilliant she was and how she should be the next doctor (she would be perfect).
I still hold out hope for Don Warrington to be the Doctor. I think he should have red hair though, then you can have a great post regeneration scene where he looks in a mirror and says “Finally”.
Alan, that would be…
Most excellent. I would approve so much. So, so, so, so much. The doctor’s just been longing to be Ginger so long.
WWTH, I hope it’s just random commenters. It could be Whovians, though. I don’t know.
🙁
@ contrapanglos
When people freak out at the idea of a black Doctor it’s always worth referring them to the War Games:
Not to mention the hissy fit at the suggestion that their preferences might indicate racism or sexism. I was once talking to a guy about this and he said “I don’t think the Doctor should be played by a dog either! I must hate dogs!” apparently oblivious to the irony of comparing women to dogs in an attempt to prove he’s not sexist.
Joanna certainly looks the part:
http://doctorher.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/1956.jpg
@ Katz
Eh, do you live in some weird parallel universe where the Doctor *isn’t* a dog?
http://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/174/70/70174/1394566753-0.jpg
Oh my. 4 as a dog is perfect. So perfect. Oh my.
All the love. 4 is totally a floofy poodle/spaniel mix. Totally. Yes. So yes.
And the war doctor, with his little gruffy-fluffy face.
And Nine, so serious with the ears…
Much love.
Alan, you are the wind beneath my wings with that picture.
I haven’t caught up on the most recent doctor, because I lack cable. But Irish Wolfhounds are awesome, and I adore the face on that dog, so it bodes well.
The Tom Baker scarf looks cute on a pup. If I had knitting skills I’d make one for my dad’s dog.
Oh my goodness, Dogtor Who. I love it.
You know who wants to play the Doctor?
https://twitter.com/HayleyAtwell/status/632269411424927744?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
And then there’s this version.
http://pre03.deviantart.net/c11e/th/pre/f/2011/258/9/9/doctor_hoo___wallpaper_by_pu_sama-d49yw5i.jpg
@ contrapangloss
Doctor Whoof. Doctor Hoo.
@ WWTH
There’s a really cute picture somewhere of K-9 wearing the hat and scarf.
Hugs, Reallyfriendly. It was a good rant. Your point about the internet allowing the assholes to network is a good one.
This reminded me of something weird as hell that happened a couple years ago:
My sister and mum are enormous Whovians and were talking about the upcoming series, bouncing ideas for who they’d want to be the next Doctor… I commented that even though I don’t watch the show myself, it’d still be neat to see a female Doctor. Maggie Smith, maybe. And they flipped. I won’t quote any of what they said, but I seriously could have suggested Zombie Hitler with less pushback. o_O
The weird part is that neither of them had ever said anything sexist before and they haven’t said anything sexist since. In 30 years, that was it. Apparently, to them, women can do absolutely anything men can do, probably more… Except play the friggin’ Doctor.