So there’s a depressing (but very much a must-read) piece over on Yahoo News at the moment chronicling how a lawsuit by Men’s Rights activists (allegedly) led to the demise of Chic CEO, a small company offering support and advice for women entrepreneurs in the male-dominated tech world.
As Yahoo Tech writer Alyssa Bereznak explains, the whole debacle started when two men decided that they needed to be part of a Chic CEO networking event. Because, clearly, men need a leg up in the tech world.
Two men named Allan Candelore and Rich Allison, who had each prepaid a $20 registration fee on the Chic CEO website, tried to enter the restaurant. According to a legal complaint that they later filed with National Coalition for Men president Harry Crouch, Burns turned them away at the door, saying the event “was only open to women.” They took a photo, left the premises, then promptly initiated legal action, turning to a 1959 California law written to prevent discrimination against minorities and women.
So yeah. They’re like Rosa Parks, but for dudes.
Bereznak notes that this is not the first time the 1959 law has been used on behalf of the struggling, suffering male gender. Alfred G. Rava, the lawyer representing the two men turned away at the door,
has built a career around gender-discrimination lawsuits, filing approximately 150 complaints against California businesses over the past 15 years, according to CNN Money … and, as the secretary for the National Coalition for Men, he offers free consultation for NCFM members who feel they’ve experienced public discrimination because of their gender.
Rava has fought baseball teams giving out free mammograms and assorted swag to women as part of Mother’s Day promotions and has taken a stand against the evil tyranny of Ladies Night at a number of San Diego nightclubs.
And he’s often worked in concert with the other men involved in the ChicCEO case.
Candelore — who has been a member of NCFM for four years — has been the plaintiff in 10 civil cases since 2011, not including his case against Chic CEO. In nine of those 10 cases, he was represented by Rava. In eight of those, [NCFM president] Crouch joined him as a plaintiff. In seven of those cases, Allison was a plaintiff.
They’re like a “Reverse Discrimination” Superteam.
For her part, ChicCEO’s Stephanie Burns told Yahoo Tech that her company “does not discriminate against men,” pointing out that it has male clients and board members. But, apparently unable to afford the cost of fighting the claims in court, she chose to settle the case instead.
The strangest detail in the Yahoo News piece? This parenthetical aside from the author:
(Rava refused to speak to me on the phone because he said he was concerned Yahoo News would misquote him. He also later emailed me to say: “I hope you print all sides to your story, because I am sure you would not want someone to publish a story about you on the Internet labeling you a ‘predator,’ a ‘gigantic bitch,’ an ‘elitist,’ a ‘soulless harpie,’ a ‘narcissist,’ and a ‘dumb woman,’ without that story presenting facts or opinions to the contrary.”)
Apparently Rava has been taking lessons in public relations from the folks at AVFM.*
NOTE: THAT LAST SENTENCE WAS A JOKE. I HAVE NO PROOF RAVA IS TAKING PR LESSONS FROM ANYONE.
Naturally, MRAs have swarmed the comments over on Yahoo News — last I checked, there were more than 1400 comments on the post. Meanwhile, A Voice for Men has reposted a long and tedious piece by the NCFM’s Crouch presenting what he sees as the “truth” in the case.
AVFM chose to illustrate its repost with a picture of a white man in chains. Because a couple of lawsuit-happy men turned away at a women-in-tech networking event are pretty much the equivalent of actual slaves.
@Jarnsaxa
The century that uses flimsy excuses to touch women.
What people seem to be glossing over, is that when the men showed up to the restaurant where the function was being held, they were only turned away because it was already AT CAPACITY. As per the fire marshal, it would have been illegal to let two more people in, regardless of their gender. That’s the reason the two men got stroppy. Letting two more people in, regardless of gender would have been ILLEGAL.
(it says this in the Yahoo article)
Sorry to be snotty, but that’s been bugging me. only two commentors mentioned this, and most people defending the men apparently didn’t read that part.
@Pandapool – Which is pretty much all of them.
A bit of levity with Sarkeesian Effect news! (Da de da de da)
After Jordan opened his version of the film at a showing where literally some people turned up, things have gone a bit quiet on that front, and it’s fallen out of the regular comic relief slot on this site – but I’ve been unable to tear myself away from the resultant Twitter soap opera since. It’s incredible.
Soon after the split, Aurini stomped off to fellow self-styled bald git Matt Forney to take part in a podcast hamfistedly psychoanalyzing his former partner into some sort of unstable killer figure. He then stressed repeatedly on Twitter that Jordan was beneath anybody’s attention because he has encopresis – literally saying to people not to trust him because he’s a poopy-pants, in slightly more medical wording. He then went off and talked about how the Germans had no plan to exterminate the Jews, which made Thunderfoot finally get fed up and post the video that David did an article on not long ago.
That sparked a row between the two on Twitter, and there was yet more fighting when a woman who is apparently a fairly prominent Gamergater asked him the pressing question we all want answered – whether he owns one toy skull or if he moves it around between videos (or as one participant in the subsequent row suggested, the skull stays stationary and the furniture is rearranged around it). Unbelievably, in the fallout of that, one of Aurini’s friends (who he’s posing with holding guns incorrectly in his Twitter icon) said that he now understood exactly why Gamergate is a harrassment campaign, and was mocked for that statement in the way that Gamergate typically does.
Jordan was very quiet for a while, but has regrettably resurfaced with another video where he says that his version of the film, a punchily edited piece at a mere two hours and thirty-five minutes long, will soon be released. He then mocks his backers who are asking questions about when they might expect for him to produce anything.
Anita Sarkeesian has put out another video, I think – at least, I saw Milo talking about it and smugly refuting all its points, in his mind, by saying that she’s fat.
The stars of this soap opera seem to be slowly organizing themselves into tiers, like layers of rot in a long-forgotten yoghurt – Thunderfoot and Jordan seem to be realizing that the whole thing is kind of shit and are backing away, Aurini is still himself despite his former followers widely mocking him for repeatedly insisting he knows anything about editing because he “knows all the keyboard shortcuts”, and Matt Forney is crawling his way to being the King of the Land of Imbeciles, acting as a mouthpiece for the worst of the bunch when he’s not doing his Twitter campaign to call out conservative politicians for not being sexist or racist enough.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/sprmn.gif
http://38.media.tumblr.com/2e6b461378d4cf7651f2f22703599e4c/tumblr_nocvtpJAyR1u7h2ndo3_500.gif
What a fucking douche, uncut Lysol strength.
@ davidknewton Thanks for your aside! I did wonder if people here were aware that Anita released a new video recently that is loads better than the ‘counter documentary’ – warning, it may be quite depressing to watch!
As for Gamergate eating its own if they express dissent, no surprise in the slightest. They have done that so often to themselves that I always wonder how their own members can’t recognize the monsters they have become (or were to begin with).
I actually think (and hope) in the long run they will tear themselves apart. Either through the slow painful self-realization of what they really are or the endless infighting they have among themselves.
Chiron will be spamming this meme everywhere.
https://imgflip.com/i/qj7h7
Oh, hell.
http://orig01.deviantart.net/09d2/f/2015/246/4/1/qj7h7_by_gckatz-d989jx1.jpg
AbominableSnowPickle
“Letting two more people in, regardless of gender would have been ILLEGAL.”
B-but misandry 🙁
Katz
Chiron salutes you. You are a great ally to the centaur rights activists.
Wow. Just…wow.
There’s false equivalence and the threat of harassment – in one sentence! That is quite a feat, though it’s nothing to take pride in as much as be ashamed about…
As a Californian, my guess is they’re arguing that – as white men – they’re the minorities in a state that has a significant Latino population. I’ve been unfortunate enough to come across it on more than one occasion and flabbergasted by it because, technically, they still live in a country that is still largely run by white men and populated overall by white people.
It’s become a rallying cry for reactionary racists in the state, who’d even blame the Latino population for earthquakes if they could. They blame them for everything else whether it be crime or traffic or high sales tax. Why the fact the last three governors of the state have all been white (one of whom was actually an immigrant from Austria) doesn’t dawn on them is beyond me.
Honestly, this whole thing sounds like a set-up. If Candelore and Allison have been involved as plaintiffs that many times, with Rava representing them, it comes off as if they planned to sign up for this networking event and then look for any reason as to suing ChickCEO for “discrimination.” I doubt they genuinely wanted to take part in what that organization was doing – it’d be like Hell’s Angels showing up at an NAACP meeting, in that it comes off as suspicious as fuck.
This is what happens when a country is way too litigious for its own good; you get frivolous lawsuits like this being taken up by courts and used as a weapon to financially ruin others, when they should be tossed aside for the nonsense they are. While I don’t deny the necessities of attorneys when it comes to Law – I’ll admit I’m still not fond of them and, given people like Rava, see them as responsible for perpetuating this. They’re the ones who gain the most out of it.
My own father, when asking for much needed compensation from his employers for his 20+ years as a sound engineer and boom operator in Hollywood, spent well over a decade having to get it back. Not only did his employers’ lawyers drew it out for as long as possible, knowing it’d cost less to continue the case that pay what my father was owed, but even his own lawyer was quite lazy about it as my dad could barely afford him as is. Paying my dad would’ve just been a drop in the bucket for his employers – yet they acted as if he was demanding the moon. I’m still disgruntled about it…
@ Nicknamenick
I really think you’ll appreciate watching this from 3:00
“Forget the Alamo!”
Yes. Just…yes. 😀
I’m not sure that #NotAllCentaurs holds water. There was literally one one good one. The reason everyone was so amazed at Chiron was not just that he was a wise healer etc. etc., because because no centaur before or since did anything like that. Sorry, C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling et al., centaurs are not by nature stargazers. They’re much more likely to be running around bragging about how they’re hung like a horse.
And that is exactly the kind of misequinandry that makes the world such a terrible place!
@ Rabid Rabbit I am a Sagittarius and do not approve of your comment. And we are not bragging!
I do agree that stargazing is overrated 8p
@ katz Thank you for your support! I will notify my other Sags that you are a good human!
oh sweet baby butts my meme dreams have come true #NOTALLCENTAURS
i originally typed that as “femtaurz” wtf is wrong with me
as a taurus i am unable to celebrate this fully though i will almost certainly reserve the right to sue for discrimination on behalf of all minotaurs attempting to gain access to centaur-only clubs
are tauruses represented by minotaurs or just bulls and stuff to hell with it its minotaurs now son #labyrinth
Welp, now we know what actual activist menz rightz activism looks like. Still basically shouting at and harassing women, but with actual legal papers filed, and snotty-hissy e-mails directed straight at a reporter they assume will not “present all sides of the story”, i.e. only theirs, and uncritically, as opposed to writing mere blog pieces threatening to dig up dirt on her and spread it around like, and I quote, “gonorrhea in a whorehouse”.
@ReallyFriendly
Would it be especially mean of me to quote your “stargazing is overrated” right next to your “I’m a Sagittarius”? Well, except that you basically just did so yourself…
@Bina
Well, to give them credit, it is more “active” than much else we’ve seen from them.
@mewfington I’m a Sagittarius and female; does that make me a femtaurz? 😀
WHAT ABOUT TEH LEOS???!!!!!
Pandapool
Yeah! What about me-I mean us!?
http://www.egmcartech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Lie-Down-Try-Not-To-Cry-Cry-Alot-Meme.jpg
*Sigh*. Really, guys? Discrimination against men in tech may occasionally happen on a personal level, but it’s still incredibly rare, and it sure as *hell* isn’t institutionalized, unlike sexism against women, in tech (or anywhere else, pretty much). So the Manosphere is essentially just trolling us all with their foolhardy antics…..not that they’ve ever done much else, mind.
@kupo:
I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure that if “centaur” is the masculine, then it’s misandric because it implies males are only worth a cent.