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.
Cheers and salutations, Friendly! I vociferously endorse thee and wish you peace profound. Regretably, I must leave for the day soon; so many conservative/trad women to defend, so little time.
Somehow I think he’s already familiar with that site.
Awright, grudging props to Thos Hobbes for using “thee” correctly.
That’s not how cheesecake the word forsooth works. Learn what words mean before aorta using them.
Correctly? He switched from singular to plural mid-sentence.
Okay, he used it right the first time.
@katz:
Well, Falconer didn’t say Hobbes used “you” correctly…
Why is there only one word for Thesaurus?
By the way, what’s with MRAs and Hobbes? I’ll admit that I don’t know too much about the guy, but from what I do know, he was pretty much the first liberal. Big on equality and personal freedom (for the time, at least), pro-taxation, pro-welfare… He’d be a “Cuckservative mangina” or other such nonsensical slur today.
Mr.Hobbes is using a disguised IP but I’m 99.9999% sure he’s a returning troll who usually tends to post weird pseudoreligious stuff.
@SFHC:
If “Hobbes was right” is anything to go by, it looks like Hobbes and the Dark Enlightenment folks are the ones that go hand-in-hand, with DE being nicely represented among MRAs.
@Alan Robertshaw
The people in charge of such decisions got stuck on “great big book of words that are like other words in the dictionary” and decided to call it a day.
“congruentically” isn’t a word either.
Also, way to try to be cute with all your straw. Seriously, you could thatch so many roofs in your little medieval recreation village with that, forsooth me hearties!
But in all seriousness, feminism isn’t about men obeying women or else they’re “acting in a patriarchal sexist manner” (also, you apparently can’t punctuation correctly. I would recommend the book Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: A Stickler’s Guide to Punctuation by Lynn Truss. Glorious book).
It’s about women (and men!) being allowed to make the choices that are best for them and not being derided or shamed for it, as long as their choices don’t harm or deride anyone else.
For instance: Some women may choose to be stay-at-home moms. This doesn’t make them evil agents of the patriarchy but rather that choice is to be celebrated! Because that was a choice they made, and we should support that!
However, if they said that all women should be stay-at-home moms or else they’re terrible mothers because that’s “what women do”, yadda, yadda, yadda, then that’s worthy of scorn because that’s bullshit patriarchy stuff, which, yes, women can help to uphold.
Another example: Some women choose to be sexually promiscuous. This is good for them, and quite frankly, no one’s business but theirs and their partners’. Some women also choose to not have sex at all for various reasons, and this is also good, because that’s their choice.
However, if those same women chose to shame the women who made the opposite choice for whatever reason (“Slut!” or “Prude!” respectively), then that’s bad, because that’s also holding up one of the more hypocritical bullshit rules of patriarchy: Be sexy and have sex with men, but don’t have sex ladies, or else we won’t want you!
(I know I shouldn’t engage him, but I’m at my aunt’s shop doing some work for her and all I’m doing is waiting for the phone to ring and I’m bored. : P)
SFHC,
IIRC, he thought of people as being inherently violent and greedy, so that might be why the manosphere likes him. Although Hobbes’ takeaway was that a social contract was needed to keep those impulses in check rather than the manosphere tendency to use man = violent, rapey chimps as an evo psych excuse for bad behavior. But I’m not an expert on the matter either, I could be misremembering. Then again, MRAs are known for misinterpreting just about everything ever.
Well I look forward to his patiently explaining to us that Emperor Palpatine was going to expose all the secrets of Project Genesis but the Last Starfighter assassinated him before he could put it all up on Skynet.
We are talking about MRAs, right? The World Champions of Missing the Point and Ignoring Context Until it Suits Them?
Oh God, it’s Chaucer Conspiracy Dumbass again? Yeah, I should have seen that from the sub-school play attempts at Ye Olde English and the “ROK IS FEMINISTS!!!” conspiracy mongering. I’ll blame 3:30 am for missing that.
@Everyone else
Good points, all. Again, should have realised that they were just missing the point as always, but again, 3:30 am. =P
@Paradoxical- #notallmedievalists!!! :-p Yeah his misuse of “forsooth” was really irritating.. WORDS! MEAN! THINGS!
Maybe I should have said “breathlessly explaining” instead of “patiently explaining.”
*checks box for MRA who thinks feminism is a battle of the sexes*
*checks box for hilariously pathetic attempt at an obvious trap*
MRAsshats are so predictable. Watching them get outsmarted at every turn is enjoyable enough to keep my mind off this shit. Seriously, the tech world has some of the biggest issues with sexism and I really hope this is a frivolous lawsuit.
Well, looks like Kim Davis has been arrested for continuing to refuse to issue marriage licenses.
Please keep the Hobbes guy around for a bit.
He’s like that guy from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, you know, the guy who does all the malapropisms trying to sound smart? That was my favorite bit. Let’s keep him around for that.
http://www.asicentral.com/images/blogs/grumpy-good.jpg
This isn’t about her “freedom of religion”, or the “word of God”, this is about the law. And she, an elected official, refused to follow it.
On top of that, she’s forcing her religious agenda down the throats of others with this nonsense, thus infringing on their freedom of religion.
@andiexist
The entire clip, because it never get’s old:
What kind of pathetic loser threatens to sue a blogger for discussing a news story he read about?
Speaking of masculinity so fragile…