UPDATE: This poster (apparently) isn’t an official AVFM poster, but they have endorsed it. See bottom of post for details.
Is the appearance of this poster at a Toronto train station an example of inadvertently terrible timing, or an act of astounding assholery?
The poster in question was spotted at Toronto Transit’s Ossington station yesterday, a day after reports of online threats against University of Toronto women hit the media. Classy, AVFM, classy!
Adding to the ick factor: As one Twitterer pointed out, the bus line that goes through the U of T campus connects to the subway at Ossington Station.
Even if the timing of this little poster campaign is purely coincidental, it’s a little hard to fathom how anyone associated with AVFM would think that the best way to recruit Toronto women to their cause would be to essentially tell them: “We have no respect for you and no understanding of feminism; we like to imagine you suffering; come join us for some epic mansplaining!”
But AVFMers seem to have perpetual troubles telling the difference between “brilliant PR move” and “shitting their pants in public.”
Twitter parody account @TTCwelps had what is probably the best response to the poster.
https://twitter.com/TTCwelps/status/642376748919746560
And here’s a reminder that not everything that starts out with the phrase “hey ladies” is automatically terrible.
UPDATE: Here’s an official statement on the poster from AVFM’s Facebook page. It’s a little … confusing, in that they’re not entirely sure if it’s one of their posters or not.
@EJ (The Other One) – That was awesome, but now I’m craving some vernissage-type snacks, like red wine and crackers with cheese. Perhaps I’m shallow, but one of the draws for art shows for me is free snacks. 🙂
@Paradoxical – Yeah, that “go to” bothers my eyes, though I didn’t notice the other spacing irregularities until you pointed them out.
Love that AVFM “statement”. In effect it says: “Thanks, moron, for doing our stochastic terrorism for us. It saves us the trouble of making up and distributing shitty posters ourselves.”
“Hey, Ladies, we didn’t actually put up this poster, but we’re pleased to see that someone has decided to insert the very important What About The Menz dialogue into Toronto during this time of terrorist threats against women.”
Maybe it’s time for Roosh to stop the hate speech and using the “battle” lingo with respect to Feminism and Toronto.
On the subject of condo fees in Toronto: The city average (not median) is ‘$530 per month, for a 900-square-foot unit’ according to an article in the Toronto Star from earlier this year. Of course, most newer builds offer one-bedroom units falling at about 600-sqf.
When I was in Aberdeen “apartments” referred to a block of fully furnished flats rented out like a hotel for short-term periods. The equivalent in America is an “extended stay suite”.
Thanks for explanations, the matter has cleared somewhat. Apparently condos are pretty much standard housing in urban Finland, yet we always call them apartments in English.
@ Michael Brew
Yes, this. Every single thing about this sign’s “message to women” is stupid and contradictory beyond belief. The only understanding these assholes have of “feminism” is of a version of straw feminism that exists only in their world, in which feminist women depise all cishet men just because they’re cishet men. But wait – There’s more! In addition to literally, foam-at-the-mouth HATING all men for no reason, we’re also secretly devastated that we haven’t spent our “best” (according to them) years desperately vying for the approval of not just any man (even though we hate them all equally), but a specific kind of man – one who will make sure we know that he’s the fucking King, and that we live to be subserviant to him. Yeah – that’s it. We HATE men, all of them, but we secretly crave a lifetime of abuse from the rock bottom, absolute worst members of a contingent whom we irrationally hate unilaterally. When we see taunting reminders of what we’ve done (like that poster) from the only members of this group that we hate for no reason who are genuinely hateable for rational reasons, we feel sad. All we ever really wanted was to be controlled and abused by the scummiest of scum – but we blew our true, secret dreams by HATING ALL MEN instead of acquiesing to the very small percentage of men who ACTUALLY want to abuse us. 🙁
Michael’s post makes no god damn sense, and neither does this one, but this is the only way to explain the mentality behind stunts like that poster. This is quite literally the level of logic these people are operating from.
I can’t say I’m really getting the vibe that the manosphere is exactly The Happiest Place on Earth. If anything, I really get the impression that these guys are almost continually angry and bitter.
Dear A Voice for Men
I see your letter, and I have written a response.
1. I dont want to date an asshole. If you believe the kind of shit AVFM prints, you are an asshole, and Id rather die alone with my best friend and six cats then to be with you, Thanks. Ill even die in a place I own! Excellent!
2. If you cant afford condo fees, perhaps you should not live in a condo. Life sometimes throws up these little red flags for you, to advise you that perhaps this is not the right decision for you. Dont live in a place you struggle to afford to impress people you dont even like, or because you feel you are a bigshot. Live where you dont struggle to afford it and lower the amount of challenges you have to face day by day. Life is hard enough without worrying whether or not you can afford your place or not. I think living in a place you can afford is a common sense thing. I could be wrong though.
3. If you are thirty, but you have your own place and you can pay your own bills? High Five, girlfriend~! Good for you. Focus on building a life for yourself, full of things that make you happy. Build a good career for yourself. Volunteer. Travel. Read! Watch TV. Pet lots of Kittens! Cuddle big and Small Dogs! Live the Life you want to live! You dont need a man for that, honey, especially not one that secretly despises you and every breath you take for falling short of an impossible ideal.
I promise you, as a terrible spinster who is thirty and unmarried, you will be fine. The earth will carry on. Life will go on if you dont have a ring on your hitching finger. I can let you know I’m not going to die from a barren hitching finger. Id like to get married, dont get me wrong, but I dont want to marry an asshole. Go forth and life your life. You even wont die if you decide you dont want to have sex! Amazing!
4. Ladies, please pick your man like a serious decision. Pick him carefully. There are decent ones that dont buy into this bullshit. They are hard to find, but they are out there. Take your time. Comb through the douchebags. Its better to be 50 and unmarried, then 24 and stuck with a cheating douche who hates you for flimsy “reasons.”
An Important thing to remember when picking a mate: You cant change a man that Does Not Want to Be Changed. If hes a douche when you meet him, chances are he will remain a douche. His douche level will increase with your success, dont forget. Keep it in mind always: You cant change a man that Does Not Want to Be Changed. Wear it around your neck so you do not forget.
5. Feminism is the best thing to ever happen to women~! Yay! Femism! Lets not forget its due to Feminism that there are laws against beating the shit out of your wife or girlfriend. Its due to feminism that you have the right to vote. You can vote against people pushing for things that dont benefit you, and you can vote for someone who can make meaningful change. Feminism also means you can own property, and that you can control what happens with your body. Yay! Feminism! Support it as much as you can.
Thanks, AVFM, for reminding women why we are afraid of men, and the kind of men we should avoid at all costs.
Swim to bottom of Mount Vesuvius, there are millions of dollars down there, just waiting for you to go down and get it.
Sincerely,
Women Everywhere.
The first three sentences sound more like passive-aggressive nagging from parents who just want their wayward 30-something offspring to move out of the house.
@kupo
I know, same here. It’s hard when you’re not a native douche speaker. The urge to translate their blathering dogwhistles into something rational is hard to overcome.
I love how they’re parroting their own standard “feminism doesn’t help us get laid” complaint, with the genders swapped, so they can pretend that their movement offers answers where feminism doesn’t. In their minds, their imaginary 30-year-old feminist is asking the same questions of feminism that they do – “Curse you, feminism! Why won’t you tell me the cheat code to unlock Mr. Right? You’re not helping me reach my sexual goals! You’re totally useless!”
Feminism isn’t a dating service, and no, it’s not going to help people who insist on gender essentialism and basing their entire self-esteem on getting their dick wet. The idea that men being unable to bang underwear models = the most important human rights issue of our time will never stop being hilarious.
For anyone still confused by the American terminology:
House: A single-family dwelling on its own plot of land, with open space on all four sides.
Townhome/Rowhouse/Brownstone: A house, but with at least one wall shared with a neighboring building. In older areas, they share a wall and nothing else (I know of at least one suburb where the townhomes are all houses that were built independently, just flush against each other); more modern construction is likely to consist of deliberately crafted structures with thinner interior walls–sometimes these will also be called ‘condos’, colloquially, even though they are multi-story units.
Subdivision: A collection of houses and/or townhomes built by a single developer, typically with a largely uniform appearance.
Subdivisions often have Home Owner Associations that set rules for decor and maintenance, and which operate any common structures (many HOA-operated subdivisions will have a pool or rec center of some sort, and often the townhomes, if any, share lawn space that is maintained via a contract with some company).
Apartment: Two or more single-family dwellings within a single building. The building has a single landlord (individual or corporate) who is responsible for maintenance and the common areas, and then rents out individual units.
Condo: Physically identical to an apartment building, but tenants actually purchase and sell the units as if they were homes. The common areas are governed by the condo board, which is usually set up according to state laws.
As was noted above, condo associations are more likely to be highly intrusive, due to the close contact you have with neighbors. However, I’ll counter that by pointing out that my anecdotal experience says that HOAs are more likely to involve financial shenanigans, either through deliberate corruption or simple incompetence (worst-case scenario I’ve heard involved every townhome in the subdivision getting a $300K loan taken out against it for “roof repairs”–this in an area where most of the homes themselves were in the $150K range). If you’re looking to buy in either setting, ask to see both the association rules and the most recent audit of the books. If they can’t produce either, run, don’t walk to someplace else.
Here in California, the Davis-Stirling Act applies to all residential common interest developments as a comprehensive body of law (which the rewrite effective 1/2014 renumbered as Civil Code §§4000-6150) that protects Californians living in HOAs thanks to creating financial safeguards, disclosures, insurance protections and reserves in a framework that allowed community associations to govern themselves through elected representatives in each community. There are obviously things that one gives up, like being able to paint the outside of your unit any darn color one pleases, or build a 12 foot high fence that blocks a neighbor’s view to which they are entitled quiet and unobstructed enjoyment of, and not paying the association dues that are used to maintain the common areas of the property but also including shared structures such as roofs and the plumbing inside a shared wall will ultimately become a lien against the individual owner(s) – and in some areas it can be difficult to find a residence that is not part of a HOA (like Laguna Woods, and Leisure World Seal Beach, along with significant swathes of South Orange County) – but if not living in a HOA is extremely important then there are other communities in the state that will probably offer adequate prospects for a residence. If one has the money, that is – housing is very expensive here and that applies to rental apartments/houses as well as every variation of residence here that one can purchase.
The rental market doesn’t have adequate inventory, in part because the people who are priced out of buying have turned to renters to stay in the area for work/etc and developers haven’t been building much, particularly in built-out areas where city government doesn’t want to ok razing a bunch of existing structures willy-nilly, local residents and community groups don’t want that either nor do many want to see ‘affordable housing’ built on the grounds of middle income families being able to afford these, thus moving in and lowering the value of more expensive housing around it. This state is seeing a great number of residents who have started to take up “NIMBY” as their battle cry. It’s extended beyond the city limits of our extra-wealthy preferred locales which are popular with celebrities – they want to have poor people who can work for them in various capacities without the need for paying a living wage (keeps the poor desperate and needy) but god forbid the poor want to live near their place of employment instead of having to take 3 different buses over several hours and that’s just with the cost involved in renting a house/apartment that they share with multiple people/families in a run down area out on the far reaches of another county.
I have a hard time imagining that there’s a whole lot of the population with the time to bother with what AVFM is trying to push, at least as far as the demographics that the MRA-pillers would bother to simply acknowledge (since it’s fairly well understood that they’re not about the actual helping, just whining about other groups not helping and it’s all because of teh feminazi-matriarchal-secret-plan.) Maybe we can do a charity drive to get them tin-foil hats for Christmas this year.
That reminds me of an XKCD comic:
It’s been (figuratively) beaten into me for four years to recognize good spacing. So much so that it is easy to spot when it’s not there at all.
Imagine my horror when I go outside and see a sign for a business written in Jokerman or, the ultimate sin, Comic Sans.
(I will say one good thing about Comic Sans though, it’s dyslexic-friendly.)
My bugbear is Algerian. It was designed to look Victorian, so why is it on my local liquor store, game store, Mexican restaurant, and pharmacy?
Because personal computers were given lots of pre-installed fonts so Microsoft/Apple could make their money back on the fonts they paid for, and most people just pick fonts they think “look nice” without really understanding anything about design?
Trust me, people are that stupid when it comes to design philosophy.
Yes, you don’t need to explain to me that people use default fonts.
Like it or not, however; within a free society an anti feminist opinion is still an opinion that is allowed to be expressed.
I’m going to assume that most of the third-wavers on here aren’t going to like it.
Dark Jeans Light Thoughts
Has anybody said they can’t express their opinions based on being assholes? Doesn’t look like it. It looks like we are mocking them and their shitastic opinion just like a free society allows us to. Nice try at a gotcha, but you failed.
Like it or not, within a free society my opinion that misogynists like you are idiots is still an opinion that is allowed to be expressed.
I’m going to assume you’re not going to like that.
How many times does it have to be explained that free speech is not the right to express an opinion without being criticized, mocked, ostracized etc.? Why does this never, ever sink in?
@WWTH
I have no idea, because the folks who keep making this mistake have no problems grasping their own right to criticize others. Its only their own opinions (or ones with which they concur) that seem sacred to them. It’s almost like they fail at basic logic!
It may be “allowed to be expressed”, but that doesn’t mean it has to be welcomed or taken remotely seriously.
I’m going to assume that you’re pissy as hell to be apprised of that fact.