So it turns out that Toronto poster promoting A Voice for Men (by snottily taking down to women) wasn’t actually an official AVFM production. Or at least it probably wasn’t.
Even the folks at AVFM are a little unsure on that point. But one thing is clear: AVFM thinks the poster is AWESOME!
Here’s what amounts to an official statement on the subject, from AVFM’s Facebook page.
I suppose they have good reason to be thankful, since the Toronto poster was a good deal less perplexing and offensive than AVFM’s typical posters and memes.
So, what the heck, let’s treat this development as an excuse to look at some recent memes posted on AVFM’s Facebook page. I don’t know if all of these are AVFM originals or not, but their appearance on the Facebook page is pretty much the equivalent of an endorsement.
You’ve already met Ms. Bathory, above. Now let’s meet a straw feminist, in the form of a stock photo of a crying woman that AVFM and other MRAs love to use, and a fake quote that has about as much relationship to reality as, well, AVFM does.
Huh, because no genuine rad fem I’ve ever met has been shy about identifying themselves as a rad fem. And non-rad fems aren’t exactly shy about criticizing rad fems.
I think one of the problems here is that MRAs tend to regard all feminists as radical feminists, because generally speaking MRAs know about as much about feminism as AVFM’s Paul Elam knows about good parenting. (Which is to say, approximately zero.)
And now for something completely different.
Just kidding! It’s more of the same, in the form of what you might call “straw history.”
That’s … not what “rape culture” means. Nor does the concept have anything to do with the Klan, or the Women’s Klan, or the lynching of black men. A fail on all counts.
Then there’s this.
Take it away, Mal:
Let’s end with a thought from AVFM’s grand poop, Paul Elam. The font may be a little unexpected — not to mention nearly impossible to read — but the sentiment is pure Elam.
You guys might want to consider appointing that “individual” in Toronto your permanent poster-maker. That poster of his was terrible, but at least you could read it.
Yeah…. no…. The stealing a car one too… just like there are different and targeted types of violence there are different and targeted types of theft… but yeah…
In England, when they draft an indictment for stealing a car they don’t just mention the colour, they put the make of car and even the registration number.
Mind you, as Policyofmadness has demonstrated on the other threat, the English Bar is the epitome of radical feminism. 🙂
Oooh I love memes, can’t get enough of them… They never fail to make me laugh!! ????
If there was a problem where red cars would be specifically targeted by certain individuals for unique reasons different to why they would target another coloured car, I don’t see why it wouldn’t get its own category of crime.
But hey, MRAs, friendly reminder: women aren’t inanimate objects, you turds. Same reason why the “if you don’t lock your car don’t be upset if it’s stolen” rape analogy is such stupid bunkum.
I hope to see more memes they’re so funny and stupid.
Dear Paul,
Demanding feminists to ignore women and girls and go help men and boys is like *(as spindrift said to me) walking into a homeless shelter and demand they go help the polar bears.
Also Paul you don’t help men and boys or women and girls. All you do is blame everything on women/girls and feminists and complain about every little thing they do and being a hypocrite. Now shut up and sit down.
Sincerely,
Fruitloopsie
Ps
I bet a homeless shelter can do a better job at helping polar bears then you mra-holes can help anyone in general.
There’s an urban legend that the police stop more red cars because they play car snooker.
Don’t know if that’s true; but red cars are stopped more often. Gray ones are stolen the most in the UK.
Oh lord, this needs to be broken down:
Elizabeth Bathory Poster:
First of all, everyone knows that Elizabeth Bathory was a horrible person. She murdered people to fuel her own vanity. So, let’s drop the whole straw argument that feminists will defend women solely because they’re women. Elizabeth Bathory was a murderer, plain and simple, and so were the people who helped her torture and kill. Any “feminist” that would defend her solely because she’s a woman is no feminist at all, in my opinion.
What this particular poster is ignoring is that Elizabeth Bathory only killed young virgin women. So, even if their straw argument that feminists defend women solely for being women no matter what, why would we defend someone who killed women and drained them of their blood?
Also, and this is just a nitpick, but No one knows exactly how many people she’s killed.
Radical Feminists meme:
Let’s put aside the fact that, as David mentioned, AVfM thinks that all feminists are “radical”, regardless of their beliefs, and the fact that, let’s face it, AVfM never would listen to or believe any feminist who says otherwise.
Let’s focus on this: How does AVfM know what magazines, speeches, “lies”, and “wrongs” these supposed “radical feminists” have put out there? I thought you were about supporting men and boys, not being anti-feminists?
Historically Inaccurate Rape Culture:
It’s not “targeted at a specific group of people”, so much as it points out a problem that all of society, which includes everyone of every gender, is part of in some way or another, and some of us have realized what parts we play, and have chosen to stop doing that and fight against rape culture.
Also, again, they trot out that old lie that the KKK popularized the idea, thus proving that yet again, AVfM knows nothing about feminism or what it stands for, but only that they don’t like it.
Stealing a Car:
Let’s put aside the obvious fact that, yet again, MRAs are comparing women to inanimate objects to be acted upon instead of, y’know, people, and let’s deal with the less obvious issue at hand:
Women are an oppressed group that have a disproportionate amount of violence levied against them on any given day. Violence against women is a big deal because there’s more of it.
Letter from Paul Elam:
I didn’t know Elam’s hand-writing was a font available on computers everywhere, nor did I know that it’d be so refreshingly effeminate. He should be proud of his nice handwriting.
But, let’s discuss this bit-by-bit, shall we?
One, just noticed that you only included two genders. Two, why did you capitalize the MHRM and not Feminists?
“We’d love to help you bring about gender equality! But, of course, that would require you feeemales to become our house slaves and fuck us whenever we want without question, and you must always maintain a perfect, PhotoShop-esque physique, even though you should love me and worship me no matter what I look like! Because, you know, equality!”
“We’d love to work with you, but you’re beneath us, and we don’t think you’re focusing enough time and energy (you should be spending all of it!) on men and boys, so fuck you, you’re bullies who quote mean things at me, lying-liar faces, and you’re fat!”
Oh, Paulie, I bet you say that to all the Feminists~
You mean if I be a complacent little feeemale and I just lick your boots and let you hit me while I make you sandwiches and pump out your babies while you treat me like garbage, you’ll finally see that Feminism is good?
Where do I sign up?! [/sarcasm]
I’m with Mal here. That “red car” meme fails on so many levels that I can’t even. Can someone loan me an evening-can dog for a little while, until I can even on my own again?
AVfM’s Facebook account says “We have more shit for you to put up around around Toronto.”
“We have more shit…” indeed.
I love the tone of Elam’s letter. Like he actually expects that feminists are out there, wondering how they could change themselves to better connect with MRAs, and all they need is a little helpful advice on which changes would best make them conform to MRAs’ expectations.
RE: the car
The thing is that we do have “theft of cars” laws separately from “theft of other stuff” laws. Because vehicles are, almost uniquely, both highly valuable and self-mobile, and are also valuable when broken down for parts, so stealing cars is intrinsically different from stealing undifferentiated property valued more than $500. Horse theft was different from other theft. So is car theft. Cars are uniquely vulnerable to theft in ways that other property isn’t.
Lemme paraphrase that “Paul Elam Letter”:
Dear Feminists,
We can’t be asked to actually do shit for men & boys, so we’ve decided you need to do that for us. In fact, why can’t you just drop all the stuff about women and make it all about men? We totally for-realisies promise we’d take you seriously then.
Paulie
Dear Paulie:
Your “handwriting” is illegible, and what it expresses is not even close to reality on any count. No way in hell will I be working with the likes of YOU.
Fuck off,
Me.
@ Paradoxy
There is some academic speculation that Bathory may have been framed as part of a political conspiracy. The chap appointed to investigate the case certainly stood to gain personally if she was convicted
Must confess though, don’t know a lot about her. Although I did enjoy the Anna Friel film.
One thing I do know about her is that she caused a bit of a scandal by refusing to adopt her husband’s name when she got married; but hey that’s radical feminists for you.
Paul is lying (again).
When the Men’s Movement first exploded online some years ago? Many, many feminists (including myself) eagerly stepped forward to offer our help in the hopes we could work together to make a better world for both genders.
He and his gang made it very clear that as feminists, we were the enemy. We either accepted their (male) dominance or we were targets for them to go after.
They attacked us by insulting us as men and women and spammed our inboxes with accusations of pedophilia.
There’s a reason no one of any significance pays attention to them anymore. It’s because the their shit, which they refused to own, finally owned them.
This.
And I’d like to make two additions to my earlier post:
One, The car meme is technically correct by saying that car theft and violence against women are both easily classified under the broader and more vague banners of “theft” and “violence”, however, they’re ignoring the fact that car theft is a far bigger deal than someone stealing your wallet, and the fact that women are more often than not the victims of violence.
Two, as far as I was aware, this
also happens States-side. On reports, the color, year, make, model, license plate number, and even the VIN number (if it can be remembered, or if the car is recovered and the police can find it) are put on reports. This way, the cars can be identified.
It would be feasible for someone to categorize car thefts by color, and should there be some kind of disparagement between colors, it could start to be categorized as something that police will look for more.
@ Policyofmadness
“Grand Theft Auto” is such a cool name for an offence. I’m slightly envious. Over here it’s ‘taking without consent’ or ‘Twoccing’ in the vernacular.
It used to be ‘taking and driving away’ or ‘TDA’; but that ended up being called ‘touching the dog’s arse’, so they changed it (seriously!)
Academic speculation is still speculation, I’m afraid.
Also, I love how they used Elizabeth Báthory — a countess — as their example of an unoppressed woman, while conveniently ignoring how many peasant girls she tortured and killed in the name of her aristocratic pleasures. Not only is she NOT a feminist hero in anyone’s books, she’s one of the reasons the Communist Party later did away with aristocratic titles in Eastern Europe. Just because all those bored, inbred aristocrats had a “divine right” to make like the Marquis de Fucking Sade, doesn’t mean that human rights were thus equal across the board once, in some golden age that never happened.
There is some fringe debate about Bathory, and it’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility for a wealthy, independently-operating woman to be framed for crimes she didn’t commit so that authorities could seize her property.
However, the evidence against her is … well, let’s say I find it implausible that it could have been a total frame-up, and I’m not the only one with that opinion. So there is this fringe debate going on, and it’s an interesting academic what-if exercise, but it doesn’t go beyond that.
@ Paradoxy
They do. That’s why it can affect your insurance.
Generally the least noticeable colours are stolen most (currently gray is the most popular). Cars that stand out are less desirable for thieves as they’re easier to spot by the police. The least stolen cars have unique and distinctive colour schemes.
There’s something about that “Peanuts” typeface in the red car meme that just begs to be read as a gutless “inspirational humor” poster.
@Alan
Actually, most jurisdictions don’t call it by that term. It’s an awesome term, but not a universal one.
But the real peach in the fruitbasket has got to be “there is no violence against women, only violence” one. O RLY? When’s the last time a man was raped just for being male? When’s the last time anyone asked what a man was wearing when he got raped? When did anyone ever threaten a man, and end their threats with “And go back to the kitchen and make me a fucking sammitch, MAN”?
Yeah. No gendered violence. Riiiiight.
@ POM
It’s interesting to look at records of witchcraft trials in Europe.
In some areas the accuser got a share of the confiscated estate and the rest went to the authorities. In other jurisdictions there was no power to confiscate a convicted witch’s property.
Would it shock you to find out that in the latter areas it turned out there were no witches?
I’m surprised to see that Paul Elam apparently has such whimsical handwriting, I almost expected him to dot the ‘i’s with love hearts. (Yes, I also realized this was a standard font)
I love that they’re still using the cop out ‘We didn’t do this so we can’t be held accountable for it, but we totally agree with it.’ Over that pointless and badly phrased red poster.
Oh, and being a historical pedant here, Bathory didn’t drain or bathe in virgins’ blood, that bit’s a popular myth. However she did order the torture and murder of close to 700 women over the course of her lifetime; doing it out of rampant sadism and the privilege she enjoyed as a member of the nobility, enabling her to prey on vulnerable peasants with impunity, not as part of any beauty regime.
I have never heard any feminist speak in defence of Bathory, that would be silly. Though I’ve seen plenty within the manosphere speak in praise of male murderers.