As many of you no doubt know, the BBC’s Reggie Yates recently did an hour-long documentary about the “manosphere,” paying particular attention to the rapey, repellent pickup guru Roosh Valizadeh. I’ve pasted the video below.
I have, well, lots of thoughts about it. It’s really pretty compelling, particularly the segments involving Roosh, which essentially offer him a nice sturdy — albeit figurative — rope with which to hang himself. Which he of course does. More on that, and Roosh’s response, below.
The non-Roosh segments are a mixed bag. Yates’ not terribly enlightening discussions with proudly reactionary GamerGate panderer and ostensible journalist Milo Yiannopoulos are pretty skippable.
More compelling is Yates’ interview with an infamous online bully who actually served a brief stint in jail for the threats he’d Tweeted to two prominent women, one of them a Member of Parliament. Their crime, in his eyes? They wanted to put Jane Austen’s face on the ten pound note. There’s something a bit chilling in the blase way the troll, a shaven-headed sad sack by the name of John Nimmo, recounts his vicious harassment campaign.
But most chilling of all were the segments with Roosh, which take up a hefty chunk of the program. Yates attended one of the little speeches Roosh gave on his “word tour” last summer, interviewing him afterwards; several months later he traveled to Poland for a followup.
Yates memorably introduces Roosh with a snippet from one of his videos in which he complains about how much effort it can take “to access [women’s] warm, moist cavity holes.”
Such a romantic!
We then get to see some snippets of Roosh’s mysterious speech, ostensibly on “The State of Man” in the world today. Nothing he says will be particularly surprising to anyone who’s familiar with his odious writings.
Still, seeing him present his ridiculous “philosophy” live highlights not just how noxious his ideas but also how incredibly, well, dumb they are. Roosh clearly wants to upgrade his status from that of a burned-out, rape-apologizing pickup artist to that of a great thinker. The only problem is that thinking isn’t something he does particularly well.
But it’s Yates’ interview with Roosh in Poland that really stands out.
In his hotel room before the interview, Yates reads out some of the more repellent and rapey things that Roosh has written.
“This isn’t about confidence,” he says, holding aloft one of Roosh’s slender volumes of dubious pickup wisdom. “30 Bangs isn’t about making young men feel as though they have value. This is about making young women feel as though they have none.”
Later, in Roosh’s apartment, Roosh waxes indignant about the public reaction to his infamous proposal to fight rape by making it legal. Roosh insists it was satire, but, as Yates tells him, it’s “quite hard to find the satirical angle to it.” (A point I and many others made at the time.)
And then, just moments after telling Yates that “I advocate for consensual sex,” he presents his own version of “no means no” in which no actually means pause for a moment before returning to doing whatever she said no to.
Yates asks him about a story in one of his books in which Roosh writes about penetrating a woman who is half asleep.
“Haven’t you done that?” he asks Yates. “When a girl is half asleep, when you’ve already had sex with her?”
Yates tells him that no, of course, he hasn’t. Roosh keeps digging his hole deeper, seeming genuinely puzzled that Yates isn’t nodding in agreement.
“So if you want to examine every instance, every thrust, maybe you can find something,” Roosh tells him. “But this can happen to every man.”
By “something,” Roosh seems to mean “an instance in which you put your penis in a woman without permission.”
In Roosh’s mind, evidently, rape (that’s really not rape), is something that happens to the rapist, not the woman he rapes; it’s the rapist who’s sort of the real victim.
On his blog, Roosh has denounced the documentary as a “hit piece,” suggesting that Yates — whom he describes as a “BBC host of questionable sexuality” — simply wasn’t man enough to really understand him or his comrades in the manosphere. (Yates isn’t actually gay, not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
By “hir[ing] a non-masculine man to report on masculinity,” Roosh argues, the BBC is doing the equivalent of
hir[ing] a carpenter to review an Italian opera. Besides a handful of exaggerated facial expressions made for the camera, the carpenter will not be able to analyze the opera on a level above that of even a grade-school trumpet player.
That’s a new one, I guess.
Roosh then goes on to declare that this “hit piece on the manosphere” is actually a giant victory for him, because
it gets my ideas across to those who have yet to see it. Even if 0.1% of people who watched the BBC documentary become readers of mine, it’s still a huge win, since doing it only cost me a couple hours of time. …
The BBC program tried to paint me as a criminal, but instead I gained more fans and sold more books. As long as my name exits the mouth of my enemies, I win, and I will continue to win.
Didn’t Charlie Sheen once say something similar?
I hate to have to tell you this, Roosh, but no, you’re really not winning at all. Repulsing the general public with your repugnant ideas is not a victory. Every thought of yours that you put on the internet makes ever clearer what a huge loser you are.
Here’s the documentary. For anyone who doesn’t have time to watch the whole thing, I’ve attached a second video below that features nothing but the segments featuring Roosh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8RxL9kuBs4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsUh-Qisg2Q
Argenti:
Pics or it didn’t happen. 🙂
Lol! She’s still our basement cat, our resident cat is Ms. Hissypants about the whole “other cat” thing, but next time I go for coffee I’ll pop down there and see what I can do!
Delurking to say can we save this thread the next time OTD busts in here trying to talk about the reasonable MRAs? I have a feeling he’s going to be suffering from short term memory loss next week…
Splendid take down y’all, by the by. Thanks for doing all the research to save the rest of us the pain and misery…
newbie — I tried, but by the end of Doctor Who she’d calmed down enough to see me and launch into “pet me now human!”
This whole pickup artist crap. Yes, if you want access to casual sex, it is possible to specifically seek out & achieve it. If u want to find women who have been taught to hate themselves and exploit it, this is also possible. Realizing this does not make u powerful or more useful to the universe in any way.
Roosh lives in Poland?
He has quite possibly violated their hate speech laws which are strict.
He has also slandered Polish women as “degenerates”.
Something to look into…
Roosh the Doosh.
What can I say? Yates did a good job showing what a sack of festering misogynist shit the guy is.
Oh, and that John Nimmo guy can piss off, too. Jane Austen is so much more than you’ll ever be. EVER. While you and the rest of the manosphere bullshit fade into obscurity, Jane Austen will be remembered for generations to come.
@Snow Leopard
Yes! Jane Austen, a plain spinster who died almost 200 years ago, continues to astonish the world with her brilliance.
The manosphere? Snort. Not so much.
John Nimmo was apparently the recipient of a very convincing letter telling him that he has no right to stay in the UK and will be deported. Trolled got trolled. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke!
For the last time, Roosh, you can pick your nose, and you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose. Sheesh.
Here’s a question: What does the manosphere have to do with the Pennsylvania email scandal:
WaPo: “PHILADELPHIA — Over the past 15 months, beleaguered Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has released a steady stream of messages retrieved from a state email server that show state officials and employees trading pornographic, racist and misogynistic messages.”
https://subscribe.washingtonpost.com/acquisitionweb/#/paywall/offers/promo/digital03_paywall/oscode/RPWH?wpsrc=CM0000446
It has everything to do with mainstreaming white supremacist hate for women – inspired by the “Tea Party.”
Southern Poverty Law Center: “Intelligence Report Article Provokes Fury Among Men’s Rights Activists” (right-wing mainstreaming hate): https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2012/05/15/intelligence-report-article-provokes-fury-among-mens-rights-activists
FYI: “Meet the Feminist White Supremacists”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=90982&page=1
MRA Judgybitch certainly fits the profile (and reflects the entire Tea Party schtick): “Hate speech, the Confederate flag and feminism”
http://judgybitch.com/2015/06/25/hate-speech-the-confederate-flag-and-feminism/
We could use some help keeping Tea Party lunatics out of public office and off the bench.
@kfreed
Don’t go calling them lunatics, we don’t accuse people of being mentally ill here. Check the comments policy if you haven’t already.
Notice Roosh V preaching women’s submission:) – and note all the skin heads in the audience. It would be nice if our own media would investigate because…
The MRA schtick sounds vaguely familiar: Wonkette: “Wingnuts so mad at big bad Joss Whedon for making sweet love to Planned Parenthood”
http://wonkette.com/597357/wingnuts-so-mad-at-big-bad-joss-whedon-for-making-sweet-love-to-planned-parenthood
My reply to questions regarding why only men appear to have opinions about the Planned Parenthood issue:
Two words: Christian fundie “women’s submission.” The mens will do all the talking about our lady business, thank you very much:
Why Tea Party GOPers love the Duggars so much: “How The Duggars’ Church Encourages Young Women To ‘Submit’”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/22/how-the-duggars-church-encourages-young-women-to-submit.htm
“The Purpose-Driven Wife – Teaching women to submit to their husbands, for the love of Christ”
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2009/03/books-purpose-driven-wife
As a woman in Tea Party America, one will only speak thusly: Tea Party Queen “Michele Bachmann: ‘Wives are to be submissive to their husbands'”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrNpme4ghEk
Sarah Palin preaching women’s submission (for me and thee, not for her):
http://www.newsweek.com/how-sarah-palin-reshaping-religious-right-73077
Let’s review: Right Wing Watch: “Barton’s Bunk: Religious Right ‘Historian’ Hits the Big Time in Tea Party America” – “Barton’s Bible = Tea Party Platform”
http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/barton-s-bunk-religious-right-historian-hits-the-big-time-tea-party-america
David Barton’s revisionist “Founders Bible” for Tea Party legislators: http://www.politicalresearch.org/tag/koch-brothers/#sthash.EvN1R1AB.dpbs
My presentation on this very topic straight out of fundie Mecca right here in Colorado Springs (had Amy Pitkin of our local Planned Parenthood stuck around for my portion of our joint presentation, Planned Parenthood and the rest of us wouldn’t be where we are today, dodging bullets at the local clinic, in black churches, and elsewhere): http://www.examiner.com/article/freethinkers-celebrate-the-status-of-women-today
*Correction: I misspoke, I meant to direct attention to PoliticusUSA’s running account of the Tea Party’s legislative War on Women (not ProPublica, which is something else entirely): http://www.politicususa.com/proof-war-women-2
Sincerely,
[kfreed’s sock puppet]
*I also give presentations on the Tea Party’s ideas on Koch-sponsored “Biblical Capitalism” and it is, in part, why Colorado is not yet owned by Koch-backed Tea Party fundies (this is not me; meet Rachel Tabachnick of Political Research Associates):
“Tea Party ideology is not new but taps into decades of Religious Right instruction on “Biblical Capitalism.'” and why weren’t progressives listening when she presented this years ago?
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/2/1/132159/0192/Front_Page/Biblical_Capitalism_The_Religious_Right_s_War_on_Progressive_Economic_Policy
This could have been foreseen and the current state of affairs could have been prevented – with votes: http://www.politicalresearch.org/2015/04/21/biblical-economics-the-divine-laissez-faire-mandate/#sthash.yXTXfbF3.dpbs
BTW, progressives, your Libertarian cohorts are in on the anti-hating act as well:
Al Jazeera: Meet Ron Payl’s Ludwig von Mises Institute: “Libertarians get medieval on women – Debates on birth control in the US show how modern conservatism is just a neoliberal gloss on medieval domination.”
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/201244104251611609.html
Take a gander at your “civil libertarian” partners in that left-right coalition: https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/
I repeat: “The So-Called ‘Libertarian Moment’ Is Engineered By The Christian Right”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/libertarian-christian-right
Yes, it was: A short History of the far right: Kochs, Phyllis Schlafly, end times preacher Tim LaHaye, the Birchers and Libertarian Party (the far right fringe now controlling the GOP): http://thepoliticalspectator.com/tag/ron-paul/
Why? Let’s consult Bernie Sanders’ Libertarian Party Platform: What do the Koch Brothers Want?”: Ah… there it is: “Defund Planned Parenthood”: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/koch-brothers
…hence the fake O’Keefe-style “selling baby parts” video.
In summation, when Michelle Bachmann said she outsmarted the left, she wasn’t wrong… which makes us… is there a curse word for “pathetic”? While so-called “progressives” were eating or own, these people took over:) And it looks to me like we’re not done handing the government to fundie Tea Party loons until they control all three branches of government:
Salon.com: “Let the Repubicans Win”… for the sake of the “revolution” you know: http://www.salon.com/2015/12/06/just_let_the_republicans_win_maybe_things_need_to_get_really_bad_before_america_wakes_up/
See above for “progressive” accomplishments thus far. If at this point we’re not getting out the vote, I don’t want to hear about donation solicitations because charitable contributions at Planned Parenthood isn’t going to cut it.
@ Spindrift
I’m afraid this will not be considered by Kfreed. Kfreed’s been spamming several articles with this random jumble of cluelessness and links- they won’t listen to anyone.
His series is about false info about the MRM from feminists, not about him personally. Not all of it is lies either, some of them were just wrong and some of the ones who were wrong have admitted their mistake after he made his video response. For example the skeptic feminist youtube channel which is a collab of 3 self identified radical feminists, he made a video response to them and they responded to him and admitted they were wrong in some of what they said about the MRM.
He had a live discussion with 2 of them and it was a friendly discussion and they mostly agreed. They said they are no longer anti MRA, just anti anybody who is anti feminist, but obviously the vast majority of MRAs are anti feminist. Bane says he is no longer anti feminist but does say that becoming anti feminist is often a consequence of doing activism for male issues because feminists get in the way of doing that.
another example is when he responded to a video by kevin logan, “10 worst lies of the mens rights movement” Kevin admitted that when he made that video he didn’t know much about the MRM. Kevin is still very anti MRA but they are on friendly terms and have talked about doing a live chat.
I admit I was wrong about the HBB, I hadn’t realised that they started off as an AVFM subgroup. The video I linked where Karen and Alison were denying that and playing down their connection to AVFM, I took them at their word but David proved them to be lying about that with links to their early shows.
Thank you EJ, I think this was helpful to me. I admit that some of the MRAs I have spoke well of have said things that are indefensible. Some of it I was not aware of before and it did make me defensive because I didn’t want to discard these people who I like . But your analogy about g funk rap has helped me out.
no I don’t want to be a misogynist and I am willing to learn and would like us to be friends.
Oh, OTD.
So, it’s feminist’s fault that men are misogynist? Despite the fact that misogyny is why we had to have a feminist movement in the first? And what exact male issues are feminists getting in the way of? Calling us cunts? Whining about affirmative consent? The issue of us oppressing men by not being eternally skinny 20 year old virgins? Nice gender, it would be a shame if something happened to it, huh?
This is how I imagine EJ right now
“I’m not anti-feminist, I just hate feminists who don’t act the way I want them to when I treat them like shit as part of my ‘activism’ for men.”
Boy, where have we heard that one before?
Look, I’m glad you admit you were wrong, and I’m glad you don’t want to be a misogynist.
But the first step to this would be to sit down and ask yourself “what activism on behalf of men and/or male issues is feminism getting in the way of?”
Did Bane specify, or was it extremely vague?
The second step is to realize that several feminists actually do activism on behalf of men that MRAs refuse to do.
There are so many feminists out there (of all genders) who advocate for men’s rights, and want to address the problems that things like Toxic Masculinity cause, such as: men not being willing to ask for help, which leads them to not go to the hospital or get help with mental illness, men being emotionally stunted as children because “real men don’t cry”, and thus leading to them lashing out, men being murdered for being gay by other men, ect.
There are feminists within this very community who speak out against circumcision and for fathers who had their children wrongfully taken from them.
I know there are going to be MRAs and manospherians who will say “Well, then I agree with you!”, and they’ll pretend they do, but that’s only until they realize they’re speaking to a feminist, and then they don’t agree, and they want to lash out, and they want to take that away from Feminists, so they can turn around and say we “don’t care about men”.
And all the while, those manospherians shit on the men they claim to be doing their activism for.
Gay? You’re a f*ggot.
Trans? You’re not a real man.
Black? You’re a thug who’s only out to cuckhold white men!
Need mental help? Either you’re a weak baby who is deserving of mockery, or we’re going to try and scam you out of your money and give you shitty advice along the lines of “women are the source of all your problems”.
Rape victim? “I wish I could sleep with your rapist!” if the rapist is a woman, “You’re a weak little f*g!” if the rapist was a man.
So, what ‘activism’ does feminism stand in the way of? The ‘activism’ to let cishet white dudes beat, rape, and force women to serve them?
Thank you, orange tango drinker.
(For anyone who’s unaware, Orion and I asked orange tango drinker to come back and answer the issues we raised to him which he didn’t answer before… and he did. Kudos to him for that. It’s easy to just walk away on the internet and hard to reread one’s own winceworthy posts, so kudos to him for doing that.)
Both Paradoxy and WWTH have called you to task for that statement about Bane, and deservedly so. I’ve bolded a word which I would like you to look at.
Of course he would say that. Misogynists usually say they’re not misogynist, racists usually say they’re not racist, and so on. This is usually not because they’re deliberately lying but because, like you, they aren’t aware of the impact of their own words and actions. It is very rare that you’ll meet anyone who is honest and open about their hatred – so rare, in fact, that it can be refreshing.
This doesn’t mean he’s lying: it just means that he can’t properly see his own actions, and (like all of us) thinks of himself as the hero.
Don’t ask a person whether they’re anti-X or not. Instead ask X: they’ll know. (Ask them respectfully though.) For example in this case, ask feminists whether or not someone is anti-feminist. Better yet, ask female feminists. Better yet, google through stuff they’ve already written so that you don’t annoy them
Never, ever tell a woman to her face that someone is not an antifeminist or not a misogynist. Similarly, never tell a black person that someone is not racist, never tell a gay person that someone is not homophobic, et cetera.
In this case, the answer is “yes, he is an anti-feminist.”
@WWTH:
I saw it more along the lines of a puppy knocking something valuable over. I could be angry, but my expectations are so low that anger isn’t really an appropriate response.
I’m going to give you some homework, actually, orange tango drinker. This homework should not be strenuous but might take an evening or two.
Your homework is to watch The Two Towers and The Return of the King, and to follow the character arc of one person: Eowyn, sister-daughter of Theoden. Skip through any scenes she isn’t in. Focus only on the way people behave towards her and around her.
Now that you’ve done that, think of answers to the following four questions:
1. Which of the male characters actually listen to what she has to say?
2. Which of the male characters treat her as an equal?
3. What are the low and high points of her own story?
4. Just how totally badass was it when she stabbed up the Witch-King of Angmar?
(Hint: the answer to the last one is “so totally badass.”)
Fair enough EJ, I just like that gif and will take any excuse to post it.
One other thing I forgot to mention is that I believe we’ve already covered in this thread that being able to sit down and talk civilly to feminists for the span of a YouTube video doesn’t make one not a misogynist. It’s pretty common for members of hate groups to be able to act civil in public. Not being in a rage constantly is kind of a necessary prerequisite for functioning in society. Yet, here OTD is. Bringing it up again.
It’s a good gif.
EDIT:
I’m going to change those four questions a little. I think the following four are better as a teaching aid:
1. Which of the male characters listen to what she has to say?
2. Which male characters would not have altered their actions and attitudes towards her if she was replaced in the story by a bag of gold coins or a similar valuable non-human item?
3. What are the low and high points of her own story?
4. Just how totally badass was it when she stabbed up the Witch-King of Angmar?
(Hint: the answer to the last one is “so totally badass.”)
He used the example of a man who wanted to start a mens group at his university after his friend committed suicide but it was blocked by the student union. This man said he is a feminist and that he wants nothing to do with MRAs and insulted the hell out of the online MRA movement but bane thinks that guy is a future anti feminist due to the reaction he got from trying to set up that group.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11670138/Why-are-our-universities-blocking-mens-societies.html
http://thetab.com/uk/durham/2015/06/09/meet-the-founder-of-the-new-male-human-rights-society-19409
This is the guy he was talking about. He said it was only after the suicide of his friend that he found out about the high rates of suicide among young men and wanted his group to be a place for depressed men to get information and advise for suicide prevention.
The uni didn’t allow him to have his group and even though he is a feminist, he was mocked and insulted by feminists who compared it to a white rights group. That is why bane thinks he might be a future anti feminist.
Bane in his more recent videos has shouted out feminists he likes who have done advocacy for fathers and male victims
I am a gay black man.
Thats a good point, I will ask the feminists that bane has spoke to if they think bane is still anti feminist or not
Ok i will check them out again, i’ve seen them before and thought they were awesome but that was years ago
I agree, I have seen open racists like David Duke do polite interviews with black journalists. It wasn’t my point that bane was being civil, but that they agreed with each other and it was a discussion not an interview or debate.
Hmm. It could take a long time to find out if that turns out to be true.
In the meantime, I suppose that there’s lots of tiny points that could be debated, defined, redefined, and conceded. Then many other tiny points will emerge.
@OTD
Here’s some advice, don’t use random youtubers as your primary source of information for any serious issue. All you’re getting is low rent commentary with minimal (and usually dubious) factual information from debate club drop outs and cranks. If your genuinely interested in something like male suicide, do actual research and then form your own opinions. Seriously consider not wasting your time on the Youtube ranting of guys with names like Bane666.