Every Friday is Memeday here at We Hunted the Mammoth, and today we’ll be looking at some memes I found on a Facebook page called Feminist Hypocrisy.
At first glance, this page looks like any number of other Men’s Rightsy Facebook pages.
There are the requisite jokey memes mocking feminists. (“What do you call a basement full of feminists?” one caption asks, over the picture of a donkey. “A whine cellar!”) There is a post about Anjali Ramkissoon, the Uber-driver-attacking (female) doctor who’s become something of an obsession amongst MRAs in recent days. There are memes on such Men’s Rights hobbyhorses as the evils of child support — like the one above, which the folks at Feminist Hypocrisy borrowed from A Voice for Men.
Indeed, the admin of the page seems a bit preoccupied with this last issue, in particular with the specter of men being forced to pay for children fathered by other dudes.
Yep, it looks like some Men’s Rights Activists are as obsessed with cuckolding — or, more crudely, “cucking” — as any internet Nazi. Or maybe even more so:
(I had to censor that one a little.)
Now, when the internet Nazis talk about “cucking” there is almost always a racist angle to it — the cuck-er invariably being black or brown and the cuck-ee white. Sometimes this “cucking” is meant literally, other times figuratively — with the internet Nazi squad especially pissed at white “race traitors” who support immigrants said to be “cucking” Western Civilization by, well, not being white.
Guess what? It just so happens that Mr.Feminist Hypocrisy is also racist as hell.
Look how seamlessly the Men’s Rights activism slides into this blatantly racist meme. Bigotries flock together, after all.
Poking around amongst the rest of the memes up on the page, it quickly becomes evident that Mr. Feminist Hypocrisy shares quite a few of the preoccupations of your standard issue internet Nazi — from the terrible oppressions faced by white Christian dudes …
… to, uh, whatever it is we’ve got going on here.
Huh. I thought Obama was supposed to be a secret Muslim, not a secret gay Jew.
There are many more racist memes on the page, including a number too crude and violent to repost here.
And then there are a few memes that seem utterly inexplicable, at least to me; if anyone can decipher the meaning of this thing, I would greatly appreciate it. (The readers of the Feminist Hypocrisy page seem to have been as baffled by it as I am; apparently that’s former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s head photoshopped onto someone else’s body.)
It would be nice if we could just dismiss the Feminist Hypocrisy page as a weird outlier in the world of Men’s Rights Activism. But it’s not. The page has nearly 20,000 “likes” on Facebook. Its posts draw comments and shares.
And the way I found it in the first place? I was looking through a list of Facebook pages “liked” by A Voice for Men, and there it was.
On a less depressing note: My headline today was inspired by the classic commercials for Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups which some readers here will remember from their childhoods. Here’s one of them:
Turns out that chocolate and peanut butter do indeed taste great together. Racism and Men’s Rights Activism, not so much.
Based on at least one of these memes, some MRA’s hate children as much as they hate women- and that is saying something. No man who thinks of a child as “another man’s ball of flesh” that “eats money, destroys dreams…” etc. should be in a parental role or spend any time with kids at all. They should not be with women of childbearing age either.
So more of the usual “I can get laid if I wanted to, I just don’t want to so take your floppy pussy and get out of WHY WON’T YOU LOVE ME!?!?”
I wonder what these shitbricks think about adoption? Like, is it suddenly okay to raise a child that isn’t “yours” if it’s not biologically related to either parent?
I have a photographer friend who did an experiment/protest against weird censorship double standards by photographing a bunch of women topless and then Photoshopping a man’s chest onto theirs to cover the “offending” parts. It was reported – I think the day he posted it – but thankfully not taken down. He’s also found that you can just Photoshop skin over a woman’s nipples and that’s a-ok to be on Facebook.
I’m trying to work out what’s wrong (from a design perspective) with that top one. I can’t stop expecting her to have four arms, like some Hindu deity.
Since I’d rather not be having a seizure, I’m going to blame shoddy (i.e., typical) MRA design skills.
“ball of flesh” eh?
Hold on while I puke.
I helped raise my ex’s daughter, and am stepmum to my husband’s 4 and stepgran to two wonderful grandsprogs.
There’s no genetic connection between us, but they are lovely people and I’m blessed to be involved in their lives.
@MexicanHotChocolate
Mi experience as a single mom is exactly as you describe it.
Plus the jerk complaining about what a “parasite” I am, and endlessly talking about what a great parent he is…
@Shadow:
Hey! Good to be back! Life’s treating me better these days. 🙂
@Three Snakes:
Bleargh… what the hell.
@Scaly Llama and Feminista Throwaway:
Oh man, I remember that speech. It was epic. No wonder MRAs are throwing a shitfit about her still.
Re the college meme: I love how there is a section of the population that thinks there is some over-arching take-away from college. As a college professor, I can tell you that we have a lot less influence over students’ ideas that social conservatives and reactionaries claim!
It is possible for students to come to an American college and not take a course which talks about race, class and gender, or only talks about it a little bit. Students take 4-6 classes a semester and sometimes some during the summer. While we can say that students in the US take courses that teach them writing, general math and history, it is hard to say with 100% certainty anything else about what students get. Most of my classes focus on getting students to speak a foreign language. We do some culture, but it is presented more as “Here are issues in the target culture” or “Here is the way people do X here.”
Sevenogmine:
What such fathers fail to realize is that children do not fall for that kind of sh**. They will get the message, loud and clear that their father doesn’t give one f* about their well-being, especially if the children are living in poverty.
Anon:
So basically they’re engaging in being both beggars and choosers. I thought there was a rule about people that.
Bluecat:
I don’t t have nay kids of my own but I helped raise my two adopted sisters, as if they were mine. They are my sisters, even without being blood related. One of them has a daughter, that I love as much as I would my own child, if I had one. I’m lucky she’s a part of my life.
I don’t think people like that understand that people sometimes just love kids.
The thing that got me about Julia Gillard was the fact that everyone, even Germaine Greer felt they could make comments about her body. No other Prime Minister before has ever been called on to changed their clothes because their arse was too big.
As for the single mother memes, someone here put it rightly that nine times out of ten the deadbeat dad refuses to pay for the child they fathered.
Re: child support. Why are these dudes so obsessed? Do they think it’s free to raise children? Why the obsession with being cheated on?
RE: working women who “miss out” on all the fun of staying home and whose tax money supports all those Welfare Queens tm. There is so much wrong. I mean really, where does one start? First, feminism does not want to require women to work but give them the opportunity to choose to work or stay home. (Sure, there’s plenty of shitty mommy-shaming in the world for lots of things and people can say dumb things, but that’s not “feminism”; that’s people being ignorant or shitty)
Second, not all women can choose to stay at home. Some families do not have the freedom for that, and there are also single moms whose dads do not pay any child support or alimony for whatever reason.
Third, why does a person necessarily miss out on having fun with kids just because you work? There are part-time or flex-time jobs or work from home and for people who have the usual 9-5, you plan afternoon and weekend time. Plus there are plenty of people who have different schedules, like nurses.
Then, lastly, the racism and implication that the black mom isn’t working at all… that’s just… ugly.
I wonder if there exist memes to mock the MRAs and the like? I mean I could make some of my own, but seeing what everyone else comes up with would be funny.
Scarlettathena:
Yeah, as a black woman, you know which meme pissed me” right the hell off”.
There’s so much wrong with that one. Thanx for unpacking it so I wouldn’t have to.
Ball of flesh?
These are the people who pretend to care about father’s rights while describe a child as a ball of flesh.
These are the people who pretend to care about the rights of men, overlooking the fact that half of those balls of flesh are male and need fathers.
EDIT: The other half of those balls of flesh also need fathers too, but you know what I mean.
Has anyone else noticed what’s going on in TRP forums, lately? The mods and vets over there are flipping out because someone called BS on their “we give you the toolbox for self-improvement” philosophy.
Let’s play a game: just how many contradictions and internal inconsistencies can you find?
The first half of the Julia Gillard meme is supposed to mean “Julia Gillard got elected by telling people to vote for her because she was a woman. Ministers draw a salary. She was paid to do a job, which she only got because she was a woman, which is basically the same as being paid for being a woman (the fact that she actually did do the work is irrelevant). Getting paid for existing as a woman is basically prostitution (because as well all know, sex workers don’t work).”
While I agree with a lot of what’s on this blog, the censoring of words is ridiculous. Why do we need to treat adults like they’re children? Learn to deal with life like an adult.
I’m an American who’s fairly ignorant on Australian politics, but the Julia Gillard one has two implications: that she’s gone from politics to prostitution and that the mememaker sees both hookers and female politicians as examples of women being subsidized by (mostly) men. I think he’s using a Photoshopped version of her as an example of the way he sees all female politicians. Beyond that and how he came to that conclusion, I haven’t a clue.
Sorry if this is too much of a Captain Obvious comment-it’s the weekend and my brain’s getting weird.
Seriously digging this Friday Meme day.
re: ‘women neglecting their ‘proper’ motherly duty’.
I would happily become a stay-at-home Dad (who still works from time to time on my own projects) to a career-driven woman. Kids are awesome, and it seems if MRAs hate being fathers, they can also just not have kids. Naturally they do want kids, just none of the responsibilities.
Somehow I feel like MRAs view kids as ‘vessels for their genes’ just as they view women as ‘baby-making vessels’.
@Kasper:
Who’s more child-like? The person who recognizes the impact their language can have on others and makes efforts to talk in a way that doesn’t needlessly exclude people, or the person who looks at a request not to use particular words and throws a little temper-tantrum about free speech?
Sometimes the words you use play in to cultural bigotries. Grow up and deal with it.
And while you’re there, learn the difference between being asked to treat others with respect and censorship.
My husband I are not biologically related to either of our money eating ‘balls of flesh’. We are fine with that. We are also fine about each others ‘floppy’ bits and ‘mental issues’. I think it’s called something like ‘love’ and ‘respect’.
To the MRWimps, Wimmens are also disposable sex toys. Don’t forget about that!
Yes, the RP Redditors view children as accessories–proof of how manly and “evolutionarily fit” and “superior” they are.
Sickening, isn’t it?
@Moocow:
It’s incredible how many of these memes act like you’re forced to have a relationship that you don’t want to have with women you despise. As if the government holds a lottery to match men up with single mothers.
@ Kasper
Children are people who can be forgiven for sometimes not appreciating the gravity of their words. Adults aren’t.