Today we once again celebrate Memeday — albeit a day late because Roosh — with some Men’s Rights memes that, well, apparently made sense to whoever made them. They don’t make much sense to me.
Let’s begin!
MRAs are obsessed with the notion that women are constantly conspiring to murder their husbands in sneaky ways that don’t show up in the crime stats — by poisoning, by hiring hitmen, and so forth. Presumably in this meme, found on AVFM’s Facebook page, the diabolical female in the picture is trying to drive her husband to suicide.
There’s something weirdly familiar about her eyes. Hmmm.
Oh, that’s why!
This message of the meme below isn’t especially confusing; it’s a perennial MGTOW fantasy.
What I don’t quite understand is what exactly they’re going their own way in.
I mean, it looks like they’re riding in an old-timey convertible. BUT THERE IS NO CONVERTIBLE. Are they flying off in a little spaceship? If so, what’s happened to the legs of the guys in the front seat? I mean, there’s clearly not room for them. Why is there a tree branch floating in the air beside them? Where are their spacesuits? SO MANY QUESTIONS.
This next one also raises a lot of questions.
It’s not exactly a shock to discover that a men’s rights meme=maker doesn’t actually know what radical feminism is. (Hint: securing giant alimony payments for all divorced women is not exactly a major tenet of radical feminism, fellas!)
What I don’t get is the picture, depicting Robin Williams in drag in a scene from Mrs. Doubtfire. At first I thought Mrs. Doubtfire was supposed to represent a rad fem. Then I realized it was probably supposed to be a reference to Williams’ suicide, which MRAs and MGTOWs have blamed on the high cost of the alimony he was paying to his ex-wives. While no one actually knows why Williams killed himself, the comedian struggled for decades with depression and substance abuse and had recently diagnosed with Diffuse Lewy body dementia (or Lewy body disease), a degenerative disorder similar to Parkinson’s known for causing wild hallucinations and that family members apparently think might have triggered the suicide.
In other words, whatever caused Williams’ suicide, it wasn’t radical feminism or “moderate feminism,” whatever that is.
MRAs are a good deal less sympathetic towards Marilyn Monroe, who died of a drug overdose that the coroner ruled a “probable suicide.”
Like Williams, Monroe was a talented comedic actor with a troubled life. But apparently some people are so angry about that “if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you don’t deserve me at my best” quote that’s regularly attributed to Monroe that all they can do is to howl “whore” in protest. Pretty pathetic.
This next one is a somewhat perplexing variation on the old “feminists are ugly hambeasts” trope.
Now, I don’t know either of the shows that these characters are coming from. All I see is someone with a crudely drawn, er, you know, as a head being transformed into a badass punk warthog, which, I dunno. seems like an upgrade to me,
About the only good thing you can say about the following diagram is that it’s not as bewilderingly complicated as most antifeminist diagrams are. It’s just bewildering.
I don’t know much about PTSD, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t caused by women sitting on whoopie cushions with rape whistles attached to their nozzles.
And then, from somewhere where GamerGaters congragate, comes this meme.
The only thing that really baffled me about this meme is why GamerGaters would want to depict Anita Sarkeesian here as the COOLEST TOTAL BADASS ON THE PLANET
I will leave you with this. It may come in handy the next time you take a look at MRA memes.
Stay coherent, my friends.
I don’t always look at hilariously bad MRA memes, but when I do, I have a cup of male tears ready.
Cry rapee cusion???
Trying to unpack those memes would probably lead to years of therapy, but the pig one did catch my eye. The top one is peppa pig, a pre school childrens cartoon in the uk
Now she is admittedly a nice little character, except where parents accuse her of teaching their kids to swear (true story, hope links are allowed) http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Peppa-Pig-inadvertently-teaches-year-old-swear/story-20788189-detail/story.html
But what are they saying, that they find a preschooler pig attractive? That she grows up? That because of feminism she will cease to splash in puddles and ride motorcycles? That seems awesome tbh (although of course puddle splashing is awesome too)
I am also perpetually confused by the MRA attitude to sex workers, I mean we are meant to be money hungry grasping B*thces, surely they should be in favour of those of us who are honest about it ?
If I’m remembering the plot of Mrs. Doubtfire more or less correctly, Robin Williams loses his job, gets divorced, and maybe kinda loses custody of his kids or something? And he dresses like a woman so he can pose as their nanny? So it’s about how his character is totally a victim of the modern divorce proceedings or something.
99% certain the warthog is from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I think it was a bad guy
I think I get the thought pattern behind the PTSD one. It relies on the idea that the only reason a woman would become a feminist is that she was raped/assaulted in the past.
So: All feminists were raped at some point. When they were raped, they futiley used a rape whistle. Hearing a rape whistle makes them think of their rape and gives them PTSD.
Because making a woman recall her rape is soooo hilarious.
I wanna say the warthog’s from Captain Planet… and his name was Boss Hogg maybe? Because that show was charmingly literal.
OBVIOUSLY those MGTOWs are riding in an invisible convertible, they just ran out of invisible upholstery and interior at the Invisible Auto Shop. Probably couldn’t find it on the shelves.
@Me and not you
Yup, that’s Bebop, a mutant warthog who works for Shredder in the TMNT cartoon.
He’s from Ninja Turtles. It’s Bebop, usually seen alongside Rockstead. Together they played the role of Team Rocket-esque villains (showing up in every episode, foiled every time)
I guess it’s supposed to be saying that false rape accusations are like a full whoopee cushion that an unsuspecting and totally innocent man could run afoul of at anytime? Like we decide “hey, wouldn’t it be fun to falsely accuse a man of rape?” and then we just lie in wait for the perfect opportunity. I guess?
I’m going to take this post as an opportunity to post fun images.
Before feminism
http://www.gll-getalife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/octopus-smile.jpg
AFTER FEMINISM
Peppa Pig is a female children’s character, all sweet and innocent and wearing a dress.
Bebop (or Rocksteady – I could never keep straight which was which), from the Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles cartoon, is a muscular, hairy, thug with big boots and dyed hair.
If I’m reading it right, this meme’s suggesting feminism turns young girls into big, butch, stereotypical lesbians.
The warthog is Bebop from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.
I suspect that that at least some of these meme-makers are just trolling the MRA community, just to see how many knuckleheads they can get to enthusiastically embrace hilariously incomprehensible nonsense. I like to think so, anyway.
The cute piglet is Peppa Pig, of the eponymous kiddie show.
So what the poet means to say is that women before feminism were cute and as intellectually challenging as preschoolers, while afterwards they are ugly, stupid and ineffectual.
The only thing that doesn’t change before or after: they’re fat.
Peppa Pig: First aired in 2012
TMNT: First aired in 1987
They may not understand what “before and after” means.
@WWTH
Ooooh! That sounds like fun:
Before Feminism
http://wehavenotopic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Snake-1.jpg
After:
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/9/92/Basilisk.jpg
Anyone else somewhat amused by the fact that the guys in the convertible hovership seem to be holding hands while the passenger looks on in adoration? It’s not amusing for the insinuation of homosexuality, but it is amusing because aren’t MGTOW all about that alpha?
My guess is that the first image is referring to the notion that men live shorter lives than women, and I presume MRAs think that’s because all the menz work themselves to death to provide bonbons and champagne for their wives/girlfriends.
The Sarkeesian image is especially weird to me as it looks like the text was literally cut and pasted from other sources. Surely if your graphics editor can do that, it can also, you know, actually type text onto the image as well, no? (And how exactly is the message supposed to be an insult to Sarkeesian, when, however “abstract”, the misogyny is also “fuckin'” “real”?
And with regards to the convertible, all I can say is, “Well, ok, just go away already!”
(I also never noticed before that apparently the Red Pill these guys take is actually radioactive, which would explain a lot…)
These posts always make my head hurt.
Before feminism:
http://www.firestartoys.com/ProductImages/7268/BIG/BIG/BIG/7268.jpg
After feminism:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/A1n9mxJRD0L._SX425_.jpg
Damn, I was so happy that I knew the obscure TMNT cartoon reference, but I was beaten to it. Also these memes need more Krang.
Before feminism
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H3iiPIIwRIs/SrJkaeKlsdI/AAAAAAAAAFw/gvT66zjY7-8/s320/puff+the+magic+dragon+lyrics,.png
After feminism
YOU LEAVE PEPPA PIG OUT OF THIS MRAs.
It’s my baby cousin’s favorite TV show, and Peppa deserves better. :<
The one that really made me go WAT was the one that suggests MRAs want to have sex with a tiny cartoon pig. WAAAAT
The first pig is Peppa, title character of Peppa Pig, a cartoon for toddlers. It’s huge here in Brazil.
The second is one of the many dumb punk pig bad guys from TMNT.
There was a post here about MRAs complaining that Lisa Simpson ruins The Simpsons by not being fuckable enough. Nothing surprises me about these people anymore.
Oh I remember that one. But isn’t Lisa way post-wall at 8?
Non-consensual whoopee cushion?
Peppa is my niece’s favorite show at the moment. Her family would actually be super happy if she grew up to be a badass, motorcycle riding, awesome person. Maybe not if she worked for Shredder, but they’d love her anyway.
The only good thing about this week’s memeday is that there is no wall of micro text. Everything else is as incomprehensible as usual, but excellent work on that, MRAs!
Before feminism:
http://i.imgur.com/mPeUQFF.jpg
After feminism:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT7rmZtucl4vY0z75FkrfeuR3faEejo5Irdov7ZajE0CQrRDdfYwZgTA9S2
I can’t find a picture of ursula ending in JPG 🙁
Everything needs more Krang.
For a moment I thought the convertible might be a boat, and I was confused by the branch, but I think you can actually see a door handle, so I join the rest of you in your confusion.
And while I hate to do this, credit where credit is due: “See your local feminist today for recruitement incentives” is actually sort of vaguely funny. I mean, most MRA jokes aren’t funny even if you try to see them from their worldview, but that actually has some humor to it.
Of course, if they do go see their local feminist, they’ll just end up reminding said feminist of why they became a feminist in the first place, so the recruitement drive will probably work the wrong way. But then getting things ass-backwards is sort of the MRA playbook anyway.
Before Feminism:
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/degrassi/images/7/72/Maleficent.gif
After Feminism:
(Because, you know, they think all women are like that, but us feminists are the worst of the worst.)
The funny thing is, the best they can do is shout “whore” at someone who so unashamedly owned her goddamned sexuality. They’re not mad she was sexy. They’re mad that she wasn’t sexy for them and that she liked being sexy.
Marylin had no problem posing for Playboy, even though most men in Hollywood were clutching their pearls at the thought.
She’s still more of a philosopher than the MRAs who made these memes though. At least she made sense and said things that resonate with people instead of just re-vomiting the same ideas in new ways that would make Salvidor Dali scratch his head in confusion.
Thread derail incoming: does anybody else think April from the original TMNT comics was a decent character? It was her programming expertise that made Baxter’s Mouser robots work, and she and Donatello together shut down the Mouser command computer. Just random thoughts
OO! Oo! I wanna try my hand at these before-and-afters, too:
Before Feminism:
http://horizonspestcontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/House-Mouse.jpg
After Feminism:
http://kitchenoverlord.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/princess-bride-rous-04.jpg
I dearly love the ROUSs.
@EJ(TOO):
I almost bought that Shelob Lego set a few years ago, first for the sheer absurdity of a Lego Shelob set, and second for Frodo’s adorable little D8 face, but it was $40 and I talked myself out of it.
Marilyn Monroe read Ulysses. These chucklenuts wouldn’t even make it to the end of the first sentence.
Also, that “Kill my husband?” meme? Sounds like it’s encouraging male suicide. Which is kind of an awful way to GYOW, if you ask me.
And that Mrs. Doubfire one: Have they actually SEEN the movie? Because in it, an assholish actor who is never there for his wife or kids before she dumps him, finally sees the light after he gets hired, in drag, as housekeeper/nanny. Early on, he’s mean and insulting to his ex-wife (there’s an awful joke in there which he makes to the unsuspecting kids about her having “crabs, and I don’t mean Dungeness”). But eventually he realizes what all he’s been missing when he wasn’t there for them. Becoming a fake woman ultimately makes a better man of him. The moral is that you don’t leave your loved ones in the lurch to pursue some abstract dream and just expect them to FOLLOW you, dudes — you have to be there for them.
But I guess that since they’re all determined to GTOW from reality and all, this message got lost, and all they took away from it was that Robin Williams killed himself, for reasons totally unrelated to feminism, many years after the movie was made.
@cheesynougats
IMO, she’s an awesome character who’s role is too often relegated to “be rescued by the protagonists all the freakin time”. Which is nothing against her character and entirely the show’s writers’ fault for “jeez, what are we gonna have the turtles do this time? Oh I know! Rescue April!”
By the way, David, could one of these meme-day Fridays be dedicated to MRA memes that accidentally make feminism seem awesome? Those are just the best.
Before feminism:
http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/c/cc/147Dratini.png/250px-147Dratini.png
After feminism:
Before feminism:
http://media.petsathome.com/wcsstore/pah-as01/images/mega-menu/kitten-bg.png
After feminism:
http://static.fjcdn.com/gifs/Cats_975823_1336054.gif
(couldn’t resist)
Now I can never look at Peppa Pig the same way again.
Unintentional ironic addition: Right after this
I get an ad that says “What happens when you take a testosterone supplement.” With a picture of a busty woman.
Fits right in with the “Wat” meme theme.
Ah, I finally have an opportunity to share a short video I made using that ever popular Paul Elam image:
And I must say the feminist Peppa looks pretty badass.
Ah, I finally have an opportunity to share a short video I made using that ever popular Paul Elam image:
And I must say, feminist Peppa looks like a right badass.
@ephemerides: Boss Hogg was the very human villain of The Dukes of Hazzard:
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTIxOTQ2NzY1NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNzIwNzM2._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg
The Captain Planet villain was a piggish-looking person (human or mutated, never watched the show enough to care) named Hoggish Greedly (and you though the first name was subtle!):
This has been another >WHUMP!< Useless Fact.
The vehicle sort of reminds me of an amphicar, though I checked some images and they don’t look exactly like that either. I’m guessing that this is just a badly-drawn convertible.
@weirwoodtreehugger
Woah, what’s that after picture?
So Roosh V. is getting his revenge for the “negative” publicity by doxxing female journalists. He’s as evil as ever.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3434764/Pro-rape-pick-artist-forced-cancel-UK-appearances-public-outcry-posting-personal-details-pictures-female-journalists-online-revenge-bad-coverage.html
Real life ROUS:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UPvjPe4vcPY/S-NIhhfBDiI/AAAAAAAAANI/qnQ0fPt70kk/s1600/capybara+couch.jpg
Capybaras are without a doubt the cutest ROUSes.