Men’s Rights Activists and other antifeminists love playing “gotcha” — demanding answers to questions designed to make feminists look hypocritical or illogical or just plain dumb.
Trouble is, despite their fondness for the “gotcha” game, most MRAs and antifeminists just aren’t very good at it. Their questions, often based on gross misunderstandings, tend to reveal less about the alleged hypocrisies of feminists than they reveal about their own profound ignorance of feminism.
Let’s take a look at a few of these failed gotcha memes, collected from a couple of antifeminst Facebook pages and elsewhere online and making use of the popular philosoraptor meme template
Well, that would be because women have been systematically oppressed for thousands of years; in order to get to equality, we need to focus on the things that have held women back. It’s the same reason that the civil rights movement fought for the rights of black people instead of white people.
If you think it’s wrong to call oneself a feminist instead of a humanist or equalist or whatever, why do you support something called the Men’s Rights movement?
Uh, because fighting for the “rights” of a group of people who already have more than their fair share of privileges is backwards and silly? Because MRAs are less interested in making life better for men than they are in making things worse for women? Because most MRAs are ridiculous?
Uh, because they don’t? Feminists do sometimes point out that the overwhelming majority of rapists are men, but they don’t call all men rapists.
Er, what? That doesn’t make any sense. Among other things, ‘rapists” and “whores” aren’t equivalent categories, given that the latter category involves consensual sex and the former involves nonconsensual sex.
Do you not understand how adjectives work? When feminists talk about “toxic masculinity” they don’t mean that masculinity itself is inherently toxic any more than someone referring to a “red car” means that all cars are red. Some kinds of masculinity can be toxic; that’s what feminists are taking about when they talk about “toxic masculinity. As the Geek Feminism wiki explains it, “toxic masculinity … refers to the socially-constructed attitudes that describe the masculine gender role as violent, unemotional, sexually aggressive, and so forth.
I don’t know why so many MRAs still don’t understand this; it’s certainly been explained to them more than enough times. And do MRAs not know how to use Google? That Geek Feminism definition I quoted above is literally the first result you get if you Google “toxic masculinity.”
And now we’re just getting silly. First off, fictional characters don’t hijack franchises; they’re fictional characters. Second, since when do movie franchises belong to a certain gender? There’s no movie law that says ghostbusters have to all be dudes, just because that’s what they were in the original Ghostbusters films.
Everyone has the right to defend themselves, but “hitting someone back” in a punitive manner is an escalation of the fight, and that’s not a good thing. Also, why are you putting “woman” in scare quotes?
I can’t even. What?
‘Scuse? Crotch beards? Men don’t have pubic hair? And “penis envy” should have been retired about 1970.
Well, “woman” is in scare quotes because it is “a term [that is] also used by feminists.” Clearly.
Face palm photos badly needed after each meme.
The war on straw is still raging, I see.
“If female characters in movies are so strong and independent, why do they need to hijack a male character’s franchise?”
Leaving aside the extremely silly misuse of the term “hijack,” the answer is…Because the overwhelmingly male producers, directors, and writers haven’t been creating enough strong or even interesting roles for women.
What does the H in MHRAs in that last meme stand for?
If men are so superior with the logic, why can’t the manosphere create memes that make sense.
(I know there are plenty of logical men out there… and illogical men… and logical women and illogical women. Cats on the other hand are totes logical.)
@Wondering
Howler?
Hilarious?
Hat-wearing?
Dear UAFC/AWKC,
I don’t have time to look up what the hell your acronyms stand for, but it ruins the meme when you splash your giant logo on it like it’s a work of art instead of something you made in 10 seconds with an online generator.
PS for AWKC: You put a period after the last letter of the acronym too, you dumbass.
On the topic of women “hijacking” the roles of men in movies, one of the problems is that Hollywood these days seems to like remakes and reboots and doesn’t want to create new scripts as much. It’s easy to rely on the notoriety of a franchise.
Sometimes, they don’t even change it up.
@Tara
Okay, so they can’t even spell the abbreviation for their own group correctly. Got it!
I like “hat-wearing,” though.
@Wondering, @Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
Because an MRA took a reflexive look at their movement, and realized that other people hated them for, well, pretty much everything that’s been posted about them here. So they decided that the best solution would be to address the complaints, clean up their behavior, and focus on the negative impact that toxic masculinity has had on men, all under a new label without the baggage of the ‘MRA’ name.
Wait, no, that’s what they’d do if they actually wanted to fix things instead of complain about the feeeemales. Instead, they decided that the real problem with the MRA movement was the name, so they tried relabeling it to “Men’s Human Rights Activists.”
“Yeah, the house is on fire and filled with angry bees crossbred with piranhas, but a new coat of paint will fix everything!”
@scarlettathena
I saw that ‘Spy’ movie with malissa mcarthey recently. Literally the funiest film I’ve seen in ages. We need more like that not remakes. But it does make me hopeful for ghostbusters. If they really have to remake it that is. Also am I the only person who thinks bill murry is overrated?
You are not.
I’m not offended by the content of these memes because it’s too silly. I am offended by the laziness of this meme maker. Why did he use the same picture again and again? The internet is so full of fun pictures. Lazy, lazy MRA.
A whore is a person who has consensual sex for compensation. There is nothing wrong with that. Rape is a violent crime. That they think the two are comparable says everything we need to know about what “rights” they think men should have. Paying for sex is not the same as being raped.
They really hate the idea that women can say “No” or that we might even require compensation for access to our bodies and sexual skills.
Have they never heard that men also do sex work? Are they jealous? Hang out a shingle and get to work, boys. No need to hate.
I’d feel sorry for how twisted their minds are if they weren’t rape advocating, hateful, dishonest, terrorist shitlords.
But seriously, the H in “MHRA” stands for “Humans”. Some Mens Rights Advocates at some point decided to call themselves Mens Human Rights Advocates. Probably because they successfully ruined “MRA” so perhaps they’re hoping nobody would notice they’re the same people with a brand new and completely different abbreviation.
@Wondering
It’s supposed to stand for “Men’s Human Rights Activist” – because they want it to be extra clear that they’re fighting for the basic human rights of men when they harass women on the internet.
The ‘H’ stands for Human. Some MRAs think it makes their movement more legit if they refer to themselves as human rights activists. They are wrong.
EDIT: Ninja’d by Tabby Lavalamp and dlouwe!
I fail at html links, but eff it. This is why it’s called feminism:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bxXb7C6R_Ig/VFk-V69bSAI/AAAAAAAACLY/-QPwyB4rvY0/s1600/cf371b4689b5ff4c05f99bf4dd95f1e1.jpg
Someone should take all that straw and do some good with it.
http://www.hiss-reet.de/images/bauenmitreet/reetdach/praxis/firste/grassodenfirst_big.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71GeXXtuYwL._SL1010_.jpg
http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/fruit/strawberries-for-the-home-garden/img/straw-wilke.jpg
I see that all the usual hating on strong, independent women is raging away in the manuresphere. And that any tool of analysis which seeks to redress gender imbalances, as feminism does, is somehow “anti-equal”. Well, dudes, which is it? Are you admitting that you see women as lesser, and thus deserving of lesser rights? Or are you admitting that women are equal, and that your denying that makes you chauvinist fucking pigs, not “human rights activists”? Pick one, because you can’t have it both ways.
(I also note the irony and humor of there being two separate he-man woman-hater “coalitions”, which are nothing but loose knots of guys with their boxers in a bunch.)
@ Unlucky Blackjack
This phrase is entering my high use vocabulary!
Augh, THIS ARGUMENT IS THE WORST AND I HATE IT.
Men can’t punch women for the same reason men can’t punch other men. When you punch another human, that’s ASSAULT (a/or battery) and it’s illegal.
Gender doesn’t actually enter into the legality of punching people – it’s a stupid social construct that makes a dude less likely to call the cops on you and, instead, try to punch you back.
THIS ARGUMENT MY GOD IT’S SO STUPID. FLAMES. FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE.
Also: Paradoxical, those brooms are lovely!