UPDATE: The lawsuit has been dropped! Details at the end of the post.
A brave hero in Austin Texas has taken his fight against the evils of misandry to the courts, filing a suit against a woman who skipped out on a date with him after he criticized what he saw as her excessive texting.
He is asking for S17.31 in damages, the cost of a ticket to a showing of the 3-D version of Guardians of the Galaxy 2: Galactic Boogaloo, or whatever it’s called, I don’t have time for fact checking.
Let’s go to KVUE.com to hear his side of the story:
Brandon Vezmar met the Round Rock woman on Bumble, a dating app. They went on a first date to a movie theater to see “Guardians of the Galaxy.” During the movie, Vezmar claims that she opened her phone between 10 and 20 times to read and send text messages.
This, Vezmar claims, is in “direct violation of the theater’s police” and adversely affected “the viewing experience of Plaintiff and others.”
“I said ‘listen, your texting is driving me a little nuts’ and she said ‘I can’t not text my friend.’ I said ‘maybe you can take it outside to the lobby, I’ve seen people get kicked out movies for this,” Vezmar explained.
The woman took his advice and left the theater, but did not come back.
According to Vezmer, he is less interested in getting his 17 bucks back than he is in the “principle” at stake here, “as Defendant’s behavior is a threat to civilized society.” He thinks her behavior represented some sort of civilization-threatening abdication of “personal responsibility.”
Needless to say, the woman’s version of events is a little different. She told KVUE she deserted her date because he was creeping her the hell out. And he still is.
I did have a very brief date with Brandon, that I chose to end prematurely. His behavior made me extremely uncomfortable, and I felt I needed to remove myself from the situation for my own safety. He has escalated the situation far past what any mentally healthy person would. I feel sorry that I hurt his feelings badly enough that he felt he needed to commit so much time and effort into seeking revenge. I hope one day he can move past this and find peace in his life.
Somehow I don’t think that will ever happen. Especially since this may be Vezmer’s last date for a very long time.
Check out the video on KVUE.com to see the literally neckbearded (not that there’s anything wrong with that) Vezmer explain his crusade in a little more detail. The odds that he’s a Redditor seem extremely high.
UPDATE: Check out this interview, where he explains how he’s fighting for men who are being “exploited” by women on dates. The article makes even more clear what a creepy stalker he is.
UPDATE 2: The lawsuit has been dropped! She basically paid him off so he’d leave her alone. Here’s the AV Club on how this all shook out:
We’re saved everyone: By Inside Edition, of all things. Apparently as sick of this story as the rest of us, IE set up a meeting between Vezmar and his date, so that she could give him the $17.31 back. In return, she asked for him to please god, “just leave this alone.” Vezmar carefully counted out all the money, and agreed to drop his lawsuit. We’d like to say that this will be the last we hear of this, but we would undoubtedly be wrong.
H/T — @RemingtonWild and @ami_angelwings on Twitter
@Troubelle
Just email him. He responds to email fairly quickly unless something bizarre is happening.
Alan,
I wish I did like Clara more. I didn’t hate her but she was just kind of there for me. I think it was the way the character was written and not Jenna Coleman’s fault because I really like her in Victoria. I do have high hopes for Bill though.
Are you watching Class? I like it well enough because it’s pretty dark and I like that kind of thing, but the stakes got so high so fast that I wonder where they hope to take it if it lasts multiple seasons. It also seems to be much more tangentially related to Doctor Who than Torchwood was. Like they just stuck the Doctor in there at the beginning and called it part of the Doctor Who universe just to get people to watch.
@PoM
E-mailed.
Kimstu, I’m going to agree with most of the commenters here and tell you to drop this and move on. You’ve made your point multiple times and continuing with this isn’t productive.
Thanks, Dave.
but seriously someone needs to make a dave-beacon image
@David Futrelle: Thanks David, will do.
My guess would be Meller.
Hippodameia, hmmmm. I’d say the writing isn’t quite florid enough, but the tenaciousness and the stickler to etiquette that applies mostly to women does resonate.
PEACE AND FREEDOM -DKM
(Also, FREE EVAN!)
What’s making me suspicious is the troll’s comment about “all of us contributors.” Meller had a lot of illusions about being a member of this community.
PEACE AND FREEDOM (in the strictly Orwellian sense) and FREE EVAN!!
Oh, yes, that’s very true. It was strange how he would actually get offended if he thought he wasn’t being properly afforded the respect of the community he felt he deserved.
He was quite amusing though, in his Victorian Gentleman tut-tutting kind of way. He always seemed so scandalized at the antics of some of the commentariat. I can still see him having the vapors. He did cross the line a few times though, especially with Ilithiana.
I wonder sometimes if he ever found whatever it was he was seeking.
I really, really don’t think it’s Meller. In any case, let’s move on.
Hippodameia, it could be Steersman, also. That one was so tenaciously, tediously boring that I’d fall asleep halfway through his posts.
He was the one who vigorously defended the use of “cunt”, insisting that it meant “an obnoxious person”, and wasn’t a gendered slur. A dictionary troll, as it were.
@Alan
Funnily enough, I had never thought of that before when I read that cartoon. But this time I did.
I think the problem is that she’s dissing sea lions in general, not the sea lion with the bad manners.
That said, breaking into her home is beyond the pale.
And the cartoon is really funny and spot-on when it comes to the metaphorical type of sea lion.
‘It’s what we call here the ‘dinner party test’. That’s shorthand for what subjects and attitudes are acceptable in society.’
OK, gotta vent here, and maybe get some advice, if any of you have any. I’m still upset about something that happened yesterday at a casual office get-together. I’ve just started a new job in a small office, and this was my first experience socialising with these people. I happened to get into a conversation with a woman whose idea of an appropriate topic for small talk was how Those People keep having babies and don’t pay taxes (apparently her sister works in a maternity ward and sees Those People pop out brat after brat and take no responsibility for them at all! totally objective observation you guise!). I tried three strategies to change the subject–first, ‘you realise they do pay taxes, right?’; second, ‘you know who doesn’t pay taxes? Amazon. If I were concerned about not paying taxes, I’d be a lot more focused on Amazon than on a poor pregnant woman.’ (In my experience the resentful bigot is usually ashamed enough by this point that they’ll at least change the subject, if not outright rethink their attitude.) Third, ‘let’s not be that person. Really, this is what you want to worry about? What does that say about you?’ Nothing worked. And now I’m upset. Be a resentful bigot if that turns you on–knock yourself out. But how does this get to be an appropriate topic for small talk with strangers? And now I realise what the people I have to work closely with are like.
@guest
hugs if you’d like them
That’s the crux of it there I think. That uncomfortable readjustment of expectations in a new group of people.
But does everyone in your office agree with her? was everyone else on board with what she was saying? was this a two-person conversation or a full table? maybe everyone else has shut her down already and she hoped you’d let her rant.
Sounds to me like one person you work with likes to run her mouth about inappropriate topics. I am so sorry that you have to deal with that, because it can be so terrible.
But now you know what she is like (a good thing) and you can turn your attentions to getting to know some of the other people who don’t say things like that.
Hang in there and if it really is a toxic environment where everyone agrees with her, then I would give very different advice.
@eli Thanks for the support! It was a small table of people; she wasn’t ‘ranting’, she was just saying stuff, the way you talk about football or the weather, and a few other people were kind of nodding along, as you do. It wasn’t even ‘someone expressing a strong opinion about a controversial subject’, it was just ‘chatting to fill in the time’. I think what was so upsetting to me, which is why I responded to Alan’s sentence, is that it was so ‘normal’–if I had got the impression that she was the ‘office bigot’ that everyone else humoured or avoided I might have said to myself ‘ok, avoid this person’ (though she is the person I actually share a room with, so of all the people in this office she would be the most challenging to avoid), but it actually seemed to me like this kind of attitude toward other people is ‘normal’ in this social group. (OK and let’s get a little more selfish/personal here…if this attitude toward people that are ‘not like them’ is normal and accepted, how the fuck are they going to treat me?)
And also, now I’m the one they’re going to keep their distance from, with my DUDE THAT IS NOT OK WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU pushback.
@kimstu
What makes you think that you get to determine how this particular implict contract works? Its form is determined by the payer, as you’ve clearly established in this thread.
Pay up.
🙁
I’m so sorry. That’s such a terrible way to feel. And if they do that, they suck.
My sympathies, dude. I know the feeling of having to choose between fitting in socially and not being a bigot. Hugs.
Are there any people of colour in the company? From what you’ve said it sounds like a stifling environment, so there might not be. If there are, you have any idea how they might feel?
@EJ Actually there are; the company is surprisingly ‘diverse’ for my industry (though they are London-based, so maybe it’s not that surprising)–I’m not even the only woman in a technical position!!–though none of them are in the same demographic as the Those People this woman was talking about. (Even if they were, no one working in this company is going to be representative of the demographic The Poor, which is not to say that some of them, including me, may not have originally come from The Poor). Unfortunately for me this isn’t a social situation, it’s a work situation, and that’s what I’m not sure how to handle. I’ve just started working in this office; I don’t want to be the person the pro-bigot and anti-bigot factions organise around.
I get that. It’s awkward as hell to have to silence yourself because you need to get on with these people professionally. Hugs, and I wish you the best.
@EJ It’s also too late, since I’ve already spoken up (under the impression that gently and impersonally calling her out would work, as it has so often in the past).
@ WWTH
You’re echoing my own sentiments there, I know exactly what you mean. Jenna Coleman is a great actress, and I really enjoyed her portrayal of (sort of) Clara in that introductory Dalek episode. Pitched just right. Quirky and super smart, great foil for the Doctor,. And similarly in the Christmas episode.
But then the focus of the show shifted and perhaps became too much about Clara. Like it was her story and the Doctor was the supporting character. I don’t want companions to just be living props. Twisting their ankles at inopportune moments and asking “But what does it mean Doctor?”. And it’s nice when they save the day occasionally. But ultimately the show is called Doctor Who and the focus should really be on him (or her, even as a kid I thought Sandi Toksvig had that Time Lord vibe)
The show runners seem to have learned their lessons though and Bill is once again pitched just right. To me at least.
I’ve seen one episode (the one where they’re sort of all connected by tree roots). I didn’t even realise it was Dr Who related at first. It wasn’t until a mention of the school that I went “Eh?” and looked it up on the net.
It seems ok enough. But it’s like a standard supernatural/sci-fi show that they’ve levered into the Dr Who universe. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly ‘Doctor-ish’ about it.
The spin-off I really loved was Sarah Jane Adventures. Must confess I sorta preferred that at times to the main show. It was clearly such a labour of love by all concerned. You felt they understood that producing a show about such beloved characters was almost a sacred trust. And all concerned rose to the occasion. It also had a real 70s era Dr Who vibe. I did wonder if my rose tinted nostalgia glasses were kicking in. But whilst it’s true that it was re-kindling some very happy childhood memories, it stood on its own as a great piece of work.
Ah, Liz Sladen, you will be missed. Thank you for all the happy times.
‘(or her, even as a kid I thought Sandi Toksvig had that Time Lord vibe)’
She said she would do it! Wouldn’t that be amazing? But I guess she’s kind of busy at the moment actually saving the world.