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By David Futrelle
UPDATE: DeVos met with MRAs Thursday; here’s what she told reporters afterwards.
The Trump administration has given a lot of fringe political weirdos a certain not-quite-legitimacy. We’ve seen “alt-lite” conspiracy slinger and bobblehead salesman Mike Cernovich given White House press credentials; meanwhile, Twitterbanned right-wing pseudo-journalist Chuck Johnson seems to have become entangled in one of the developing Trump/Russia collusion scandals, working at the behest of a longtime Republican donor (now deceased) who was apparently willing to drop big bucks to help Trump by somehow uncovering Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails.
Now a notorious Men’s Rights group — the National Coalition For Men — will be meeting with Education secretary Betsy DeVos to discuss the campus rape epidemic that MRAs claim doesn’t exist. DeVos will also be talking with rape survivors and college officials, but the fact that the NCFM will be part of the discussion is appalling, even by Trump administration standards.
Despite its long pedigree (it’s been around since 1977) and almost respectable-sounding name, the NCFM has, I would estimate, roughly as much legitimacy as a civil rights group as the Men’s Rights hate site A Voice for Men or the Men Going Their Own Way subreddit. Which is to say none.
Indeed, the NCFM site clutters its sidebars with videos from the likes of AVFM founder Paul Elam and antifeminist gadfly Girl Writes What, while the main page touts articles accusing feminism of destroying the family, suggesting campus “safe spaces” are “havens of misandry” and asking “is feminism killing young boys,” with the last article written by a regular contributor to AVFM.
The group has also won a certain notoriety in feminist circles for posting pictures of alleged “false accusers” on its website. I also ran across this lovely picture and caption on the NCFM site last year, illustrating a press release on Senator Patrick Leahy and the Violence Against Women Act.
As I noted at the time, “the Joker is [apparently] supposed to represent Leahy’s supposed feminist puppetmasters; regardless, it is a jarring image depicting violence against an elected official as somehow humorous.” If you can’t quote believe that a supposed civil rights group would run such a thing, well, make a quick visit to the group’s website; the picture is still up. (I’ve archived it here just in case.)
This is hardly the only time the NCFM or its officials have offered, well let’s just call them disconcerting takes on the issue of violence.
In an interview with Pacific Standard’s Ted Scheinman a couple of years ago, NCFM president Harry Crouch offered this take on Ray Rice, the (former) football player who knocked his then fiancée out cold with a punch famously caught on video.
I’m not saying he’s a good guy. But if she hadn’t aggravated him, she wouldn’t have been hit. They would say that’s blaming the victim. But I don’t buy it. And anyway football is always happy to put on pink suits to celebrate women. Why can’t they have a week, or just one day, where they celebrate men?
It’s no wonder that Jess Davidson of the group End Rape On Campus, told the HuffPost that she considers the NCFM a “hate group.”
“They have viciously and very intentionally harassed rape survivors online by exposing their identities and posting pictures of them,” Davidson told the HuffPost. “From our perspective, they really have no place in a conversation about civil rights.”
DeVos will also be meeting with representatives of the group Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), a group the Southern Poverty Law Center once described as devoted to “roll[ing] back services for victims of domestic abuse and penalties for their tormentors, while working to return the focus to the ‘true victims of abuse’ — the falsely accused.”
SAVE has long worked hand-in-hand with hate site AVFM to fight for men they believe have been “falsely accused.”
The meeting is scheduled to take place July 13th.
It is not known if any bears or their representatives will be attending the meeting.
H/T — Thanks to everyone who sent me links on this story
Yeah, I think I’ll avoid traveling to America for the foreseeable future. I have family there, but maybe we’ll just have to FaceTime until the states regains some sense of human decency. Because Jesus Christ.
Pence came to my state today to “discuss” how the ACA had wounded small businesses. It was a closed door meeting – only for those with the “correct opinion.” Where is my country?
God I’m barely even surprised anymore. If a member of The Trump Administration introduced a policy in favor of publicly kicking puppies, it would only be a mild surprise.
Foxes have been deployed to guard all the hen houses.
Trump say that the government of his idol, Putin effectively legalized domestic violence so he has to do it too.
Republicans: “We must be tough on crime.”
Also Republicans: *do fuck-all about campus sexual assault*
Republicans: “We must defend family values. Sex is for procreation.”
Also Republicans: “Boys will be boys. Sleeping around is just healthy male sexuality.”
Republicans: “Universities are godless cesspits of liberal vice…”
Also Republicans: “…but the rape problem there is vastly overstated, it’s mostly false accusations. How dare you accuse our best and brightest?”
When rock bottom becomes the ceiling…
I hope Betsy suffers the worst of Patriarchy. May the MRA’s turn on her for whatever bullshit reason along with Gropenfuhrer.
I wish a mighty curse on her
Not only do they want to legalize DV, I’m sure they’ll want to normalize and encourage it.
..And this ugly gem
“I mean, sometimes we wear pink to show that We Care™ so let us abuse women as we please. It’s their fault anyway. Also, November 19th doesn’t exist.”
And DeVos wants to legitimize these people.
For real though: what’s the over/under of a repeal of the VAWA in the near future?
I mean, they’re basically legislating out of spite anyway…
Gawd.
*Whimpers*
Oh look, there goes another perfectly good banjo of mine. God dammit.
Er, distraction: I watched My Neighbor Totoro for the first time. It was good.
The dumbing-down of the US of Amnesia just hit warp speed.
And I’m actually nauseated by that Leahy pic. WTactualF, motherfuckers???
JFC! This administration is such a giant shit-burger, it’s hard to keep track where all the shit is landing.
OT, but I just found Based Shitman’s rap sheet:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/meet-the-based-stickman-173908
He likes to huff fabric spray. Why am I not surprised?
@Bina
And somehow we’re the lowdown thugs. Funny how they use Avenger’s Civil War, with the group that was against the Sokovia Accords. Or how Captain America’s side has you know, Captain America, the guy who is sort of against people who go around harming people for the hell of it.
They’re not in favor of kicking puppies, they just believe in protecting people who do kick puppies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/02/03/the-usda-abruptly-removes-animal-welfare-information-from-its-website/?utm_term=.18ba5536bbc8
If the puppies are allowed to bite us, why can’t we bite puppies? Trumpism, the radical idea that puppies are adult human beings.
Only black and female puppies. White male puppies (at least the white working class puppies rather than those academic white puppies) need to be supported and protected. It’s not their fault that they peed on the carpet; maybe if the carpet had been nicer to them then it wouldn’t have happened.
OT but I’m just gonna leave this here because it happened and I refuse to deal with it alone.
https://twitter.com/originlsticklvr/status/884952765599842304
Every single time I hear (conservative) people claim that universities are “cess pits of liberal bias,” I want them to explain how. Considering marginalised communities are the most harmed by their policies, I still don’t get it.
I mean, I went to university in bloody Kentucky at a public school. Where I regularly, in the time that I was there, saw billboard-sized pictures aborted third trimester fetuses in the school plaza (the only fast way between buildings), yards of white crosses (supposedly representing the “lives taken from those of the unborn”), abusive proselytising pricks trying to convert you to some form of Christianity (who then either physically or verbally abused people who refused — I had one throw a mini-Bible at the back of my head for politely declining)…
We have professors who regularly say they won’t do certain things because they “don’t believe trigger warnings are necessary” or they “don’t believe in safe spaces,” or they regularly harass students (particularly students of colour) when they provide evidence and arguments that contradict them. When millennial students were pointing out that we wanted professors to be less abusive (and, as a result, make academia less abusive — mentally/emotionally)? All we seem to get is blow-back.
And we have major issues in how rapes are addressed on campus, which harms the safety of all students…
But they want to constantly talk about how they’re “liberal hivemind” spaces. Sorry, but I just don’t see it. At all.
So, let me get this straight: our education secretary, who knows fuck all about the education system and who thinks that grizzly bears pose more of a danger to schoolchildren than gun violence, is going to compare notes with a bunch of teenage cyberbullies who think that domestic violence is perfectly harmless and that false rape accusations are a worse crime than actual rape…
Why is this real life?
@Dreamer
Repealing the affordable care act would certainly give lots of funeral directors a welcome boost in business.
Oh, I figured I should mention this here in case anyone’s interested.
A while back, I made a long-ish comment debunking the Swedish “rapefugee” myth. Another commenter asked if they could post it to their blog. The cleaned up version of my comment can be found here:
https://twosixteenhouse.wordpress.com/2017/03/04/the-myth-of-the-swedish-rapefugee/
Since I’m a regular listener to The Majority Report with Sam Seder, I figured I schould call in and do a shortened, live version of my arguments. My call was on yesterday’s episode. This was my first time ever calling in to a radio show or speaking in a more public setting than a classroom. Considering the circumstances, I’m not feeling too awkward about the way it turned out.
So, if anyone’s interested, the show can be found in the youtube link below, with my call starting at around 2:13:00.
@Still Fiqah
I saw … that on Twitter last night. I was going to share it here, but you beat me to it (sent it to poor Alan R instead). I am happy to keep you company in the horrified misery camp, though!
It’s on par with the guy who claimed that having a daughter was cucking yourself, because you’d have to let some other man have her.