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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
I don’t expect my comment to be accepted given the nature of this site. But I felt compelled to express support for this gal. I was initially critical of her. Thought she was standard GOPe. Then I found out she donated to FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). Now this! She seems like a quality female. Her husband, Dick DeVos, not only has a great name and great wealth but also seems to have found a woman worth marrying. Play on playa.
I’m MGTOW and don’t expect MRAs to achieve much since we still have the 19th amendment in effect. Maybe we’ve got a genuine NAWALT billionairess running the Department of Education…
@IP, you are da best. You deserve all the success with your new path, and I know you’ll work hard to get it! Also, really good interview!
@Eddie,
To a large degree I think that you’re reminded of them because they’re the same people. I mean, there’s certainly a huge swell of younger middle class white assholes involved, but the bulk of baby boomers and their fellow travelers can’t be forgiven.
As for Cruella DeVos and her minions up there, I mean, jeeby-creeby, what can you say about that. The only cogent response is to scream into a pillow.
Im’a go back to developing SkyNet. There’s no way it’ll do a worse job than these jerks.
@Diego,
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0537/4221/products/drinkware-bleach-mug-1_600x.jpg
I read that graphic comment on David’s twitter feed, and, yeah. humans.
@ all, apologies for earlier rant, I am NOT doing well….
On the bright side, I am taking a class at a nearby college. i haven’t taken any classes for a while due to co$$t, a 3-hour course at the local Uni is over $1000, and at the school I’m now accepted (yaaayyyyy) at, over $800…. However, I’ve learned that my advanced age allows me to audit courses for FREEEEEEE!!!! That being more affordable, this fall I’ll be in a night course, Cultural Anthropology, taught by a dear friend who is also the only intersectional feminist left in my circle.
Nice on IP. Congrats and best wishes in your future endeavours.
@Petal
Congrats! Nothing wrong with getting started later. I’m 38 and just got my degree 2 years ago. I would not have done well in college in my 20’s, anyway.
@Weird Eddie
If you’re comfortable with online courses you can audit a ton of them for free at edx.org. I’ve done one and am currently doing a second.
The Republican party has gone out of its way to be the party of anti-science and anti-intellectualism. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that people who are intellectuals for a living wouldn’t be terribly attracted to the GOP. People who believe in the bullshit the right peddles (global warming denialism, young earth creationism etc) in the first place aren’t qualified to be teaching at universities. Except those unaccredited religious schools like Bob Jones or Liberty.
@IP: That was a great call, you were super clear! Thanks for sharing. And CONGRATS on your acceptance!
@Still Fiqah: omg, what did I just read? That is something for sharing, because how would anyone deal with that by themselves?
But incels are all about self improvement, right? /s
@Weird Eddie: You are right, of course. Once something stops affecting people, people will often stop caring. Even though it’s still a thing that still affects others. Humans just suck, some times.
Late, but congratulations, IP!
Liberty University is accredited, so I’d guess the faculty secretly really wanted Bush or Kasich. You have to look at the unaccredited distance learning schools to find die-hard GOP and Trump supporters.
Lots of racist evo psych people voted for Clinton somewhat reluctantly because they couldn’t support Trump or the GOP (some voted for Gary Johnson as a protest or didn’t vote). For reference, Charles Murray (yes, The Bell Curve co-author) said he could never support Trump, in part because Trump denies global warming and he’s totally out of control and thin-skinned.
@ Kupo;
Thanx, and I have no prob with online courses, I’ve taken a bunch and that’s good for when I’m after the knowledge… but what I need now is the human contact, in a setting where progressive views are not prohibited!!
I’m concerned about the psychological toll* the trumpocalypse is taking on me…. I’m hoping a semester of “lefty” learnin’ will help me mentally.
*note, I’m not a member of any oppressed group, and I’m not denying in any way the privilege I have as a cis-het white man.
Speaking of education issues and the GOP, our current POTUS just informed people that France is one of our oldest allies because he thinks “many people don’t know that.”
Congrats, IP, and good luck, Weird Eddie!
Victorious Parasol,
I hate to say it, but Trump had a point there. During the run up to the Iraq war, when France was not on board with it, so many Republicans pulled the whole “French people would be speaking German if we didn’t save them from the Nazis” schtick all the time. Whenever somebody said that to me I would come back with “we might still be a British colony if weren’t for the French” and that would always end the argument right there. Never underestimate how ignorant people are.
I’m not giving Trump too much credit though. He was probably only all excited about that bit of trivia because one of his advisers just told him about it during his prep for this meeting.
@wwth;
remember “freedom fries”…??
@kupo;
I would not have done well in college in my 20’s,
I started college straight outa high school… my GPA my first year started with a “0”….
First off, congratulations IP for the new career!
Second, a distraction from the horrors Still Fiqah stumbled across: Evidently the National Parks Service has a project called All Americans’ Stories, documenting the histories of assorted ethnic groups. They have African American, Latino, Asian, Native American, European, LGBTQ, and Women categories up. Seems to be pretty through, too. Sports, art, health, the whole shebang.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/whoweare.htm
Might be worth a look-thru, if only as a distraction from Twitter horror.
I was about to mention ‘freedom fries’ myself before refreshing and seeing it had mentioned it already.
Of course, another thing people forget is that the French Revolution happened not long after the American Revolution, and the overextension by the French monarchy while supporting the Americans (in order to give the British a black eye) was a significant part of the reason…
Hey, did you guys know that changing “frankfurters” to “hot dogs” was the World War I version of “freedom fries?”
Congratulations @IP!
I couldn’t help giggling at Milo’s book sales. My self-published, local interest book (a guide to the local astronomical observatory) has sold over 1,000 copies and I’m doing it all alone and clueless about marketing.
Brain bleach for the incel thing:
So, in recent news, Harvard says it will take disciplinary action against students who join private gender-exclusive clubs or organizations like fraternities or sororities (they probably need to ban sororities also to avoid getting sued). Private gender-exclusive clubs were already “blacklisted” in the sense that members couldn’t hold student union office or receive certain scholarships.
It’s probably a positive change because fraternity culture is so toxic that all the attempts to reform it have failed, including requiring fraternities to practice co-ed membership.
@Katz:
That doesn’t at all surprise me. The city of Berlin, Ontario got its name changed during World War I for similar reasons. It became Kitchener, Ontario to show our solidarity with the British.
(The University of Waterloo has a microfilm newspaper archive that tracks the Waterloo Region Record back to the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, the Kitchener Daily Record, all the way back to when it was still the Berlin Daily Record.)
@Big Troll:
Even beyond the laughability present in the content of your actual comment, I just have to ask, why do you guys always need to make everything about your boners? Nobody cares about your “d”.
Thanks everyone!
I’m celebrating with ice cream. 🙂
@Big Disappointment
Just the latest in the extensive list of things you’re wrong about!
It’s like the world’s saddest penis learned to type…
?
You… don’t know what that means, huh?
Big D is giving me seagull eater/MRAL vibes for sure.
Anyway, that tweet. It reminds me of the body horror movie Contracted. A man has sex with a corpse and becomes a carrier for some sort of disease that’s like a cross between zombism and leprosy. Then he rapes the main character at a party while she’s half passed out drunk. She gets this disease and her body starts falling apart. In the sequel, the disease starts spreading all over LA.