Tag: feminism

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#gamergate gamebros misandry misogyny video games

Leaked GameStop training video explains mysterious "women" to confused male staffers

How did anyone ever come to think that the gaming world is hostile to women? This GameStop training video from 2009 shows just how welcoming the video game retailer has been to “one of  the world’s most fascinating creatures.” Yes, we’re talking about the enigma that is the human female.

In the video, an expert in “womanly studies” attempts to explain to GameStop staffers how to understand “a segment of the species that remains a mystery to over fifty percent of the population today,” analyzing staged interactions between male staffers and some of these mysterious females.

In addition to the weird sexism of the video, which manages to be patronizing to women and men alike, the video features some amazing graphics (relying heavily on stock photos of these mysterious “women”), brilliant acting, and extras who are supposed to be standing frozen in the background but can’t help compulsively blinking.

The worst part of this video is that despite its cringeworthiness it probably did help some male GameStop staffers deal with women in a slightly less patronizing way.

H/T — Polygon

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4chan evil sexy ladies memesplaining men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny princesses PUA pussyconomics rape rape culture rhymes with roosh

MEMESPLAINING: Women hate rape because it doesn't allow them to "monetize" their vaginas [TW, obviously]

Found on Roosh V's blog.
Found on Roosh V’s blog. Click for larger version.

If you have something terrible to say, say it with a meme!

That, at least, seems to be the consensus of some of the worst people on the internet. So I’m starting a little occasional series called “memesplaining” in which I’ll highlight some of the most nonsensical and/or horrific memes I run across on the internet. Today’s is both.

I found the lovely meme above pasted into the comments on the blog of everyone’s favorite rapey, racist “pickup artist” Roosh Valizadeh. I don’t know where it originated, but a quick image search reveals that it’s been making the rounds on 4chan and Reddit.

Here’s the text at a more readable size . I highlighted the worst bits, but then again pretty much the entire thing could be classified as “the worst bits.”

Continue reading “MEMESPLAINING: Women hate rape because it doesn't allow them to "monetize" their vaginas [TW, obviously]”
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a voice for men antifeminism antifeminist women cupcake Dean Esmay entitled babies imaginary oppression judgybitch misogyny MRA YouTube

The ridiculous Men's Rights Activists on last night's Parks and Rec? Nowhere near as ridiculous as real MRAs

The "Male Men" on Parks and Rec
The “Male Men” on Parks and Rec

So Parks and Recreation had its Men’s Rights episode last night.

Well, sort of: A gaggle of MRAs made a few appearances in the ep, as one of the obstacles that Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) has to contend with as the wife of a political candidate.

There were a few great moments:

Continue reading “The ridiculous Men's Rights Activists on last night's Parks and Rec? Nowhere near as ridiculous as real MRAs”
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#gamergate a voice for men anti-Semitism antifeminism antifeminist women crackpottery Dean Esmay entitled babies I know you are but what am I irony alert lying liars misogyny MRA paul elam post contains sarcasm Suzanne McCarley

The Most A-Voice-for-Menny A Voice for Men Thread Ever

Actual "meme" designed by AVFM's Attila Vinczer
Actual “meme” designed by AVFM’s Attila Vinczer

Oh, people. I would really like to take a little vacation from all the A Voice for Men posts, but as it turns out I have found the most A-Voice-for-Menny AVFM thread ever, and I must share it with you.

Ok, so a couple of days ago, AVFM’s Dear Leader Paul Elam posted an uncharacteristically brief video titled “A 41 second lesson for Adam Serwer and the mainstream media.” It consisted of a 41-second snippet of Elam’s phone interview with Buzzfeed’s Adam Serwer, one of the authors of that scathing expose of Elam, in which Elam boasts to Serwer about how much traffic AVFM gets every time there is a news article reporting what an utterly terrible person he is. (I’m loosely paraphrasing here; as far as I can tell, Elam is not actually aware he is a terrible person.)

Continue reading “The Most A-Voice-for-Menny A Voice for Men Thread Ever”
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a voice for men a woman is always to blame antifeminism men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA paul elam the spearhead whaaaaa?

The Spearhead: Paul Elam's dickishness is the fault of feminism

This picture makes more sense than WF Price's argument
This picture makes more sense than WF Price’s argument

So this is an … interesting reaction to that Buzzfeed piece about Paul Elam. And by “interesting” I mean “WTF?”

Over on The Spearhead — remember The Spearhead, home to some of the crankiest misogynists on the Internet? — our old friend WF Price offers a rather unique analysis of Elam’s life story.

Continue reading “The Spearhead: Paul Elam's dickishness is the fault of feminism”
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a voice for men antifeminism creepy MRA twitter

I pointed out that some MRAs may have bought tens of thousands of fake Twitter followers. Then some kind soul bought me a thousand of my own.

Fake Twitter followers Also not such a great gift
Fake Twitter followers Also not such a great gift

So last week I pointed out that several A Voice for Menners, as well as one of #GamerGate’s E-list celebrities, had managed to amass impressive armies of fake Twitter followers — more than 70,000 amongst the four of them. Generally speaking, one does not get that many fake followers unless one literally buy them from the sort of sleazy people who make a living selling fake Twitter followers in order to make oneself appear more popular.

The next day some generous soul bought me well over a thousand fake followers to call my own. When I wrote my post, I had a bit more than 5000 followers. Now I have more than 7000, with most of the new additions obviously fake accounts with Russian names, a tiny handful of spammy Tweets to their credit, and pretty much zero followers of their own. Here are a couple of them:

Continue reading “I pointed out that some MRAs may have bought tens of thousands of fake Twitter followers. Then some kind soul bought me a thousand of my own.”
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a voice for men antifeminism antifeminist women evil sexy ladies men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA paul elam sluts

Paul Elam and his followers respond to Buzzfeed's devastating profile with evasion, excuses, and attacks on Elam's ex-wife.

AVFM circles the wagon.
AVFM circles the wagon.

A Voice for Men’s embattled Grand Wizard Paul Elam and his followers have responded to Buzzfeed’s devastating profile of him in some predictable ways, and in a few less predictable ones.

If you’re read the Buzzfeed piece – and if you haven’t, you really, really should – you know that it devoted a lot of time to the sad and sordid history of Elam’s three marriages and the even more sad and sordid story of the daughter he abandoned.

In a long and rambling post on Buzzfeed’s piece, Elam – all too predictably – goes after “Susan,” his first wife and the only one of his three ex-wives who was willing to talk on the record, trying his best to destroy her credibility by portraying her, essentially, as a lying slut.

Elam miraculously, and probably with considerable effort, managed to avoid the s-word – a favorite of writers on his site. But his attempts to slut-shame her are as transparent as glass.

Continue reading “Paul Elam and his followers respond to Buzzfeed's devastating profile with evasion, excuses, and attacks on Elam's ex-wife.”
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a voice for men a woman is always to blame advocacy of violence men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA paul elam Uncategorized

Attention Buzzfeed readers: Here's more, much more, about the charming Paul Elam

Paul Elam, saying something terrible, probably.
Paul Elam, saying something terrible, probably.

For those coming here from the excellent Buzzfeed article on Paul Elam, here are some posts of mine that will give you an even fuller picture of this not only sleazy but dangerous man and the little army of fanatical assholes he has assembled to pester and often outright harass (mostly) women online.

Start here:

Paul Elam of A Voice for Men: In His Own Words

Aside from some of the information Buzzfeed found out about him, nothing is more damning to Elam than his own words.

Here are some posts on Elam’s  peculiar approach to “activism,” which generally involves harassing individual women.

7 Tactics of Highly Effective Harassers: How A Voice for Men’s Internet Hate Machine works

Elam falsely accuses a random woman of trashing applications from white men while working for a college admissions office.

Elam Launches a Hate Campaign Against a College Student for Attending a Demonstration and Making Twitter Jokes

Paul Elam, you’re no MLK: A Voice for Men offers a $100 bounty for a clear photo of its latest feminist foe

Here’s a post on the phony “offenders registry” Elam and company put up in order to demonize feminists and other women they don’t like by posting unflattering profiles of them alongside actual female murderers and sex offenders.

Register-Her was a Fake “Offenders Registry” Run By Misogynists, Designed to Vilify and Intimidate Women

And here are a couple of posts on AVFM’s attempt to co-opt the name and the reputation of the White Ribbon anti-domestic violence campaign:

A Voice for Men has set up a phony White Ribbon website to coopt the international anti-violence campaign of that name — and raise some money using the name.

Some posts that quote Elam’s perverse justifications for violence against women:

Paul Elam: “If a woman five feet tall and 110 pounds soaking wet hits me, I am going to hit her back.”

She deserved the ass-kicking of a lifetime: Elam justifies violence against women in a disturbing short story

Paul Elam, you’re no Jonathan Swift

And then there was this:

Paul Elam, alleged human rights champion, tells me to kill myself

And a few, er, lighter reads on the man:

Elam to A Voice for Men conference goers: Don’t say terrible things about women in public, because someone might hear you

A Voice for Men’s Paul Elam and Dean Esmay explain the proper slurs to use for “nasty women.”

Elam: “This world deserves a jerk on the collar and a slap across the face and the flying spittle of rage.”

Elam on “stupid lying whores,” Rebecca Watson, and how he never claims to be a victim even though he totally is one.

(This last one is about a post he wrote attacking Skepchick founder Watson in which he used the word “whore” literally two dozen times.)

And there are more in the archives if you want to search for them.

I guess I kind of write about him a lot, huh?

Well, for better or worse, he’s the most prominent and influential Men’s Rights Activist out there. For now.

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a voice for men antifeminism emotional abuse empathy deficit entitled babies go read this hypocrisy men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA paul elam

Stop what you're doing, and GO READ THE BUZZFEED EXPOSE OF A VOICE FOR MEN'S PAUL ELAM. (SPOILER: He's even worse than you think)

Paul Elam quite literally in the middle of explaining how the media treats him so unfairly.
Paul Elam complaining that the media treats him like the terrible person he is.

If you’re a regular, or semi-regular, or even just an occasional reader of this blog, you need to stop reading this post right now and read Buzzfeed’s astonishing expose of A Voice for Men’s Paul Elam instead.

SPOILER ALERT: He’s an even bigger hypocrite than you think he is.

Here’s the link. Right here. Click on it now. Click. Now. Click.

If you need a bit more convincing: Buzzfeed’s long and meticulous examination of alleged “men’s human rights” activist Elam, written by Adam Serwer and Katie Baker, delves deep into Paul’s often sordid personal history, including his drug use, his numerous failed marriages, and the alternately depressing and infuriating story of the daughter he abandoned, who forgave and reunited with him as an adult, and who is now estranged from him again.

Continue reading “Stop what you're doing, and GO READ THE BUZZFEED EXPOSE OF A VOICE FOR MEN'S PAUL ELAM. (SPOILER: He's even worse than you think)”
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alpha males evil sexy ladies heartiste men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny PUA vaginas

Has pickup guru Heartiste ever actually been in the same room as a human vagina?

Not pictured: Human vagina.
Pitcher plants. Not pictured: Human vaginas.

There’s a famous scene in 40 Year Old Virgin where Steve Carrell’s character inadvertently reveals his complete lack of sexual experience with women (not that there’s anything wrong with that) by suggesting that a women’s breast “feels like a bag of sand.”

I sometimes find myself wondering if some of the guys I write about here have ever actually been in the presence of a naked woman. I mean, sure, it’s not really that surprising that a committed vagina-avoider like the legendary Man Going His Own Way known as Christopher in Oregon would write about women in general, and their vaginas in particular, as if they were stinky alien creatures from Planet Yuckygirls.

But it’s a little weirder when someone who claims to be an expert on the female mind and body describes, for example, the human vagina in ways that seem to suggest that he’s never actually been in the same room with one.

Continue reading “Has pickup guru Heartiste ever actually been in the same room as a human vagina?”