The Five Best Excerpts from r/MensRights Subreddit of the Day Announcement
This is, without a doubt, the best thing that has ever been written about Men’s Rights Advocates by a 12-year old. Below are the five excerpts that made me laugh the hardest, each followed by a representative sample from r/mensrights taken from the past month of posts on Manboobz:
5. “/r/MensRights. Never in our society could the uninitiated imagine such a place.”
r/mensrights “activists” on sexbots and how terrible American women are:
Ian Ironwood: The personality emulators I’ve seen have more wit and charm than most dinner dates. They’re Sexbots. How smart do they have to be?!?
MaunaLoona: He hits the nail on the head. The bar isn’t exactly set high with the kinds of personality the average american woman has.
4. “MensRights is, undoubtedly, the home of great activists.”
r/mensrights “activists” responding to a woman who confesses to a regretful affair:
King_Dick: If you were a man, someone would take a bat to the side of your head and no one would give a fuck. This is the reality of being a man. I hope you shoot yourself.
funkifiknow: Yes, please shoot yourself OP. Do mankind a favor.
3. “NOTICE: I was informed that a section of this was hateful. After rereading it in a different light, I have come to understand how it can be misconstrued as such. So, the examples have been replaced with animals. Enjoy.
/r/MensRights is controversial for a reason. In the same sense as “quackers” of the 1720s, lions of the 2950s, seagulls of the 1280s, and many more.”
r/mensrights “activists” on the war on men:
Interesting. There’s been an going war waged on the male orgasm – declaring all heterosexual sex rape, opposing porn and prostitution, etc — sexually frustrated men DO make good soldiers.
2. “There were some people close to me that suggested I not run this article. That the repercussions of doing so would be unreasonably bad. Well, here you go, people.”
r/mensrights “activists” reacting to an article about the lack of women in Tolkien novels:
Ignorant bitch. She’s trying to find something to be offended by . . . This is nothing but juvenile rabble-rousing from some uneducated dipshit who has nothing better to do than hate men.
1. “Indeed, people have died over [being called a misogynist]. Nobody ever dies after being called a misandrist.”
r/mensrights “activist” on women asking for abuse:
…because our “never EVER hit a woman” mentality has those men waiting until they completely lose control of their emotions before giving their women what they’re demanding.
And one more sample from r/Mensrights – here’s a comic that’s on the front page right now, fighting against the tyranny of insurance providers covering medicine for women:
I think what amuses me the most about that comic is the fact that government isn’t paying for birth control. The insurance providers that the birth control users pay for are providing it without further payment on behalf of the birth control user. No one ever gets that part right, though.
Also, Mens’ Right Activists make me wonder just who, exactly, puts up with their stupidity in real life. Or do they tone it down so no one knows they hate women?
Oh I really look forward to the Reddit panel you’re on at South by Southwest Interactive!
I was jut reading over a /r/mensrights called “In response to a front page post saying “If I’m a woman walking down the street naked, you STILL don’t have the right to rape me.” in which one reasonable voice tried to explain how questioning women about why they were wearing a short skirt if they didn’t want to be raped, and one of the MRAs replied “nobody ever actually says that, except in the minds of bitter feminists.” I don’t know why I keep reading the thread, other than be constantly astonished. But then angry.
I came here looking for the many, many examples of how often that’s in fact said to/about rape victims. So this piece was timely for me. Thanks.
I don’t generally make it a point to comment on articles, but I’ve been a reader of Skepchick for a while, and honestly, this post made me lose a lot of respect for you guys. I identify as gender egalitarian, and hang out in both /r/feminism and /r/mensrights, and I would say there’s about equal amounts of group stereotyping in each. This post comes across as “well, I can cherry pick data too” – which seems antithetical to a reason based blog. I get that this is a feminist blog too, and guys are certainly more vocal at harassing girls on the internet but, like all communities, it isn’t really fair to judge /r/mensrights by their vocal assholes.
R/mensrights is a misogynist shithole and r/feminism is, too, because it’s run by Men’s Rights Advocates. You don’t need to cherrypick to point it out…just take a look at the front page and the top comments.
/r/askfeminsts, then? How about /r/feminisms? Perhaps /r/ShitRedditSays?
The MRA has a concept of “Not all Women/Feminists are like that” – a concept that they cover in very reasonable detail on the SOtD thread, which certainly is more calm and reasoned than most feminists are when MRA is brought up. Perhaps we could give them the courtesy of assuming the same thing?
No, we should not give MRAs the benefit of the doubt.
“The MRA has a concept of “Not all Women/Feminists are like that”
Oh — like WHAT? What are we not all like? Explain.
No, really, they don’t have such a concept. NAFALT is something they say when people challenge them on their misrepresenting of mainstream feminist positions. They treat it like a fallacy. The Youtube video that pops up when you search for that term sums it up nicely: “Not all feminists are like that? Prove it.”
I don’t know what all feminists are like, but considering that Andrea Dworkin and Mary Daly seem to come up a lot I’m guessing they haven’t had any new examples of typical feminists since before my dad met my mom.
victoria: No, I get that. :) I just wanted to see what KRISTA was going to say. Either she knows it’s bullshit and is trolling us, OR she totally believes it, which would be rather hysterical, though I wonder if maybe she just hasn’t thought it all the way through.
Any doubt they might be entitled to is lost with NAWALT: Think about it, if you need to make an exception like that, the base assumption is that all women ARE “like that”.
Just swap in another group: not all black are like that. Not all jews are like that. not all homosexuals are like that”.
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the MRM, and at r/mensrights. and the reason feminists aren’t, “calm” is shit like their response to a story about a guy punching a women in the stomach; hard enough to do traumatic tissue damage was, “She had it coming, but you need to make sure you get to a lawyer, and tell a story like this”.
That’s not atypical.
I have no doubt they are assholes, misogynists, and douchecanoes, and I am passionate about them because they are assholes, misogynists and doucecanoes.
It’s kind of amusing how very silly these arguments that come from bigots get. It is always the same. “I don’t think are all like that! I’m not !”
Pleeeeease.
Bork. Let’s re-do:
“I don’t think all (insert race, culture, whatever here) are like that! I’m not (racist, sexist, whatever)! I swear! Some of my best friends are (insert race, culture, whatever here)! They are not alllll like that! Why are you calling me a (racist, sexist, whatever). GOLLY!”
If the MRA wants the courtesy, then they should earn it by quit being overall assholes and start actually thinking.
The very concept of the MRA makes as much sense as having a groups act as advocates of oil companies, or to have a Whites Movement.
Understood?
I don’t know what the SOtD thread is, but I’ve been reading Manboobz for years and I’ve seen NAWALT used many times by MRAs/MGTOWs, and it is not generally some sort of nicey-nice “this woman is HORRIBLE, but it’s okay, they aren’t all like that.”
“This is a phrase often uttered by people who are not misogynist assholes in response to things said about women by people who are misogynist assholes. Apparently many MRAs and MGTOWers hear this so often that they’ve turned it into a running gag, the “joke” being that in their minds all women really ARE like that.” Source
/r/askfeminsts is run by the same MRA moderators as /r/feminism
/r/feminisms seems like it’s a friendly place, at first. But the moderators seem to think that whether or not transphobia is ok is up for debate. I got comments deleted there for calling someone out, because calling someone a TERF is “anti-feminist.”
Shit Reddit Says and related subreddits are the most feminist place on Reddit.
Give me a break. Feminism is a school of thought, with many great works spanning decades and decades. It has no history of terrorism or advocating violence. Shoot, even the lesbian separatists living on communes in the 70s only wanted to go their own way and live away from men, pornography, prostitution, rape, and other commodifications of their sexual selves. As is their right as human beings.
The MRAs are part of a fringe group that is willfully and woefully ignorant. They do not engage in activism that helps men and boys; nor do they help organizations that do so, of which there are many. MRAs are simply perpetuating ignorance in order to maintain their status as society’s default perspective. The easiest way to do this is by fostering as much hatred as possible. They are not a credible group, they are a joke.
I could give examples of how goofy they sound to any person of average intelligence. How anybody can believe they are capable of critical thought is beyond me, what with their urban legends of sperm-jacking and epidemic waves of female rapists, and all their other bullshit beliefs that absolutely NOBODY has verified. Yet what they disbelieve is even more telling. MRAs don’t believe in things like male privilege, patriarchy, objectification, misogyny, the gender pay gap, rape culture and a whole host of other demonstrably true aspects of human society. Their leaders are what I judge them by, and their leaders dox women, advocate for freedom to take secret photos of underage teens, slut-shame sexually active women, advocate for violence against women to silence them, and fall all over themselves to make apologies for all violence against women (to the point of martyring people like Thomas Ball and Josh Powell). MRAs focus on the unfairness of male circumcision being legal when female genital mutilation isn’t (never mind that male circumcisions are performed in sterile hospitals by physicians on very young infants who won’t remember it, as opposed to female genital mutilation which is done in unsterile conditions at home by untrained relatives just as the girls are hitting PUBERTY); a draft which doesn’t exist and has affected no one born after 1956; and “financial abortion” as being just as important as a woman’s right to choose. Never mind that it IS actually far more important that the women have the right to choose to abort, because pregnancy by default is a potentially fatal medical condition, and anyway how many men have died from a botched illegal “financial abortion”?
As far as I am concerned, MRAs (which I think stands for Many Rape Apologists) are on the same level of credibility as Scientologists, homeopaths, ghost whisperers, etc. People swear by them too, and believe with all their might that those people are speaking the truth, but unfortunately it is all a bunch of fucking WOO.
I don’t usually make a habit of replying to blog comments, but I’ve been a longtime reader of your comments, and I have to say this comment really disappointed me.
See? I can play this game, too!
Yeah, that part of her comment had me laughing. That and “But not ALL women/feminists are like that!” I wonder where *we* fall on the “Not LIke That’ scale. Hmm? Heh.
I can’t speak for Rebecca but really, the respect of people who somehow think that the MRM is worth giving “equal time” or consideration toward is not something I’m particularly interested in obtaining. Moreso when you think that r/feminism isn’t r/mr Part 2 and is somehow the “other side”. Please educate yourself on feminism, preferably outside Reddit.
“guys are certainly more vocal at harassing girls on the internet but”
Ah, yes. guys and girls. Yep. Not men and women.
And, “but”. BUT BUT BUT.
And sure it is fair to judge Mens Rights Activists for being assholes. They are MRAs.
And the Klan and Stormfront are just groups dedicated to white rights and white pride. They’re the true egalitarians.
Groups aimed at ending the oppression of PoC should accept that the Aryan Nation is the same as the NAACP.
http://radicalhub.com/2012/03/09/southern-poverty-law-center-names-mens-rights-activists-mras-as-hate-group/
This. I mean really. The concern trolling and JAQing off is so obvious.
So, Krista — do you feel comfortable defending an organization that’s been deemed a HATE GROUP? Why? Ugh.
It’s a repost of something I put on Rebecca’s facebook wall when discussing similar stuff but… “We must all unite to fix the 2 or 3 ways in which women are better off than men. Then we’ll get around to the 1,000,000 or so ways men are better off than women. You know, some time.”
MRA’s want to fix a tiny area of life were we might possibly in some rare circumstances come off worse as men. Reminds me of the male/female circumcision discussion. Yes, it is technically also really bad for men sometimes but that is not the big problem for society right now and once the huge problems women face are sorted we might be justified in making a big deal about our stuff. We’ve been front of the cue long enough. In almost every area, we still are.
Well, that and feminism actually wants to and does take care of” what is “wrong/not nice” for men. Feminism doesn’t mean “women”.
Very true. I’ve been gone from Skepchick for ages and it’s nice to see you’re still here making a huge amount of sense on every topic. To confirm, that is in no way a joke. During my thesis writing I got to the stage that reading about the horrendous things people in general and women in particular are enduring got so stressful that I eased off on reading for a while. It’s nice to see that not everyone was as much of a chicken as me.
I’m also always cheered up by your Izzard avatar.
:D:D
haha. i have been around since the olden IRC days (actually, BBS days). it’s impossible to get to me, honestly. i’ve seen it allll and then some. (actually, i am really good at not clicking on prank links, so i’ve seen surprisingly little!)
This is may favorite quote about the MRM. Succinct and awesome.
*where
#4 made me go “Ha!”
Great activists tell the opposition to go shoot themselves apparently.
Yep, all the great social advances in history were made that way.
(I’m trying to think of a single example.)
But Feminism has obviously been doing it wrong for over 100 years now.
And it’s not like these are isolated examples from the last month… David Futrelle could source the entire blog just from r/mensrights if he wanted, but as the SPLC documented it’s only one of a number of places they explicitly described as hate sites:
Oh noez, they’ve found out about the international feminist conspiracy! Deny! Obfuscate! Ssssssss… (I note Kloo2yoo is no longer identified as an admin of r/mr.)
I don’t understand why you’re so harsh on r/MensRights, Rebecca. You can learn all sorts of useful things, there! For instance, yesterday I learned that feminists are brainwashed into thinking all men are guilty of, uh, something, just because they’re men, and today I learned that women were historically never oppressed any more than men and are even oppressed less than men today. As it turns out, a woman being viewed as her husband’s property is just another restrictive gender role, sort of like how men aren’t allowed to cry. How anyone could call all of that misogynistic is beyond me!
Great article. Honestly I don’t know what a hategroup was highlighted for subreddit of the day. Also, the way it was written up was terrible.
I still have no clear picture of just how MRA’s think men are being disadvantaged by society or which rights, that men presently don’t have, that they’re advocating for.
Men should have rights, I agree, of course we should and I’m pretty sure we do in most countries.
And if they think that men should have the same rights as women, I’m not sure which rights, specifically, that women have, that they don’t think that they have and that they want.
Silly hypotheticals like “financial abortions” as a “reproductive right”, or legislation against false accusations to make them punishable. They don’t realize how out of touch those ideas are either.
That one’s easy. They want the right to complain about being treated as a second-class human being, just like women do. They just don’t seem to understand the concept of contingency (another word for A’s list, which I learned from Stephen Jay Gould…)
I completely agree with you Rei.
I think the MRM started with, or hitched its wagon to, some legitimate complaints like the lack of paternity leave at most jobs, or the way custody disputes often favor the mother (of course, they often don’t, so that’s really a quasi-legitimate complaint). Most feminists, of course, agree that these are problems that need fixing, but we also tend to assume they stem from misogyny – specifically, the belief that caring for children is a woman’s job. So even the few legit complaints of the MRM are areas where they should be regarding feminists as their allies, rather than the cause of their woes. Instead, they just sit around inventing fake oppressions like “fighting rape culture is silencing male sexuality” and it becomes very hard to see them as anything other than angry woman-haters.
“I still have no clear picture of just how MRA’s think men are being disadvantaged by society”
Basically, if you’re a member of a privileged group, and you’ve always had that privilege, sometimes its removal can feel like discrimination.
I had a good look today at Manboobz. I think they have the right approach, that is, to mock a sad and sorry little bunch of haters.
If you haven’t seen the one linked below, have a look. It will lift your spirits!
http://manboobz.com/2012/12/28/2012-year-of-triumphs-for-the-mens-rights-movement/
I like Manboobz too, but there are MRA who have been much better at being active. In Mass, they have managed to get a representative of their viewpoint onto several legislative advisory committees, and so are able to shape the, internal, debates about issues relating to women. It’s disturbing, as some of the laws have been, it seems, affected by this. And damn it, I’ve lost the link.