Mad Men: Inside the Men's Rights Movement—and the Army of Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned
(never could stand this man)
Mad Men: Inside the Men's Rights Movementand the Army of Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned
How did an ex-feminist once hailed by Gloria Steinem become a hero of the haters?
On a balmy afternoon last June, dozens of demonstrators carrying "Stop the Violence" and "Rape is Rape" placards descended on the Hilton DoubleTree in downtown Detroit. They had come to protest the first-ever national gathering of the men's rights movement, which aims to battle discrimination against men but has drawn criticism for stirring up hatred of women. Two weeks earlier, a sexually frustrated 22-year-old named Elliot Rodger had gone on a suicidal rampage in Santa Barbara, California, killing 6 people and injuring 13. He had left behind a chilling 137-page manifesto suffused with a bitter misogyny and language commonly found in men's rights forums. "The girls don't flock to the gentlemen. They flock to the alpha male," Rodger wrote. "Who's the alpha male now, bitches?" His attack ignited a firestorm online, spurring women to share their experiences of misogyny via the hashtag #YesAllWomen, and bringing major media attention to the men's rights movement.
With irate phone calls and even death threats pouring into the hotel in the run-up to the conference, its organizer, A Voice for Men, was forced to move the event to a local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall. The group warned ticket holders by email that "ideological opponents" were likely to show up, and that they would be "looking for anything they can to hurt us with."
When conference goers arrived several weeks later, they were greeted by a cadre of burly security guards. A computer glitch at the check-in desk sent the line snaking into the parking lot, where some men lounged listlessly on the hot asphalt. Finally, about an hour and a half after the first workshop had been scheduled to begin, the doors swung open. The crowd clattered up the stairs to a dimly lit room with scuffed mint-colored walls and a water-stained ceiling. There, amid rows of folding chairs, stood Warren Farrell.
A soft-spoken septuagenarian with a silver beard and delicate hands, Farrell explained with a smile why he'd asked the security team to stand down: "I said it didn't look like there were any killers out there." There was a burst of laughter. After a while, he asked everyone to stand up. "Put anything you have in your hands down and just give that person in front of you a nice shoulder rub," he said. Tension faded from the men's faces. Over the next several hours, Farrell doled out hugs, regaled them with stories about his days as a feminist icon, and waxed lyrical about fatherhood and male sacrifice. He also invited the men to share their personal pain. Some wept as they spoke.
Welcome to the Manosphere: A guide to terms of the men's rights movement
Farrell is widely considered to be the father of the men's rights movement. In a series of books published since the 1980s, he has made the case that the primary victims of gender-based discrimination are mencasualties of a society that relies on their sacrifices while ignoring their suffering. He blames this phenomenon for a litany of woes, from the plight of blue-collar workers to the state of veterans' health care and rising suicide rates among young men. Many of today's men's rights activists view Farrell's 1993 book, The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex, as their touchstone, and the online forums where they congregate are steeped in Farrell's ideas.
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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/warren-farrell-mens-rights-movement-feminism-misogyny-trolls
shenmue
(38,506 posts)niyad
(113,225 posts)1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Last edited Fri Jan 30, 2015, 02:44 PM - Edit history (1)
his attempt to co-opt the (Black) Civil Rights Movement, in an attempt to minimize the man-crazy:
Martin Luther King was dead before Carmichael and/or Cleaver became widely known outside of Black Power Movement (Hell, I would hazard to guess few Black folks, except those in the Bay Area, even knew who they were until shortly before MLK's death, so it is MORE unlikely that white America had heard of them) ... and both advocated Non-violence until after MLK's death.
So, it is unlikely that neither Carmichael nor Cleaver, played any role in white folk's thoughts regarding MLK (until the white washing of MLK, 20 years later, where white people just loved them some MLK) ... And, unless Farrell was a Bay Area white guy, into the Black Power Movement in 1967, I doubt he had even heard of them until after MLK's death.
IOWs, he's just making sh!t up.
Control-Z
(15,682 posts)That very paragraph. I couldn't stomach another word.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts), truly oppressed people, to draw a parallel between with the suffering of white males in this country ... all he left out was a (mis-attributed and misunderstand) "By any Means Necessary" quote ... It sounded good and reasonable; but alas, his ignorance betrayed him (to anyone that knows Black history.
I might have been able to choke down another paragraph or two had he made the historically accurate, MLK/Malcolm reference.
niyad
(113,225 posts)Skittles
(153,138 posts)there are a lot of them
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)They'll even post his garbage at DU.
niyad
(113,225 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Men citing him is like white people citing David Duke.
niyad
(113,225 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)He is a swine.
niyad
(113,225 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Having done my research on these fellows, this isn't a new phenomenon: it goes back several decades, actually.....although it may be true that many it's worst iterations are a more recent problem.
niyad
(113,225 posts)Nay
(12,051 posts)way' -- which is exactly what they should do if they think they are being mistreated by women. After all, many women with decent jobs think marriage is quite optional, and would rather be single (even with children) than marry or remarry badly. So why don't these men just go do this? God knows they've got it a lot easier -- they tend to have better paying jobs, they have been brought up on the so-called Playboy culture which, from the 1950's, has encouraged men to be players rather than family men. So what's their beef?
Well, I expect their main beef is that they no longer (legally) have a whole slice of humanity that they can abuse at will. They can't abuse women in general without someone noticing, and it's also more difficult to "buy" themselves a hapless wife they can abuse in private, knowing she has nowhere else to go.
It's a male mindset that is extremely dangerous.
niyad
(113,225 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)and let it get co-opted and taken over by the nutbars...
niyad
(113,225 posts)actually the only real discriminated against group.
MrScorpio
(73,630 posts)All they did was cloak their intentions by co-opting civil-rights language.
These men have never been oppressed.
niyad
(113,225 posts)ones suffering discrimination. I wonder what it is like to wander the world that completely clueless.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)snarling misogyny and resentment of the progress women have made.
Farrell is supposedly the 'respectable' godfather of that movement and he's as big of a swine as they come, just marginally less obvious than pigs like Elam.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Creepy guy..wonder how many who are part of this movement share that upfront
about themselves when they meet women.
His response to MJ is interesting and so are the responses from some of the men..ack.
K&R
niyad
(113,225 posts)throwing things.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Did you think it was odd how he describes what began to set in motion his divorce?
I found it really weird..he seemed less than forthcoming..I'm not sure I want to know more..creepy guy.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)A certain group of folks would post what the guy said and defend even his most egregious statements.
At long last they've been shamed into giving up that cause.
Do a site search for his name, very illuminating.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)to hear he was defended on any level.
I've seen a lot of pathetic bullshit in my life, but these MRAs take the cake.
F4lconF16
(3,747 posts)Small Accumulates
(149 posts)These men are so damaging to our culture. It's important that their true, vile natures are exposed. Excellent piece of reporting! Thank you for bringing it to light.
niyad
(113,225 posts)Nay
(12,051 posts)The idea that women, just by being women, have sexual leverage and thus are magical and monstrous, is the most disgusting and horrifying thing I have ever heard.
Men, that 'sexual leverage' is ALL IN YOUR HEADS, both the big head and the little head. Are you so lacking in self-control that you can't simply refuse sex with these women who would 'harm' you? Why do any of you ever marry? You shouldn't. And you should kiss the ground for the existence of hookers, because that's how you should be 'serviced.' And as far as men are judged for earning power, who started that? Men, that's who. From time immemorial, women have been little more than chattel to men -- the most beautiful or the ones from good family were sold/bartered/traded like cattle. The only way a woman could have any kind of life was to marry a man with a decent amount of property, and it's HER FAULT for looking at your earning potential???? Up until just a couple of decades ago, this was how marriage and family worked, thanks to the way women were sequestered away from the public square, with no way to earn enough money, and no way to (morally) have children unless they were married. And that's all women's fault???
Unfuckingbelievable.
Paradoxically, a lot of these MRAers bitch about how women won't marry them -- they're stuck up, they don't know what a 'good' man is, they don't know their sociobiological place in nature, they want to call all the shots in a marriage, they are bitches, etc., etc. -- men, be HAPPY they don't want to marry you! You should be happy these women stay single; why aren't you?
Oh, yeah, I forgot. Independent women don't have to kiss your ass in any way, and that's what REALLY bothers you. A REAL society would show women their place in the hierarchy, wouldn't it? And that place would be under you somewhere, no matter how pathetic a creature you are, because you are male.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Well said. This crap just angers me to no end. They take no responsibility for their part in this fucked up system. And it's just so whiny and pathetic how they blame women for all their woes. They have no idea how weak and spineless it makes them look.
Jeff Murdoch
(168 posts)"Waaaahhh, they won't let me beat you, rape you, own you! Waaaahhhhh!"
Won't someone call the Waaaahhmbulance for these delicate flowers?