Censorship, Calgary Expo, and Men’s Human Rights: One geek girl’s perspective.

At times I thought maybe the men’s rights people were hyperbolic and that by considering them seriously I was making a slippery slope fallacy; my supposition was just because society is predisposed to be more protective of women and prioritize the feminist narrative, this tendency does not mean they will censor countervailing ideas.

My supposition was proven false.

As I said in my earlier post, I was looking forward to meeting the Honey Badger Brigade at the Calgary Expo. I’ve been going to the Expo since I was a teenager. I am a gamer, an artist and a writer who has been interested in producing my own comic book. When I found the Honey Badgers online I was instantly attracted to their courage to push the boundaries on current narratives.

I share a willingness to explore new frontiers and I crave the unconventional.

Alison Tieman, one of the founding Honey Badgers, has an online comic called Xenospora. She is an amazing artist and you should check it out.

Alison is also very much an advocate of women, along with being a men’s rights activist (MRA). There is palpable irony that she and the Honey Badgers were thrown out of the Calgary Expo over their stand against censorship. Although she believes women can be agents in their own life stories without a victimhood narrative, people at the expo (and others tweeting about the expo) excluded her from their in-group – from which they claim to speak for all women.

I am a woman. I wanted to see the Honey Badger Brigade and if I were at one of the “women in comic books” panels, I’d love to hear a wide-ranging variety of perspectives.

The Badger’s basic civil and human rights have been violated, and with this violation, my opportunity to show public support for them at the Calgary Expo was compromised. Bullies using the feminist narrative are more than willing to take away the rights of others, including “dissenting” women.

This is what intolerance looks like. In-group preference wins out and the group undermines another’s humanity.

Alison is not a “token woman” of the MRA. Six of the eight Honey Badgers at the expo were women. Nor is she a demon. She is her own person, and a kind, talented and courageous one at that: