MRA London operative, Agent Kildare, is right back. This time he shares his thoughts on Glen Poole, Ally Fog and James Gates. (MRA London also have a “News Flash” and “Call to Arms” — presented at the end of this article.) Ed (MRAL)
Have you ever seen a bear with a coffeepot? It’s a terrible business. The bear doesn’t really know what the coffeepot is. It paws it around, picks it up by the spout, drops the lid. Unable to get its tiny mind around the purpose of this strange object, it becomes bewildered, then irate, then flies into a rage. This is why, when entertaining bears, you should always pour the coffee yourself.
If you think it’s unlikely you’ll ever be in this position, let’s have a look at a similar situation: the desperate struggle of feminists and mainstream commentators to understand men’s human rights activists.
This week we’ve seen Glen Poole who, when Julie Burchill or Suzanne Moore are busy, is occasionally allowed to write about men’s issues by The Guardian, and to attack Peter Lloyd of the Daily Mail.
Peter is taking legal action against the operators of his gym, because they discriminate against men by having several hundred hours each year which are ‘women only,’ while charging men the same membership fees.
Glen can’t believe Peter’s affront. What on Earth is he thinking? It’s quite right that women receive preferential treatment; after all giving them what they want saves us all a lot of bother. Anyway, he should have better things to do, like raise cash for charities that run helplines for suicidal young men.
Last year, Glen wrote that The Guardian published ‘stereotyping dross’ about men. He’s also written about the problem of ‘invisible men’, and of public services being ‘proudly pro-male’.
“Is your service welcoming, positive about men?” he asks. “Does it have a high opinion of men? Or is the way that you and your colleagues think about men in general different, and does that different what [sic] of thinking promote equality for men, or inequality?”
Ah the difference a cheque for £350 from Guardian Media Ltd. makes to one’s principles, eh Glen? Maybe you can walk the walk and use the money to run a workshop for the good folk at Peter’s gym?
Then there’s Ally Fogg. Ally wrote on Twitter that Peter Lloyd was ‘a knob’. Ally’s bestest mates with a lot of feminists, such as Helen Lewis at the New Statesman. Helen ran a series on men’s rights activists a while back. She didn’t invite any to contribute anything, oh no. Instead she got some teenage girls to write articles mocking MRAs as losers and virgins who lived with their mums.
Ally thought this was great, and just what MRAs deserve. On Twitter he exchanged wearying sighs with Helen; ‘they’re still at it on the comments section aren’t they?” he said. Helen patted him on the head; “yes dear, yes they are.” Good Ally, good boy.
It’s easy to see what’s going on here. Both Glen and Ally are propelled by the memory of very nearly getting off with that sexy short-haired girl from Luton who ran the FemSoc at Uni by acting all ‘new man’ (remember him?). They think that by distancing themselves from the naughty, ‘misogynist’ boys, they can earn women’s approval. She may have ended up fucking that Brazilian art student, but it was a close run thing.
Then there’s James Gates at Sabotage Times, the online hobby project of the former editor of 90s lad’s magazine ‘Loaded’. James is in his twenties. He lives in North London, and plays in a hipster indie band that gigs at some local pubs. Thankfully, his parents have enabled him to not sacrifice his principles by having to find a job, which is just as well, because Sabotage Times doesn’t pay contributors. Instead they fish for young media graduates able to string some inflamatory text together for free which will spark controversy, retweets and comments and thus attract syndication interest.
James recently wrote about MRAs: ‘When I heard about them, I did a double-take, as I had difficulty believing that such a thing could possibly exist.’ He then goes on to have a pop at Fathers 4 Justice, a group of ‘dads who skip child support payments or have been charged with domestic violence.’ James also knows why boys are falling behind at school, it’s because ‘boys are a bit thick’.
Thanks James!
Then over the U.S. we’ve got online women’s ‘zine’ Jezebel. A cesspit of lies, bitching and anger, this is a ‘linkbait’ site, designed by its owners Gawker Media to attract eyeballs by pitching inflammatory and provocative headlines across the internet.
Jezebel’s Katie Baker describes mens rights activists as ‘scum’, and publishes the home addresses, employer’s details and personal information of feminist women who even dare suggest speaking to them.
Also in the U.S is the flailing ‘Good Men Project’, in which Glen Poole has recently accepted the position of “Men’s Rights Editor”. GMP is a slowly-dying website which believes men are a problem to be fixed. Contributor Zach Rosenberg recently wrote a piece for them about how he’d had to challenge his four-year old son for being a ‘rapist’, after he’d kissed a girl in the playground.
Yes. You read that right. He told his four-year old son he was a rapist.
What do all these writers have in common? Bewilderment, lies and anger. It’s hard to take such pathetic, yellow journalism seriously. These are men who quite happily throw men and boys aside, in their desperate need for women’s approval. They’ll quite happily stigmatise children, mock men experiencing the worst pain in their lives, and piss on the vulnerable, the dispossessed and desperate.
Back to where we started, with the analogy of the bear. When you do think about it, having a bear over for coffee would be a ridiculous waste of time and effort. The bear’s not going to enjoy itself, it’s just going to get bewildered, testy and irate. It doesn’t know what ‘having coffee’ means. You’re just going to wear yourself out, and the neighbours will probably complain. The conversation’s shit anyway, bears don’t know what the fuck they are talking about.
Similarly, it’s pointless arguing with these people. They’re not our enemies, they’re barely even obstacles, they’re just thoughtless, blundering, ill-willed and uncaring.
Annoying but, like bears, best left alone to do their shit in the woods.
* * *
NEWS FLASH from MRA LONDON
Honey Badger Alert
Female MRA Battles Radfems on Mumsnet
One of our female MRA members felt so incensed after seeing radical feminists on mumsnet.com call us “dysfunctional violent misogynist men” that she signed up and joined in the debate herself.
Feminists are aghast! They are desperately trying to “explain” to her that males are actually “privileged” and that MRAs simply want to “maintain power over the women of their class and resort to the age old violence of either actual &/or threats to rape and violence against women.”
They cannot comprehend why she would want to care for boys when, as a woman, it’s only the rights of other women she should be fighting for. However, I wonder how long before they give up on this, switch tactics and begin attacking her personally?
Our member is going under the name “Elohim”, and her first post can be found here:
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/1738600-Radfem-2013-and-the-MRAs?pg=7
This is the first time she has done anything like this, and we never would have guessed that she had so much fight in her!
Personally, I think that what she is doing is vital! This is not about an argument with a few radical feminists. Rather, it’s about getting mothers on Mumsnet to see the true nature of the bigots hiding amongst while wearing a badge of “equality”.
“Females don’t have to kill baby boys. Just not nurture them.” – Mary Sunshine
This and other quotes that were originally published on the now defunct Radfem collective blog, Radical Hub, can be found here.
It would be a major victory for the human rights of boys if we could move the discussion out of the niche “activism” area on Mumsnet to other areas where all mothers could see it. Female MRAs wanting to help our “lone wolfess” in doing this are urged to join the fight on Mumsnet!
