Here is how AVfM works. We say and do a lot of provocative things in order to force an examination of the state of men and boys, and we do so in this fashion because the world has demonstrated a consistent history of listening to nothing else.
Of course, there is a price to be paid for that. When people are cornered into paying attention to what you are doing, they find it much easier to take a dim view of your actions. Given that and the synergy with their ideology, bad reviews are a given.
So are lies.
So are disgusting, filthy half-truths, distortions, and the aggressively ignorant avoidance of facts, such as we have seen from the likes of Jessica Roy, Adam Serwer, and a slew of other hacks currently jaundicing a profession once called “journalism.”
The only thing different today than yesterday is that we get to add another name to the list of known scumbuckets infesting the mainstream media.
We now welcome Jill Filipovic of Cosmopolitan magazine to the ever-growing circus of fools with press passes and the equivalent of a fourth-grade education. You will find her article here, if you are able to see it in spite of all the “how to make your butt rounder” ads.
I was interviewed by Filipovic the day after WhiteRibbon.org was launched, and the article based on our “interview” was published the day after that. Clearly, Filipovic accomplished a great deal of research in that short bit of time! Or she had made up her mind about what she was going to write, grabbed every negative soundbite she could from places like MammothBoobz, asked me a bunch of bullshit questions, and then started the final edit of her article.
My vote is the latter.
I know you are shocked to hear this, especially about such an esteemed publication as Cosmo, but there is a silver lining. From headline to closing paragraph, Filipovic has given us another irrefutable example of ideological corruption in the media, and a few chuckles as well.
Enough of this. Let’s get started. The beginning will do, as in the headline:
Why Is an Anti-Feminist Website Impersonating a Domestic Violence Organization?
There is enough, in that headline alone, to write a feature review, but I will stick with the basics.
The libelous inference of me and my organization being involved in an ongoing fraud is the most pathetic kind of sour grapes. It is not really damaging to anyone here, as the rest of this article will reveal, but the short of it is that it is just a flatly fraudulent claim.
And I am sorry, but “impersonating” a domestic violence organization? The fuck you say?
One of the most integral and indispensable elements of social change is the dissemination of information to the public. Right now, AVfM, while wildly out-spent, out-manned, and out-gunned by the opposition, has taken a serious bite out of your ass on a shoestring budget and a fortress full of incredibly talented and dedicated people.
Fostering awareness IS activism, Cupcake. I also have to point out that I am writing this article now because Filipovic was using her position as a “so-called” journalist to carry out an activist mission.
Again, fostering awareness IS activism. When people ask what we are actually doing about the problems faced by men and boys, my answer falls along the lines of another question: Don’t you think that making sure people even know men and boys have unaddressed problems might make it more possible for people to actually “do” things?
That usually inspires a desire to talk about something else.
That is a good thing, as I love the chance to inform people, even those with selective hearing, that AVfM is an anti-domestic violence, activist website and so is WhiteRibbon.org. And I have more “don’t give a fucks” in the garage for anyone who says otherwise. In fact, I had an MHRA email me today after reading the Cosmo piece to let me know he would clear out his garage and park on the street if I needed extra room for my “don’t give a fuck” supply.
Wow, all that just from the headline. Well, not totally. There is the subhead.
So-called “men’s rights activists” are trying to make money off one of the world’s most prominent anti-violence advocates.
I really had to resist finding one of those animated gifs that shows someone pounding their head bloody against a wall, over and over. I won’t even dwell on the psychotic suggestion that any Cosmo writer (or editor) is justified in calling members of the largest men’s rights initiative in the Western world “so-called.”
That is not creative headlining. That is a deliberate and calculated lie used to mislead their audience. Either that or the good folks at Cosmo are just unable to wrap their consumerism-addled minds around the fact that there is a men’s rights movement – one they are now publishing about, for fuck’s sake.
When it comes to “world’s most prominent anti-violence advocates” in the field? Says who? This is a question I will need to look at, though. I am very fortunate to have at my disposal any one of many highly esteemed and widely recognized experts on intimate partner violence, a handful of whom are already published on WhiteRibbon.org.
Perhaps the opinion of the woman who started the battered women’s shelter movement in the UK in 1971 would count? How about a former member of the board of directors for the National Organization for Women? How about the first Black female to become a senator in North America and the founder of the women’s shelter movement in Canada? How about clinical psychologists, psychotherapists, and academicians from across the Western world who have specialized in these problems and decided to stand with us and support our mission?
One has to wonder just what is their point here? Are they saying that their German scientists are better than our German scientists?
Lastly, I would like Cosmo (and any white ribbon group) to produce proof of two things. One, that I do not have an explicitly legal right to do precisely what I am doing, and TWO, if we do a background check (and we will) of your alleged experts, will we find a heavy ideological leaning that our long-time experience assures us will result in irrational bias?
In fact, I won’t need to lift a finger about that. I am betting that within 24 hours some MHRA will compile the profiles and send them to me, just so we can prove our powers at predicting the future.
Most of the rest of the article was standard fare: a few Google queries for quotes going back a few years; typical Manboobz material.
There was one interesting point she made near the end, regarding the legal aspects of this case:
Whether the real White Ribbon Campaign actually has a legal claim against the misogynist copycat site remains unclear; according to several lawyers Cosmopolitan.com spoke with, a trademark claim may be a possibility but poses a series of legal hurdles.
Legal hurdles? Oh yeah, in Texas we call that the fucking law. What they are saying is that a trademark claim is possible (which it is not because they don’t have a trademark), but the pesky fucking law is in their way. So yeah, Mr. Suit, you got yourself a hurdle there, but hey, maybe you can lobby for the fix?
Just a few short fun facts. A clip from Wikipedia (with my apologies for linking to that often-ridiculous website):
The white ribbon, a white-colored ribbon or representation of a white-colored ribbon, has several different meanings depending on the context. As with other color ribbons, is sometimes used by political movements to signify or spread their beliefs. In that context, it is usually worn on garments or represented in propaganda (posters, leaflets, etc.).
The White Ribbon has been the badge of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union founded by Frances Willard since its founding in 1873.
Short story here: Feminist advocates do not own the term white ribbon. I have no more stolen from them than they stole from the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
So that is the question. Who owns white ribbon? Will the owner please step forward? Because the pearl-clutching and panic of yellow hacks and the issuance of “strong” statements from people who have the audacity to step up and say they actually own the right to force me off my path are getting boring quick.
In the meantime, I do know one thing for sure. I do own WhiteRibbon.org. I am an anti-domestic violence activist, and I am going to use that domain in every legal way possible to truthfully spread the message about family violence.
Donation button is at WhiteRibbon.org.
