A sincere thank you note to all AVFM supporters, especially the ones who came on board as subscribers during this membership drive.
I was hoping for a minimum of 10-12 new subscribers during this two week drive. We accomplished that within the first four days and got many more before it was over.
We also got some generous one time donations.
It is no secret that the 2015 will go into the records as a restructuring year for AVFM. We have been forced to pull the belt very tight and squeeze pennies till Abe Lincoln begged for another trip to Ford’s Theater.
Production is down, thus traffic is down. Activism is in a holding pattern.
For now.
The very good news is that you good people have helped us stabilize. We will soon be able to do really neat things, like pay the very generous and patient Marc Randazza our back legal bills among other things.
What will come out of this is an AVFM that is leaner, meaner and works smarter vs harder. I estimate (realistically) by spring we will have our house more or less in fully operational order.
If fortune favors us and we continue to pick up more subscribers in the next two drives, we will be in very good shape and no longer sweating bullets. That is good, because you can’t use the kind of bullets we have been sweating to shoot the wolf at the door.
The idea here is to become smaller (less focus on click bait) with more sting, the former being much easier to accomplish than the latter.
That being said I am also announcing that the Men’s Mental Health Network (MMHN) will be delayed for an indeterminate time. It turns out that the particulars of putting it together correctly (which would take a book to explain) are much more expensive and time consuming than any of us imagine.
It is on the shelf for now, but not being mothballed. It is an important project that we intend to follow through with. The foundation for MMHN is there. The walls and roof are going to require more than we can afford until we have an adequate subscriber base.
I will also take this time to announce that AVFM will, in the much nearer future, engage in something less ambitious financially but perhaps having just a great an impact that we anticipate from MMHN.
The idea for the next project came from Judgy Bitch, though she will have no knowledge of it till she reads this.
It started with a seed she planted in my head while I was watching her in a debate with a feminist on one of TJ’s YouTube programs.
She was asked what rights did women have that men do not. She quipped, in typical JB fashion, “How about the right to not be sexually mutilated at birth?”
I did more than a fist pump when she said that. Internally it was the beginning of a shift of my thinking about avenues we can travel to change the narrative, help men and boys directly and come out with a good dose of FTSU in a place that really needs it.
I can almost feel the other C-Level managers cringe right now as I lay out a the plan, but two things predispose me to lay it out here anyway.
One, we need help from the rank and file to do it. And two, I am a big fan of Vince Lombardi, who said something to the effect that “Execution is everything.” You can hand your play book over to the opposing team a week before the big game, and if you execute there is nothing they can do to stop you.
We are going to execute like bosses.
Neonatal cutting on boys is now empirically proven to be nothing but barbaric and destructive. It is an issue that even a good many feminists (not that we want to work with them) are also invested in. Since a fair number of intactivists happen to be gay men the practice also crosses over into that demographic.
Oh yes, did I mention is was cruel and barbaric?
Sorry, I just did not want to lend the impression that pleasing certain groups was being placed over the mission.
I have spent time in recent months investigating this and believe that neonatal cutting is perfectly ripe for successful attack. I also believe (which Janet drove home for me) that it is probably the gateway into much more effective activism for men and boys.
Please allow this meme I placed on the AVFM Facebook page to explain.
The question is how do we do it?
To me, that is simple. We take a lesson from register-her.com.
In my recent investigations I have been shocked to find what a big business neonatal cutting has become. Not just the money for the “procedure” but for harvesting foreskins and selling them at a very pretty price.
The stem cells they bear are used to make facial cream, a disgusting reality that many of you already know.
It is a corrupt industry, one that has medical and religious practitioners invested heavily in its continuation despite the volumes of research now available demonstrating that it should be immediately abandoned except for true medical necessity.
It is time to call them out, one by one, in full public view and to expose them for what they do and why. This will also provide us a valuable opportunity to reach expecting parents with facts and perspective that the child mutilation profiteers have no interest in telling them. Indeed, they have every reason not to.
We have acquired childmutilators.com, and will be using that domain in a way loosely modeled after register-her. The major difference is that the targeted demographic, expecting parents, won’t be getting the bombast of register-her visitors. What they will get will be a finely tuned package of information designed to help them reconsider the often rote and unconscious choice to have their baby boy’s genitals cut.
The fireworks will be here, when we publish a headline with an announcement that a doctor or rabbi has been placed on a directory at childmutilators.com. Yes, rabbis too. Whatevs. We have been called much worse than anti-Semites, and we will certainly be targeted with that false allegation when we start. Bottom line is that if you are sexually mutilating baby boys, you won’t be spared inclusion. The AMA won’t save you, and neither will your god.
If you cut on boys, you better hope your name is John Smith or something else that will get buried in Google returns.
I discussed this plan in detail recently with Steve Brule in an interview. I have made similar announcements on Facebook and I have done some considerable outreach to key intactivists who are interested in an alliance.
Our needs to start are simple. We need a WordPress child theme built and a decent logo. The preferred way to get those things is through volunteerism that we can depend on.
I was already contacted about the logo after my interview with Steve and we have it working. We will be using the tagline “Think before you cut.” In fact, we will be pounding incessantly on those four words.
The tough part of the upstart is the WordPress development. Developing a theme properly can get pricey, and with all respect to WordPress developers there is a lot of untrustworthy and/or incompetent people out there.
The best option is for a serious MHRA with equally serious development skills to step forward and dedicate a the labor to help build the site, START TO FINISH.
Another option is to pay a developer we can trust to do it but that will take more time. Either way, it is going to happen and it is going to be done correctly.
We won’t launch this until it has the appearance and functionality to impress visitors.
I also understand there is a certain British MHRA of noted reputation who is very keen to take on an anti-mutilation campaign in the UK. There is possible synergy there. Don’t ask who he is, but he reads regularly and is welcome to chime in in the comments.
So, after having thanked you all for the brilliant response to the subscription rally, I am putting it out there again.
This is your movement. AVFM is your platform to get things done. If you would like to be a part of making this happen, please contact me at paul@avoiceformen.com.
I would love to chat with you, especially those with WordPress skills and the willingness to follow through with commitments. If there are any potential financial backers for this plan who are willing to be on standby should we have to go the paid route, I would love to hear from you, too.
I realize that this mission change will test the reasoning of some AVFM supporters, especially those who may be religious. I respectully suggest you speak with Shrek about this as he is quite the expert on scripture as it relates to this particular matter.
I also want to assure all that AVFM will continue with addressing all matters within its mission statement. This, after all, is in there, too, and it is an area that has been neglected far too long.
Thanks for reading through this long one, and thanks again for supporting AVFM.
