Last time I posted here, I linked to a feminist site that I (wrongly) assumed was mocking the very idea that men should have rights. Quite the contrary, the main poster had rightly been calling out such misandrist hacks as Cracked’s David Wong and Steve Harvey. So, as Glenn Sacks has been saying all along, there is hope, right? Feminists really will someday be willing to open talks with MRAs because, after all, we’re both trying to destroy Patriarchy?
Nope, not quite. “No, seriously, what about the menz?” originally started off as a WordPress blog, but it was soon picked up by (surprise, surprise) the Good Men Project. The originator of this blog, Ozyfrantz, has posted a rather telling self-description: “Ozy Frantz is a student at a well-respected Hippie College in the United States. Zie bases most of zir life decisions on Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.” Ozy also claims that she (sorry, zie) would call zirself a radical feminist, were it not for the fact that the radical feminists have completely disowned zir. Gee, I wonder why? As has been pointed out here, no radical feminist would ever say that “Patriarchy hurts men, too,” because they don’t give a damn.
Though they’ve all been deleted from the WordPress page, 60% of Ozy’s site consisted of “borrowed” articles from other sites and offering a paragraph or so of commentary. She also offered a long introductory article, which unfortunately has not yet been posted at GMP. In the article, she gives a long list of the problems facing men, and says she’s tired of every single one. Then, she criticizes feminists, saying “Feminism is NOT in a state where it can accommodate men well. And no, simply telling men that they need to be more feminist is not the solution.” Sounds like she might actually be on our side, huh?
APRIL FOOLS!! Ozy then says “MRAs, you are not off the hook,” then proceeds to tear down the very people who are trying to end the things plaguing men that she claims to hate, out of her supposed love for those who own penises. She then tears into the MRM with the usual insults: We’re misogynists, we’re buddies with PUAs, we’re bitter virgins who live in our mom’s basements (this one really clashes with her saying that she’s tired of virgin-shaming), all that bullshit. But hold on, isn’t there still hope? Is she maybe truly sympathetic to our movement, but just angry at the handful of MRAs who actually are misogynists?
Sorry to let y’all down again, but no. While she does acknowledge the many hardships faced by men (which, let’s be honest, a lot of feminists do, if only paying lip service to the idea), Ozy is still a feminist on a very fundamental level. She lectures lengthily and pedantically about White Heterosexual Christian Male Cisgender privilege, and often calls out her commenters for using “ableist” language. She censors like Jessica Valenti, cusses needlessly like Amanda Marcotte, and draws ridiculous examples of misogyny from nowhere like David Futrelle. Ozy also tells commenters that they need to think exactly like her whenever they use terms like she (sorry, I keep forgetting to use her preferred pronoun–zie) does. Zie also labels tons of her articles with trigger warnings, which, as Dr. T has told us, were created to give women an easy alternative to personal responsibility. Oh, and most of all, Ozy resolutely refuses to believe that any non-conservative woman should ever be held accountable for anything she says or does.
So, even when they claim to be for the rights of men, the handful of “friendly” feminists out there aren’t exceptions to the sea of misandry and re-labeled Patriarchy that constitutes the movement; they are perfect examples of it. This is why we must continue to stand our ground against these charlatans.
