a voice for men
here' s a challenge for the drum. if a spokesperson for a voice for men were to write a direct response to this article, would you publish it ?
news _ image _ file: controversial... a voice for men, the advocacy website started for men, has grown steadily since publisher and ceo, paul elam, first funded it in 2008. picture: a voice for men screengrab .
one place where it does not appear to go is to the more than 30 staffers who, according to elam, work for a voice for men .
a single human voice holds the power to change the world. imagine what could be done with a chorus? speak louder. let your voice be heard .
donations to urltoken, elam says, go to
a fund owned and managed by a voice for men ,
but that funds earmarked for urltoken will go back into that website. urltoken is currently staffed by
literally all the other regular members of [ a voice for men' s ] management team .
the first meeting of a voice for men' s international conference on men' s issues at a vfw hall in saint clair shores, michigan, on june 27, 2014 .
a voice for men launched a site purporting to track female murderers and rapists, as well as women who scheme against men. the site’s motto: “fuck their shit up. ”
special, i’d agreed to a sit - down with paul elam. elam is founder and publisher of a voice for men (avfm), one of the main hubs for the burgeoning “men’s rights’ movement. ” in a
no it is not. this has a become a common perception that anything which talks pro men is considered mysogynist and anything which is pro women is considered gender equality. a voice for men is constantly working for men and is associated with men' s welfare. men welfare does not mean being mysogynist, people need to change their attitudes .
a voice for men posted footage of the protests, edited to play up images of angry feminists taunting police as they cleared the scene. the video went viral and helped make elam’s site a leading outlet for the movement. a voice for men later started posting video from other feminist demonstrations and publishing the names and photos of some of the protesters on register - her. com .
news _ image _ file: men’s advocate... paul elam, funder of men’s advocacy website “a voice for men”, has been described as a drug abuser and accused of abandoning his children in an explosive new article. picture: twitter .
according to elam, urltoken is a separate entity from a voice for men — sort of. a voice for men, he says, is a place for commentary and his own free expression (he says it also pays his living expenses). urltoken is his attempt to publish
what we believe is the truth
about violence ,
rather than a sexually politicized bunch of lies .
when asked how he squares this new endeavor with his posts about violence against women on a voice for men, elam told cosmopolitan. com ,
i square it with two different operations .
notice: the views expressed by the members of this forum do not necessarily reflect the views of a voice for men (avfm), its owner, or its management .
p aul elam, the founder and primary animating force behind the website a voice for men, is probably, for better or worse, the most influential figure in the men’s rights movement (or, as he prefers to call it, the men’s human rights movement) .
so here are some of elam’s thoughts on a variety of issues, taken from postings on his own website. i have linked each quote back to its source on a voice for men .
for someone who gets paid primarily to say sports words on the radio, listeners hating the sound of her voice is somewhat troubling .
adam mcphee, a board member for the canadian association for equality, says men are facing a crisis and need a centre devoted to helping them .
[ … ] voice for men’s maximum leader has long insisted that his notorious “bash a violent bitch month” post was nothing more than misunderstood “satire. ” that is, when he argued that men who are [ … ]
his ex - wife and his daughter said he has only been able to make a voice for men his full - time job because of the women who have supported him throughout his life .
julie dicaro is a weekend host for 670 the score in chicago and a columnist for cbschicago. com .
soon after, a voice for men launched a site called urltoken; modeled after sex offender registries, it purported to track female murderers and rapists, as well as women who scheme against men. the site’s motto: “fuck their shit up. ”
here’s a post about a voice for men’s glorification of thomas ball, a disturbed man and self - admitted child abuser who set himself on fire on the steps of a courthouse in hopes that his death would inspire men’s rights activists to launch a campaign of firebombing attacks against courthouses and police stations .
i for one would * relish * such an opportunity to rationally dissect what a voice for men say. if you can organise them to write a reasonable and articulate submission that meets editorial standards, please encourage them to submit one. challenge or not .
here, courtesy of the wayback machine, is the post as it originally appeared on a voice for men in 2010, where it was illustrated with a picture of a woman with a black eye, captioned “maybe she did have it coming. ”
men shouldn' t be held responsible for raping women, as a corollary to the previous .
i know why feminists are trying to shut down the conference. it' s because feminism is at its heart a hate movement against men, and it cannot tolerate the idea of men having a voice of their own .
spending on medical research for women specific disease last year was $ 800 million while for men it was $ 200 million .
while there are many mrm sites, a particularly influential one is paul elam' s a voice for men (avfm). elam' s site is credited with taking already controversial mrm issues and making them even more contentious .
“i am supposed to bemoan a biased system and the lost rights of fathers in this country, ” he writes on his website, a voice for men, which he founded in 2008 and which today attracts thousands of followers .
the response to female broadcasters’ voices is not new. sports are commonly perceived to be an arena for men — by men, of men — and anything that disrupts that makes some men uneasy .
an open discussion about men' s shed - - a healthy way for men to relax, take part in activities, share skills, have a chat and a cuppa, and pursue hobbies - - takes place at the your voice office, clyde square, greenock on monday 7 august. for more information call 01475 728628 .
i think it' s quite obvious that bias is involved, when only one side of an argument is presented. i challenge the drum to publish a response to this article from a voice for men. i can organise one .
despite elam’s claims of non - violence, a voice for men published ball’s long terrorist manifesto — including his calls for firebombing — on its website, in its “activism” section. it was only after the boston marathon bombings that avfm finally took the manifesto down .
a voice for men is a for - profit limited liability corporation, and so its finances are nearly opaque from the outside. asked repeatedly by buzzfeed news how the donations were spent — including those raised for
security
related to the conference — elam said ,
it' s none of your fucking business .
i have just joined the proud cadre of men who have been banned from commenting on a voice for men by one of paul elam’s gatekeepers for challenging his article “f * ck you, judith grossman”, which condemned this courageous self - declared feminist who spoke out in the ws journal about the title ix witch hunts which labeled her college son a rapist for a consensual relationship gone bad .
mcphee is one of a small but swelling group who believe men have become the new underclass. he hopes to open a mancave that will serve as a refuge for his downtrodden brethren. the canadian association for equality, a men’s rights group of which he is a board member, has launched a campaign to establish the first “centre for men and families” in toronto .
the
men' s rights
group a voice for men is trying to co - opt an international anti - violence campaign in the weirdest, scummiest way possible. the white ribbon campaign is a movement that started in canada in 1991. it focuses on getting men and boys to step up in the movement against violence against women, and it has a number of global chapters. but this week, a voice for men started its own white ribbon campaign and is now claiming to be the original white ribbon campaign while warping the actual campaign' s message and intent .
“it has nothing to do with you being a woman, ” they tell me, “i just can’t stand the sound of your voice. ”
paul elam is a “pacifist” whose mission in life is fight for men’s rights, not to insult women .
a voice for men has succeeded in bringing some women into the fold, among them karen straughan, a brash fortysomething waitress turned youtube sensation. her most popular video, “ feminism and the disposable male, ” which rehashes the central theme of the myth of male power, has racked up more than a million views. a voice for men also works with janet bloomfield, a driving force behind the viral social - media campaign women against feminism, which features photos of women holding signs with anti - feminist slogans .
this is a dramatic turnaround for a man who was once a leading voice for feminism. in the 1970s, farrell served on the board of the national organization for women in new york city. but he broke with the feminist movement when it strayed, in his view, from the idea that men and women should be equally involved in the workplace and the home .
elam calls avfm
the largest men' s human rights group of its kind anywhere, ” though it does few of the things human rights groups typically do. it provides no services, offers no legal aid, and litigates no cases. it does not regularly lobby lawmakers, advise candidates, produce public policy proposals or original research. elam told buzzfeed news that a voice for men focuses on
bringing attention to injustices
by
pushing for a change in the dialogue
and publicizing the plight of men mistreated by society. on occasion, a voice for men has drawn attention to custody battles on behalf of men they feel are being railroaded by the legal system .
for his part, farrell actually tries to avoid the phrase
men' s rights .
“i saw that [ a voice for men ] was not just a website, ” farrell said. “this was a person who had reached out to thousands of people, all around the country and the world, that was piecing together pieces that no one else in the history of men’s issues had ever been able to piece together. ”
jessica mendoza, a former softball player at stanford, is a baseball analyst for espn .
the whining was neither surprising nor accurate, kremer said: “one of the many positives about beth doing the game, in addition to her being a top - notch, seasoned broadcaster, is that she has a great voice that cuts through all the ambient noise in the stadium. whether you’re in the booth or on the field, you need a resonant voice that can be audible. the voice is like an instrument, and beth is blessed with some great pipes. ”
online sites offer places for men feeling like this to commiserate — and lash out. (thinkstock )
a voice for men is essentially a mouthpiece for its editor, paul elam, who proposes to “expose misandry [ hatred of men ] on all levels in our culture. ” elam tosses down the gauntlet in his mission statement: “avfm regards feminists, manginas [ a derisive term for weak men ], white knights [ a similar derisive term, for males who identify as feminists ] and other agents of misandry as a social malignancy. we do not consider them well intentioned or honest agents for their purported goals and extend to them no more courtesy or consideration than we would clansmen [ sic ], skinheads, neo nazis or other purveyors of hate. ”
i apologise for miscalling your name, clementine and i thank aaron for calling my attention to that mistake .
our debut show at a voice for men radio. this program will give an overview of the men' s movement, take as many right hooks at feminists and manginas as we can in an hour, let you hear exactly why the men' s movement is growing, and why it isn' t going to stop. paul elam, founder of urltoken and former editor - in - chief of men' s news daily is your host. one listen to this show and you will find out why the new york times, cbs news and ms. magazine all have their panties in a twist over the work of mr. elam. strap in and buckle up for this one. this is a voice for men you have never heard before .
men' s health is a topic for discussion at the conference. there is a men' s health week the mainstream media hardly covers it despite the best efforts of a lot of men. cover of women' s health issues is guaranteed all the time .
elam, apparently trying to project a more respectable image, has replaced the original a voice for men post containing these passages with a disingenuous disclaimer. but the internet never forgets. an archived copy of the original post can be found through the wayback machine here. the quote is not any better in context .
elam — whose arguments against the feminist movement and the disruption of the natural gender order have been ongoing since he funded a voice for men: humanist counter - theory, in 2008 — summarised his true feelings in a “ message to women ”, delivered one year after his mission began .
it is offensive, because people in general look on men in pain pleading for help with contempt, whereas people take angry men seriously. for decades, men’s advocates had sought to work alongside or with feminists and got nowhere, but now when men are clearly angry about it people start to pay attention .
the men' s rights movement has some dedicated critics, such as david futrelle, who has chronicled the movement' s rise on his blog, we hunted the mammoth, for years. but a voice for men is often portrayed in the media as a relatively sober voice of reason in the abrasive world of men' s rights. “if men' s rights activism has a gloria steinem, it is paul elam, ” emmett rensin wrote this week for vox. “the website is one of the oldest and, if there is such a thing, most respected hubs for mra activity. elam and his staff do, at the very least, engage in genuine advocacy on behalf of men. ” rensin didn’t cite any examples of said advocacy. this is not surprising, given that the site' s advocacy efforts are difficult to discern .
everybody who came in is a volunteer ,
said john hembling, the site' s former editor who has since left a voice for men and has dedicated himself more to writing and his own activist group — named community organized compassion and kindness — which he said will soon offer a domestic violence hotline for men .
for a short period of time i was getting paid a fairly token amount as an avfm employee, but as far as i know nobody else is getting paid simply because we’re really too small for that to be viable at this point .
a voice for men a voice for men is essentially a mouthpiece for its editor, paul elam, who proposes to “expose misandry [ hatred of men ] on all levels in our culture. ” elam tosses down the gauntlet in his mission statement: “avfm regards feminists, manginas [ a derisive term for weak men ], white knights [ a similar derisive term, for males who identify as feminists ] and other agents of misandry as a social malignancy. we do not consider them well intentioned or honest agents for their purported goals and extend to them no more courtesy or consideration than we would clansmen [ sic ], skinheads, neo nazis or other purveyors of hate. ” register - her. com, an affiliated website that vilifies women by name who have made supposedly false rape allegations (among other crimes against masculinity), is one of elam’s signature “anti - hate” efforts. “why are these women not in prison? ” the site asks .
i' m all for men and all for equality. but let' s stop joking around about the real problem here and do something to achieve it .
with all due respect what you are describing is the hijacking of the word feminism by either gender to mischievously disparage its merits and progress. in my eyes a' true' feminist promotes equality and is as interested about the wellbeing of men as they are women. a voice for men, clearly hate women and some women clearly hate men, but these women are not and never will be feminists
these quotes, and these articles, are really only the tip of the iceberg. i invite anyone interested in finding out more about what paul elam believes to look through my archives at some of my other posts about him, and about a voice for men more generally .
lol. because it' s always been so hard for men to have a voice. feminism is not about some kind of female supremacy. it' s about equality of rights and opportunity for everyone regardless of their sex or gender identity. as clementine has pointed out, the reason this feels to some men like a loss of power is because the power was unequally distributed in the first place .
the crowd wasn' t huge, but it was enthusiastic. the event was a real - world gathering organized by the website a voice for men, part of an informal collection of websites, chat rooms and blogs focused on what' s known as the men' s rights movement. speaker after speaker insisted that history would remember this moment .
men’s ministry is a place where we can create the framework of vital relationships among men, with a distinctly masculine context. this ministry will help you create a deeper intimacy with god and become accountable for other brothers in christ. develop a pure heart, become a servant leader, honor our women, mentor for our next generation and most importantly be effective witnesses for christ .
how ironic. my dear, men already take responsibility for their actions. maybe someday women will too .
women in sports broadcasting are used to men criticizing their voices. in my three years in sports radio, i’ve had more men complain about my voice than everything else about me combined — and trust me, there are a lot of other things they don’t like about me .
click around that site and you will find rants about domestic violence shelters and lots of other misogynistic vitriol, all being marketed under the banner of the white ribbon campaign. a voice for men' s paul elam called the site something he' s
very proud of .
even adult volunteers earn “knots” for accomplishments like being a den leader for the cub scouts or offering a training course. tabata recently earned the william d. boyce award, for example, by initiating a new venture group on kaua‘i .
elam told reporters at a q & a session set up for the press that this was not “a gender war. ”
these controversial lectures were organised by a student group called the canadian association for equality or cafe for short. cafe has come under fire from student groups and media who not only disagree with their actions and ideology, but have associated them with the extreme, vitriolic american men’s rights website a voice for men. where avfm is upfront and open about its hatred for feminism and - ists, calling them “ rape farmers ”, cafe takes aim at feminism with misleading information and careful rhetoric, barely ever using the word “feminist” itself .
@ dubious the third - in other words, exactly the same sort of feminist articles that the drum publishes, week in, week out. not a fresh voice or a new idea amongst them .
i find you, as a feminist, to be a loathsome, vile piece of human garbage. i find you so pernicious and repugnant that the idea of fucking your shit up gives me an erection ,
elam wrote on his site, about feminist educator and author jaclyn friedman. in her incisive investigation into the men' s rights movement, friedman reported that one woman who was targeted by elam, a voice for men, and their audience of men' s rights activists for having the audacity to get into an argument with a men' s rights activist had her personal contact information published online, while commenters said they hoped she would
enjoy being anally defiled
and
i would actually cum cutting that bitch' s throat .
the southern poverty law center has flagged men' s rights groups, and elam' s a voice for men in particular, as spreading hate and misogyny .
tell me why you’re here ,
elam says, his voice soft. he fixes her with a gaze that says ,
i really want to listen to you .
once we can establish that, by the way, men are human beings — so are boys — it is ok for us to stand and talk about their issues ,
says paul elam, who founded the website a voice for men in 2009 .
[ we can ] seek solutions even if, god forbid, they' re not solutions that are prescribed through the feminist lens .
unfortunately, as it' s being hosted by a voice for men - a motley crew who espouse hatred and fear of women - it promises to be about as useful to the advancement of men' s issues as a condom made out of sticky tape. (condoms are very important to the men' s rights movement, because mras are convinced paternity fraud is a thing. they even have a
nationally recognised expert
speaking on the matter. you guys, it' s not a thing. )
for men' s rights groups, feminism has come at the expense of men men' s rights movement leaders say they' re pushing back against the excesses of feminism and highlighting the problems of men and boys. critics argue that misogyny is lurking just below the surface .
the list of grievances for mras is long. it includes the elevated rate of suicide for men, educational discrimination against boys, economic and workplace conditions for men, violence against men, false rape reporting, fathers’ rights in custody battles, rates of male imprisonment and prison conditions, and the horrors of war. many of these issues deserve a thoughtful response and the force of an organized movement for address them. it’s too bad that’s not what men’s rights activists are offering .
it is time that the drum did have articles about men' s issues for sure. it could be about men' s inability to locate their feelings, and to then find soft targets to blame for their accumulated anger. surely that' s a men' s issue worthy of discussion. or it could be about why many men seem incapable of being respectful of other humans, and get scared / aggrieved about some perceived loss, if they cannot control others. there' s so much to contemplate and discuss, however, the
voice for men
folk appear to want to' skirt' around such matters which affect men' s emotional wellbeing and mental health. just for the record, i too am male, and a bit over all this' poor boy, men' s rights' nonsense .
at the podium, farrell was introducing paul elam, the founder of a voice for men. farrell explained how he’d initially heard that the site was a hub for “angry” activists, but later discovered it was a thoughtful group of people wrestling with the same issues he cared about. he added that one of the main differences between him and his protégé was that elam was “secure enough internally to allow the space for the anger. ” he then embraced elam, who went on to give a speech about the plight of blue - collar men .
“feminists talk about raising women’s equality to that of men, ” he says. “meanwhile, they’re not raising anything for the men who were already below the women. ”
much of the social - media discussion of mowins’s voice was preceded by the always dubious claim that the criticism had nothing to do with the fact that mowins was a woman. setting aside that starting a tweet with “i’m not sexist, but” usually ensures that what follows will be sexist, it’s hard to imagine how to separate mowins the woman from mowins the voice. beth mowins sounds like a woman .
as a three - decade leader and activist in the men’s movement, i have zero tolerance for men like paul elam, who do so much damage to efforts toward gender equity and mutual respect .
at first, bonnie was happy her dad had a hobby; she was interested and supported his passion and was proud when he began to gain a real following. as the mother of two sons, she was concerned about resources for young men, and thought his perspective — he said he was a drug abuse counselor and noticed men were getting abused so he made it his mission to find them resources — was admirable. she said she remembers elam made thousands of dollars through online fundraising in just days to launch a voice for men that year .
this summer, a few hundred men and a handful of women gathered in a vfw hall near detroit to attend what organizers billed as the first international conference on men' s issues .
that incest can be a good thing—has recently signed on as a regular avfm contributor. for over a year, avfm hosted in their “activism” section a call to
some men insist they turn to sports to get a break from women. this is something i hear more than you would probably believe. i’ve been told my voice is too high, too low, too young - sounding, too chicago - sounding, too harsh, too soft, and “just generally obnoxious. ” the only time i’ve ever been complimented on my voice was when i had bronchitis and a bunch of men called in to tell me my voice was sexy. but bronchitis is hard to maintain on any kind of regular basis just to please the lonely faction of my male listeners. and anyway, antibiotics forced me to go back to sounding like myself .
with irate phone calls and even death threats pouring into the hotel in the run - up to the conference, its organizer, a voice for men, was forced to move the event to a local veterans of foreign wars hall. the group warned ticket holders by email that “ideological opponents” were likely to show up, and that they would be “looking for anything they can to hurt us with. ”
what is clear is that elam has amassed tens of thousands of followers — and lined his pockets with their donations to the for - profit avfm, which are estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. (when asked how this money is spent, elam told buzzfeed news that a voice for men' s finances were
none of your fucking business .
)
lurking around the edges of the male studies movement, moreover, in web sites like paul elam’s a voice for men, is a certain amount of anti - feminist hostility, if not outright misogyny. there used to be a link on the web site for the foundation for male studies to an interminable screed by someone called the futurist, who was convinced the overvaluing of women and undervaluing of men was about to create a civilizational cataclysm. the piece began more or less rationally, but soon flared with gas jets of anger and worries about “rage - filled ‘feminists’ who would gladly send innocent men to concentration camps if they could. ”
“i think it’s weird that he advocates for fathers and he had an opportunity to step up, but the one time something got uncomfortable he bailed. he didn’t fight for me. he should fight for me. i think i’m worth fighting for. ”
cafe goes to great lengths to keep their rhetoric innocuous (we' re not anti - women, is the general message, just pro - men). and it' s a tactic that has worked; they were granted official charity status by the harper government last year. but look at the company they keep and you will see a darker picture emerge. they are actively supported by the u. s. organization a voice for men, the very openly misogynist men' s rights organization that coined the term
rape farmers
for feminists .
we aim to create a safe and valuable space for discussion and debate. that means :
for critics, he says, he has
a whole garage full of don' t give a fuck .
a mass murder in california throws a harsh light on the world of women - hating ‘men’s rights’ activists. it’s not a pretty sight .
last november, cafe came under fire when several women who protested at one of their university of toronto events, featuring guest lecturer dr. warren farrell, were later profiled on the website register - her. com. the site is run by u. s. - based men’s rights website a voice for men and is dedicated to exposing females they allege are “false rape accusers” and bigots .
these ideas have given rise to aggressive tactics and rhetoric. the national coalition for men —whose board of advisers includes farrell—has fought to cut off state funding for domestic - violence programs if men aren’t included. a voice for men’s founder, paul elam, who is a friend and protégé of farrell’s, has justified violence against women and written that some of them “walk through life with the equivalent of a i’m a stupid, conniving bitch—please rape me neon sign glowing above their empty little narcissistic heads. ” other activists have published names of women they consider enemies and have praised online stalkers, such as the “gamergate” mobs who bombard feminist critics with rape and death threats .
last june' s international conference on men' s rights was not just an important moment for the movement, but also a bid for mainstream attention and acceptance. originally slated for the doubletree hilton in detroit, the conference had been moved after local feminist activists protested the venue and there was a demand for further security costs from the hotel after it was deluged with threats .
a ridiculous comment. feminism is not a hate movement against men, it is one that attempts to empower women. in doing so it needs to disempower men to a certain extent, but not to the extent that the power is all the other way. just because there are some female feminists who hate men it doesn' t mean that the focus of the movement is hatred. this is the same as the fact that even though there are some men who hate women (and there are) not all men do. men' s voice has not been silenced, but it has been muted ever so slightly .
a female missouri state assistant sociology professor wants men to measure their manhood and send her photos. she wants the photos for veriification purposes... .
the abs reports that 93% of dv against men is by women. they also report a dramatic increase in men reporting dv. it was always there but now men are not content to stay quiet anymore .
the men who frequent a voice for men and similar mra communities are not interested in equality between humans as they claim. their agenda is not to restore' human rights' for all but to re - establish the dominance that has historically been enjoyed by men both legally and socially. spend a fraction of time on their forums and you' ll see the ferocity with which they despise and ridicule women. mras might complain about women wielding their brazen power over them, but the speed with which they want to avoid being compared with them is telling .
the voice of scouting exists to tell the world the good news of scouting. stories are found from across the nation and the world on how scouting influences the lives of young people .
if you go to the website urltoken, you' ll see a page that purports to be an anti - violence organization .
end violence against everyone ,
the banner reads; a woman' s bruised face stares back at you. the name, white ribbon, is a widely recognized one, known for being a campaign started by men to fight violence against women, and to encourage men and boys to raise their voices against gender - based violence. the urltoken website writes on its front page ,
urltoken is owned and operated by a voice for men ,
and warns against imitator sites perverting the anti - violence message .
it is not' female privilege' for a woman to have the final say over whether or not she grows a fetus inside her for nine months before birthing it and then raising it .
in daffodils for dumpsters the gash gets you in, and you don’t really have a choice .
never miss a story from speak louder. , when you sign up for medium. learn more
it’s a serious question, because the answer to that question … should inform you of what will work for you or not work for you in dealing with me .
whtm is now ad - free and depends on readers like you for survival! please donate what you can by clicking below. no need for a paypal account .
the article, entitled “leader’s suicide brings attention to men’s rights movement, ” provoked a tremendous response among men’s rights activists (mras) and their sympathizers .
missing from that coverage were the group’s fierce tactics, which have continued unabated. in october, with vicious misogyny raging online around the gamergate controversy, feminist pop - culture critic anita sarkeesian canceled a talk at utah state university after administrators received an email threatening “the deadliest school shooting in american history. ” a voice for men responded with an essay asserting that the email’s author was in fact a feminist posing as a men’s rights activist, and insinuating that sarkeesian stood to profit from the episode .
he believes, “from the bottom of my heart”, that he is supposed to “demand changes to the system and justice for men” .
conservatives rushed in to defend the men’s movement: helen smith, who blogs for the website pj media, argued that “feminists and their supporters who block funding and education going to boys’ and men’s issues” may have been to blame for rodger’s attack. after the protesters showed up at the hilton doubletree in detroit, fox news suggested their goal was “muzzling” men. “feminists are up in arms, calling a men’s conference a hate group even though it included all races and sexes, ” said morning show host steve doocy, pointing to the diverse community elam had built. “so who are the ones being intolerant? ” an opinion piece on cnn. com by marc randazza, a first amendment lawyer who has spoken up for rush limbaugh, violent video games, and the pornography industry, suggested that a voice for men had endured protests and threats simply because it had the “audacity to question certain issues from a man’s perspective. ”
contreras - godfrey, rossanna. “giving voice to black and latino men: first - year students' perceptions of the relative impact of family support and college aspirations on their decisions to enroll and actual college enrollment”, phd, boston college, 2009. urltoken
like feminism, many in the mrm argued for equality between the sexes. one of the movement' s earliest activists, warren farrell, told salon ,
i definitely agree with choices for women, but i do not agree with choices for women when they eliminate choices for men. i think that the sexes need to make choices that lead to the maximum amount of win - win for both sexes .
and farrell himself has some decent feminist credentials: he served on the board of the national organization for women (now) for three terms .
all men are bad clem. i won' t argue. i have suffered because of the actions of other men more than you ever will. so yes clem. all men are bad .
“i think it' s weird that he advocates for fathers and he had an opportunity to step up, but the one time something got uncomfortable he bailed. he didn' t fight for me. he should fight for me. i think i' m worth fighting for. ”
farrell, a self - proclaimed technophobe, rarely ventured online, but he continued to write books and seek publicity for his cause. in 2003, he ran for governor of california against arnold schwarzenegger on a fathers’ rights platform, garnering around 600 votes. later, farrell approached the obama administration with a proposal for a white house council for men and boys and signed on luminaries like former michigan gov. jennifer granholm, but the plan did not come to fruition .
don’t believe it? here is another example of privileged male vocal fry: noam chomsky. he’s been speaking in public with vocal fry for over 50 years, and i bet his superiors have never received a tide of letters to complain about his voice. i chose a video of a much younger chomsky to show that his vocal fry is not simply a product of his age :
it’s hard to know what to do about mras beyond taking every possible opportunity to expose them as the hatemongers they are. but i think that the above list of feminist victories for men provides a clue. when she interviewed me for the
the word ‘mental’ had negative connotations for men and was associated with illness rather than health. to men, being asked to do something to improve mental health indicated there was a problem that needed to be fixed in the first place .
the politics of backlash have been a republican specialty for decades, but liberal anger continues to rise .
this is a great piece, clementine. the blind sexism of men' s rights activists is such a frustrating and idiotic backlash against the struggle for equality, which is the purview of feminism .
elam once stated that if he should be called to sit on the jury for a rape trial, he' d automatically vote not guilty, even if the evidence of the accused' s guilt was overwhelming. this, and most of his most shocking writings, are published on his online publication a voice for men— which the red pill' s director cassie jaye comes across at the start of the film, when she' s researching
rape culture .
mcphee, who was sexually abused by a girl when he was a teenager, adds there is a lack of support systems for male victims of domestic abuse .
a voice for men is basically the jezebel of the men' s rights movement. elam sometimes brings up good points, but he falls into the same trap of exaggerating problems that feminists do. he acts like an edgy twelve year old and constantly tries to stir up drama for attention. he' s on record saying that he doesn' t think shoe0nhead is hot anymore because her boyfriend disagreed with him, and saying that the mrm has no extremists. he' s pretty much the strawman of men' s rights that radical feminists constantly attack. he spends too much time attacking feminism to really focus on men' s issues .
julie dicaro, a chicago radio journalist, says she has been told that her voice is “too high, too low, too young - sounding, too chicago - sounding, too harsh, too soft and ‘just generally obnoxious. ’”
when it comes to pregnancy women have options men have none .
that' s because women can become pregnant and men cannot .
cafe has sprung up in several campuses across central canada in the past year. they have groups on - site at universities in guelph, montreal, ottawa and peterborough, as well as two toronto organisations and off - campus groups in ottawa and vancouver. most recently, ryerson university caught a controversial mix of praise and indignation for banning the group from their campus. cafe claims to be “committed to achieving equality for all canadians” and identifies as a human rights group that focuses on men’s issues. however, despite their claims or how they identify, the events that cafe has been planning have been covered to an unusually extensive degree by a voice for men .
today a small feminist group has succeeded in shutting down a screening of a movie that discusses issues that they fear might interfere with their agenda ,
the petition says. vice reached out to men' s rights melbourne for comment but has not heard back. the group is apparently hunting for a new venue to screen the film .
violence against women is largely perpetrated by men. violence against men is largely perpetrated by... men. i think i see the problem... those who campaigning against violence against women are not promoting violence against men. it is not an either / or issue. both are a problem .
the intelligence report is the splc' s award - winning magazine. subscribe here for a print copy .
jacob herr, eagle scout troop 270, salutes during a presentation for the kaua‘i bsa volunteer recognition dinner .
in some ways, the manosphere is old news. as long as there has been feminism, there has been a misogynist backlash. warren farrell, considered by many to be the father of the modern men' s rights movement, has been at it since the' 80s. but the internet has proven a powerful accelerant for these discontents: according to alexa. com, a web analytics service, a voice for men' s traffic has more than doubled in the past year; the site' s u. s. traffic ranks at 10, 303 as of this writing (by way of comparison, the
the real irony of the above duke university video is that bill mayew exhibits vocal fry throughout, and no one thought it enough of a problem to correct in a video about the professional dangers of vocal fry. his voice is fine, because we assume his authority .
scum stands for “society for cutting up men, ” and it is true that solanas continues to be much - read and quoted in some feminist circles. (“we don’t really cut up men, ” the tagline of the feminazis blog cheekily declares. “well, unless they deserve it. ” )
now, men' s rights advocates argue, feminism is more concerned with promoting the interests of women — often at the expense of men .
leaders in the movement say they want to bring more attention to the problems of men and boys. critics worry, however, that these sites are a breeding ground for misogyny .
reddit: mens rights a “subreddit” of the user - generated news site reddit, this forum describes itself as a “place for people who feel that men are currently being disadvantaged by society. ” while it presents itself as a home for men seeking equality, it is notable for the anger it shows toward any program designed to help women. it also trafficks in various conspiracy theories. “kloo2yoo, ” identified as a site moderator, writes that there is “undeniable proof” of an international feminist conspiracy involving the united nations, the obama administration and others, aimed at demonizing men .
@ aj - for the vast majority of history, the vast majority of men have not had the right to vote. women received the right to vote only a few decades after men did - and that right was granted by the men who voted. you should look at history from a broader perspective, rather than through the lens of patriarchy theory .
the veteran n. f. l. reporter andrea kremer said she was hardly surprised by the backlash against mowins’s play - by - play on the sport’s biggest stage. “i have no doubt that ‘hating the sound of her voice’ is code for ‘i hate that there was a woman announcing football, ’” kremer told me .
a voice for men’s paul elam tried on a collegial tone at first. “the goals of splc and avfm are quite similar, ” he averred in open letter to the splc’s president, richard cohen. “we both work to identify groups who seek to oppress others, and inform the public of the inequities they would perpetuate. ” but just days later, in a post headlined “ southern poverty law center linked to hate activity, ” he changed his tune .
if you are a college graduate of a certain age, you probably remember that there used to be an all - purpose discipline that studied men and their behavior. it was called history. there was also a subject, called literature, that studied what men wrote. and art examined the pictures men painted.
a voice for men ( also known as avfm , avfm or av4m ) is a united states-based for-profit limited liability company and online publication founded in 2009 by paul elam . a proponent of the men 's rights movement , or " men 's human rights activism " , it is the largest and most influential men 's rights website . its editorial position is strongly antifeminist and frequently accuses feminists of being misandrist in their mindset . 
a voice for men (also known as avfm, avfm or av4m) is a united states-based for-profit limited liability company and online publication founded in 2009 by paul elam. a proponent of the men's rights movement, or " men's human rights activism ", it is the largest and most influential men's rights website. its editorial position is strongly antifeminist and frequently accuses feminists of being misandrist in their mindset.
a voice for men (also known as avfm, avfm or av4m) is a united states-based for-profit limited liability company and online publication founded in 2009 by paul elam. a proponent of the men's rights movement, or " men's human rights activism ", it is the largest and most influential men's rights website. its editorial position is strongly antifeminist and frequently accuses feminists of being misandrist in their mindset.