[Content note: This post contains obscene and sexist language that I wouldn’t normally allow on my site. Consider yourself advised.]
I wrote in May about the “men’s rights activists” – a tribe of angry misogynists who, despite the name, have no interest in actual issues of justice that affect men but only want an excuse to insult and degrade women. A large faction of MRAs are atheists, but there are some who subscribe to traditional Christianity as well.
One of the latter faction, who goes by Dalrock, wrote a post this week trashing an atheist writer named Rebecca Vipond Brink, who wrote for The Frisky about the relationships she had while she was in the process of undergoing a divorce. Dalrock sneered that women like Brink should be ashamed of themselves for sleeping with multiple men, even in serial monogamous relationships, and suggested that they carry signs proclaiming how many men they’ve had sex with (“very few women would be willing to march with an honest number”). As is par for the course on sites like this, the comments section was misogynist sewer filth:
Wimminz like her are so fucked in the head it is unbelievable.Having a drink with a skank like this too much work…let alone banging the pig….NO THANX!
I looked at her pics…..she is nothing special! Just another skank who thinks she has a “golden pussy”(that in actuality,is stretched to the max…and stinks). I wish this pig luck.She is soon to discover that she will be used and discarded….several hundred times! And as here looks fade…she will get more desperate and eventually settle for the wino that is begging for change on the street corner.My sentiments?….””Fuck you…you useless twat!…you are getting what you want…and deserve”
The sin of nice is to allow this women to be pleased. She should never ever not feel like a slut and damn sure should never think others don’t see her as a slut.
Loathsome as this is, it’s also pretty common on the internet. I wouldn’t have seen the point in calling special attention to it, except that Dalrock also included links to photos of Brink and to her personal Meetup account. Flaunting someone’s personal information on a hostile forum in this manner could be construed by harassers as an open invitation; at the very least, it reflects exceedingly poor judgment (as we’ve seen before).
So, I encouraged people to report the page to WordPress, the hosting site, as abusive. To be honest, I didn’t (and don’t) expect WordPress to take any action, but I view this as a means of social sanction, a way of letting the purveyors of this gutter sexism know that it won’t go unchallenged.
But MRAs are easy to drive into a frothing fury, and Dalrock didn’t disappoint, promptly writing a follow-up in which he raged at my “smear campaign to silence [his] discussion of Christian sexual morality”. (Who would Jesus slut-shame?) But it’s the comment thread that gives a real view into the untrammeled id of the misogynist movement – like these, from people who clearly know nothing whatsoever about me, my wife or her marriage:
There is nothing more pathetic than a ‘man’ who needs his wife to come to his rescue. In Adam Lee’s case, she is merely the person with whom he has a legal contract to provide for her, while she does nothing for him in return.
Anyone wanna take bets on how long Lee’s marriage will last?
For the record: four years and counting, and we’ve never been happier! You can also read my wife’s hilarious take on this, in which she points out the mutually-contradictory insults they tried to lob.
In the best tradition of smugly ignorant Christian proselytizers, they concoct elaborate fantasies about the fictitious childhood traumas I must have suffered:
These manginae also were largely raised with soft punks for fathers, or by single moms. Having a screechy feminist for a mother, and weak or no father, imprints upon boys early. They grow up feeling “safe” around harridans like these, and thus in adulthood they seek out an “empowered, loud and proud” woman, such as the bisexual divorcée Adam is currently sucking up to. His behavior in this regard makes me feel deep sympathy for what he went through as a child.
Again, for the record: I grew up in an intact, loving and proudly egalitarian household, and I have both my parents to thank for who I am today. Sorry to disappoint you.
Another common theme was that the only reason they could imagine that a man would speak out against sexism is in a misguided attempt to get laid. Here’s a specimen of the type:
Adam,
She is NOT going to have sex with you. Ever. You are quiche eating beta male. She is using you to try and tear down people who make her feel bad because she is a terrible person speading terrible advice. Stop what you are doing. You’re never going to get laid.
I appreciate the concern about my sex life, guys, but I’m happily married and monogamous. Just because you can’t think with anything above your gonads doesn’t mean that the rest of us labor under the same limitation. Also, what do you have against quiche?
Then there’s this amusingly juxtaposed pair:
Adam Lee is just another sub-human degenerate Social Justice Warrior who thinks that anyone who disagrees with him need to be shut down. These sons of bitches are just like Hitler’s Brownshirts with less testicular fortitude to face you in person.
I could not help noticing from Adam Lee’s Twitter that… he appears to be a Jew – albeit of the atheist variety…
So I’m both a Jew and a Nazi brownshirt? Those are two groups you wouldn’t normally expect to share a membership list. Also, when you’re comparing someone to Hitler, maybe you shouldn’t also call them a “sub-human degenerate” in the same breath? Just saying.
And finally, for bonus laughs:
@Dalrock. Stand tall. They hated Christ, they hated Vox Day and now they hate you.
If you take the time to plow through all these comments (and I hardly blame you if you don’t), you’ll soon notice the absence of creativity or original thought. They don’t even have an argument, as such; just sputtering, inchoate resentment and vituperation, a kicking-and-screaming tantrum at a world that’s leaving them behind. As I said on another occasion, most threads like this could be replaced with a random profanity generator without any loss of coherence.
I derive nothing but amusement from the MRAs’ antics, especially the ones who threatened to report me in retaliation (to whom? for what? they don’t know either). But I think it also goes to show that there’s really no difference between atheist MRAs and the Christian variety. In their all-consuming obsession with sex as the sole determinant of a person’s value; in their adherence to primitive, shame-based moral taboos; in their hypocritical desire to ogle and leer at the women they despise; or in their dismissal of half the human race as inferior beings – in all these things, there’s not an inch of daylight between them.
I wouldn’t presume to tell the Christian community what it should do about the misogynists in their midst. But to the atheist community I ask: Now that you’ve seen who these people are and what they’re like, is there any reason at all we should want them to be part of our big tent?
Postscript: In the name of not giving shitty people more attention than good ones, I highly encourage you to check out all of Rebecca Vipond Brink’s writing. I especially enjoyed this post on why she’s remaining a lapsed Catholic.