I spend more time on YouTube than I probably should. Most of the time I’m on the site, I’m tracking down strange and awesome music videos. But I also love cat videos (big surprise), ridiculous fake alien and UFO videos, videos of people behaving in incredibly unwise ways that are somehow not lethal to them, and pretty much anything that’s got Yackety Sax as its soundtrack.
What do MRAs enjoy watching? As far as I can tell, when they’re not watching videos of other MRAs, or flooding the comments of feminist videos, they like watching videos of women getting punched.
How else to explain the hundred-plus upvotes that greeted this brief video – it’s all of 15 seconds long –of a man knocking out a woman who was assaulting him. The video starts with a fight already in progress, as a woman rains blows on a much larger man backed up against a wall at what seems to be a strip mall while her friends shriek in the background. The man, after fending off a number of punches, hits her directly in the face and she drops to the ground.
That’s it. That’s all we know. We don’t know who these people are, what the fight was about, or even who started it.
But to the denizens of the Men’s Rights subreddit, this is a man who is fully justified in using violence against a woman, and they can barely conceal their excitement, posting dozens of comments proclaiming him a sort of Men’s Rights hero.
“Kudos to the guy who stood up to this bullshit,” dalsgaard declares, in a comment that gets dozens of upvotes. “I hope other men will take his example.”
Tim8080 only wishes he’d been there to take part in the punching:
Actually, the man in question isn’t particularly old, and he’s certainly not frail; he’s actually rather large and imposing.
Gus2144 thinks that for some reason gender equality necessarily involves a lot of hitting:
Evidently in that last comment Gus took it a little too far for his Men’s Rights bretheren, and he garnered himself a few downvotes.
But the serious downvoting in the thread was reserved for those who questioned whether or not MRAs should be celebrating the incident captured on video as a grand victory for Men’s Rights.
Indeed, CapnDancyPants won himself more than two dozen downvotes for simply wondering what might have happened before the fifteen seconds shown on the video:
MRAs: If they can’t punch women, they don’t want to be a part of your revolution.
I’ve been thinking for probably a year that I should bite the bullet and ask my doctor about anti-depressants. I just find medication itself scary.
I also used to be really really put off by the idea because of a bunch of internalized ableist attitudes about good soldiers pushing through and blah blah blah bootstraps blah blah if I just work hard enough I can earn>/I>happiness and if that hasn’t happened yet I’m just too lazy and etc. I recognize that as poison now. But pills still freak me out!
Point: italics tag.
Some Gal: If he keeps blogging, I suspect we’ll get a perfect case study of whether it’s possible to be threatening and violent enough to make WordPress do something.
@Viscaria
Well, antidepressants aren’t not-scary (it is important to familiarize yourself with the side effects and know that they aren’t necessarily easy to stop). However, when they help, they are amazing. I get about the worst side effects you can get on pretty much all of them (and I’ve been on pretty much all of them) and I still recommend trying them if you haven’t and need help. There is nothing wrong with taking medication for a medical condition! 🙂
@somegal I haven’t liked the side effects. I after trying so many anti-depressants wouldn’t return to them. I think they work for some: my mom has found them effective. I have not.
I guess I don’t think there is a problem giving them a shot, but there are other methods of treatment too.
@melody
They pretty much all make me suicidal (and that is in addition to weight gain on some, hypomania on most, etc.), but I haven’t had good luck with other treatment either (I mentioned that pretty much every therapist I’ve seen has fought me over my existing coping mechanisms, and every time I have tried theirs, things have gotten much worse), but I think it is worth trying everything if you are suffering and need relief.
I find I’m better off without medication or therapy for my bipolar, but I’m basically bedridden froknmy fibromyalgia and so we’ve returned to antidepressants to treat that. The few thay have made me feel any better had such terrible side effects that I couldn’t stay on them.
There were definitely problems for me with giving them a shot, but the problems I’ve had from bad therapists and psychiatrists have lasted a lot longer.
FROKNMY? Really autocorrect? That should be “from my.”
(And I think I just accidentally saved froknmy to my dictionary. Shit.)
@Some gal
Auto correct is insane. I once texted hippopotamus while trying to ask what kind of illness a friend had(I don’t remember what word I typed that resulted in that autocorrect, but I know it didn’t start with an H).
I’m fairly anti-medications because some of them are not safe and you won’t know until people file class action lawsuits. Surprise: you have heart valve problems that might kill you because you wanted to deal with your depression.
No. I don’t have heart valve problems, but some of the medications had some pretty interesting side effects.
Interesting side effects? I’m still ambivalent on the “may cause DEATH RASH” mood stablizer. No death rash is good, but if it’s done anything it’s just hypomania wise and fuck, I like — I get shit done and no one’s ever complained about me launching into some creative venture. I have canvas, and paint, so why not use some?
I’m apparently at normal levels of depression these days (apparently that scores based on enough factors that if you just plain lack some, you aren’t depressed, no matter how “hi, I’m depressed” you are) — so “we’re” happy with my current treatment plan. Words will be had tomorrow…they may end up polite, but there will be words!
I once hallucinated bunnies everywhere. My mom didn’t figure it out until a few weeks of it either. Because it worked, but there were bunnies everywhere and thus I didn’t have much of an attention span.
@kitteh…have you tried marmite? I have adapted to vegemite and I have 2 little vegemites splashing in the bath as I type.
I don’t have the strength to actually read the things we mock. (I have such a low tolerance for cruelty I have to turn the channel when the SPCA ads come on.) Nevertheless, I get the impression from reading this blog that these men have no actual experience with violence and yet revel in the language of violence, both with their imaginary victimization and their imaginary (theoretical?) responses to that victimization.
Is this a pathology? I see no rational motivation for any of this. This behavior cannot lead to power, money, happiness, or even getting laid. What do these men actually want?
So much to answer!
@Some Gal – yikes, that sounds scary. Flu-like symptoms and plunging-all-the-way affirmations, I mean. I know what you mean about arguing, I go all argumentative “Oh that’s a lot of bullshit” a lot, but that’s partly ‘cos I did first hear them from some very New Agey types who could also seriously state that an ant would get bad karma from biting a human (hello, ants, world’s greatest three-choice cognitive minds!) I haven’t really got started on the affirmations yet; got to find a basic one that is positive and doesn’t also dredge up negative stuff.
My blood test came back fine (dammit!) – no anemia, everything was fine. I just bruise easy these days. I got a new scrip for Antenex, which is a relief. It’s stronger than the old one, too. I only use them for emergencies, I’m not at all wanting to get hooked on the things.
So far I haven’t had any side-effects from Pristiq that I know of. It made me a bit queasy when I started, so I took ’em at night instead of in the morning, but that wore off quickly. I’ve generally been lucky with meds, the only other time I had trouble was years ago when Diane35 started messing me about after I’d been on it a while.
Froknmy sounds like a great new word. We just need a definition for it. It sounds like a combination of rock’n and frock. Froknmy world: reaction to getting a really good new dress?
My favourite autocorrect, courtesy of Microsoft’s weird ideas: Diego Pujol turned into Dingo Payola. No prizes for guessing which name got used thereafter.
Aaand forgot to add:marinerachel (cool name! I work in the marine industry) – your post made me wonder how the hell anyone knows what their chromosomal arrangements are if they haven’t had whatever the appropriate tests are? I sure as hell wouldn’t know what mine are, although I’m physically and socially a woman.
BigMomma – no, I’ve never tried Marmite! What’s it like, are it and Vege very different?
Of course Vegemite has its legendary song …
http://youtu.be/0yA98MujNeM
ding, ding, ding! Kitteh wins the internet today.
I’ve had both and prefer Marmite. Kittehs, have you ever had (British snack) Twiglets? The coating on them is Marmite.
No, never had Twiglets! How long have they been around? I don’t know if they’re sold here, though Marmite itself is (I think).
Been around since I was a teenager, at least. Marmite is similar enough to Vegemite that if you like one you’ll probably like the other. Twiglets look like this – they’re crunchy and salty and really great.
http://www.seriouseats.com/images/20070815twiglets.jpg
twiglets…drool, we got friends to bring some over.
Marmite has a stronger taste I think.You can get it in the supermarkets here, called Our Mate. I get Vegemite because you can buy it in big jars.
I can’t remember if I have seen Twiglets in Coles…I think I have but it may be wishful thinking.
That’s interesting, I always had the vague idea Vegemite had the stronger taste. Possibly my mind rebelled at the idea of anything being stronger than that! 😀
Yeah, you’re probably not going to want to spread Marmite thickly on anything. I love the stuff, but it’s a less is more kind of thing.
Now, speaking of ye olde foods from a British and British diaspora childhood, Ovaltine? Can’t stand the stuff. I don’t know why, it’s not a very strong taste at all, I’ve just always hated it.
Mr C and I had a funny conversation about Yakult the other day (that’s another one we both grew up with). I’ve yet to meet anyone who actually enjoys it.
Sheepish hand in the air…I like Ovaltine (makes me think of Maltesers) and I like Yakult. Maybe I’m just not very discerning.
I’ve never been game to try Yakult, the advertising puts me right off. I like my yogurty stuff decadently full of fruit, not critters making my innards work better. 😉
Never tried Ovaltine (I can’t see that word without hearing Frau Blücher saying it). Grew up on Quik and then Milo. These days I drink Cadbury’s drinking chocolate hot, or chocolate soy milk for a cold drink.
I am terribly disappointed in Mads. Tried her with a smidgin of Vegemite after this conversation. She sniffed but wasn’t at all interested.