The Honey Badger Brigade — the all-female-except-not-really gaggle of antifeminist YouTubers — has been raising money, and quite a lot of it, to pay their possible legal bills as they seek “legal redress” against the Calgary Expo for booting them from the event.
So far they’ve raised nearly $14,000 of their goal of $40,000, which they say “will be used for legal costs and costs directly related to our ejection from the Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo,” whatever that means. That gives them some wiggle room. As “victims” go, they’re pros.
On the group’s fundraising page, the Badgers accuse the Expo of tossing them out
due to our Men’s Rights Activism and unpopular view of modern feminism. Therefore it is our belief that the actions taken by the Calgary Expo staff were of a political nature and contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in particular freedom of conscience, freedom of thought and freedom of association.
Apparently this is one of the most important civil right struggles of our time.
While the Expo hasn’t given a clear reason for why the Honey Badgers were evicted, I’m guessing it’s not for the group’s “view of modern feminism” but because the group came to the expo flying the figurative flag of GamerGate, a loosely organized but highly virulent harassment campaign disguised, not very convincingly, as a campaign for “ethics in game journalism.” Oh, and possibly because they seem to have gotten into the expo under false pretenses.
Even if we were to assume that the Honey Badgers were booted for being Men’s Rights Activists, there is a teensy bit of irony to their complaint. You see, the HBB is closely tied to Men’s Rights hate site A Voice for Men. Indeed the two most visible HB’s — Alison Tieman and Karen “GirlWritesWhat” Straughan — are volunteer staffers on the AVFM masthead, as is HB hanger-on Sage Gerard.
Last summer, most or all of the HBB attended AVFM’s first conference, held outside Detroit; Straughan spoke at it. Here they are posing with their AVFM comrades.
You know who wasn’t at that conference? Feminists, whom the event organizers made pretty plain were not welcome. Indeed, as journalist Jeff Sharlet noted in his remarkable account of the conference in GQ, attendees seemed to be obsessed with defending their little event against an angry mob of feminists that never materialized.
They keep saying, “No feminist better try coming here!” Local police have dispatched four officers, and the conference attendees have deputized even more security from their own ranks. “Security” wears black polo shirts, and there are a lot of black polo shirts, but since the line is slow, security decides to sweep us all in with a request to return for a “check.” Nobody does. Only one feminist later attempts entry, an activist who goes by the handle “Dark Horse Swore.” The black shirts eighty-six her.
Only a few of these dastardly feminists made it into the event, posing as journalists. Oh, wait, they were journalists. Somehow I suspect that security at AVFM’s planned conference this year will be tighter.
I also suspect that the Honey Badgers will be there, recounting the story of the terrible injustice done to them by the Calgary Expo.
H/T — @idlediletante on Twitter, who’s been keeping tabs on the money so many #GamerGaters are raking in.
John Anderson,
Depends on what you mean by “men’s issues.” Feminists do have plenty of compassion for men who are raped or abused. Men who are shot by the police simply for having the wrong skin color. Etc.
If by men’s issues you mean, men shouldn’t have to respect consent. Or men who have abandoned their children shouldn’t be expected to pay a couple hundred dollars in child support, and I suspect that’s what you mean, then you’re correct. We don’t give a shit.
That’s beside the point though. The point is, if the AVFM conference has the right to not allow access to people they find disruptive, how does the Calgary expo not have the same right?
Because freeze peach only applies to MRAs, Republicans and fundamentalist Christians. Just like the Founding FATHERS intended! [/sarcasm but probably what this jackass actually believes]
And that point is…what exactly?
That they broke the rules and wanted to get away with it because FREEZE PEACH?
Because anyone with half a brain took a look at what the Honey Badgers did, and then looked to the Expo’s rules to see if they were being broken or not. Turns out heckling and derailing a feminist panel because you don’t like them or what they had to talk about is against the rules, and is grounds for expulsion!
Because, as the saying goes, “Your rights stop at the tip of my nose.” Freeze peach only goes so far. When you try to use it to heckle or derail other people’s panels, it doesn’t apply. Because those people have a right to freeze peach too. And by heckling and derailing, you’re only trying to silence them and change the subject to something you want to talk about instead.
Oh, and so’s lying about who you purchased a booth to represent because you wanted to be on “stealth mode” knowing full well that you weren’t actually wanted there due to your connections to groups known for harassment (mostly of women).
“Bluh bluh we don’t want to let the feminists in because they don’t care about “men’s issues” and they’re all liars and cheats, but then we gripe when they get in because they’re obviously ENTITLED LITTLE BITCHES for wanting to get in WITHOUT PAYING.”
Well, if you had given us the option to pay for a ticket and didn’t ask us to leave immediately as soon as it was discovered that we were feminists, I’m sure some of us would have bought an (obscenely overpriced) ticket to go and listen to these panels. It’s actually kind of important to us to know what the other side thinks. (Though, we could have stayed home and found out for free. You MRAs are hardly transparent about how much you hate us.)
What happened to MRAs want to listen to the other side and be “reasonable”? Oh wait, they only want to listen to the “other side” when we’re silent and nodding along with the program like a bobblehead. So never.
As for the misguided assumption that “feminists don’t give a shit about men!”, I’d like to point out the obvious that a man runs this blog, and many of our regular commenters are men. And those of us who don’t identify as male do care for them very much.
Then I’d like to point out the fact that we do, in fact, care about men. We do care about your mental and physical health. We do care about your rights, your freedoms, and your right to do what you want with your life without judgment (as long as it harms no one else in any way).
What we don’t care for is your belief of what men should be. We don’t care for your belief solely of the “rights” of cishet white men either.
Trust me when I say this: the biggest misandrists around are MRAs. You don’t even love yourself enough to think that you’re more than an animal who can’t control his baser instincts. You think men have to be heartless monsters, whose sole existence is to only fuck women and spread your seed, and fuck your “feelings” (Because those are feminine, and therefore weak) and fuck your desires if they don’t meet some arbitrary standard of “manliness”.
‘Scuse us feminists (of all genders) for thinking that’s a load of crap and not wanting to participate.
You know what they say about assumptions right? And, again, if we had the option to openly purchase a ticket to go, we would have liked to.
But then again, you said it yourself, we weren’t welcome. So, how were we supposed to pay for a ticket again? Or better yet, why should we if we were only going to be thrown out for being a feminist? Waste of money if you ask me.
Great point. I guess to MRAs it’s only misandry when evil dishonest feminists do it.
(and by “it” I mean criticizing misogyny and aspects of entitlement or privilege that men might misuse, not by actually hating men. Just to clarify.)
If you hang around conservative forums long enough, you’ll hear an interesting reveal. Eventually, someone will make the claim, and be supported in it, that “At least conservative women are all hot.”
Because that’s important in, say, a candidate for Vice President or a talk-show personality or a pundit–that they be ‘hot’ (but only if the person in question is a woman, of course). I’m not claiming that there’s a lack of focus on women’s appearance among leftists–listen to enough speeches and introductions, and you’ll get plenty of cringe-inducing snafus where the speaker praises a woman being appointed for a position for her appearance, often even before her talents (and of course, there’s the media’s obsession with describing every outfit a woman politician wears). But if it’s considered important on the Left, it’s considered vital on the Right.
*********
One further downside of the exodus of marginalized individuals from the Republican party (as described above by bekabot) is that the Democratic Party, in turn, has been able to coast on issues important to those groups. All they have to do is promise not to make things worse, and they’re already infinitely better than the default Republican position; there’s no need to suggest ways to actually make things better.
@freemage
Seriously, you know that something’s fatally wrong with a political party when their opposition only has to say “We promise to not incarcerate women for having abortions,” “We accept that racism exists and is a bad thing” or “We hope LGBT+ people will be legally considered human within five years” to win entire demographics.
Interesting to put a face to the MRA crowd and the Honey Badgers. I’ve perused their sites before, so I know the kind of rhetoric that’s on there. Which is why I’m shocked at the Honey Badgers’ appearance…. considering how MRA types rant and rave about women not pleasing their boners sufficiently, I would have thought the Honey Badgers would have lived up somewhat better to that ideal.
As for the men, no comment.
It’s amusing to me that you people only defend women when they agree with you. Hypocrites, all of you.
It’s only hypocritical if the central tenet of feminism is “women are always right.” Unfortunately for you, that’s not what feminism is. There’s nothing hypocritical about disagreeing with women we disagree with.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by “defend”, but doesn’t everyone? Hell, MRAs only defend men when those men agree with them. All the rest of us men are manginas, white knights, beta blue-pill losers, feminized monstrosities, etc.