We Hunted The Mammoth
Oh, in all the excitement I forgot to mention that I was on the radio yesterday, on the show Femisphere on CKUW in Winnipeg. I talked about, well, you know, the stuff I usually talk about.
You can find it archived here; it’s the show for June 26th.
Feel free to ignore the weather report at the start, given that it’s for yesterday, and probably only relevant if you have a time machine and live in the Winnipeg area.
Thanks, Jen, for inviting me! Hope to return at some point.
The human rights visionary looked down at what he had just written and smiled. Would these be the words he was remembered for?
Thomas Jefferson had that line about all men being created equal. It was bullshit, of course, but people ate that crap up. Martin Luther King had that thing about his kids not being judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. That was pretty good, he had to admit. People love cute stories about kids.
Gandhi had that thing, how did it go? That thing about everyone laughing at you, and fighting, and then you win something? That wasn’t quite it, but Gandhi was kind of a wuss, anyway. Would people even remember that dopey skinny dude in a diaper in a hundred years?
He chuckled quietly to himself.
They would certainly remember him, he thought. And they would remember the words he had tapped out on his laptop shortly before midnight that fateful summer night, on the eve of the historic conference that would, he knew, change the world forever.
One day, he was sure, these three sentences – well, two sentences and a sentence fragment, to be more precise – would be etched in stone.
He reached down, and clicked “Tweet.”
https://twitter.com/AVoiceForMen/status/482050181886525440
So anyway, just a reminder: if you missed me on Al Jazeera America’s The Stream on Tuesday, facing off against AVFM’s Robert O’Hara, they’re rerunning the show today at 12:30 PM ET.
It’s only on TV, though, not online. Click here to see if you get Al Jazeera America on your TV provider.
Just a quick heads-up: I’ll be appearing on The Stream on Al Jazeera America today at 12:30 PM ET, debating Robert O’Hara of A Voice for Men. We’re in the opening segment of the show, which covers both the Men’s Rights movement and (in a separate segment) the issues of Father’s Rights. Also weighing in on Men’s Rights, the awesome Soraya Chemaly. For the rest of the people on the show, see here.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Al Jazeera archives episodes of its shows, nor does it stream its shows online, so you’ll have to watch this using that “television” thing that used to be such a big deal. The show will be rerun on Thursday, also at 12:30 PM ET.
To find out if your cable/dish company gets Al Jazeera America, go here.
Oh, and I have a favor to ask: if any of you have a way of recording your TV and a way of getting that video into a form that could be, say, emailed to me, could you do that? I would love to have a copy of the show. Thanks!
Ok, so, yeah, the rumors are true. I am a cat.
But the important thing here is that I’m starting up a new series of (barely) animated videos to explore the one part of online misogyny-land I have generally avoided up until now: YouTube.
Well, internet “radio” shows, podcasts and so on are fair game as well. Basically anything that involves these people talking into a microphone and putting it online.
My videos will be highlight some of the best of the worst of this stuff, and, as I say in the video, distil it into bite-sized morsels instead of the half-hour ordeals that MRAs and men going their own way and girls who write WTF tend to put forth with such alarming regularity.
Plus they’ll be animated in amusing and possibly slightly disturbing ways.
I’m also serious about needing some help.
Like I said, I hate watching their stupid fucking videos. I mean, reading this stuff I can handle. But listening to these assholes blathering on interminably, so full of anger, in their smug, ignorant voices is about as entertaining to me as dental work. I’m going to force myself to do it, but I’m not going to like it.
But I know there are a few of you out there who are actually willing to subject yourselves on a regular basis to this crap. And so I ask of you: if you’re one of them, and you run across something in one of these videos that is so astoundingly terrible that you would like to see it rendered in cartoon form, drop me an email (my last name at manboobz dot com) or leave a link in the comments below.
It’s especially helpful if you can include a rough time-stamp so I can find the particularly egregious bits. See, I’m not interested in analyzing their entire videos here. Only the brief revealing moments where they let something truly astounding slip. I’m also looking specifically for contradictions: if one of these guys or gals says something in one video that directly contradicts something they say in another.
Also, and I didn’t mention this in the video, but this may be your great chance to become a talking kitty, or some other interesting and/or adorable animal!
If you want to volunteeer your voice talents for a future video, let me know! I may come back to some of you who already helped with that last video project, and reach out to some of the rest of you who volunteered after all the slots were filled. I’ll post more about this when I get into making these videos.
This could also be your kitty’s great chance to become a talking kitty! If you have adorable pics of your cat or some other animal that might work well for a video, send me your pics, or link me to them online, and I may use one or more of them in a future video! I’m also looking for interesting photos to use as backdrops. And weird pics in general.
Oh, and if any of you have experience running your own channels on YouTube, I’m interested in any advice you can give on promotion, handling comments, and all that jazz. The last time I put videos on YouTube I sort of felt that they could, and should, have had a lot more viewers than they ultimately did.
Onward and upward.
Together, we can do this.
Sworebytheprecious, a regular in the AgainstMensRights subreddit, is trying to raise money so she can get to Detroit to report on that A Voice for Men conference you might have heard about. And you can help!
Here’s her pitch, from her GoFundMe page:
Lissie (akaSworebythePrecious) wants to get to Detroit to report on the convention held by A Voice for Men and Paul Elam. She also wants to start up a website for Project Dark Horse. Who wants to help?
Our goal is $1000. We’ll be posting receipts. We want to rent a car, get a room, and get a plane ticket. I also want to talk to some of the protesters who were bothered last Saturday.
So far she’s raised a little over $200, but I’m sure we can help her raise a lot more than that. If she goes over $1000, the money will go to charity or to help build a website for Project Dark Horse, dedicated to exposing the bullshit of the Men’s Rights movement in general and AVFM in particular. More details on Dark Horse here, and on her fundraiser here on the GoFundMe page.
Just wanted to let you all know that I will be on NPR today, as part of a special segment on Misogyny And Murder: Unpacking A Killing In California on the show On Point With Tom Ashbrook. For more details and a link to listen to the show online, see here.
I will probably be on in the middle of the show, from about 11:20-11:40.
I’ll put up a link to the archived show when it’s over.
UPDATE: The archived audio is now up, at the same link. And yeah, I was on in the middle. But you should listen to the whole show; Soraya Chemaly in particular is great.
Man Boobz is now We Hunted the Mammoth.
Don’t worry: nothing you knew and/or loved about the old Man Boobz, except the name, is going away. The blog will continue on much as it has. The old comments won’t vanish, and you won’t have to sign up again to post new ones. Your old links to manboobz.com should still work fine. (The new URL may take a little while to make its way around the world; let me know in the comments if you have trouble accessing the site.)
It’s just that, well, I got tired of the old name. I came up with it on the spur of the moment when I first started this blog. But it was kind of a dopey name. It was easily misunderstood, and gave people an easy excuse to dismiss the blog when it reported things that made them uncomfortable. I probably should have gotten rid of it a while ago.
But better late than never, huh?
We have a winner in the We Hunted the Mammoth Banner Contest!
Well, two winners, actually. And they are:
Dani, who designed several variations of a banner which will soon become the banner of We Hunted the Mammoth. I actually haven’t quite decided which of these to use, but I like them all, and it will be one of them! (Tell me which one you like best in the comments.)
Leocigale, who did the awesome cartoon below. Even though it’s not, technically speaking, a banner, I plan to use it on We Hunted the Mammoth as well. So Leocigale is also the winner!
Well, we all are, really.
Dani and Leocigale will split the cash prize of $100.
Well, actually, it might be a bit more than that: a few people made donations during the contest and didn’t leave a note specifying whether they were for the contest or not. If you were one of them, and you want your money to go to the contest winners, email me and I’ll add it to the prize. Once I get that sorted out, I’ll post an updated number here, and a breakdown of the donations in the comments below (I will break them down anonymously, of course).
Thanks to everyone who submitted entries! There was a lot of awesome artwork to choose from.
EDITED TO ADD: The cash prize ended up being … $170!
Hey, everyone, just a quick update on the still-ongoing We Hunted the Mammoth banner contest (the details of which are here).
First, I want to thank all those who’ve contributed so far. Some great stuff!
Second, I want to announce that due to the generosity of some Man Boobz — soon to be We Hunted the Mammoth — readers, the contest now has a cash prize of $100.
Thanks very much for those who’ve donated, and if you want to add more to the prize, use the regular Man Boobz donation button, but include a note saying you want the money earmarked for the prize. (Also include a little codeword or phrase; I want to be transparent with this, so I will list the donations later according to these code phrases so you know your money went to the prize.)
Also, a question: I’m wondering what you folks think should happen if I want to use more than one of the designs? Split the prize money?
The contest will run through Sunday. So submit if you haven’t already!
Here are some of the submissions so far. Anyone is free to use the artwork in a banner design of their own (and if it wins you’ll split the prize with the artist).
UPDATE: See below for updates, marked with UPDATE in bold
Man Boobz is about to become We Hunted the Mammoth.
That is, I’m changing the name. And I may end up fiddling a bit with the look. The actual content of the blog itself won’t really be changing.
I’ve been kind of frustrated with the old name for a while. I came up with it on the spur of the moment when I first started this blog and, to be honest, it’s kind of a dopey name. It doesn’t really fit what the blog has become, and I’m a bit tired of explaining it to people (“no, boobs as in nincompoops, not breasts”).
The new name, as all you regular readers know, is based on a phrase that’s already associated with the site. Granted, I’ll have to explain its meaning to people, just as I’ve had to do with the old name, but at least it has a better story behind it. (See the FAQ for more details; the relevant stuff is at the end.)
Naturally, a new name means a new banner, and that’s where you all come in. Yep, we’re having a BANNER/LOGO CONTEST. It will run for a week, more or less, and then I’ll pick a winner or two. The prize is … your banner will be the banner! Also you will receive my undying gratitude. [UPDATE: Some commenters here have started talking about setting up a fund to provide the winner with prize money; if you’re interested, check the comments. I’ll make an official announcement if/when we get something set up. And of course I’ll donate!]
The rules are simple: You can submit artwork, or a logo, or a finished banner. It should have a mammoth in it. I like the mammoth artwork above – and if you click on that image you’ll get a high-resolution version of it. But you can use some other public domain mammoth art, or draw your own mammoth. Stick to black and white and perhaps red.
The text should read: We Hunted the Mammoth. In smaller letters, the tagline: “Men’s Rights” and the New Misogyny. I’m inclined to go with the same font I’m using now – the free font Magnum. But if you’ve got a better idea, go for it. You can do the text by hand it you want. [UPDATE: Scratch that tagline, and replace it with The New Misogyny, tracked and mocked.]
If you’re making a banner, make it the same size of the current banner. Give it a transparent background. If you absolutely can’t fit everything into that space, I suppose you could make the banner a teensy bit taller.
I want to thank JohnnyKaje for her outstanding work on the current Man Boobz banners – including that amazing Cock Carousel artwork. I’ll put the old banners up on the FAQ page when the new banner goes up.
Feel free to submit rough sketches, to ask questions and make suggestions about the banner/logo — and about the site look and layout. You can post them online, or email them to me at [email protected].