Category: antifeminist women

Lying as PR: AVFM's Janet Bloomfield libels Jessica Valenti — then brags about it

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date August 4, 2014
470 Comments on Lying as PR: AVFM's Janet Bloomfield libels Jessica Valenti — then brags about it

Janet Bloomfield, self-acknowledged liar

A Voice for Men’s “social media director” Janet Bloomfield is proving to be quite the innovator in the world of public relations. You may recall her cheeky approach to publicizing the recent AVFM conference, which involved awarding herself “whore points” for calling critics of AVFM “whores.”

Now she’s moved on to straight-up libel, making up fake quotes in order to make feminist writer Jessica Valenti look bad, and then bragging about it on her blog.

This whole sordid episode began several days ago when Valenti, on vacation, decided to send a message to “all the misogynist whiners in my feed today” in the form of a photo of her on a beach wearing a t-shirt saying “I bathe in male tears.”

The AVFM social media attack squad seized on this at once, with Bloomfield telling her followers, wrongly, that the picture had been posted in response to a question about male suicide. When Valenti corrected her on this point, Bloomfield offered a half-assed apology (“My bad”).

Then Bloomfield, demonstrating just how insincere her apology had been, decided to up the ante, concocting four “quotes” from thin air and attributing them to Valenti.

[EDIT: JB’s Twitter account was suspended, so here’s a screenshot of the tweets; I’ll keep the original links up in case she’s ever unsuspended, though that seems unlikely.]

https://twitter.com/JudgyBitch1/status/495366752168329216

https://twitter.com/JudgyBitch1/status/495367262187302913

https://twitter.com/JudgyBitch1/status/495367996337295360

https://twitter.com/JudgyBitch1/status/495374177013346304

Naturally, as you’ll see if you follow any of these Tweets back to their original context on Twitter, many of Bloomfield’s fans assumed that these quotes were real.

Needless to say, some responded to Bloomfield’s dirty tricks with all-too predictable harassment of her target:

https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/495559012449267713

https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/495559068841680896

After brazenly libeling Valenti, Bloomfield went on to boast about it on her blog. In a post with the smug title “Jessica Valenti is not having a good day,” she wrote:

Now, these fake quotes may have been “utterly plausible” only to those who are ignorant of Valenti’s work, but in the hothouse world of the Men’s Rights movement there are people who would probably believe that Valenti eats babies. As I noted, JB’s followers had no trouble believing them.

Later in the post Bloomfield added, with more than a hint of maliciousness:

It’s not clear how having made-up quotes attributed to you counts as “owning your shit,” but I guess I just don’t understand Bloomfield’s higher morality.

Needless to say, in the real world, deliberately publishing false information about someone in order to harm their reputation is libel.

When confronted with this on Twitter, Bloomfield offered some inventive excuses:

@JudgyBitch1 @JessicaValenti JB, "I didn't like her shirt so I lied about her maliciously to harm her" isn't an acceptable defense for libel

— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) August 2, 2014

Later on she attempted to prove that her libelous fake Valenti quotes didn’t matter … by making up things about me:

https://twitter.com/JudgyBitch1/status/495684048237633536

As I noted,

@Alzael1 @virtuarat @JudgyBitch1 I'm pretty sure that "well, I lied about David Futrelle too" is not an acceptable libel defense either.

— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) August 2, 2014

Of course, I’m no lawyer. I can only hope that some people who are lawyers are taking a good hard look at Bloomfield’s lies.

I would encourage you all to screenshot or otherwise archive Bloomfield’s self-incriminatory blog post, as well as her tweets, just in case she decides to talk to a lawyer and take them all down.

At this point, I think it’s probably safe to assume that anything and everything anyone from AVFM says should be taken not with a grain but with an entire shaker of salt.

antifeminism antifeminist women confused cats against feminism cuteness false accusations irony alert lying liars misogyny MRA straw feminists straw futrelle ugly feminists

The Catster Debates: Or, I inadvertently bring MRAs to an innocent cat website

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date August 1, 2014
258 Comments on The Catster Debates: Or, I inadvertently bring MRAs to an innocent cat website

From that other blog of mine

So I did an interview about my Confused Cats Against Feminism blog with Catster.com, a site that devotes itself to collecting “helpful and hilarious information for the worldly but still infatuated Cat aficionado.” Alas, as a result of publishing this interview with me yesterday, they now seem to be collecting angry MRA commenters as well.

Here are some highlights of the, er, debate so far, which I’ve waded into myself, perhaps unwisely. (These are selections, with a bunch missing, though the comments that look obviously like they are responses to other comments, are.) Maeve Connor is the author of the post about me.

a voice for men announcements antifeminist women men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA paul elam

Belated Award Ceremony for that "Design a Commemorative Plate for A Voice for Men" contest with REAL PRIZE

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date July 25, 2014
53 Comments on Belated Award Ceremony for that "Design a Commemorative Plate for A Voice for Men" contest with REAL PRIZE

As you can tell, I too am a graphics wiz!

Hey, remember that contest we had in which we designed commemorative plates for A Voice for Men? Well, TA DA! Today I announce the winner! Who will win an actual real you-can-put-liquids-in-it coffee mug with the words “MALE TEARS” on it.

First let me say that there were many, many fine entries, all of them living up to the incredibly high standards set by Men’s Rights graphic artists.

But I can only award the prize to one person, because those are the rules I made up for the contest, so without further ado, the MALE TEARS mug goes to … drumroll … Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III, for his highly conceptual commemorative plate honoring A Voice for Men’s commemorative coin, which is what inspired this whole contest in the first place:

announcements antifeminism antifeminist women cuteness kitties ladies against women MRA

Cats respond to #WomenAgainstFeminism with new blog: Confused Cats Against Feminism

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date July 24, 2014
233 Comments on Cats respond to #WomenAgainstFeminism with new blog: Confused Cats Against Feminism

You can't argue with that! — You can’t argue with that!

So two of the females in my household have decided, sadly, that they want to get in on this whole Women Against Feminism thing. Yes, that’s right: they want to publicly declare their opposition to feminism.

Against my better judgment, I agreed to take pictures of them with signs spelling out their objections. None of their arguments make much sense to me, but, hey, they’re entitled to make their case on the internet if that’s what they want.

There’s just one little complication: the two antifeminist females in my household are not, you know, human females. They’re cats. Not being, strictly speaking, women, they can’t really post their pics to the Women Against Feminism blog.

So in the interest of free speech and fair play, I’ve set up a Tumblr blog where my cats, and other cats who share their beliefs, can take their stand against feminism – no matter how ridiculous their arguments are.

I present to you: Confused Cats Against Feminism.

You can see the first post there now, featuring my own adorably furry traitors to their gender.

I urge you to submit pictures of your own antifeminist cats, with their own little signs.

You can submit pics on the Confused Cats Against Feminism site, post pics in the comments below, or you can email them to me here at futrelle at manboobz.com.

There’s just one rule: your cats must be genuinely confused about why they oppose feminism, and generally unclear about what feminism is.

And the ideas expressed on their signs must be their own. In other words, I don’t want any Men’s Rights Activists paying cats on Fiverr to hold their signs for them. That shit won’t fly in this litterbox!

All that said, blatant photoshopping is perfectly fine. This is the internet, after all.

And if your animal friend is something other than a cat, that’s fine too. As long as it’s possible that they might think that they’re a cat.

Also, feel free to put the word “Poland” or the Polish flag on your pictures. A lot of the women on the Women Against Feminism blog do that, for some reason.

a voice for men a woman is always to blame all about the menz antifeminism antifeminist women are these guys 12 years old? entitled babies evil wives evil women false accusations female beep boop hamstering homophobia men who should not ever be with women ever MGTOW misogyny MRA oppressed men rationalization hamster women can't logic

The Top 7 Things I Learned From a Week's Worth of Comments at A Voice for Men

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date July 22, 2014
144 Comments on The Top 7 Things I Learned From a Week's Worth of Comments at A Voice for Men

I have a confession to make: I don’t always read the comments on posts by Men’s Rights Activists.

I realize this might come as a shock to some of you. I mean, one of the main, er, critiques I get from MRAs is that I “cherry pick” comments from MRAs to make them look bad — never mind that it is the comments that make them look bad, not me. But the embarrassing fact is that I often don’t read the comments at all.

In my defense, I have a hard enough time making it through the posts themselves. Life is short, and MRAs are long-winded. And by the time I get to the end of a lot of MRA posts, I’ve pretty much lost my patience with their nonsense. The last thing I want to do at that moment is to read the fawning word-vomit of a bunch of irritating fucks whose comments are likely to be as bad or possibly even worse than the original post.

So today I decided to do a sort of penance for my sins — and to actually read through a week’s worth of comments on A Voice for Men to see what I could learn about the world, and (perhaps more to the point) about the sort of people who actually enjoy reading posts on that terrible site.

I tried my best to do this little experiment as scientifically as possible. But I cheated a little. I didn’t read the comments to every post. And I didn’t read every comment on the posts that I did look at. I mean, what the hell. There’s a limit to my masochism. Seriously, you try reading a week’s worth of this shit in one sitting.

Anyway, here are the Top 7 Insights I’ve learned from a week’s worth of comments at AVFM. In choosing the following, I stuck with comments that were either upvoted or unchallenged by the site’s regulars, or both.

a voice for men antifeminism antifeminist women creepy Dean Esmay divorce evil wives FemRAs men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA sexual harassment

One Last Damn AVFM Conference Update: Man With a Camera Edition

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date July 1, 2014
225 Comments on One Last Damn AVFM Conference Update: Man With a Camera Edition

It wasn’t this guy.

One last AVFM Conference update, with links to two more stories about that historic event.

The first, a gently skeptical Washington Post story by Monica Hesse titled, with a certain irony, “Men’s rights activists, gathering to discuss all the ways society has done them wrong.”

The whole thing is worth reading. My favorite bit:

One presenter, a military veteran speaking on the treatment of veterans returning from war, put up a PowerPoint slide alleging that 70 percent of men returning from war get divorced, and 90 percent do so within five years. When asked about the source of this statistic, he said, “That particular statistic is from my personal observations. I’m just speaking here as a dude.”

Ah, the prestigious Journal of Statistical Dudeness!

The second, well, it’s a bit more disturbing. DarkHorseSwore – a regular in the AgainstMensRights subreddit who raised money to go to Detroit to cover the convention only to be turned away at the door – managed to finally get an audience with some of the conference attendees and organizers – after the convention, as they celebrated at a bar and then in a hotel lobby. She got this access because none of them knew who she was. (Eventually Dean Esmay showed up and had her escorted off the premises.)

Now DarkHorseSwore has set up a website – DarkHorseSwore.com – and has started posting about the strange 5 ½ hours she spent amongst the AVFMers. She tells the tale of a strange encounter with one of the Honey Badgers and then an even stranger tale of an even stranger encounter with an old man and his camera. You’ll have to go read it. Be warned: It’s creepy as hell.

Oh, and she picked up some amazing conference swag as well. And by “amazing” I mean “possibly the worst conference swag I’ve ever seen, I mean, what the hell, and also why are they all beige?”

A wooden necklace thingy, symbolizing who the hell knows what!

A “What Would Honey Badgers Do?” button!

And last but not least, a Shrink 4 Men chapstick! It’s minty!

a new woman to hate a voice for men a woman is always to blame antifeminism antifeminist women FemRAs harassment misogyny MRA paul elam

With A Voice for Men’s conference over, Paul Elam has found a new woman to hate.

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date June 29, 2014
138 Comments on With A Voice for Men’s conference over, Paul Elam has found a new woman to hate.

Paul Elam: Voice of reason in the gender debate?

You’ll all be glad to hear that Paul Elam has returned to normal. Well, normal for him.

After several days of doing his best impression of someone who isn’t a rage-filled attention misogynist, he’s back to his old woman-bashing self. You’ll also be happy to learn that he’s found a brand new woman to hate: Time reporter Jessica Roy, who is apparently quite stinky.

elamJessica

I’ve heard rumors that most females are stinky, actually.

Roy, who is covering the conference for Time, hasn’t even published her account yet. Her crimes so far? She tweeted some appalling quotes from some of the talks at the conference and made clear that she was not having a good time amongst the assembled ~~assholes~~ human rights activists. A selection:

a voice for men antifeminism antifeminist women imaginary oppression misogyny MRA rape culture rape jokes reddit

The Chuckles Turned to Guffaws: AVFM conference Saturday wrapup

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date June 28, 2014
299 Comments on The Chuckles Turned to Guffaws: AVFM conference Saturday wrapup

Janet Bloomfield PRs up a storm.

Well, the AVFM conference is over. I thought I’d post links to some of the media coverage today. I’m not sure Paul Elam and co have quite attained the level of respectability they were going for with the conference. It probably didn’t help that their PR gal, Janet Bloomfield, kept posting about “whores” and then, during the final panel discussion, delivered a passionate defense of “doxxing.”

Anyway, here’s the press coverage today:

a voice for men antifeminism antifeminist women domestic violence erin pizzey excusing abuse FemRAs irony alert misogyny MRA

Antifeminist DV guru Erin Pizzey: "If you are not in fear of your life, you are not suffering [from Domestic Violence]."

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date June 28, 2014
344 Comments on Antifeminist DV guru Erin Pizzey: "If you are not in fear of your life, you are not suffering [from Domestic Violence]."

AVFM lifetime achievement award winner Erin Pizzey

At A Voice for Men’s conference yesterday, antifeminist crusader Erin Pizzey was given “a special award for her tireless work with ALL the victims of domestic violence.” Due to the amazing public relations work of AVFM’s spokeswoman for the conference, I don’t know what the award was called, so let’s just assume it was the World’s Greatest Erin Pizzey Award.

Whatever the award was called, the notion that Pizzey works, tirelessly or otherwise, on behalf of “ALL the victims of domestic violence” is demonstrably false. Indeed, she has argued vociferously against extending DV protection to all victims.

In an op-ed she wrote for The Daily Mail in 2011, Pizzey declared herself “horrified” that the British government would consider extending domestic violence protection to those subjected to “emotional bullying and ‘coercive control’” as well as actual physical abuse.

Her “argument” may be triggering for abuse survivors, so I’m putting all of her quotes below the jump.

a voice for men antifeminism antifeminist women creepy drama kings gross incompetence judgybitch lying liars men who should not ever be with men ever men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA sexual harassment whores

AVFM Conference Open Thread: One journalist says he was molested; another was called "whore" by AVFM PR rep

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date June 27, 2014
256 Comments on AVFM Conference Open Thread: One journalist says he was molested; another was called "whore" by AVFM PR rep

The capacity crowd at the press conference at the AVFM conference; from Metrotimes.

If anyone feels compelled to discuss the AVFM conference, do it here.

I’ll post links to any articles and blog posts and interesting tweets and pretty much anything of note I see about it; if you run across any, feel free to post them in the comments and I can add them to the post.

Here’s the live audio stream for the conference, which is off the air. And the video stream, which isn’t working at the moment. Apparently they’ve packed up for the day. (Friday, that is.)

There was no protest, as the organizers of the earlier protest called for a boycott

The official twitter hashtag is #icmi14. For some wonderful Janet Bloomfield PR professionalism, see @JudgyBitch1 and @icmi14.

Highlights so far: