The Men's Rights Movement and the Women Who Love It

[Starry Messenger]

A rundown of the self-proclaimed contrarians. I was hoping this article would provide some analysis, but I guess the fact that many of these women are Republicans kind of speaks for itself.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/mens-rights-movement-women-who-love-it

When many people think of the men's rights movement, the image that springs to mind is lonely men lurking in chat rooms and railing against women. But in recent years, a group of brash, witty female activists has taken up the cause. And some of them are emerging as the movement's leading voices. It may seem counterintuitive that women would be helping drive the conversation about a movement that's fighting anti-male discrimination and campaigning fiercely against feminism. But according to Dean Esmay of the men's rights organization A Voice for Men, the fact that they shatter expectations is what makes them such good emissaries. "People want to believe we're a bunch of sad, pathetic losers who can't get laid and are just bitter because our wives left us," Esmay explains. "The very presence of women in the movement creates cognitive dissonance." Often, he adds, this dissonance makes people more receptive than they otherwise would be.

Who are these women men's rights activists? And why do the embrace a movement that some see as blatantly misogynistic? Below is a rundown of key players. A few of them, including Janet Bloomfield, who was the focus of a recent in Vice News article, have been in the spotlight recently. Others are virtually unknown to the mainstream, but within the movement they're seen as luminaries.

<snip>

Janet Bloomfield: The Social-Media Provocateur

Bloomfield has landed in the spotlight recently as a driving force behind Women Against Feminism, a social-media campaign featuring photos of women with scraps of paper listing their reasons for rejecting feminism. Since the week before last, when the campaign went viral, Bloomfield—a thirtysomething homemaker and doctoral candidate—has been making the network rounds, with interviews on ABC, the BBC, and NBC's Today Show.

<snip>

In reality, while Bloomfield takes a progressive stand on some issues—she supports gay marriage and a women's right to choose, for example—many of the ideas she flogs are anything but. She calls single mothers "bona fide idiots" who don't "give a shit" about their children's well-being and pens blog posts with titles like "Why Don't We Have a Dumb Fucking Whore Registry? Now That Would Be Justice." She also dismisses concept of "rape culture," as "a giant rape fantasy—one in which all women can imagine all men desire them with such force and such passion that they're willing to commit a crime."

<snip>

[RadicalGeek]

1. Stockholm Syndrome

Women who have grown up thinking they're 2nd-class, reinforced by fundamentalist dogmas.

Is it much different from women who support the GOP?

[Starry Messenger]

2. Yep.

I don't think it is different from women who support the GOP.

I find both groups of female supporters totally mystifying. I can't imagine what they think when they look in a mirror.

[RadicalGeek]

8. Well

Getting people to vote against their economic interest is a common theme of the right worldwide.

So why not convince Women to vote for a party committed to keeping them as handmaids of their men?

[Starry Messenger]

9. Well said!

[RadicalGeek]

10. Takes a Bow

[Nay]

3. In addition to the fact that most of these women will be Republicans, they

strike me as being similar to black men who joined the Republican Party and said there was no more racial discrimination. What happens? They get good gigs giving talks about their subjects since they are blacks saying there is no discrimination/women saying there is no patriarchy or misogyny. There aren't many of that race/sex who believe this, because their daily life shows neither of those statements is true.
These sort are saying this stuff because they can make money and get lucrative speaking and writing gigs.

Hell, Phyllis Schafly has been doing this for 40 years. Made plenty of dough doing it, too.

[Starry Messenger]

5. Speaking of Phyllis-

Her niece is one of the women listed in the article, who is picking up the Schafly schtick. It must be the family business.

Sad that people pay money to listen to these wrong-headed idiots. And then vote based on their fantasy-spinning about how everything is great and there is no racism or misogyny.

[meti57b]

4. Hey, ..... I love men's lefts, too!....

Okay, .... old joke .... just skip over it.

[Kali]

6. reminds me of women here who post images for the guys to "comment" on

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. uhm -

yeah.

that might be construed as behavior indicative of that type of woman. yes.

[Lunacee_2013]

11. Maybe it's because women do tend to put other's needs before their own?

Or maybe it's the "queen bee syndrome" in action? They are one of the few women there. Pro-men's rights female activists sometimes remind me of the "mean girls" in high school who said they didn't get along with other girls and therefor never had any female friends (personally, I always thought they felt like they were in direct competition with any and all females for any male attention).

I don't really think that having a few token women in that group makes them any less sexist. If they want to be seen as a real movement, they should focus on their own actual issues and maybe not have words like "slut" right on the front page of any of their websites.

ETA: money,too. Selling out other women for money. Sad. I wonder if women earned the same amount of money as men did and could support themselves without devaluing themselves, would women still do stuff like this? Is that why some righties don't want equal pay laws? They know that if women were paid enough we would value ourselves more.