Individuals protest the MRA in front of O'Henry's Coffee in Homewood. (Photo Ian Keel).Erica Webb - Opinions Columnistewebb1@uab.edu
Trigger warning: sexual assault. Side note, if you’re one of those people who complain that trigger warnings make college students a bunch of softies, you should look into the actual psychology of sexual traumas and triggers.
A couple of years ago, I heard of a group calling themselves “Men’s Rights Activists” or MRAs. Sorry Twitter “meninists,” but you’re late to the party and not nearly as pseudo-intellectual. These guys reared their ugly, sexist heads for a while, spamming feminists and the LGBTQ+ community on the Internet with twisted logic and threats of violence. They seemed to quietly fade back into their mothers’ basements for a little while, but everything changed when the “tribesmen” nation attacked—by going from the reason people disable YouTube comments to possibly an actual threat to women everywhere.
The leader of the lamest cult on Earth recently declared a worldwide campaign to legalize rape, according to Guardian Liberty Voice, because I as a woman need to learn how to protect myself like I protect my “purse and smartphone.” Then, rape will stop. Because women were definitely not trying hard enough not to be forced into sex before. Alas, I searched Amazon relentlessly for an iron-clad chastity belt, but no one seems to be in the business anymore. Gosh, I wish my bodily autonomy was worth more than $200.
According the logic of these “neomasculinists,” as long as I never drink or go anywhere unchaperoned by a trusted manly man or wear anything besides a box fitted with a potato sack, I’ll never be sexually assaulted. Wow, what a life.
These dudebros wanted to rally for their “rights” by having meet-ups across 43 countries—no girls or gay people allowed in their treehouse, of course. Right here in Birmingham, they were scheduled to meet outside of O’Henrys Coffee in Homewood. I guess they know a homemade Turtle Bar is the best sugar they’ll ever get.
Thankfully, every sane person in the cities these meetups of “dudes just being dudes discussing legal rape and stuff” were planned in took to the Internet and local law enforcement to rally against them. The meetings were called off because the men’s rights warriors felt too threatened by politically correct feminazi trash, or as I like to call them, people with consciences. The irony.
Guardian Liberty Voice gets it right with the bottom line: “[Rape] is not about sexual attraction or uncontrolled urge; rapists….do not victimize their prey because they cannot acquire sex elsewhere; instead, they rape because they are misogynistic sadists who thrive on [control].”
I promise you can address men’s issues like ending the stigma surrounding male survivors of rape and domestic violence and society’s harsh masculinity standards without bringing down women. Intersectional feminism aims to do this by ending societal expectations and stereotypes of people based on gender. But, ya know, these guys would rather hang around Weenie Hut Juniors than actually get educated and stop harassing women.
