Anti-Feminist Tactics: Why are some men this afraid of Feminism?

If you are a gamer then you probably already know that Anita Sarkeesian and some other women have been targeted with death threats just for speaking out about sexism in gaming. It reached the point where the case is being investigated by the FBI and Sarkeesian had to leave her home for a while. She also recently had to cancel a speech at a university campus after someone called in a threat to turn it into another Montreal Masscare. For those of you unfamiliar with the Montreal Massacre, it was a mass shooting committed by an Anti-Feminist, where 14 women were murdered on a college campus. Why did he do it? He said he was fighting Feminism. Trying to intimidate women into being silent about these issues is the most common tactic you will see from Anti-Feminists and if you dare to actually speak about the threats then they say you are just "playing the victim."

I have been threatened quite a few times myself over the years, especially back when I had my YouTube channel. However, I will NOT be intimidated into being silent. When they have to resort to using tactics like the ones below, it shows that even Anti-feminists realize they are losing the battle.

Anyway, I thought I would list the common tactics used by these people so that you can know what to expect.


#1. Straw Feminism!

The most common tactic they will use is the perpetuation of Straw Feminism.  This is the myth that Feminists hate men, believe in female superiority, want to take away all of men's rights, want special privileges, yada, yada, yada.... This is nonsense of course. If you ask for evidence to support their claims, they will inevitably either try to create a red herring to avoid answering or they will give you one or two examples as anecdotal evidence to justify their blanket statement. They never seem to comprehend the glaring flaw in their reasoning. At least not until I start making sweeping generalizations (just to prove a point) about anti-feminists, men, MRAs, etc... Then it seems to sink in and they often become really hostile at that point.

Here is a perfect example of Straw Feminism.

Anita Sarkeesian never once said that all men are pigs or even implied it but this is used to promote that false stereotype of  Feminists. This is a common tactic that has been used by various groups throughout history. Christians and Atheists will sometimes use it against each other. Republicans and Democrats. LGBT people have it used against them by Christians. Civil Rights Activists had it used them by racists. The list is endless. Essentially it is a dishonest attempt to create a false dichotomy.

#2. Hoaxes

Creating fake controversies seems to be a common tactic now as well, with the biggest one being the Ban Fathersday Hoax, where people on 4chan created a bunch of fake Feminist Twitter accounts (Sock Puppets) to promote banning Fathersday as a holiday. Unfortunately for them, the hoax back-fired.

http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2014/06/15/endfathersday-trolls-being-trolls-or-black-propaganda-designed-to-tear-apart-feminism/

http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/4chan-end-fathers-day/

It was pretty easy to expose this farce with just a little bit of research. Several of the photos used were stock photos from photography sites and stolen photos. Many of the accounts were also created around the same time the campaign started and most have either mysteriously stopped tweeting or have been suspended from twitter since then. lol Sadly, some members of the media actually fell for the hoax, most notably FOX News.

The accounts also posted nothing but the most extreme Straw Feminist comments you can imagine. I followed several of them over the course of a couple weeks and the tweets were all clearly designed to try to make feminists look bad.

The "Tasha Polwright" account is a perfect example. They used a stolen photo, posted nothing but "I hate men" types of posts and the account is currently SUSPENDED. Look it up for yourself.

Here are several examples of the fake twitter accounts that were exposed.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/your-slip-is-showing-4chan-trolls-operation-lollipop

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/end-fathers-day-and-feminist-troll-accounts#pv5awn

http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2014/06/15/endfathersday-trolls-being-trolls-or-black-propaganda-designed-to-tear-apart-feminism/

http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/4chan-end-fathers-day/

And it is not just Feminists who are being targeted by these types of bigots. They go beyond that and often use the same tactics against black people (the "black propaganda" campaign) and LGBT people.

#3.  Context Matters!

They like to take quotes from Feminists out of context and twist it into something else entirely. MRAs like thunderf00t and AmazingAtheist are notorious for using this tactic.

#4. Intellectual Dishonesty

They will create other types of hoaxes such as this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnfF3clLuC0

This guy claims to have crushed a feminist in a debate. However, as a guy in the comments section points out, you can clearly tell that the so-called "Feminist" is someone using voice-changing software. When he was confronted about it by the guy in the comments section, he responded with calling the guy a "f_ggot" and didn't even try to deny it. The sad thing is several people in the comments section fell for the hoax, much like some people fell for the Ban Fathersday nonsense.

#5.  Bully them!!

Personal attacks on the person in question and attempts to demean them. The most common form is photo-shopping images of the person, such as this: http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/07/image-based-harassment-and-visual-misogyny/ My friend Vixy, who is one of the best gamers around, has also been targeted frequently with this form of harassment.

What is the first thing you see when you look at the video image? See any gaming journalists? No, you see two Feminists, one of whom was not even involved in Gamer Gate. And as I point out in my Rebuttal of this video, he goes on to paint feminists as the enemy multiple times in this fallacy-filled rant. This is typical of a video on his channel of course. AmazingMRAtheist has a long history of misogyny and attacking feminists with the rage of an irrational religious fundamentalist. Sadly, he isn't the only one trying to create this false dichotomy of gamers vs. feminists.

#6. Hiding Behind Real Issues

When they aren't busy creating false controversies, they are hiding behind real issues that have been completely co-opted by them, such as Gamer Gate. You'll notice that they will claim it is all about corruption in the media even though you will see them spend more time complaining about feminists and "social justice warriors" rather than actually talking about corruption in gaming. They will also try to paint feminists as the enemy in this situation. Want a perfect example? I give you the AmazingMRAtheist's video about Gamer Gate.

#7. Threats and harassment!!! 

Obviously this is the most common tactic you will see and it exists throughout the world. Basically, if you dare to speak out about women's issues on twitter, a blog, YouTube or anywhere else, you WILL be relentlessly attacked. It doesn't matter what the issue is at all. If you speak out, they will target you. Look at the Atheist community on YouTube for a perfect example. Most of the Feminists in the Atheist community on YouTube have stopped making videos. Laci Green was probably the most popular Atheist on the site and she stopped making videos on the subject entirely and moved on to something else. She still gets targeted constantly but has stayed on the site and continued to be one of the more popular YouTubers. Others decided they had enough, such as Awesome Rants for example. She recently had enough of the hate and shut down her channel. I shut down my Atheism channel for the same reason. They will do everything they can to try to silence you if you speak out on women's issues.

#8. Violence! 

If all else fails, some will resort to physical violence.

So here is the big question: Why are some men so fearful of Feminism that they have to resort to these tactics? So are some men so afraid of Feminism that they feel the need to make things up to try to make Feminists look bad? Why are some men so afraid that they have to try to intimidate and threaten women to try to keep us silent about issues? Why not just let people speak and allow everyone to make up their own minds? You don't see Feminists spamming threats and insults on MRA YouTube channels or websites but you see plenty of men doing it on Feminist sites and channels. And as I pointed out, if that doesn't work then some men will actually resort to violence, such as the Montreal Massacre or feminists who have been shot and killed in the middle-east. How many Feminists do you see killing men?

The root of the problem is the same one society witnessed when black people were involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Many whites were angered because they were losing some of their privileges and power. They were losing their advantages over another group of people. Its the same problem we witnessed during the Women's Suffrage Movement. Once again a group (men in this case) were losing their privileges over another group of people so there was a backlash. We see the same thing in the middle-east as women fight for basic rights again, like voting and getting an education. This enrages many men who want to retain control over women. We have seen this sort of thing over and over again throughout history. People don't want others to have the same privileges they possess because it ceases to be a privilege at that point.