Monday 3 November 2014

Back from Kennesaw

Hey all,

Got back from the Male Students in Peril conference at Kennesaw State University yesterday afternoon, then slept for 12 1/2 hours. The conference was awesome, despite some difficulties.

Both myself and fellow speaker Dr. Janice Fiamengo checked the weather forecast before packing for the trip, and the forecast was apparently written by radical feminists trying to destroy us. The morning I packed, meteorologists were predicting temperatures ranging from 12 (shirtsleeve weather) to 21 (swimming anyone?) degrees celsius, with plenty of sun. What greeted us upon arrival was a damp cold barely above freezing, with winds gusting up to 60 kph if my estimates are at all accurate. Janice had eschewed packing a winter coat in favor of making room for two bathing suits, and I had only two very light jackets with me. Lucky for Janice, she's not a smoker and didn't have to spend much time outside. For me and the other filthy cancer fetishists in attendance, we were stuck shivering completely unprepared as we indulged our vice. Rachel Edwards came to my rescue partway through, with a lovely purple sheep-fleece lined hoodie I put on over my jacket to keep the worst of the wind away. If she hadn't been there, I'd have been hypothermic by the end of the day, I'm sure.

Of course, this morning someone texted my cellphone to tell me that the day I left the temps rose to 21C. I was not amused.

As for the conference itself, it was a blast. I was especially impressed with Jonathan Taylor's (of AVoiceForMaleStudents) presentation on the difficulties and challenges male students at all levels face today, as well as his suggestions on how the situation can be rectified. My own presentation went all right (I hope! I can never tell until I actually see it, but the feedback seemed okay), and Janice was brutal as always in her spot-on criticism of feminist academia. Paul's presentation on rape culture was shorter than I'd have liked, but his Q&A was spectacular--he always seems to do very well off the cuff. Sage kicked ass when his mom stood up after Paul's talk to criticize him, myself and Janice for "bashing" feminism. The video of that bit is already uploaded, and I don't think he (or anyone) could have handled it better.

I'm not going to go to much farther into any of that, since there will be video footage of all of it soon enough.

The people were amazing, including the Uni cop who was posted outside the conference hall, who took me aside to inform me that 1) KSU is a smoke-free campus, and 2) what he didn't actually see wasn't his problem, and that until January no enforcement other than gentle reminders would be enacted by KSU personnel.

I met so many young men and women who told me they were fans, and are becoming passionate about the issues. One young man in particular has become a committed advocate for sexually abused boys, and has come to the realization that he can't address this problem without also being inclusive of the men those boys grow into. Talking to him was wonderful. A young woman who was reluctantly introduced to KSUM by her boyfriend has become interested in advocacy for men's issues, and a veteran towing his service dog-in-training who's been through an unbelievable difficulty in addition to all the terrible things he saw as a soldier gave me the best hug I think I've ever had.

It's always a humbling experience meeting people who know me, who I don't know yet. So many thank you's, so many hugs and handshakes, so many stories of how my videos helped someone through an angry, hurt faze and into a more constructive, comforting one.

Jordan Owen and Davis Aurini were there, too, to interview people for their project, "The Sarkeesian Effect". Hannah, Rachel and I had a nice chat with them late into Saturday night.

And so many people saying, "when are you going to make another video??!!"

Well, that will be soon. It would have been today, except for the lovely fact that when my boyfriend let the water out of the upstairs tub, it backed up the downstairs tub and toilet, flooded the floor, seeped into the carpet in the family room, and indicated to us that the drainage issues that have been plaguing this house for decades have finally come to a head. Not only that, but the downstairs toilet has begun to leak from underneath, indicating we'll have to pull it out and replace the seal and maybe the flange.

I spent the day ripping apart a wall to expose our main sewer stack, only to discover it has no clean-out outlet because the previous owner was an idiot, making frantic phone calls to the city, only to have them tell me they can't help us until we have a plumber install a clean-out branch, and convincing the kids it really isn't that horrible to have to pee in the yard for a day or two. I also finally looked at the floor around the upstairs toilet drain since we'll need one toilet while we're fixing the other, only to discover the subfloor is so rotten I could lift the flange off of it with two fingers. So I've been chipping away at the rotten plywood, so I can put down new and install a new flange.

And since I was gone all weekend, no one has been washing dishes, and I can't wash them when no water is draining from my house, so we're eating off of paper plates. Also, I can't wash my hair. Or much of anything until the guy from Mr. Rooter comes first thing tomorrow morning.

On the bright side, while I was in the smoking lounge at the Atlanta airport yesterday morning, an older lady sat next to me on a barstool and we got to talking. I told her I was in Atlanta because I'd been invited to speak at a conference at KSU by a men's issues awareness group that had recently been founded there. She said, "So someone finally did it. ABOUT TIME. I was a teacher for 30 years, and I could see even from the beginning how poorly boys were treated in school. I tried for years to get something done about it, but it only got worse. They got rid of recess, got rid of scorekeeping during gym, started punishing boys for just being boys. Deprived them of the physical activity they need, and then suspended them when they couldn't sit still. It's like no one wanted to let them just be who they are..."

So there's hope. Like I said in my talk, feminism is a minority position, and people are not so much waking up to the fact that men and boys have issues--they're waking up to the fact that they're not the only ones out there who realize it.

Anyway, here's hoping I'll be able to get a video out in the next few days. Sewers permitting.

Hugs all, and make sure you watch the KSUM conference footage once it's available.









6 comments:

  1. Cultural traditions die hard.

    TOXIC!!! .. Yes Male Supremacysm has definitely been that .. IS THAT.
    The church of the poisoned mind ..

    “[But] our current gender zeitgeist is one that has promoted and enabled such a degree of female narcissism and entitlement that it has now produced two generations of women that are for the most part, shallow, self-serving wastes of human existence—parasites—semi-human black holes that suck resources and goodwill out of men and squander them on the mindless pursuit of vanity.”
    Paul Elam (2012)

    "Women “for the most part” are sub-human parasites"
    Paul Elam (2012)

    On the mindless pursuit of vanity, one needs to look no further than Elam and his MRA
    who are nothing more than loathsome Male Supremacysts..
    Who sadly own a well embedded cultural Hatred for the Female Gender, because they aren't born one of them, Born Male.

    And they fall over themselves to promote that hatred they have for the female gender, they can always be seen and heard busily sowing their seeds of hate, every minute of every day ....
    TOXIC!!! .. Yes Male Supremacysm has definitely been that .. IS THAT.
    The church of the poisoned mind ..

    The male gender long ago declared themselves superior in all ways and in all things to the female gender .

    It is in this disgusting delusion of one up man-ship that the male supremacysts ever since has been doing his damnedest to justify his claim byattempting to smash the female gender down at every given chance possible.

    " Remember, ad hominem attacks diminish everyone involved. If you want to criticize anything, do so passionately and directly - but debate is about attacking ideas, not people."
    Preach it sister ..but don't let us ever find you practising what you preach.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well if there is anything driving the MRM it certainly is not a hatred of women. I for one rather like women I just I can't seem to get along with them in today’s culture. I have however, been stewing on a viewpoint concerning violent crime in the US. Especially gun crime. Here is one link:
    http://www.ladailypost.com/content/brief-history-psychotropic-drugs-prescribed-mass-murderers
    This study pointed out a series of violent acts that were done by people who were on or had been on some type of psychotropic drug and typically for an extended period. So I guess it really wasn’t the guns killing all those people it was the drugs. But another factor has not been addressed except perhaps vaguely by the MRM. Of the 26 cases cited all but two were perpetrated by someone of male gender.
    Something is going wrong with how we are raising our boys and for whatever reason the only way they know how to solve their frustrations is with violence. The US norm is administering Ritalin and the third world extreme is Radical Islam. I think it’s time to identify the actual problem instead of just using this issue as a means to support a larger political agenda. Let’s keep our boys un-medicated and get them motivated to use all their energy productively.
    If I had been born twenty years later I would have been the kid prescribed Ritalin to keep me sedated and in my seat. And with all the frustrations I encountered as a kid and the little to no help I received in dealing with my emotions I’m surprised I did not end up like too many neglected boys. Either drugged into submission or in prison. Maybe we could just send the boys to church. I’m sure they would be safe in the hands of the Catholic Church.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Currently men are 95% of all the prison inmates ..come to think of it, they have always been 95% of all the prison inmates .. if there is a demonstration of any sort and it turns violent, it will all be men you see involved in the punch up, it will be all men turning cars over, setting them on fire, it will be men smashing the place up .. punching the living day lights out of each other, enjoying the dramas of their own making..

    Same with football hooliganism .. if you have an intruder in your home you can virtually guarantee, that intruder will be male, same for car theft and joy riding .. and the same for bank robbers, school shootings, school stabbings, murder of teachers, murder of students, you can virtually guarantee, it's gonna be a male or a group of like minded self important self engrossed pathetic males, involved in the thick of it..
    Curious that, isn't it ..?

    It is a well known fact that most women when involved in an argument with a male, look to calm the situation down, not inflame it, and it is not in their interest to inflame it, because they know they are the most likely ones to suffer serious injury ..

    Females committing violence are the exception not the rule, and your straw man argument against all the above is absolutely pitiful and pathetic...

    Societies fear men and their violence .. not women..
    Various surveys have been carried out on what the different genders fear when they go on their first-date with a stranger..
    Regarding the response from the males who were asked, the most common answer they revealed, was they feared their date would laugh at them..
    Where females who were asked the same question, in their response the most common answer to it was, they feared their date might rape or murder them ..

    That is the culture we live in.. that is the indictment on men ..

    Men have taught women to fear them .. and that is totally down to men and their capacity to resort to violence at a drop of a hat.. and also men's historical treatment of women in general, which has been, savage, barbaric and inhumane to say the least.

    It is one thing for men to claim males are physically stronger than females, but to insist females are intellectually inferior to males as well and take all of women's basic human's rights away because of it, is something entirely different, it is almost unforgivable .

    The violent are the ones who usually feel very self important and want to make certain everyone else knows exactly how self important they are ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad to help with your education. I won't trouble to order these since it sounds like you're highly resistant to facts when you're not flat lying. I'll take only one of the sillier things you said,

      "...but to insist females are intellectually inferior to males as well and take all of women's basic human's rights away because of it, is something entirely different, it is almost unforgivable.".

      You're lying by implication. Of course, no one here has said anything like this.

      In the mean time, while you're preparing a retraction and rethinking your claims that men are uniquely violent,

      Teach Women Not to Rape
      http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/?s=teach+women+not+to+rape

      When Men Are Raped: A new study reveals that men are often the victims of sexual assault, and women are often the perpetrators.
      .http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/04/male_rape_in_america_a_new_study_reveals_that_men_are_sexually_assaulted.html

      Congo’s Forgotten Epidemic of Female-on-Female Rape
      http://world.time.com/2013/12/03/congos-forgotten-curse-epidemic-of-female-on-female-rape/

      TEACH WOMEN NOT TO ABUSE THEIR CHILDREN:
      "Approximately 40 percent of child victims were maltreated by their mothers acting alone; another 18.3 percent were maltreated by their fathers acting alone; 17.3 percent were abused by both parents (USDHHS, 2007).
      http://www.americanhumane.org/children/stop-child-abuse/fact-sheets/child-abuse-and-neglect-statistics.html

      TEACH WOMEN NOT TO KILL THEIR CHILDREN
      "When parents kill," http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2002/03/when_parents_kill.html

      TEACH WOMEN TO STOP ABUSING THEIR PARTNERS
      Women are the Primary Instigators and Perpetrators of Domestic Violence
      http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/newsArticle.aspx?articleid=111137
      Women more likely to be perpetrators of abuse as well as victims
      http://news.ufl.edu/archive/2006/07/women-more-likely-to-be-perpetrators-of-abuse-as-well-as-victims.html
      Women perpetrating domestic violence. Well over 1/3 of a million instances examined
      http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm

      TEACH FEMINISTS TO STOP DENYING WOMEN’S VIOLENCE
      Behind Closed Doors: Violence in the American Family
      https://www.questia.com/library/7262865/behind-closed-doors-violence-in-the-american-family
      How Feminists Corrupt DV Research
      http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/how-feminists-corrupt-dv-research/
      From Alison Tieman:
      Feminist Amy Schumer gives widely acclaimed speech in which she confesses to sexually assaulting her male sexual partner:
      http://thoughtcatalog.com/anonymous/2014/05/wait-a-second-did-amy-schumer-rape-a-guy/
      Feminist Mary Koss scrubs male victims of rape by women from government statistics:
      http://youtu.be/0ncjGFIFPJI
      Feminist Professor Adele Mercier engages in rape apologia directed at male victims:
      http://youtu.be/PBNQPJ0UTCg
      Feminist Jaclyn Friedman fails to call out fellow feminist rape apologist:
      http://youtu.be/o4hgQm5fV2I
      Feminist groups block or remove men’s protections against rape by female sexual predators.
      http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Womens-groups-Cancel-law-charging-women-with-rape
      http://toysoldier.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/a-sad-day-for-male-rape-victims-in-india/
      In addition to all that feminists promote campaigns that demonize male by presenting them as more likely to be rapists than rape victims despite all the evidence to the contrary!
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXK0bfrvjPM

      Delete
    2. I'll be glad to walk you through these. Be in touch.
      Cheers, JC

      Delete
  4. Great 👍 blog ! An appreciateed effort I'm very much satisfied 🤠 and indeed it's a must appreciated effort.

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    ReplyDelete

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Have at you!