Confirmed: “Men’s Rights Activism” Is For Misogynists Without God

[YoungDemCA]

snip:

...There’s a couple of things that stand out. This big one is that, unlike most other men who fit their profile—white, conservative, misogynist, paranoid—the MRAs of Reddit were not drawn to the Christian right, even though that’s the most obvious place for such young men to find community (including women that are amendable to being married to misogynists) and a place to channel their misogyny that is more politically powerful than a bunch of dudes ranting on Reddit. On the contrary, 94% of them defined themselves as having no religion. 94%, folks. That’s more than any other group outside of an atheist conference that I can think of.

snip:

The other sort-of surprise is that they are really young.

What age range do you fall in?

13-16: 102 or 3%
17-20: 2,605 or 87%
21-25: 178 or 6%
26-30: 44 or 1%
31-35: 26 or 1%
35-40: 13 or 0%
41-45: 6 or 0%
45-50: 2 or 0%
51+: 11 or 0%

I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not. First of all, you can just tell. There’s a lot of posturing about sex and women amongst MRAs that is eerily reminiscent of the “bags of sand” joke in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. More importantly, I’ve spent a lot of years having self-identified MRAs come at me online and so I’ve noticed a sea change in who adorns themselves with that moniker. It used to be mostly middle-aged men who are furious that their wives were allowed to divorce them and were angling for political power over the lives of ex-wives, and blamed feminism for their problems when they should be blaming themselves and their inability to relinquish control. Now it seems like it’s mostly young men who are largely motivated by anger upon discovering that there’s nothing they can do to obligate a woman to have sex—much less a relationship—with them, and instead of investing in personal change that makes it likelier women will want to, they instead spend hours online trying to minimize rape and sexual harassment as a kind of broad revenge against women. Subsequently, the points of obsession have moved from being angry about child support to being angry at anyone who suggests that sexual harassment is the fault of harassers.

snip:

The big question here is where do they go when they age? MRA blogs and forums have been around for awhile, so where are the older ones? They’re clearly growing out of it. I’d like to say they are going to grow up and grow out of misogyny, and hopefully some will. Unfortunately, I do think a large chunk will probably just drift into the Christian right and abandon their atheism. You get a little older and start craving an orderly house and stop feeling oppressed by shaving and showers. The possibility of having a wife who indulges you with regular sex, housework and nightly cooking starts to sound much better than the hamster wheel of hitting on women out of your league and getting rejected and turning online to blame feminism. Church starts looking better. Marijuana starts getting boring. Being anti-abortion and anti-contraception starts feeling like a more effective way to punish women than running around defending sexual harassment online. (Not that you have to give that up if you convert to Christianity.) You don’t even really have to really commit to religion in order to become a more mainstream conservative. Half the Jesus people never go to church anyway. You just have to shave your beard and say you love Jesus, and next thing you know, you’re plugged into a community with more power than your old one, and one that might actually provide eligible women to marry.

So that’s my prediction: Most of them drift off from MRA into the Christian right, or just generalized Republican politics. They start developing Southern accents even if they live in California or Massachusetts. They get married and start caring less about sexual harassment and more about how that Sandra Fluke lady must be a dirty little contracepting slut. They stop being atheist MRAs and start listening to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/15/confirmed-mens-rights-activism-is-for-misogynists-without-god/

[ismnotwasm]

1. They end up in horrible churches like Mars Hill

I'll bet.

[libodem]

2. Bet you are correct

An institution to bestow the divine right of Kings upon them. And fluff up their faltering egos. They must be empty husks of a human being to be so insecure and desperate to prove they are better than women. It's sad really.

[Warpy]

3. We'll see if they manage to outgrow teenage truculence as they pass 30

I'm betting most of them will.

Until then "Now it seems like it’s mostly young men who are largely motivated by anger upon discovering that there’s nothing they can do to obligate a woman to have sex—much less a relationship—with them, and instead of investing in personal change that makes it likelier women will want to, they instead spend hours online trying to minimize rape and sexual harassment as a kind of broad revenge against women. Subsequently, the points of obsession have moved from being angry about child support to being angry at anyone who suggests that sexual harassment is the fault of harassers. " rings dismally true, as it did when I was that age and checked out dating prospects and retreated into books.

The second group is the male over 51, probably embittered by divorce and finding out once again he wasn't going to be allowed to call all the shots in his ex wife's life.

Neither group sees women as human. The young ones have the potential to snap out of it. The old ones are pretty much hopeless.

[ismnotwasm]

4. +1

[intaglio]

5. Word of Warning

This poll was probably heavily 'bot attacked but Stephanie Zvan had done a bit of statistical analysis and shown the results are not too far off
But How Do You Know the MRAs Are Atheists?

[BainsBane]

6. The age range suprises me

One of the problems is that movement has influence far beyond that demographic, as all of us have witnessed.

[nomorenomore08]

7. Marcotte is sometimes so on point, it's ridiculous.

And you can see that reflected in the impotent (heh) rage of her critics.