A Voice for Men

A Voice for Men (AVfM)
Motto Changing the Cultural Narrative
Formation 2009
Purpose Men's issues, Anti-feminism
Headquarters Houston, Texas
Region served
International
Publisher
 Paul Elam
Website avoiceformen.com

A Voice for Men (also known as AVfM, AVFM or AV4M) is a United States-based[1] for-profit limited liability company[2] and online publication founded in 2009 by Paul Elam. A proponent of the men's rights movement, or "Men's Human Rights Activism", it is the largest and most influential men's rights website.[3][4][5][6] Its editorial position is strongly antifeminist and frequently accuses feminists of being misandrist in their mindset.

About

AVFM hosts articles, radio shows, and a forum. It occasionally features groups. AVFM's staff members and contributors are unpaid volunteers with the exception of the founder.[2] The site has an online store, called The Red Pill Shop, which sells T-shirts, cell phone covers, and holiday decorations.[2][7] The site also accepts donations, all of which go to Elam, who says he uses the money to advance his cause.[2] According to Dun & Bradstreet's database, AVFM has an estimated $120,000 in yearly revenue and one employee.[2]

In March 2011, AVFM launched a broadcasting franchise on BlogTalkRadio. Paul Elam hosted the first broadcast.[8]

Activities

In early 2011, AVFM created the website Register-Her, a wiki page which initially listed the names, addresses and other personal information of women convicted of murdering or raping men. The registry expanded over time to include women considered guilty of false rape accusations or anti-male bigotry.[2][6][9][10][11] Under the motto "Why are these women not in jail?", the site also published personally identifying information of women who participated in protests against the men's rights movement (MRM), mocked the MRM on social media, or women who voiced feminist ideas.[6][9][11][12] AVFM founder Paul Elam stated that there would no longer be "any place to hide on the internet" for "lying bitches".[9] The site has since gone defunct.[12]

In 2014, AVFM launched a website called White Ribbon, adopting graphics and language from the White Ribbon Campaign, a violence prevention program which was established in 1991.[13][14] AVFM's White Ribbon site was initially established as a response to the White Ribbon Campaign, arguing that women's shelters were "hotbeds of gender hatred" and that "corrupt" academics had conspired to conceal violence against men.[9] The website was harshly criticized by Todd Minerson, Executive Director of White Ribbon, who stated that the AVFM White Ribbon website is a "misguided attempt to discredit others" and urged its supporters "not to be fooled by this copycat campaign".[15]

AVFM individuals assisted in setting up the first International Conference on Men’s Issues, which was held in Detroit, Michigan. Elam stated that the choice of the city took place since it represents "masculinity".[12] Held in June 2014, individuals that spoke included Mike Buchanan and Warren Farrell. Topics discussed included the effect of unemployment on men in the aftermath of the world economic recession, the possibility of developing a male birth control pill, and attempts to increase care for men who had served in the U.S. military.[16]

Criticism

AVFM was included in a list of twelve websites in the spring 2012 issue ("The Year in Hate and Extremism") of the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) Intelligence Report in a section called "Misogyny: The Sites".[17] The issue outlined the "manosphere", describing it as "hundreds of websites, blogs and forums dedicated to savaging feminists in particular and women...in general".[17] The report credited some sites as making an attempt at civility and trying "to back their arguments with facts" but condemned almost all of them for being "thick with misogynistic attacks that can be astounding for the guttural hatred they express" and ultimately described them as "women-hating".[17]

Later that year, the SPLC published a statement about the reactions to their report, saying it "provoked a tremendous response among men's rights activists (MRAs) and their sympathizers", and that "[i]t should be mentioned that the SPLC did not label MRAs as members of a hate movement; nor did our article claim that the grievances they air on their websites – false rape accusations, ruinous divorce settlements and the like – are all without merit. But we did call out specific examples of misogyny and the threat, overt or implicit, of violence".[18]

A 2014 statement by the SPLC criticized the International Conference on Men’s Issues, particularly finding fault with the citations made that "40% to 50% of rape allegations are false" since the SPLC views that "the best scholarly studies show that between about 2% and 8% of such allegations are actually false— a rate that is comparable for false allegations of most other violent crimes." However, the organization's statement also argued that the AVFM-associated conference was "relatively subdued" given that most of those there worked to keep "vitriol to a minimum" in the discussions. A commentary on the nature of grief for men received praise from the SPLC, but the organization cautioned that the nature of prior material stated by those in AVFM was still a severe problem.[12]

AVFM's rhetoric has been described as misogynist and hateful by commentators such as Leah McLaren,[19] Jaclyn Friedman,[20] Jill Filipovic,[13] Brad Casey,[21] Clementine Ford,[22] and Mark Potok of the SPLC.[23] Writing in The New York Times, Charles McGrath stated that websites like AVFM contain "a certain amount of anti-feminist hostility, if not outright misogyny".[24] Time has reported on SPLC's "misogynist" description of the group as well as on the movement's official disavowing the concept of misogyny, with Elam cited as stating that being controversial was a way of drawing attention. Journalist Jessica Roy remarked that she found the AVFM's conference divided between many individuals making violent threats and laughing openly at jokes about rape, and many individuals seeking to promote socioeconomic and legal changes by polite discussion.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Gheciu, Alex Nino (3 November 2013). "Are Men the New Underclass?". Chill Magazine. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Serwer, A.; Baker, K.J.M. (February 6, 2015). "How Men's Rights Leader Paul Elam Turned Being A Deadbeat Dad Into A Moneymaking Movement". BuzzFeed. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  3. ↑ Rose, Joel (2 September 2014). "For Men's Rights Groups, Feminism Has Come At The Expense Of Men". NPR. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  4. ↑ Shire, Emily (25 October 2013). "A Short Guide to the Men's Rights Movement". The Week. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  5. ↑ Rekai, Mika (1 August 2013). "Men's rights attracts angry young men". MacLean's. Rogers Digital Media. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 Kelly, R. Tod (20 October 2013). "The Masculine Mystique". The Daily Beast. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  7. ↑ "A Voice For Men LLC". Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  8. ↑ "An Introduction to the Men's Movement". BlogTalkRadio. 2 March 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Blake, M. (January–February 2015). "Mad Men: Inside the Men's Rights Movement—and the Army of Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned". Mother Jones. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  10. ↑ Alex Nino Gheclu (August 15, 2013). "Controversial men's rights group fundraising for a Centre for Men and Families". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  11. 1 2 Jessica Smith Cross (April 5, 2013). "Men's issues or misogyny? Controversial men's group to discuss women's studies". Metronews Canada. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Mark Potok (August 20, 2014). "'War on Women'". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
  13. 1 2 Filipovic, Jill (24 October 2014). "Why Is an Anti-Feminist Website Impersonating a Domestic Violence Organization?". Cosmopolitan (magazine). Hearst Communications. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  14. ↑ Katie McDonough (October 23, 2014). "Men's rights group launches creepy website to co-opt respected anti-violence campaign". Salon.com. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  15. ↑ Jones, Clay (23 October 2014). "White Ribbon Copycat Statement". WhiteRibbon.ca.
  16. 1 2 Roy, Jessica (July 2, 2014). "What I Learned as a Woman at a Men's-Rights Conference". Time. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  17. 1 2 3 "Misogyny: The Sites". Intelligence Journal. Southern Poverty Law Center (145). Spring 2012.
  18. ↑ Goldwag, Arthur (15 May 2012). "Intelligence Report Article Provokes Fury Among Men's Rights Activists". Southern Poverty Law Center.
  19. ↑ Leah McLaren (March 12, 2015). "How men's rights groups are distorting the debate about equality". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved April 26, 2015. They are actively supported by the U.S. organization A Voice For Men, the very openly misogynist men's rights organization that coined the term “rape farmers” for feminists.
  20. ↑ Jaclyn Friedman (October 24, 2013). "A Look Inside the 'Men's Rights' Movement That Helped Fuel California Alleged Killer Elliot Rodger". Prospect.org. Retrieved April 26, 2015. A Voice For Men makes no excuses for their hatred of women, from posts ranting about women who are 'begging to be raped' to treatises about how fat women want to be sexually violated because it would mean we are desired.
  21. ↑ Casey, Brad (April 17, 2013). "We Went to a Men's Rights Lecture in Toronto". Vice. Retrieved May 8, 2015. AVFM is run by a man named Paul Elam and provides a forum for vitriolic hatred against women and feminists.
  22. ↑ Ford, Clementine (June 19, 2014). "A lesson for men's rights activists on real oppression". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved May 8, 2015. Unfortunately, as it's being hosted by A Voice for Men - a motley crew who espouse hatred and fear of women - it promises to be about as useful to the advancement of men's issues as a condom made out of sticky tape.
  23. ↑ Serwer, A.; Baker, K.J.M. (February 6, 2015). "How Men's Rights Leader Paul Elam Turned Being A Deadbeat Dad Into A Moneymaking Movement". BuzzFeed. Retrieved April 26, 2015. The claim that Elam and his friends are merely trying to have a conversation about the rights of men in modern society is bogus. What it's really about is the defamation of women as a group; that’s called misogyny.
  24. ↑ McGrath, Charles (January 7, 2011). "The Study of Man (or Males)". The New York Times. Retrieved May 8, 2015.

External links

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