MAD MEN how a feminist once hailed by gloria steinem launched the men’s rights movement—and inspired an army of haters and trolls by mariah blake photograph by winni wintermeyer

On a balmy afternoon last June, dozens of demon- strators carrying “Stop the Violence” and “Rape is Rape” placards descended on the Hilton Double- Tree in downtown Detroit. They had come to pro- test the first-ever national gathering of the men’s rights movement, which aims to battle discrimina- tion against men but has drawn criticism for stirring up hatred of women. Two weeks earlier, a sexually frustrated 22-year-old named Elliot Rodger had gone on a suicidal rampage in Santa Barbara, Cali- fornia, killing 6 people and injuring 13. He had left behind a chilling 137-page manifesto suffused with a bitter misogyny and language commonly found in men’s rights forums. “The girls don’t flock to the gentlemen. They flock to the alpha male,” Rodger wrote. “Who’s the alpha male now, bitches?” His at- tack ignited a firestorm online, spurring women to share their experiences of misogyny via the hashtag #YesAllWomen, and bringing major media atten- tion to the men’s rights movement. With irate phone calls and even death threats pouring into the hotel in the run-up to the confer- ence, its organizer, A Voice for Men, was forced to move the event to a local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall. The group warned ticket holders by email that “ideological opponents” were likely to show up, and that they would be “looking for anything they can to hurt us with.” When conference goers arrived several weeks later, they were greeted by a cadre of burly security guards. A computer glitch at the check-in desk sent the line snaking into the parking lot, where some men lounged listlessly on the hot asphalt. Finally, about an hour and a half after the first workshop

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 | MOTHER JONES 17 MAD MEN had been scheduled to begin, the doors spawned a network of activists and sites We were sitting poolside at Farrell’s swung open. The crowd clattered up the that take Farrell’s ideology in a disturbing home, a wood-shingled bungalow over- stairs to a dimly lit room with scuffed mint- direction. Men’s rights forums on sites like looking San Francisco Bay in the hills of colored walls and a water-stained ceiling. 4chan and Reddit are awash in misogyny tony Marin County. As his personal as- There, amid rows of folding chairs, stood and anti-feminist vitriol. Participants argue sistant served us a mélange of roasted veg- . that false allegations of rape and domestic etables sprinkled with pine nuts, Farrell, A soft-spoken septuagenarian with a abuse are rampant, or that shelters for bat- who has a warm and thoughtful air, mused silver beard and delicate hands, Farrell tered women are a financial scam. Others about his walks in the woods with John explained with a smile why he’d asked rail against women for being independent Gray, author of the best-selling book Men the security team to stand down: “I said or sexually promiscuous. Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. He it didn’t look like there were any killers These ideas have given rise to aggressive and Gray recently landed a contract for a out there.” There was a burst of laughter. tactics and rhetoric. The National Coali- sequel called Beyond Mars and Venus, which After a while, he asked everyone to stand tion for Men—whose board of advisers in- will lay out Farrell’s evolving utopian view up. “Put anything you have in your hands cludes Farrell—has fought to cut off state of gender relations. “We’re all interested in down and just give that person in front funding for domestic-violence programs beyond Mars and Venus,” he explained. of you a nice shoulder rub,” he said. Ten- if men aren’t included. A Voice for Men’s “That’s the search for the unique self.” sion faded from the men’s faces. Over the founder, Paul Elam, who is a friend and next several hours, Farrell doled out hugs, protégé of Farrell’s, has justified violence Farrell traces his interest in gender issues to regaled them with stories about his days as against women and written that some of his childhood. His mother had given up a a feminist icon, and waxed lyrical about them “walk through life with the equiva- scholarship to Cornell to find a husband, fatherhood and male sacrifice. He also in- lent of a I’M A STUPID, CONNIVING but being a housewife made her miserable. vited the men to share their personal pain. BITCH—PLEASE RAPE ME neon sign “I had seen her move in and out of depres- Some wept as they spoke. glowing above their empty little narcissis- sion,” Farrell later wrote. “Into depression Farrell is widely considered to be the fa- tic heads.” Other activists have published when she was not working, out of depres- ther of the men’s rights movement. In a se- names of women they consider enemies sion when she was working.” His mother ries of books published since the 1980s, he and have praised online stalkers, such as took medication to ward off the gloom, has made the case that the primary victims the “Gamergate” mobs who bombard but it made her dizzy and prone to stum- bling. She died at age 48 after falling in the garage one day and hitting her head. Farrell was still reeling from the loss when in farrell’s workshop, the men he moved to New York in the late 1960s to pursue a doctorate in political science pumped their biceps and swiveled and encountered the fledgling women’s movement. He shifted his research focus their hips while farrell led the to and joined the board of the National Organization for Women’s New women in chants of “shirts off! York City chapter, which made him a hot commodity. “Feminists were constantly shirts off!” and “slut! slut! slut!” asking, ‘How can we clone you?’” he re- called. “At parties, women would plop me down in front of their husbands with in- of gender-based discrimination are men— feminist critics with rape and death threats. structions to ‘tell him what you told me.’” casualties of a society that relies on their Farrell told me that these tactics make now tapped Farrell to organize a na- sacrifices while ignoring their suffering. He him uncomfortable, but he argues that all tionwide network of men’s consciousness blames this phenomenon for a litany of movements have—and need—their extreme groups, including one that he told me was woes, from the plight of blue-collar workers factions. “I’ve been through the move- attended by John Lennon. In these ses- to the state of veterans’ health care and ris- ments,” he said. “I’ve seen how Martin sions, and in his popular 1974 book, The ing suicide rates among young men. Many Luther King alone was dismissed. It took Liberated Man, Farrell argued that women of today’s men’s rights activists view Farrell’s Stokely Carmichael and Eldridge Cleaver were not the only ones hindered by sex- 1993 book, The Myth of Male Power: Why to say things that were pretty ridiculous in ism: Gender roles hurt men too, by forcing Men Are the Disposable Sex, as their touch- some ways, but that brought the attention them to shoulder the financial burden of stone, and the online forums where they that led to Martin Luther King being seen supporting families and stifle their emo- congregate are steeped in Farrell’s ideas. as the nice, centered, balanced person.” He tions. Soon Farrell was burning up the talk For some, the “” offers a also cited the scum Manifesto written by show circuit and mingling with the likes of place to air real grievances about issues 1960s feminist Valerie Solanas, who shot Gloria Steinem and Barbara Walters. People such as bias in family courts or sexual Andy Warhol. “scum means ‘Society for ran a glowing four-page spread with photos abuse suffered by men. But it also has Cutting Up Men,’” he noted. of Farrell cooking breakfast in his Upper

18 MOTHER JONES | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 From top left: Farrell cooking dinner for his then-wife, Ursula, in 1972; crowning the winner of a “male beauty pageant” on TV as Alan Alda looks on; posing in 1987 with Gloria Steinem.

West Side apartment and tossing a foot- ball in a park with his then-wife, Ursula, a Harvard-educated mathematician and rising ibm executive. The Financial Times named Farrell one of its 100 “top thought leaders,” while other papers hailed him as also shaking up family dynamics and turn- Penthouse, Farrell explained that some saw “the Gloria Steinem of Men’s Liberation.” ing divorce into a political issue. now came incest as “part of the family’s open, sensu- Farrell’s calling card during this era was out in favor of awarding child custody to al style of life, wherein sex is an outgrowth role-reversal workshops. In one session at the primary caregiver, in most cases the of warmth and affection.” The magazine a Tony Robbins seminar in Hawaii, he mother. Farrell, who was by then teaching also quoted him as saying that “genitally made the 100-plus men in attendance at Rutgers University, came to believe that caressing” children was “part of a caring, gather on the stage for a beauty pageant. feminists were more interested in power loving expression” that helped them de- Contestants pumped their biceps and than in equality—a view that resonated with velop healthy sexuality.

/TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY/GETTY; WIKIMEDIA (2) WIKIMEDIA LIBRARY/GETTY; PUBLIC /TORONTO swiveled their hips while Farrell led the a growing number of men. Women’s en- Farrell maintains that he said “generally women in chants of “Shirts off! Shirts trance into the workforce, combined with caressing” and that the magazine conflated off!” and “Slut! Slut! Slut!” Those who at- a stagnant economy, was making it harder his ideas with those of his subjects. “The tracted the loudest catcalls were named fi- for men to be sole breadwinners, and many question is, how does a man or a woman TORONTO STAR TORONTO nalists and ordered to turn around and divorced fathers found themselves cut off justify having incestuous relations?” he told show off their butts, while the rejects hud- from their children. The men’s liberation me. “I was reporting how people justified it. dled, shirtless and humiliated, on the floor. movement began to fracture, as Farrell and In most cases the article made that clear, but Farrell then organized the women into others grew disillusioned with feminism. in some cases what the people I interviewed rows based on their earning prowess and Farrell shifted his intellectual focus had said got mixed up with what I said.” blasted the ones in the back as “losers.” again and began work on a book about But Farrell chose not to fight the misper- While men generally were game for these incest, including case studies. One in- ception. “That taught me how the research exercises, Farrell said, he was disappointed volved a New York writer who regularly could be misused by anyone looking for a to find that women often decamped dur- had sex with his 17-year-old daughter and reason to advocate incest,” he says. Instead, ing the second half of the program. occasional three-way trysts involving his he abandoned the book project.

CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER LEFT: GRAHAM BEZANT/ GRAHAM LEFT: UPPER FROM CLOCKWISE The cultural tumult of the 1970s was daughter’s friend. In a 1977 interview with The following year, he and his wife,

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 | MOTHER JONES 19 MAD MEN who was the primary breadwinner, di- After the book’s debut, Gloria Steinem throated manifesto, The Myth of Male Power: vorced. Farrell says he still remembers the quit returning his phone calls. Actor Alan Why Men Are the Disposable Sex. The book conversation that led to their split: He Alda stopped asking him to tennis. But tackled a number of pressing issues affect- asked her who she would marry if he were once again Farrell’s ideas lit up the talk ing men. It also took some bizarre turns: to die—somebody like him or the type of show circuit. During an appearance on At one point Farrell pondered whether man she worked with? “She said, ‘I feel I’d the Oprah Winfrey Show, he blasted women the American male was the new “nigger.” have a lot more in common with another who expected men to pick up the tab on (“When slaves gave up their seats for whites, ibm executive,’” he recalls. “And I took a dates. When a female guest tried to protest, we called it subservience; when men give big, deep breath.” Farrell pulled a fat wad of cash from his up their seats for women, we call it polite- A few years later Ursula did marry a pocket and shoved it in her face. “When ness.”) He took a sledgehammer to bedrock fellow ibm executive, while Farrell, who you say a guy can’t afford you, what you’re feminist ideals, claiming that women have would not remarry for two decades, came asking the guy to do is take the money out themselves to blame for unequal pay, that out swinging against feminism. By 1988 and say, ‘How much, honey?’…We have domestic violence is a two-way street, and he had collected his evolving views into to ask, is there any difference between that government programs to benefit wom- his book Why Men Are the Way They Are, Abby and a prostitute?” The book rocket- en only exacerbate inequality. depicting a world where women—par- ed up the bestseller list. Farrell, whose file Farrell also argued that female sexual ticularly female executives—wield vast in- drawers were bursting with grateful letters, power was eclipsing any societal advan- fluence. Even those women who are less outfitted his cream-colored Maserati with tages that men might have. “The powerful successful have “enormous sexual leverage “Y MEN R” vanity plates. woman doesn’t feel the effect of her sec- over men” and “can use the power to get In 1993, Farrell published his full- retary’s miniskirt power, cleavage power external rewards,” he wrote. and flirtation power,” he Men, on the other hand, have wrote. “Men do.” And thanks been reduced to “success ob- to feminism, he argued, when jects,” judged solely by their women felt ill-treated they status and earning potential. you’ve got male could now more easily pursue

a brief guide to groups and terms of the manosphere

Men’s Rights Movement (mrm): Fathers 4 Justice: A British paternal : A man who is “involuntarily 8chan: An anonymous forum that A loose-knit network of groups and rights group that gained notoriety in celibate” and feels that women Gamergaters started using after activists (mras) who believe men are the mid-2000s after activists, some owe him sex. Mass murderer Elliot 4chan banned their threads. an oppressed class. Most adherents dressed as superheroes, scaled public Rodger described himself as one. consider Warren Farrell to be the monuments, allegedly threatened to Subreddit: A forum on the social intellectual father of men’s rights. kidnap the prime minister’s son, and puahate: A site for those who feel sharing site Reddit, a.k.a. “the front defaced a portrait of the queen. disillusioned by the pua movement. page of the internet.” Gamergaters, Fathers Manifesto: An early mrm Rodger, who blamed women pua followers, and others website that combined calls for Red pill: In the classic sci-fi film for his sexual frustration, was a congregate in dedicated subreddits. paternal custody rights with claims The Matrix, the hero must choose frequenter; concluded that blacks should be exiled and between swallowing a blue pill, about him: “Until you give men like Honey Badger Brigade: A group Catholic priests were sexually which will allow him to remain in a Rodger a way to have sex, either by of mostly female supporters of abusing children as part of a plot to pleasant illusory world, or a red pill, encouraging them to learn game, the men’s rights movement; its spread aids. which will open his eyes to the reality seek out a Thai wife, or engage in weekly online radio show features in which he is enslaved. In men’s legalized prostitution…it’s inevitable such topics as “the top 13 creepiest A Voice for Men: Founded in 2009 rights parlance, “red pillers” realize for another massacre to occur.” feminist behaviors,” including by truck driver Paul Elam to “expose that men, not women, are oppressed. (puahate shut down shortly after “humorless vagina art.” on all levels,” the site, now Rodger’s rampage.) a hub of the movement, is aimed at Pickup Artists (pua): Self-proclaimed Mangina: What some men’s rights those turned off by the fringe politics or aspiring “alpha males” who Gamergate: An ongoing conflict activists call a man who supports of other men’s rights forums. attempt to seduce women through that pits “traditional” video game feminism. a system of psychological gambits enthusiasts (mostly white males) Register-Her.com: An offshoot of A called “the game.” Notable pua against feminists and others who Social Justice Warrior (sjw): What Voice for Men, an “offender registry” figures include Roosh V (Daryush call for game culture to become mras and Gamergaters call someone purporting to track female murderers Valizadeh) of the Return of Kings more inclusive. Misogyny and violent who advocates equal rights for and rapists as well as women who website, who has published a threats are a hallmark of the online women and minorities. make false rape accusations. collection of sex travel guides such controversy. as “Bang Brazil,” in which he writes, : National Coalition for Men: “Poor favela chicks are very easy, but 4chan: An anonymous and often A faction that vows to avoid contact A nonprofit group that “raises quality is a serious problem.” graphic online forum; used by and relationships with women awareness about the ways sex Gamergaters to strategize about because they think women will discrimination affects men and Anti-Slut Defense (asd): Tactics that revenge tactics and by hackers inevitably treat them as “disposable boys.” Its leaders have filed lawsuits Pickup Artists believe women use who posted stolen nude photos utilities.” —Rebecca Cohen challenging registration for the draft to dodge responsibility for sex, such of celebrities, including Jennifer and seeking to defund shelters for as offering “token resistance” or Lawrence. battered women. claiming afterward that they were too drunk to say no.

20 MOTHER JONES | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 sexual-harassment or date rape charges—a with racism, homophobia, and far-right but not a lot about you. I didn’t ask you notion that carries strong currency among conspiracy theories. One early site, Fathers about what your sacrifices were and what today’s men’s rights activists. “No one has Manifesto, interspersed excerpts of Far- really made you happy.’ And his dad’s re- taught men to sue women for sexual trau- rell’s writing with calls to exile blacks from sponse was to cry for the first time that he ma for saying ‘yes,’ then ‘no,’ then ‘yes,’” America and claims that Catholic priests had ever seen his father cry.” Farrell opined. “Men were left with less were sexually abusing children as part of a When the men lifted their heads, their than one option. They were still expected plot to spread aids. faces were flush with emotion. Farrell went to initiate, but now, if they did it badly, Farrell, a self-proclaimed technophobe, around the room asking them to share their they could go to jail.” rarely ventured online, but he continued stories. Tom, a portly, gray-haired man The Myth of Male Power struck a chord to write books and seek publicity for his with Coke-bottle glasses, described how his among a new generation of would-be activ- cause. In 2003, he ran for governor of Cali- father, a textile worker, had struggled for 20 ists for whom “male disposability” became fornia against Arnold Schwarzenegger on a years before stumbling into a college teach- a rallying cry. “It’s their bible,” says Michael fathers’ rights platform, garnering around ing job and finding a modicum of fulfill- Kimmel, a sociologist who studies gender issues at New York’s Stony Brook Univer- sity. “It’s really the foundational text.” Marc Angelucci, a Los Angeles attor- many devotees say they had their ney, first read the book as a law student in the 1990s. “It’s not an exaggeration to say “red pill” moment when it transformed my life,” he told me when we met at the men’s rights conference in they discovered farrell’s ideas, Detroit. Like many in the movement, he likens this sudden paradigm shift to the among them that domestic pivotal scene in the dystopian sci-fi film The Matrix, when the hero swallows a red violence is a two-way street. pill and wakes up thrashing and naked with a tangle of wires and plugs bored into his skin. The world he’s inhabited, the hero 600 votes. Later, Farrell approached the ment. “I didn’t really realize how much of a realizes, is merely an illusion designed to Obama administration with a proposal glint in his eye it was until he passed away,” keep him docile and enslaved. (This is also for a White House Council for Men and Tom said. “Unfortunately, he didn’t stick a key trope for Pickup Artists, a subculture Boys and signed on luminaries like former around very much to enjoy it.” focused on manipulating women into sex. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, but Next up was Brian, a lanky, bearded puas, who congregate along with men’s the plan did not come to fruition. 30-year-old barge hand who’d driven up rights activists in the subreddit /r/TheRed- It wasn’t until recent controversies drew from Tennessee for the event. After his Pill, were a fixation of Elliot Rodger’s.) attention to the men’s rights movement parents’ divorce, he only saw his father—a In the late 1990s, Angelucci joined that Farrell began to feel his ideas were power line technician who was a worka- the National Coalition for Men; he later having a real impact. During an interview holic—once or twice a year. “The joy in him founded the Los Angeles chapter and be- on npr’s All Things Considered in Septem- was buried so deep that it took me a min- gan filing lawsuits to force battered wom- ber, Farrell suggested that men’s rights ac- ute to get clarity on where the glint came en’s shelters to take men in too, alleging tivists were tackling the very problems that from,” Brian explained as he broke down they were discriminatory. (One case ended may prompt young men to go on shooting crying. “It came from me—when he’d see in a ruling requiring state-funded shelters rampages. “We’re all in jeopardy,” he said, me step off the plane.” As Brian spoke, to do so.) Angelucci has also fought to “if we don’t pay attention to the cries of Farrell wrapped an arm around his shoul- make the draft compulsory for women, pain and isolation and alienation that are der. Some of the other men wiped away and he has worked to water down the Vio- happening among our sons.” tears or buried their heads in their hands. lence Against Women Act. Later Matt, a clean-cut young man in a Farrell, who serves on the advisory board During Farrell’s private workshop in De- polo shirt and khaki shorts, recalled how of Angelucci’s group and strongly supports troit, he focused on male sacrifice. “What his father spent decades working a job he these efforts, says the goal is “to create equal- I’m going to ask you to do is just close your hated at the irs. Only last December, af- ity” and force discussion of issues such as eyes with me for a moment. I’m going to ter his father passed away, did Matt realize domestic violence against men. ask you to find a time in your father’s life that his father had harbored a secret pas- As Angelucci did battle in the courts, the when your father had what you would say sion for writing. “Basically he drank him- dot-com era was taking hold, and men’s is a glint in his eye.” As the men bowed self to death. And when my siblings and I rights activists scattered around the coun- their heads, he told a story about a man were cleaning out his apartment we found try were coalescing into an online move- who went home after one of his workshops a lot of empty liquor bottles, but also a ment. The manosphere was littered not and spoke to his father. “He said, ‘Dad, I lot of unpublished poetry and scripts,” only with anti-feminist diatribes but also realized that I had thought a lot about me he said, looking down. “Also, I found his

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 | MOTHER JONES 21 application to the federal government, that one of the main differences between color, gay men—anybody regardless of de- which was from 1971—about the same him and his protégé was that Elam was “se- mographic, as long as they were aware of month my older brother was conceived. cure enough internally to allow the space and concerned by issues of men.” So things sort of fell into place for me.” for the anger.” He then embraced Elam, A Voice for Men has succeeded in bring- Farrell had repeatedly asked me to serve who went on to give a speech about the ing some women into the fold, among as a stand-in for women—I was the only plight of blue-collar men. them Karen Straughan, a brash fortysome- one present—and at the end of the exercise A gruff man with a thick charcoal beard thing waitress turned YouTube sensation. he called me to the front of the room and and glasses perched on the end of his Her most popular video, “Feminism and asked me to interview some of the men so nose, Elam says he long sensed that work- the Disposable Male,” which rehashes the that they could practice discussing their ing men had gotten a raw deal but that he central theme of The Myth of Male Power, concerns. First up was Jim, a slender, ami- couldn’t put a finger on the problem until has racked up more than a million views. able ex-professor with freckles and curly red he cracked open The Myth of Male Power in A Voice for Men also works with Janet hair. When I asked how he became interest- the early 1990s and had his red-pill mo- Bloomfield, a driving force behind the vi- ed in men’s rights, he faced the group and ment. “The next thing you know, I was two ral social-media campaign Women Against flashed a sly smile. “Well, my ex-wife had a days without sleep reading it,” he told me Feminism, which features photos of wom- lot to do with that,” he said. “She had me during an interview last fall. “It turned my en holding signs with anti-feminist slogans. arrested for the crime of domestic violence. world upside down.” Elam pairs his big-tent approach with I went to trial because I was innocent, and I Elam, who had been working as a drug brazen, in-your-face rhetoric. When video spent six months in a box with other angry and alcohol counselor, became convinced surfaced last September of nfl star Ray men. I lost my job and my career.” that his field was rife with anti-male bias. Rice punching out his fiancee in an At- “Make good eye contact,” Farrell prod- “We began to identify and treat masculini- lantic City elevator, Elam argued that Rice ded. “Connect from the heart, so you can ty as the disease and the cure for it was mis- was justified because she had lunged at him (though he suggested Rice shouldn’t have hit her so hard). Elam has also dubbed Oc- tober “Bash a Violent Bitch Month” and elam dubbed october “bash a declared that men who are physically at- tacked by women should “beat the living violent bitch month” and declared shit out of them.” “I don’t mean subdue them, or deliver an that men who are physically open-handed pop on the face to get them to settle down,” he wrote on his website. attacked by women should “beat “I mean literally to grab them by the hair and smack their face against the wall till the the living shit out of them.” smugness of beating on someone because you know they won’t fight back drains from their nose with a few million red corpuscles. keep track of where you’re connecting andry—the hatred of men and boys,” he And then make them clean up the mess.” with her and where you’re disconnect- would later write. “Men’s groups devolved Elam says the post was a satirical retort to ing.” Jim spun around, looked at me in- into sessions of shame, clinically applied the feminist blog Jezebel, which had made tently, and further explained that the and charged for by the hour.” Elam began light of women hitting their boyfriends. episode had sparked his interest in “gen- raising unsettling questions, such as why He also maintains that A Voice for Men eral biases against men in society.” women checking into the clinic were rou- deploys over-the-top language and tactics The next morning, 100 or so men were tinely asked whether they’d been battered because it’s the only way to overcome scattered around the vfw’s main hall, a vast, while men were asked whether they’d hit public indifference and draw attention to fluorescent-lit room with a wood-paneled their wives. His colleagues’ reaction was the urgent problems facing men. “I don’t bar and a disco ball hanging from the ceil- “incredibly hostile,” he told me, which know a social movement that has made ing. A group from Farrell’s workshop ush- only stoked his rage. Eventually, he waded any progress without anger,” he told me. ered me over to where they were sitting. Jim, into the manosphere. While he was put “We all saw what happened with Warren the redhead, smiled and patted me on the off by the bigotry and conspiracy monger- Farrell. He spent 40 years engaging in very back, as if to say, “Welcome to the club.” ing, he believed the internet could help reasoned, polite discourse about men and At the podium, Farrell was introduc- rally scattered men’s rights activists into boys, and society basically said, ‘So what?’” ing Paul Elam, the founder of A Voice for a formidable movement. In 2009, Elam, But such rhetoric could lead to violence, Men. Farrell explained how he’d initially who was now working as a truck driver, warns Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty heard that the site was a hub for “angry” launched A Voice for Men from a laptop Law Center, which tracks extremist groups. activists, but later discovered it was a in the cab of his 18-wheeler. “I aimed to “When you have a movement pumping thoughtful group of people wrestling with attract the kind of people who could make out nasty propaganda, it invariably finds the same issues he cared about. He added a movement,” he said, “women, people of fertile ground in the mind of someone like

22 MOTHER JONES | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 MAD MEN

Elliot Rodger or the man behind the 1989 (a.k.a. “doxing”) is a common practice “I felt that it was a tasteful message that Montreal massacre,” she says, referring to among men’s rights activists. In late 2013, had not been communicated effectively 25-year-old Marc Lépine, a misogynist who someone posted photos of Rachel Cassi- to women about how powerless men feel shot 14 women to death at a university. dy, a 20-year-old college student in Ohio, around the beautiful woman’s body,” Far- Beirich cited a third example: mass on the anonymous online forum 4chan, rell told me. Cupping a hand over his murderer Anders Breivik, who carried alleging she had lodged false rape accu- crotch, he added, “Our upper brains stop out attacks on a government building sations. Nolan, who has made it his mis- working and the lower brain starts working.” and summer camp in Norway in 2011, sion to “name and shame” women who Following Elliot Rodger’s murder ram- killing 77 children and adults. Breivik wrongly accuse men, dug up every bit of page last May, Farrell and the men’s rights wrote a manifesto that seized on men’s information he could find about Cassidy movement drew attention like never be- rights ideology—he declared that fathers and posted it to Crimes Against Fathers. fore. There is no evidence that Rodger (or had become “disposable,” that women Police and university officials were explic- other killers) had any ties to Farrell, Elam, use their “erotic capital” to “manipulate” it that Cassidy had nothing to do with the or men’s rights organizations. But com- men, and that the media turns men into rape charges in question. Nevertheless, mentators highlighted Rodger’s focus on a “touchy-feely subspecies who bows to she was inundated with hateful messages the Pickup Artist scene and his ideas about the radical feminist agenda.” Men’s rights and death threats, forcing her to delete women and their sexual dominion over activist Peter Andrew Nolan, who runs a all her social-media accounts and quit at- men. “They think like beasts,” he wrote. site called Crimes Against Fathers, praised tending classes. Conservatives rushed in to defend the Breivik, suggesting he was “a hero.” (Some The venomous tactics deployed by some men’s movement: Helen Smith, who men’s rights activists, including Elam, dis- men’s rights activists have helped fuel a blogs for the website PJ Media, argued avow Nolan as a dangerous radical.) backlash against Warren Farrell. One cool that “feminists and their supporters who The same year, a distraught father evening in November 2012, Farrell arrived block funding and education going to named Thomas Ball, who had been denied at the University of Toronto to deliver a boys’ and men’s issues” may have been to visitation with his daughters, walked up speech on the “boy crisis.” A throng of an- blame for Rodger’s attack. After the pro- to a courthouse in New Hampshire and gry students was massing near the auditori- testers showed up at the Hilton Double- laid his driver’s license and car keys on the um entrance. Campus police hustled Farrell Tree in Detroit, Fox News suggested their steps. He then doused himself with gaso- in through a rear door, but backstage he goal was “muzzling” men. “Feminists are line and pulled out a lighter. Following could hear demonstrators chanting, “Fuck up in arms, calling a men’s conference a Ball’s death, A Voice for Men published Warren Farrell! No hate speech on cam- hate group even though it included all his manifesto, which called on aggrieved pus!” Soon protesters in black hoodies were races and sexes,” said morning show host men to “start burning down police stations barricading the entrance and heckling ticket Steve Doocy, pointing to the diverse com- and courthouses” and warned there would holders: “Fucking rape apologist! Incest- munity Elam had built. “So who are the be “some casualties in this war.” The group supporting, women-hating, fucking scum!” ones being intolerant?” An opinion piece insisted it wasn’t encouraging bloodshed A Voice for Men posted footage of the on cnn.com by Marc Randazza, a First by publishing the document, which has protests, edited to play up images of angry Amendment lawyer who has spoken up since been taken down. “I regard violence feminists taunting police as they cleared for Rush Limbaugh, violent video games, as a bad outcome to be avoided,” manag- the scene. The video went viral and helped and the pornography industry, suggested ing editor John Hembling wrote on the make Elam’s site a leading outlet for the that A Voice for Men had endured pro- group’s website. “But it’s coming.” movement. A Voice for Men later started tests and threats simply because it had the Soon after, A Voice for Men launched posting video from other feminist dem- “audacity to question certain issues from a a site called Register-Her.com; modeled onstrations and publishing the names man’s perspective.” after sex offender registries, it purported to and photos of some of the protesters on Missing from that coverage were the track female murderers and rapists, as well Register-Her.com. group’s fierce tactics, which have contin- as women who scheme against men. The A few months after the Toronto inci- ued unabated. In October, with vicious site’s motto: “Fuck Their Shit Up.” dent, Elam, who hadn’t known Farrell pre- misogyny raging online around the Gamer- “Mary Jane Rottencrotch wants to say viously, met Farrell at his Marin County gate controversy, feminist pop-culture that her husband beat her just for the sake home. “I had been just walking around critic Anita Sarkeesian canceled a talk at of gaining leverage in a divorce,” Elam com- with a great big man crush for 20 years, and Utah State University after administrators plained on his online radio show. The solu- suddenly there he was,” Elam said. He be- received an email threatening “the deadli- tion, he said, was to give the husband a place gan publishing Farrell’s writings on his site, est school shooting in American history.” to publish her personal information, “even and Farrell started cohosting a monthly A Voice for Men responded with an essay the route she takes to work, if she bothers to online chat with Elam. Soon, a new gen- asserting that the email’s author was in fact have a job.” Elam added that there would eration of activists was clamoring to read a feminist posing as a men’s rights activist, no longer be “any place to hide on the inter- The Myth of Male Power. In early 2014, Far- and insinuating that Sarkeesian stood to net anymore” for “lying bitches.” rell published a new edition; the cover fea- profit from the episode. Publicizing personal information to tured a woman’s bare derriere, a paean to The same month, A Voice for Men set make someone a target of harassment women’s Delilah-like sexual power. up a copycat website [continued on page 62]

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 | MOTHER JONES 23 mad men [continued from page 23] that appeared in- stage, wiped away a tear and gave Elam a being a good father,” he said as his eyes tended to divert traffic and donations from hug. “Paul, that was really beautiful,” Far- welled with tears. the White Ribbon Campaign, a violence rell said, touching his hand to his heart. Later in the evening, a man named prevention group founded in response to He described how his father, after reading Kevin sidled up and grabbed my hand. the 1989 mass shooting in Montreal. In ad- the first draft of The Myth of Male Power, His breath smelled of alcohol and he dition to claiming that its namesake was a had asked him if he was prepared to wait was twitching and swaying within inches scam, Elam’s fake White Ribbon site ar- a whole generation for his book to be ac- of my face. He told me a rambling story gued that “corrupt” academics have con- knowledged. “Like my dad said, 21 years about a woman he dated who had put an- spired to cover up the epidemic of violence later, that’s finally happening. It’s hap- other man in prison on false rape charges. against men, and that women’s shelters are pening here. It’s happening now. It’s hap- He claimed to have landed in jail for a “hotbeds of gender hatred.” When critics pening with us. It’s happening, in part, week himself over phony abuse allega- called him out for the deceptive site, Elam because of Paul Elam.” Farrell then asked tions. “Magically, your soon-to-be ex-wife wrote a scathing retort. “Go right straight to everyone who had contributed to Elam’s finds an attorney,” he said, “and it’s basi- Hell, you gang of bigoted, lying scumbags,” site, or “gone the distance” to attend the cally all lies from then on.” With a note of it read. “That is, if Hell will even have you conference, to stand and give themselves a triumph, he added that he left his job as pieces of shit.” round of applause. a program manager for Microsoft around Two nights before, I’d met some of the his 2008 divorce to avoid paying taxes to a On day three of the Detroit conference, men from Farrell’s workshop at an Irish “corrupt government” he believes coddles Elam was speaking from the podium in pub. They were huddled around a long ta- women at men’s expense. the main vfw hall. “One of the things that ble on the patio. Jim, the redhead, hugged When I got up to leave, Kevin handed me we’ve missed in this culture, especially over me and offered me his stool, and Peter, a business card for “John Galt Industries” the last 50 or 60 years, is mentoring,” he a sweet sixtysomething man with bifocals (a reference to the anti-government hero said. “But I also think that we adapt, espe- and a broom-handle mustache, came over of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged ). As I cially as men, and that we can receive men- to tell me that the workshop had inspired tucked it in my pocket and headed for the toring from their words, which I’ve received him to be more supportive of his son, door, he trailed me so closely that I could for many years now from Dr. Farrell.” who had a child out of wedlock. “I want feel his breath on my neck. “I’m not stalking Farrell, who had joined him on the to tell him how proud I am of him for you,” he said. “I’m not stalking you.” n

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