Honey Badger Radio: Being Badger

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We’re told we’re in it for the money, for the fame, for the attention. We’re told we’re Stepford Wives, that we don’t know our own minds, that we suffer from internalized misogyny. We’re called bitches, sister-destroyers, and gender-traitors.

We’re female men’s rights activists.

The mainstream media doesn’t just go out of its way to pretend we don’t exist, but it chooses to focus on a man who never promoted men’s rights, never engaged in any activism or advocacy, never even wrote a single word on the problems men face … as the poster boy of men’s rights.

I’m talking, of course, about Elliot Rodger.

All a man has to be is a deranged psycho and he’s automatically a men’s rights activist. Yet not a peep on all the work us female men’s rights activists do. Or even that we exist. Talk about erasing women’s voices!

Join us tonight as we discuss how we, the honey badgers, became men’s rights activists with reporter and equity feminist Alex Brook Lynn.

News

Hi, my name is Alison Tieman and I facilitate Honey Badger Radio.

As you may be aware, the hotel hosting the Men’s Issues Conference in Detroit has received alleged threats against its staff and guests. This resulted in A Voice for Men, the organizers of the conference, asking for donations to cover increased security costs. Although security costs may still increase, AVfM received the $25,000 it required within a day.

Now here’s the Honey Badger plan.

We’re going to set up a table in the hotel lobby directly across from the elevators and stairs. This table will be the first thing seen by anyone entering the lobby to attend or to protest the conference.

We will be the first thing people see and the first people to see anything because of where we’re situated.

The intent is to challenge the mainstream media’s narrative about who men’s rights activists are. In addition, having a highly visible group of women at the conference should serve to dissuade anyone who attends with the intent to engage in violence.

Here’s one of the threats we’ve received, documented by Kristal Garcia:

Originally, I, Hannah, and Karen were going to attend the conference with me manning the table. However, since threats have been made against innocent members of the Detroit community (the hotel staff and guests) and also other men’s rights activists, things have changed.

Three more members of Honey Badger Radio have stepped up to volunteer to help ensure peaceful assembly at the conference: Kristal Garcia, Rachel Edwards, and Jess Kay.

But we need to get them there. Because of that, we’re asking you to donate so we can get the Honey Badger team at the conference and set up our table. We’ve calculated we’ll need $5000 for travel, incentive expenses, a contingency fee, and fundraiser costs.

If all goes well, having a table full of women watching the entrance and being the first thing people see once they enter the conference should help prevent any violence from breaking out. But if it doesn’t, we fully intend to serve as a non-violent human shields between any violent protesters and the conference attendees, hotel staff, and guests.

If they want to silence the conference with violence, they can damn well go through us.

See more at: http://fundanything.com/en/campaigns/honey-badger-bring-it-campaign#sthash.irT6CnTL.dpuf.

Ghost Whisperer: A review by Jess Kay

I recently viewed an episode of Ghost Whisperer that seemed to convey a striking message about the treatment of boys and men that the show’s staff likely never even considered. This is not a show that I normally watch – personally, I find the acting and plotlines to be rather cheesy – but when you aren’t so lucky to have access to cable programming, your options are limited. This particular episode – season 3, episode 13 – is titled “Home But Not Alone.” The main character, Melinda, runs a business with another woman, named Delia, and in this episode, Delia’s teenage son, Ned, is on his first date. At the end of the date, Ned is injured by a ghost that is haunting the girl’s family, so he turns to Melinda to help determine who the ghost is and help them to “cross over.”
In the opening scene, Delia is visibly worried and states that she is trying not to be overprotective. Melinda makes it clear that she doesn’t understand why Delia is worried. She asks, “Well, what is there to protect him from?” Delia responds by saying, “What’s there to protect him from? Are you kidding? He could get his heart broken, he could catch a disease. And what do I know about this girl? Right? She could be into drugs, she could be into self-mutilation, she could be into animal sacrifice.” Melinda continues on, stating that Delia is “not making any sense,” but tries to reassure her anyways.
I found this to be quite telling on two parts. First, this was a clear representation that there is no concern for the safety and welfare of boys when they go out into the world and experience new things. We always see the tropes of parents who are terrified and overprotective of their daughter when she goes on her first date, deriving fear from an unsavory young man who likely has plans to use and abuse their little girl. But when a boy attends his first date, we don’t give a second thought to his safety and assume he’ll be just fine. He’s male, after all, and they can take care of themselves. They don’t need to be protected.
The second thing I found interesting is that even though Delia exhibits a great deal of anxiety over the safety of her son, she still fails to list the primary issue that many parents fear when considering the safety of a young girl on a first date: sexual abuse. She acknowledges that a young girl could hurt her son emotionally, give him a disease, pressure him into taking drugs or other taboo things; however, she never suggests that a young girl could sexually assault her son. This is a clear representation of how the thought doesn’t cross our minds, even in the face of reports stating that 43% of high school and college aged males have had unwanted sexual experiences, 95% of which was due to female coercion.
http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/men-a0035915.pdf

Rachel Edwards
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