Future of Typhon

Transcript after the cut.

You may have noticed that I haven’t been updating as frequently as I was.

In part this is because I’ve taken on another big project: Honey Badger Radio.

Honey Badger Radio is a group of women who don’t blame men talking about men’s rights, feminism, geek culture and men’s issues.

I know that women have a unique invulnerability to criticism when it comes to men’s rights; and this effect is exponentially greater with a group of women.

I see Honey Badger Radio as a vanguard, breaking the ice around men’s rights discussion, and framing it as not just socially acceptable but socially responsible.

If you haven’t already, please go and subscribe.

Now, I can say that I’m busy but the real reason that I haven’t been updating is because I’ve reached an impasse in my research on gender dynamics.

I’ve dug down deep enough on this issue that I’ve hit clay. I think I’ve done all the theoretical excavation that I can.

Anything further and I’m taking this channel even deeper, into the bedrock that lies under and goes beyond gender and men’s rights.

Having said that, I’m not abandoning this channel.

Let me tell you a bit about my history.

My interest in men’s issues started with “The Princess at the window”. At the time I identified as a feminist because I felt that if women had the vote they should also be subject to the draft. When I realized that this was not even anywhere near the list of important feminist issues, I felt betrayed by the movement.

Feminism is obviously about what society can give women; not what women can give society.

My own particular psychology rejected that role; the role of princess, damsel and moral patient. I’ve never been interested in what I can get, but what I can do. Feminism offered me nothing to support my understanding of myself as an agent, my understanding of my responsibilities to men and society; all it offered was the endless cry of infancy.

Not what am I capable of; what am I responsible for… no, what am I owed because I have a vagina and vaginas are always victims.

I went on to read all of the men’s rights literature in the single shelf devoted to it in my University Library as an undergrad.

After that, around 2003, I started commenting at usenet’s men’s rights. I didn’t start fully agreeing with the men’s rights mission; I was still somewhat blue pill.

After usenet’s men’s rights came “Stand Your Ground.” At the time the men’s rights movement was both stagnant and heavily influenced by conservatism.

After Stand your ground, I found feminist critics; which was the only non-conservative anti-feminist blog at the time. Great discussions were had, I highly recommend feminist critics for some very well researched articles on gender violence.

After feminist critics I launched into my own blog and also published some pieces at the Good Men Project and, of course, A Voice For Men.

That brings us to early 2012. At that time the SPLC appeared to label the Men’s Rights Movement as a hate movement. They then retracted their apparent proclamation, allowing them to absolve themselves of all possible repercussions while enabling the accusation to cast a pall over the men’s rights movement.

At the time, this pall caused several men—including one I know in real life—to consider suicide.

The Men’s rights movement has been the only place where some men have felt heard; when the SPLC sorta somewhat maybe declared it a hate movement, those men lost all hope.

That’s when I decided to take on the label of Men’s rights activists.

If the powers that be are going to refer to MRAs as hateful vermin; they can damn well call me hateful vermin too.

It’s easy to hurt a group comprised entirely of men; much harder when there are women in it. Such is the moral bankruptcy of these people. They have no problem calling a group of men who have no where else to turn every horrible name in the book; but add one woman in and suddenly it becomes “a thing.”

That brings us up to April 2013 and Earl Silverman’s suicide.

His birthday was yesterday, btw. He would have been 64.

Two years older than my father.

Up till april of 2013 I had kept my men’s rights related work anonymous behind a pseudonym. I am an artist and a wanna-be author, and I hoped that I could make a name for myself in both fields. Unfortunately both fields are dominated by feminists and opposing the party line is career suicide.

After Earl died, I realized that I didn’t want to continue to put my own interests first.

I decided I would help where-ever I was asked to help and that I would put my skin in the game.

So when A Voice for Men needed help with it’s editorial process in June, I pitched in.

When Men’s Rights Edmonton needed assistance for it’s promotional material for the patriarchy party, I did it.

When an individual in Saskatoon said they wanted a men’s rights group, I did the work to organize one.

And when I was asked to talk to the media about men’s rights using my real name I did that. Both in print and, even more irreversibly, on television.

I never wanted to be known for men’s rights work. At all. But I decided I wouldn’t make choices based on my insecurities and fears; Instead I’d make choices based on what’s right.

I take the history of the Janissaries as cautionary tale for men. The Janissaries—the sons of christian slaves, brainwashed to serve the ottoman empire—were heralded as heroes when they were useful to the Empire; but the moment the Empire decided the Janissaries were no longer needed and that they would prefer Turks to occupy those roles formerly occupied by the Janissaries… A threat narrative was directed at the Janissaries and eventually every Janissary who didn’t flee or hide was slaughtered.

This is the ultimate fate of any group defined by benefit to another. Ultimately their usefulness will cease and the people they served will suddenly decide that their former heroes are villains.

Sometimes they’re spared; sometimes they’re slaughtered. But this is the end game of being defined by your utility.

A hero is another word for servant. And when servants cease to be useful, they become liabilities. Liabilities are another word for vulnerabilities; and people who create vulnerabilities for their masters are bad servants. They’re villains.

The problem isn’t feminism, feminism is merely a the final step in the inevitable lifecycle from Hero to Useless to Villain.

Now back to the future of this channel.

In the beginning of this I said I’ve hit theoretical clay. And I think, for the most part, I have.

That doesn’t mean this channel ends, it means it changes.

And I’m going to need your help to do it. Up to this point I’ve essentially tried to get these ideas out as quickly as possible just to manifest them.

In the process I’ve sacrificed production values and even coherency.

So I’m asking you, the people who’ve taken this journey with me, to tell me what doesn’t make sense, what needs more explanation, what seems wrong.

I also want you to take these ideas and make them your own.

As for me, my uploads are going to remain infrequent, but with your help hopefully more accessible and definitely more polished.

We’re going places with our little rag tag group of misfits. And I intend to help pave the way.

Future’s so bright… gotta wear shades.

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Alison Tieman

Artist/Writer at Xenospora

Alison has been researching men's issues since her mother gave her "Princess at the Window" by Donna Laframboise in 1994 when she was 16. She's taken part in men's rights communities since she started posting on soc.men in 2003. Since 2011 she's run the gender apostate blog Genderratic with her pal Gingko the wonder leaf and she founded Honey Badger Brigade in 2013 with Hannah Wallen and Karen Straughan. According to Vice the pony she most resembles is Fluttershy.

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