Hard on the heels of the media coverage of the “#bringbackourgirls” issue, a young maniac called Elliot Rodger runs amok in southern California.
Feminists pounced on this terrible tragedy with unseemly haste and used it as a vehicle to further their narrative, despite the fact that more males than females were killed and injured. Here is an example of what was written, an article by hard-line feminist Laurie Penny that began with:
“For some time now, misogynist extremism has been excused, as all acts of terrorism committed by white men are excused, as an aberration, as the work of random loons, not real men at all. Why are we denying the existence of a pattern?”
The Isla Vista shooting rampage spurred the #yesallwomen hashtag on Twitter, and with it a further substantial outpouring of anti-male sentiment.
Many media articles incorrectly linked Elliot Rodger and/or his actions, either directly or at least indirectly with the Mens Rights movement – see here and here for example.
The issue has been comprehensively addressed in a number of articles and discussion threads on reddit/mensrights:
SYABM blog post about mental illness (10 August 2014)
Feminists upset after #yesallwomen wiki page edited for accuracy (16 June 2014)
http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/26mcqm/why_am_i_being_compared_to_a_mentally_ill/
http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/26lzij/barbara_kay_elliot_rodgers_horrible_acts_coopted/
http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/26ozoh/proof_that_elliot_rodger_hates_men/
http://disneyvillainsforjustice.tumblr.com/post/86899989015/to-tragedy-exploiting-feminists
I think we should stop giving these mass-murderers exactly what they want (25 May 2014)
The ten most asinine things about #YesAllWomen (28 May 2014)
The USCB solipsists (1 June 2014)
Having a penis doesn’t equal misogyny (5 June 2014)
#YesAllWomen reveals the constant barrage of sexism that all women face (29 May 2014)
Elliot Rodger, the MRM and the Detroit conference A Youtube video by Karen Straughan (4 June 2014)
#YesAllWomen: Facts the media didn’t tell you (The ‘Factual Feminist’ on You Tube)
Postscript 5 December 2021: The grotesque politicization of the Montreal massacre (Youtube video)
Postscript August 2019: Refer ‘To learn about the Far Right, start with the ‘Manosphere’. The sexist world has become a recruiting ground for potential mass shooters’ (7 August 2019)
Postscript March 2015: Since the Elliot Rodger rampage there have been several more instances of feminists blaming tragedies on men and/or men’s rights activists. The latest example is the Germanwings mass-murder/suicide. Here is the response of men’s rights advocates to two subsequent feminist offerings to the media:
David Futrelle redefines the word ‘sick motherfxxxxxx’
Postscript July 2016: The same theme is still being promoted via several oddly similar articles: ‘What mass killers really have in common’, by Rebecca Traister (17 July 2016), ‘One group is responsible for America’s culture of violence, and it isn’t cops, black Americans, Muslims or rednecks. It’s men‘, by Melissa Batchelor Warnke, and ‘It’s not Muslims or people with mental health problems who are most likely to kill you in a terrorist attack – it’s men‘, by Janey Stephenson (28 July 2016)
Postscript January 2017: Elliot wasn’t an MRA but this nutter WAS a feminist. And here’s another let’s-demonise-the-young-white-man (whilst ignoring all other elements of the problem) article:
From Quebec to Melbourne, we need to stop ignoring the radicalisation of white men (2 February 2017)
Opinion: The lesson of Parkland? Fatherhood matters, by Warren Farrell (14 February 2019)
