The most useful aspect of www.UrbanDictionary.com is as a deciphering tool.
TIL SJWs have no swag. Someone needs to H2H them. jk dgaf.
Urban Dictionary is a crowd-sourced time waster; a dictionary of internet slang. I’ve wasted time there myself, offering my own definition. Anyone can post anything and it’s likely to be approved, and what gets the most positive upvote vs. downvote ratio makes the top definitions.
Men’s rights activists (MRA) are known for lacking meaningful lives, instead trolling the internet to play the victim and hate on women. Because that somehow helps solve real problems men face. To promote men’s rights, they’ve valiantly taken over the gender equality aspect of Urban Dictionary.
Definitions disparaging MRA or in favor of feminism are often downvoted by the trolls en masse, and likewise multiple definitions they find favorable to their toxic messages are upvoted to bury any criticism and instead promote a misogynist agenda.
I remember when this was the #1 definition for MRA on Urban Dictionary:
Now it’s number 17, buried on page 3, because the man babies downvoted the shit out of it, and created over a dozen glowingly positive definitions for MRA, then had their whiney buddies upvote them. (The top definition for MRA has only a quarter of the upvotes of the one you see above, but very few downvotes. It’s the ratio that matters, and it was an active campaign of downvoting that pushed the former #1 definition to the #17 spot.)
Here is the new #1 for MRA: “An organization of men and their women allies who draw attention to the ways in which misandry (anti-male attitudes and actions) and gynocentrism (women-privileging) harm men.”
What’s funny is it admits they’re nothing more than trolls. See the words “draw attention”? All they ever do is froth at the keyboard with anti-woman rants about how poor off men are. There is no “active” to their activism.
And the #2 definition for MRA: “A person that believes the radical notion that men have rights to equality, too. Slandered as misogynists by feminists for suggesting women share equal burden or that rape trials not be witch hunts.”
Since they brought up feminism, let’s see what MRAs have managed to make the #1 definition for that: “A relentless political advocacy group pushing for special privileges for women, which pretends to be a social movement advocating equal rights for the genders. Because women have already achieved more than equal rights, a modern feminist is either an ignoramus or a liar.” The “definition” goes on and on, if you care to read more.
MRA’s also got this to be the #1 definition for “women”: “As intelligent as the male of the species though far more vicious. Usually physically inferior yet very easily enraged. Tend to shy away from physical violence, but they gladly practice mental and emotional abuse against both their male counterparts and their so called ‘sisters’.”
How about the #1 definition for “rape”? It’s “When they aren’t kissing you. It takes two to tango.” And the #2 definition is “An unspeakable act that women like to talk about a lot. The only way to ever be politically correct about rape in any shape or form is to refer to the victim as ‘she’ because men are always the perpetrators of said act. Even if you, the male reader of this paragraph even so much as think of boobs you are a rapist and always will be. Are you happy, rapist?” And the #4 definition: “A fictitious propaganda created by feminists in order to stop all acts of sexual advances by men onto women. There is no such thing.”
Back to MRA definitions. Here is #3: “A person who believes in the radical notion that men have issues, too. Known for derailing arguments with unfair tactics such as facts or logic.”
And it goes on with the glowing definitions until we get to #17, which I know was at #1 three years ago when I first wrote about MRAs for TIME Magazine. The man babies have been busy since then.
By the way, part of the new MRA is to proclaim not being MRA all while spouting a bunch of MRA-esque bullshit. Whatever you label it, it’s anti-woman. Here are more examples of how women haters have trolled the upvotes and downvotes on Urban Dictionary to spread misogyny:
#1 definition for “Patriarchy”: “A term used by feminists, to blame men for all their problems.” And the #2 definition: “The bogeyman that feminists blame for women’s problems or under-achievements because their big-girl pants apparently don’t fit.” And the #3 definition: “The deity of the 21st century liberal woman; it doesn’t exist but they acknowledge its influence.” And the #4 definition: “A non-existent entity used as a scapegoat by women, when there is no other individual to blame other than themselves (as if they’ll own up to that).”
Click image to visit my T-shirt store.
There is a subset of MRA called MGTOW, which stands for “men going their own way.” Basically, it’s a group of guys who say they’re done with women, then spend a ton of time online talking about women and how allegedly done they are with them. Here is the #1 definition for “MGTOW”: “Males that choose to control their life on how they see fit and don’t take bullshit from women or the corrupt society since both are filled with evil pricks like feminists. Men who also don’t give women money because they know that those bitches will abuse them for the cheddar in their wallet.” There isn’t a negative definition until #6.
The #1 definition for “alimony” is a lengthy diatribe, but starts with: “A program started in the 1920’s to 1930’s to support women who’s job was to stay home and take care of the kids and run the house. Women were not allowed or encouraged to work, and as so, were unable to support themselves after a divorce. Somehow, the program has continued until this day, since the modern woman is apparently still unable to care for herself, or provide for herself.” Big surprise that the same author has the #1 definition for “child support,” which is more of the same crap.
The #1 definition for “misogynist” is: “A commonly used word by feminazis.” And under the #1 definition for “misandry” it states: “The existence of misandry is often scorned by feminists.” See the hypocrisy?
We can debate how much this takeover of Urban Dictionary does or does not matter. To me, it’s yet one more example of men being assholes to women online. There is no shortage of it, and this doesn’t stand out as more egregious than myriad other examples easily found in a quick Google search.
I prefer to look at the tale this examination tells about MRAs themselves.
It reeks of desperation to be heard, in some way, about how they’re hurting. I don’t write this to offer sympathy, because they’re not doing anything to help themselves or help others in similar circumstances. They’re just looking for someone to blame.
The hijacking of definitions to promote hatred against women on a site that is meant largely for amusement is a clear indication of what MRAs and their ilk offer society. This is the kind of shit they rally behind. This is where they spend their time and effort: blaming women for their hurt.
They talk about how men have higher suicide rates, but I don’t see them promoting volunteering at suicide hotlines. They talk about how men are more likely to be homeless, but I never see them talking about volunteering at shelters. I Googled to see if I was missing it, but the returns kept coming back with “Missing: mra”. I repeat, there is nothing active about their activism. The negative far outweighs any positive.
The takeover is more evidence MRAs are worse than useless. It’s a smokescreen to use causes they don’t care about to spread a message they do care about. And that message is all about how much they hate women.
I can’t feel sympathy for a hate group.
UPDATE: In a perfect example of “proving my fucking point,” some crybaby MRA douche created an Urban Dictionary definition of my name in response to me writing this article.
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James S. Fell, MBA, CSCS, is an internationally syndicated fitness columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, and author of Lose it Right: A Brutally Honest 3-Stage Program to Help You Get Fit and Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind, published by Random House Canada. He is head fitness columnist for AskMen.com, and a contributor to Men’s Health, Women’s Health, the Guardian, TIME Magazine, and NPR.