蜜桃传媒

The 蜜桃传媒 reported on the movement back in 2012 but decided to list groups for 2017 following the extraordinary rise of the racist 鈥渁lt-right,鈥� of which misogynist elements of the 鈥渕anosphere鈥� form its core. The ideology of Male Supremacy, with many different tributaries of influence and thought leading into it, is broadly defined as follows:

Male supremacy misrepresents all women as genetically inferior, manipulative and stupid and reduces them to their reproductive or sexual function 鈥� with sex being something that they owe men and that can or even should be coerced out of them. Driven by a biological analysis of women as fundamentally inferior to men, male supremacists malign women specifically for their gender. Their thinly veiled desire for the domination of women and their conviction that the current system oppresses men in favor of women are the unifying tenets of the male supremacist worldview.

While it was expected that the leaders of the two groups listed by the 蜜桃传媒, Paul Elam鈥檚 A Voice For Men and Daryush "Roosh" Valizadeh鈥檚 Return of Kings, would protest (Roosh responded by blaming 鈥渢he Jews鈥�), what outraged the right-wing media was the following sentence in the profile of Male Supremacy:

Men鈥檚 rights issues also overlap with the rhetoric of equity feminists like Christina Hoff Sommers, who give a mainstream and respectable face to some MRA [Men鈥檚 Rights Activism] concerns.

Sommers, an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholar, took to Twitter and claimed that the 蜜桃传媒 鈥渄enounced鈥� her as an 鈥渆nabler of male supremacy.鈥� She told the Weekly Standard that the 蜜桃传媒 was 鈥渂lacklisting in place of engaging with arguments. They blacklist you, rather than try to refute you.鈥� An email to Sommers鈥� assistant asking for clarification went unanswered.

This rapidly degenerated into the false accusation promoted by Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Chief Research Officer to the President and CEO Pamela Paresky that the 蜜桃传媒 listed Sommers as an 鈥渆xtremist.鈥� In rushing to the aid of the 鈥淔actual Feminist鈥� many facts got trampled. Now Sommers is back in the news after 聽and celebrated by who all agree that college students are the gravest threat to free speech (as opposed to introduced around the country to criminalize protest).

But using Sommers鈥� words, is she an 鈥渆nabler of male supremacy鈥�?

The claim made in the 蜜桃传媒 profile is narrower than Sommers鈥� reformulation. Sommers has written a book on the 鈥渨ar against boys鈥� and has reported rates of rape and sexual abuse are . These arguments undeniably 鈥渙verlap鈥� with MRA concerns. As Alex DiBranco at Political Research Associates , 鈥渃laiming rampant false accusations of rape and violence is one of the most prevalent men鈥檚 rights and equity feminist talking points.鈥� And further: 鈥淓quity feminism鈥檚 depiction of women as liars with 鈥榲ictim mentalities鈥� dovetails alarmingly with (and legitimizes) the online manifestation of the men鈥檚 rights movement, which uses more virulent and hateful rhetoric to convey the same argument.鈥� The only label the 蜜桃传媒 gave Sommers, 鈥渆quity feminist,鈥� is one she embraces. 聽

But what鈥檚 odd about Sommers鈥� grandstanding is her history with the MRA movement and the direct praise she鈥檚 received from its ranks. Sommers was a prominent apologist of a vicious, far-reaching misogynistic online campaign that fed directly into both the Male Supremacy movement and what would ultimately become the alt-right. Sommers, using her perch at one of the wealthiest and most powerful policy organizations in the country, defended Gamergate.

Gamergate was a where male gamers systematically harassed female game developers and journalists with doxing, stalking and rape and death threats. Some of these women were targeted because they dared to be critical of the male-dominated space, others were attacked only for trying to exist within it. But to Sommers, the harassers were 鈥�.鈥�

This advocacy (Sommers dedicated at least of 鈥淔actual Feminist鈥� to defending the gamers) earned her the praise of many in the MRA movement. It also inspired and even a nickname, 鈥淏ased Mom,鈥� which Sommers enthusiastically embraced.

During the days of Gamergate, Sommers also made common cause with Milo Yiannopolous, appearing at several events with the former Breitbart News tech editor who rose to fame fanning the flames of harassment. Yiannopolous, last seen milk thistle extract on an InfoWars broadcast, and bigoted bully who did very little of his own writing. But for a time, he was a hot commodity and a Sommers ally in the war against 鈥減olitical correctness鈥� on college campuses and feminism, which Yiannopolous enjoyed likening to cancer. In the case of Yiannopolous, it appears the much derided campus protesters were a better judge of character and politics than Sommers.

Worth mentioning, too, was Sommers鈥� on a white nationalist podcast. In January of that year, she appeared on Red Ice鈥檚 Radio 3Fourteen with Lana Lokteff, whose white supremacist and antisemitic views were not secret and indeed broadcast from her Twitter account (here's what before Sommers' interview was published). In an example of extreme mission creep, Sommers joined the show to deny the existence of a gender wage gap. (Sommers has since that she did not know about the Red Ice show before going on it.)

But going back to the profile of Male Supremacy. The 蜜桃传媒 profile reads:

Men鈥檚 rights issues also overlap with the rhetoric of equity feminists like Christina Hoff Sommers, who give a mainstream and respectable face to some MRA [Men鈥檚 Rights Activism] concerns.

Carl Benjamin, also known as Sargon of Akkad, was instrumental in the earliest days of Gamergate and has recently come under fire from YouTube, where he has hundreds of thousands of followers.

In 2014, Benjamin for a documentary about Gamergate. In his fundraising campaign he was quite successful, according to the page, raising $7,000 a month from 3,298 donors. The pitch to funders read:

锘緿ear Based Mom" asking Christina Hoff Sommers to be the person to do a documentary on Gamergate on behalf of Canadian MRA Davis Aurini: "Professor Sommers, I want to propose that they need you I think that you are absolutely the perfect person to present and represent this documentary. this might come as a bit of a shock to you but you are quantifiably the single most influential figure in all of Gamergate. you have the most reach. You have the most influence. The romans would call this auctoritas.

The 蜜桃传媒 did not label Sommers an extremist. And claiming that the 蜜桃传媒 鈥渂lacklisted鈥� her, for accurately describing her relationship to a subculture and political movement, is almost as extreme an exaggeration as the student protestors at Lewis & Clark . But Sommers needs to square her objection to the 蜜桃传媒鈥檚 profile with the praise she鈥檚 received for her advocacy on issues that concern MRAs. The record is extensive.