Never have I seen a comment section so united.....

[GeneralBigG]

Okay, just been browsing twitter, and got this article linked to by Stephen Fry....

[link]http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/11/why-movember-isnt-all-its-cracked-be[/link]

Now, I consider myself a liberal. I do think that there is a problem in the way the mainstream media presents certain groups - that women do tend to be unfairly judged on their appearance more harshly than men, that there are too many grizzled white men as stars of video games, etc. - but this is plain ridiculous. The moronic assertions this writer presents in regards to a public drive to raise awareness of and money for testicular and prostate cancer - in the form of 'Movember' - being racist, sexist and transphobic are downright (and I hardly ever use this word) offensive.

In better news, and in relation to the title of this thread, I have never seen a comment section on the internet more united in condemning this article and its writer. I have been on The Guardian, The Express, The Sun (before it got hidden behind a pay wall), The Mirror, BBC News, IGN, the escapist, all over the internet(!) and I have never witnessed such a union of internet commentators. It gives me hope it does....


For those not in the UK, Movember is (as said above) an attempt to raise awareness of testicular and prostate cancer by getting men to grow moustaches every November - hence the pun-tastic name.


Anyway, Escapists - what are your thoughts on this article? Also, to further discussion, what are the most stupid articles you have ever read on the internet? And have you ever seen comments sections united?

And finally, just to lift the mood a bit, what have you seen on the internet that has given you hope for humanity/the internet itself, or just made you feel good?

 

[shootthebandit]

Movember is to raise awareness in the same way that liking a page on a certain issue raises its awareness. You dont have to do movember and if you already have facial hair then who cares. Its not a case of "laugh at the man with the tash" its more a case of "hes got a tash he's raising awareness for a good cause".

I love stephen fry and his campaigning for gay rights (and pretty much everyones rights) but hes gone far too far here.

 

[Spacewolf]

What does the article have to do with Fry? As far as I can tell it's written by Arianne Shahvisi

 

[Barbas]

What does the article have to do with Fry? As far as I can tell it's written by Arianne Shahvisi

It was linked on his Twitter account: https://twitter.com/stephenfry

OP: What an opinionated article. I think the appeal of Movember is that it's fairly easy to take part in.

 

[Barbas]

Movember is to raise awareness in the same way that liking a page on a certain issue raises its awareness. You dont have to do movember and if you already have facial hair then who cares. Its not a case of "laugh at the man with the tash" its more a case of "hes got a tash he's raising awareness for a good cause".

I love stephen fry and his campaigning for gay rights (and pretty much everyones rights) but hes gone far too far here.

No, it was linked from his Twitter account. The authors of the article were Arianne Shahvisi and Neil Singh.

 

[JoJo]

This is why people don't take lefties seriously. And I am a lefty.

This was the highest rated comment of the article and sums up my thoughts perfectly. As an indigenous Englishman who wears a beard and moustache full-time, the idea that moustaches are somehow the exclusive property of certain ethnic groups is ridiculous, especially when moustaches themselves were the height of fashion less than a hundred years ago in British society. I have my suspicions that the article was deliberately written as 'clickbait', since the author seems to be grasping around anywhere he or she can to find reasons against Movember.

 

[Neverhoodian]

In all honesty, I didn't even know "Movember" was a thing until I saw a promo for it on a beer can. Make of that what you will.

I do think there's an inherent risk of trivializing the whole thing, that it risks deluding people into thinking they're making a real difference when they really aren't. It's all well and good to raise awareness, but it's something else entirely to actually do something about it, e.g. donating money or the like. I've had a moustache for years, but that doesn't make me a super-activist for prostate/testicular cancer.

That said, the author of the article is definitely reading waaay too much into this. I can't even follow some of his twisted chains of so-called "logic."

 

[GeneralBigG]

Movember is to raise awareness in the same way that liking a page on a certain issue raises its awareness. You dont have to do movember and if you already have facial hair then who cares. Its not a case of "laugh at the man with the tash" its more a case of "hes got a tash he's raising awareness for a good cause".

I love stephen fry and his campaigning for gay rights (and pretty much everyones rights) but hes gone far too far here.

In the tweet I got this link from, Mr Fry actually says "If anything will incite me to grow a moustache next November it's this preposterous sub-Judith Butler drivel". He's actually criticising the article for being rubbish. He's NOT saying that Movember is transphobic. I'll edit my post to clear that up.

In all honesty, I didn't even know "Movember" was a thing until I saw a promo for it on a beer can. Make of that what you will.

I do think there's an inherent risk of trivializing the whole thing, that it risks deluding people into thinking they're making a real difference when they really aren't. It's all well and good to raise awareness, but it's something else entirely to actually do something about it, e.g. donating money or the like. I've had a moustache for years, but that doesn't make me a super-activist for prostate/testicular cancer.

That said, the author of the article is definitely reading waaay too much into this. I can't even follow some of his twisted chains of so-called "logic."

It's even more than just raising awareness, it's raising money for research as well. Adam Hills, for example, had a very successful campaign where he raised tens of thousands of pounds.

This is why people don't take lefties seriously. And I am a lefty.

This was the highest rated comment of the article and sums up my thoughts perfectly. As an indigenous Englishman who wears a beard and moustache full-time, the idea that moustaches are somehow the exclusive property of certain ethnic groups is ridiculous, especially when moustaches themselves were the height of fashion less than a hundred years ago in British society. I have my suspicions that the article was deliberately written as 'clickbait', since the author seems to be grasping around anywhere he or she can to find reasons against Movember.

The clickbait theory is quite popular on the comments on the article as well. I normally don't redistribute clickbait, but this one was just too stupid not to share.

 

[shootthebandit]

In the tweet I got this link from, Mr Fry actually says "If anything will incite me to grow a moustache next November it's this preposterous sub-Judith Butler drivel". He's actually criticising the article for being rubbish. He's NOT saying that Movember is transphobic. I'll edit my post to clear that up.

It's even more than just raising awareness, it's raising money for research as well. Adam Hills had a very successful campaign where he raised tens of thousands of pounds.

im glad stephen fry said that. It seemed a bit out of character for him to criticise movember

raising awareness isnt a bad thing. The problem is that breast cancer and cervical cancer are in the limelight whereas testicular cancer and prostate cancer arent because men are more embarrassed especially because a prostate exam is a finger up the bum. You are correct raising money is also really good but raising awareness is even more important especially when a simple test could save your life (provided they catch the cancer early)