Wanted: MRAs to Sell Out the Movement

I have recently gotten a communique from one Andy Cadman, an assistant producer at a UK television production studio: Endemol UK/Brighter Pictures, headquartered in London. This message was left on the comment log, and I kept it behind the curtain for about a week. But now I unveil it to the eye of the world. If you wish to view the original, you will find it here:

http://counterfem.blogspot.com/2007/08/
another-new-blog-comes-into-view.html

However, for convenience I give the text verbatim, as follows:

BrighterAndy said...

Hi Fidelbogen,

I apologise for contacting you out of the blue but I am researching a new TV programme and wondered if you could help...

I am hoping to make a new programme about people who feel a sense of dislike towards, or are uncomfortable with, members of the opposite sex and/or gender-specific movements (feminism etc).

Firstly, as one of the most-linked anti-feminist bloggers, I wondered if you would be happy to correspond with me on the subject and possibly be involved in the project...? Secondly, I wondered if you could write a piece on your blog about what I'm looking for and encourage people to get involved.

I would be extremely grateful if you could get in touch with me as soon as possible on andy.cadman@endemoluk.com to discuss this further. Any and all correspondence will be dealt with in complete confidence!

Many thanks and I hope to hear from you soon.

Andy

Andy Cadman
Assistant Producer

Brighter Pictures
Endemol UK
Shepherds Building Central
Charecroft Way
London
W14 0EE

Tel: 020 8222 4898
andy.cadman@endemoluk.com

7:20 AM

Andy CADMAN...

The name is ironically well-suited, don't you think?

Anyway. I e-mailed a reply to Mr. Cadman, reproduced below:

Andy:

All right, I'm back.

I looked up Endemol/Brighter Pictures on the web, and now I have a bit of a grasp on what your organization does. Apparently you are a television production studio...yes?

Now, as for the matter you have proposed:

"I am hoping to make a new programme about people who feel a sense of dislike towards, or are uncomfortable with, members of the opposite sex and/or gender-specific movements (feminism etc.)"

My own involvement with the worldwide men's movement, is of a political nature - and I know that many others would say the same of themselves. While there is no doubt the movement contains a certain number who, as you say "feel a sense of dislike towards, or are uncomfortable with, members of the opposite sex..", the clear majority would avow to no such feelings, and would affirm (once again) the purely political character of their commitment.

The next part of your sentence reads: "and/or gender-specific movements (feminism etc.)"

Your wording gives me pause, given that you have included "dislike of the opposite sex" along with something of a political nature, and proposed making a TV show that links these two things in a way that might suggest to the uninitiated that some inherent connection exists between them.

While it is possible that such a connection might exist in the mind of various individuals within the movement, one would not wish to to draw any such conclusion as regards the movement as a whole - if only for the sake of journalistic accuracy. My concern is that the juxtaposition of these elements on the same documentary program might tend to generate such an impression.

Or, to phrase it quite simply (in the discourse of the movement), "the personal is not the political".

Bearing these points in mind, I would enjoy hearing more about your proposed project, and am willing to correspond for the purpose of sharing any information that you might find helpful.

Since you know more about what you need to know than I do, I will let you lead the way with any questions, comments or concerns that occur to you at this time, in order to get things rolling.

My archive of our correspondence will begin with your original comment on my blog.

I shall look forward to hearing from you;

-Fidelbogen-

counterfem.blogspot.com

As you will note, I desired to engage in further correspondence with Mr. Cadman. Why? Because I wanted to see what I could see, and learn what I could learn.

However, I have gotten nary a peep out of Andy since dispatching the e-mail quoted above. And something tells me I've heard the last of this. Pity. I had a whole scenario in mind, but evidently that is not to be.

What really got the red light flashing for me, was the following bit:

"I am hoping to make a new programme about people who feel a sense of dislike towards, or are uncomfortable with, members of the opposite sex and/or gender-specific movements (feminism etc)."

My response to this, couched in somewhat diplomatic phrasing, is given in the afore-referenced e-mail. But I'll chuck the diplomacy now: the passage marks Andy Cadman as a double-dipped greenhorn whose knowledge of things MRA is exactly one inch deep! Either that, or he takes ME for a greenhorn - which is an imputation I don't much like. The whole thing feels like a kind of racism, the difference being that it isn't actually about race. Still, it makes me think of a TV producer travelling to remote parts of the Amazon looking for natives to help him with a show about cannibalism and head-hunting!

Cheap, titillating entertainment for the Endemol UK audience, about those crazy woman-hating men's righters!

I rightly suspected that I wasn't the only person Andy had contacted. In fact, the thought occurred to me, "why doesn't he get ahold of Angry Harry?" Guess what, he did. And in the identical words:

http://www.angryharry.com/activism.htm

Scroll down a short way and you will see it - just past the bit about Nifong. Harry says they're looking for UK MRAs, so evidently Andy doesn't know I'm an Amerikanski! ;)

The worst of it is, that he believes that either Angry Harry or myself are dumb enough to fall for such a painfully transparent little scam. I mean, I am flattered to be called one of the most-linked "anti-feminist" bloggers, but when he insults my intelligence almost in the same breath that sort of defeats his purpose, doesn't it..?

I can see why Andy is only an "assistant" producer. If he wants to make the full grade, he needs to do much better! Back to the story board, junior!

Meanwhile, I am virtually certain that others in the movement (I'm thinking of bloggers especially) will be contacted in a similar manner. My advice to everybody is: stay away! Don't touch!

However, I would counsel others to keep a record of all communications that might occur.