“Mums’ Army”? Gimme a Fucking Break!

It occurred to me, after knocking out the last Infernal installment, that I’d overlooked one other important player in the gynocentric atrocity-porn game:

Now, as much as I laughed up the trashiness of Chat et al, along with their crass attempts at reader therapy, those mags at least limit their superegoistic ambitions to a two minute hate (or however fucking long it takes to trawl through their bindings). Not so with the misnamed Take a Break, which not only indulges in the same Slimy Stepdad sensationalism as its rivals, but also has the nerve to mount and maintain its own morality militia.

Yes, ladies and reprobates, form a defensive line ‘cos the Mums’ Army’s on the march!

Their chief weapon? The strategy of the nagging fishwife, it seems:

Over 350 campaigners, 15,000 supporters – a new political force is born. Mums’ Army is a pressure group which wishes to push the problem of antisocial behaviour higher up the political agenda, and keep it there.

Whatever the government says, antisocial behaviour continues to grow and is getting worse. We accept that the government is doing something, but we want to make sure that it’s not just words, it’s action.

Antisocial behaviour is a massive long-term problem. It is easy for the government to make a big fuss one day and to forget about it the next. Mums’ Army is here to make sure that they don’t forget about it, that they continue to combat it month after month, year after year.

So what do these so-called warrior women want, exactly? Well, amongst other things, tackling “antisocial behaviour” ranges from sympathetic goals like this…

The balance of the law needs to come down in favour of the victim and not the yob. There is too much fuss about the yob’s human rights. What about the human rights of people to live in peace without the fear of intimidation?

…to abject shite like this…

To discourage commercial elements which encourage youngsters to bully and disrespect others – such as violent films, computer games, song lyrics, websites, and irresponsible television programmes. Then to be enforced with regulation and severe penalties for vendors who breech them.

…which reinforces my contempt for any group with “mums” in its moniker.

But, perhaps I’m being too harsh; perhaps I should find out exactly what they mean by “regulation” before bringing my gavel down on their thick skulls.

Turns out The Daily Scoundrel got there first, back in 2009:

Seems, in this week’s edition of women’s real-life mag Take A Break, the editor’s mounting a campaign (along with the more motherly of the magazine’s readership) to ban the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt series.

Predictably, much of it is nonsense, and clearly written by someone who’s never even had the slightest interest in playing the games in question, not even for the sake of journalistic integrity.  Here are a few choice quotes:

“The magazine’s philosophy? Bringing mum’s together, taking back our streets from yobs, campaigning to end violence against women” – all of which, the article claims, are supported by Rockstar’s GTA and Manhunt titles.

“Rockstar stood for women as victims, prostitutes and sexual objects,” the article subsequently claims. “Take A Break stood for women as campaigners, mothers and a force for good.”

And eventually, with some conviction, “We’re happy to go on record on behalf of our readers to say we think that such games should be censored.”

It gets worse still.  I ranted about ITV’s gaming addiction documentary a bit ago, and much of what angered me there can be applied here.  Check this shit out:

“[The games’] defenders claim that players can easily tell the difference between sordid fantasy and cold reality. But a steady stream of crimes have been linked to violent video games since they first went on sale.  Only last August yet another murder was linked to Grand Theft Auto – this time after an 18-year-old stabbed a taxi driver in Thailand.  He wanted money to play the game” (??) “and said it made killing ’seem easy’.”

And, amazingly, this:

“Authorities in Thailand immediately banned [Grand Theft Auto]. Sadly the UK doesn’t take the mental health of its children as seriously.”

Wow.

Wow, indeed! If intellect is mostly a matter of genes, I think the damage to the “mental health” of their progeny has already been done! Every time a rabid replicator employs such “reasoning”, I wonder why Project Prevention doesn’t broaden its scope beyond the hopelessly drug-addicted.

As I previously scribed,

If it ain’t a nonce trying to molest a friendly child, it’s a “concerned” parent, politico, or paper trying to molest the rest of the world into child-friendliness…

Still, my ire bursts into laughter when I ingest the abject irony of the situation; a crusade against fictional “atrocity”, waged by the creators and consumers of a mag that exploits (presumably) real atrocity for monetary gain.

Much like the magazine itself—tragicomic.

Which raises the question: does the Take a Break team believe its own bullshit with this moral crusade, or does it just want to crowd out what it perceives as its competition in the shock-horror stakes?

Whatever the answer, it’s rather blinkered of them to bitch about Rockstar pimping women as “victims” and “sexual objects” when they pretty much play the same game.

If they really took their campaign seriously—followed their logic all the way down—that lot would’ve switched careers (or signed on) ages ago, dissolving their ravenous readership in the most absolute way.

As things stand, the UK suffers the spectacle of sisterly shrews begging Big Brother to bring his boot down on those who would degrade the female—at the behest of a myopic mag which does just that (whilst “standing for” men as cads, killers, and kiddy-fuckers, of course).

Good show, mama bears!

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a finger wagging in a human face…

…till tea time every Thursday.

~MRDA~