The following was just received in my inbox. It appears to be from feminist and alleged professor, rape apologist and victim blamer Adèle Mercier of Queen’s University Department of Philosophy.

Adele Mercier adele.mercier@xxxxx.com 7:12 PM (8 minutes ago) to editors, jac Dear editors of A Voice for Men, I am giving you twenty-four hours to remove from the internet all *libellous* representations of me as a “rape apologist,” a “victim blamer,” a “pedophile” and other such falsehood and innuendo that your site has irresponsibly allowed to be published. Please acknowledge receipt of this message immediately. Adèle Mercier

Dept of Philosophy, Queen’s University, Kingston, CANADA K7L 3N6 LOGOS – Logic, Language & Cognition Research Group Departament de Lògica, Història de la Ciència, Universitat de Barcelona, SPAIN Justice will only exist where those not affected by injustice are filled with the same amount of indignation as those offended. –attributed to Plato

Well, indeed that deserves a response, and that right quick!. Given Mercier’s socio-sexual political orientation, she does not seem acquainted with the concept of free speech, nor the dim view we take down this way toward abridging the right of human beings to express their opinions in an arena where ideas are free to be challenged.

She now thinks she can bully me/us into removing said opinions, guaranteed protection by the Constitution of the United States, with stiff legal provisions now in place for those who frivolously seek to use charges of libel as a way to silence those who oppose their views.

Sorry, Adele, you need my enthusiastic consent for something like that to happen, and you just don’t have it.

Even if I were inclined to give your demands consideration, which I am not, I am afraid you have been little help in helping me help you. One, you cite nothing specific. It is as though you want me to scour this site for all statements that may be about you and determine whether you think they are libelous, as though I am in your head and not my own.

While it may not seem unusual to you to have a man read your mind and anticipate your needs/desires, I am afraid it is out of the sphere of my experience and personal interest. If there is a problem, point to it, like where it actually is, and I will look at it again with all the fervor I expect you deserve.

I am also forced to inform you that several comments made under your name on the internet, something easily verifiable in the process of normal discovery, have contained statements very much consistent with the idea of your being a victim blaming rape and pedophilia apologist.

Do you now deny that these statements were yours? A simple, direct and honest answer, even in the comments to this post, will do.

See, here is the deal, and I mean this in the most collegial way. I knew someone with a problem similar to yours once in my life. He was a really nice fellow, who people had taken to calling “Stinky” for a nickname. That name hurt his feelings, much as yours appear to be hurting now.

Admittedly, part of the problem was that despite his good nature and gentle ways, he was not very active in the personal hygiene department. In other words, he stank. Ergo, “Stinky”

With some encouragement he took measures, namely bathing, to address his body odor issues, and before long people started calling him by his real name again.

It was like magic.

By actually doing things that prevented giving people the impression he was odiferous, it had a marked impact on how he was perceived.

I suggest that you, too, may be able to benefit from this same personal life strategy.

If you are saying repugnant, misguided and bigoted things in public, there will be negative reactions, mainly from people with a distaste for repugnant, misguided and bigoted thinking.

Hate is like body odor. Stinky is usually the last person to notice the problem.

As to your ultimatum, sorry, things like that (and feminism) have been failing to impress me for a long, long time. I suggest you take a look though the history of this site. You might want to ask yourself if there is anything, and I do mean anything here that suggests to you that a snotty, officious email from an overly entitled child of privilege is going to make us do anything.

Kind regards,

Paul Elam, publisher, A Voice for Men

ADDENDUM

Mercier’s comments presented and addressed in AVFM article.

Mercier has apparently made a successful push to have all her comments and responses to it removed from Queen’s Journal. I just don’t think she gets it. The internet is forever, cupcake.