An online group of misogynistic, homophobic neomasculinists who believe rape on private property should be legal and women with eating disorders make ideal girlfriends are arranging their first real-life meet-ups in Australia.
Return of Kings is a US-based international web community for “heterosexual, masculine men” founded four years ago. And they are gearing up for their first global meet-up day on Saturday.
Australia is among 43 countries hosting events, with three in Sydney and one each in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
Anyone who is female, gay or transgender is strictly banned from attending.
The group’s contentious ringleader, pick-up artist Daryush “Roosh” Valizadeh [see Instagram below], put up a post imploring members to “come out of the shadows and not have to hide behind a computer screen for fear of retaliation.”
“Up to now, the enemy has been able to exert their power by isolating us and attacking with shrieking mobs, but we’ll be able to neutralize that tactic by amassing in high numbers come February 6,” Valizadeh wrote.
“Let the sixth of February be a clear signal to all that we’re not going anywhere. We have finally arrived.”
Valizadeh is already gloating over the controversy he is stirring.
Valizadeh and his supporters describe themselves as “neomasculinists.”
Their core principles include that “a woman’s value significantly depends on her fertility and beauty. A man’s value significantly depends on his resources, intellect, and character.”
They also believe movements like socialism and feminism destroy the family unit, decrease the fertility rate and impoverish the state.
They are against the “elimination of traditional sex roles and the promotion of unlimited mating choice in women (because it) unleashes their promiscuity and other negative behaviours that block family formation.”
As well as thinking rape should be legal if done on private property and advocating for dating girls with eating disorders, other bigoted beliefs include that women should not have the right to vote, that females should be treated like “disposable razors”, that the “transgender movement” is a “horror story” and that fat people are “a threat to the planet”.
Men attending the Return of Kings meet-ups must ask a specific secret question before they are taken to a bar where the official event will take place.
Valizadeh instructs his supporters that if a “pretty girl shows up and begs to be a fly in the wall,” to just get her number and “tell her to buzz off.”
He also advises they move in pairs or groups using indirect routes to avoid “green-haired female activists or male feminists” following them.
“I will exact furious retribution upon anyone who challenges you in public,” Valizadeh wrote.
Australians have begun voicing their disgust at the group, including Greens party candidate Jill Thomsen.