Karen Straughan

Who she is

Karen Straughan is a Canadian commentator from the Edmonton area who became, under the handle "Girl Writes What", the men's rights movement's most recognisable female voice. She began blogging and making YouTube videos in 2011; her early video "Feminism and the Disposable Male" passed a million views, and by 2013 she was a spokesperson for Men's Rights Edmonton and a regular on the movement's speaking circuit. ^[1]

Why she matters here

Straughan matters for two reasons. First, her prominence complicates the lazy read of the men's rights movement as simply men resenting women: its most-watched explainer of "male disposability" was made by a woman. Second, her arguments run straight into claims this site checks — that family courts are biased against fathers and that women commit a large share of domestic violence — where the honest answer is usually "partly true, and more complicated than the slogan". She sits in the same organised MRM wing as Paul Elam, and downstream of the framework Warren Farrell built.

In the record

A 2014 Vice profile of the men's rights movement called Straughan, writing as "GirlWritesWhat," one of the most popular polemicists in this manosphere. ^[2] Mother Jones's January 2015 investigation into the movement described her as a brash fortysomething waitress turned YouTube sensation. ^[3] Marie Claire profiled her in 2015 as one of the movement's "Honey Badgers" — a group whose founding is credited to Alison Tieman, with Straughan as one of its leading, but not founding, figures — where she said of the nickname:

The name just kind of stuck

^[4]

Straughan was not offered a right of reply for this initial profile; if that offer is made, it and any response will be logged here.