Over this weekend, in one of the group messages that my friends and I have, I got a worried message from one of my guy friends. He wrote to tell all of the girls in that message to be safe, because there was going to be a so-called "pro-rape rally" in Maryland put on by a neo-masculinist group, not too far from our school. I was so confused. What on earth was neo-masculinism and also how could anyone put on a rally that promoted sexual assault?

Neo-masculinism is just chauvinism with another name. The organizer for these rallies, a Maryland man by the name of Daryush Valizadeh, owns and operates a blog called Return of Kings, which peddles his ideas of picking up women for sex and how to be a more masculine man in today's society. He adheres to some very traditionalist values about life, and this rally was seemingly a culmination of his efforts--a meet up between men (and only straight men because women, LGBTQA+ individuals, and trans men were not welcome) to talk about how to legalize rape on private property.

But then Valizadeh, who goes by Roosh V, called off the official meetings. He stated that he had been receiving threats and worried about his safety and the safety of his followers.

One of those threats was the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club. They heard about the proposed Toronto meet up before the meet ups were officially canceled, and vowed to show up with their boxing gloves and to show the men who would attend that they were not afraid of them. Savoy Howe, the owner of the club, even asked Roosh V to get into the ring with her. To me, that's kind of awesome.

I was scared when I heard about the rally happening downtown, but seeing the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club standing up and saying that they would not stand for what was going to happen in their city was inspiring. These are women who stood up and said absolutely not to the general awfulness that was surrounding these meet ups. They are not afraid to protest something that they saw as completely wrong. And they weren't afraid to bring their boxing gloves to give them an edge against these men who endorse the idea that women are only good for their beauty.

Serious girl power, in my opinion. Savoy Howe also received many inquiries from women to see if they could join in on the protest. However, when the rallies were called off, so was the protest. However, if there is ever anything like this again, we know who will answer the call to knock some sense into these neo-masculinists--with boxing gloves no less.