Update: an audio file of this discussion is now downloadable from Mike Buchanan’s YouTube page:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKhX1c3ow6BrzdzP3ydpeZQ/videos

Next Monday, 4 March, there’s going to be a discussion on the state of feminism in Britain, on the BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week. It will be broadcast twice that day, at 09:00 and 21:30. A lady BBC researcher contacted me and we talked at length about feminism, as did another writer and men’s human rights activist, Swayne O’Pie, author of the excellent book Why Britain Hates Men: Exposing Feminism. 

On the programme will be the feminist writer and activist Natasha Walter, and Dr Catherine Hakim, renowned sociologist, and the originator of Preference Theory (2000). Her research found that while four out of seven British men are ‘work-centred’, only one in seven British women are. This alone accounts for most of the ‘low’ representation of women we see in the upper reaches of major organisations, particularly in the private sector. Most of the remainder of the explanation in the private sector can be attributed to the fact that almost two-thirds of private sector workers in the UK are men. Combining these two facts would lead us to expect men to take over 90% of major corporate board positions, but it’s currently about 85% and declining year-on-year.

Preference Theory is central to our Campaign for Merit in Business. More details on the theory below:

http://c4mb.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/dr-catherine-hakims-preference-theory/

I also suggested to the BBC researcher that she speak to some anti-feminists of the female persuasion. She agreed to this, and later the same day I supplied her with the names of two prominent female anti-feminists who were willing to have a discussion with her. That was over a week ago, and she confirmed today she’s spoken to neither of them.

After Start the Week there’ll be a phone in on Woman’s Hour, same radio channel, from 10.00. The phone lines are open from 08:00 (035700 100444) and you’ll get through to a researcher. Explain to him (or her) why you think feminism is a curse of the modern age – a hate-driven female supremacist movement – and I hope you’re allowed to speak. Good luck!

We’re embarking upon a lengthy public consultation exercise, and the related document (link below) should be self-explanatory. It includes proposals in 18 areas including education, employment, paternity fraud and domestic abuse. We invite feedback on the proposals, and suggestions for other proposals we might include in our election manifesto for the 2015 general election.

130320 J4MB consultation document,

In a recent post I referred to the fact that men in the UK are more than three times as likely to commit suicide than women, and at particular risk are disadvantaged men in mid-life. The post had a link to a recent Samaritans report on these disadvantaged men, and a contributor to ‘A Voice for Men’ has just written an insightful critique of that report:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/misandry/a-newold-message-for-poor-white-hetero-males/

Our thanks to the technology-savvy MRA who set up a YouTube account. It now has the videos of Mike Buchanan’s appearance at the House of Commons inquiry into ‘Women in the Workplace’, as well as his appearance on the BBC’s flagship programme, Daily Politics:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKhX1c3ow6BrzdzP3ydpeZQ/videos

In the short time since the videos were posted online, they’ve been viewed over 2,500 times. The word’s getting out…

Some welcome news came to my attention this morning. I’ve written on numerous occasions about my admiration for a number of men’s rights websites including an American one, A Voice for Men (‘AVfM’). AVfM has been running radio programmes in the evenings for some time, but because of the time differences it’s difficult for Europeans – at least those with a ‘day job’ – to catch them.

So it was good to learn this morning that AVfM is establishing a new radio programme, ‘Voice of Europe’. It will be presented by Lucian Valsan, an East European MHRA who’s been a strong contributor to AVfM. His blog post about ‘Voice of Europe’:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/a-voice-for-men/avfm-radio/avfm-radio-voice-of-europe/

The first programme is scheduled for broadcast at 7pm (GMT) on 8 March, and it’s planned the shows will be broadcast every two weeks, and last between 90-150 minutes. You’ll be able to access the programme ‘live’ through this link:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/avoiceformen

I look forward to the shows – which will be ‘99.5% English language’ – with interest.

A year or two ago I challenged my local council about the iniquity of women-only sessions in the gym and swimming pool at my local leisure centre. The council’s first defence was that some women feel intimidated by the presence of men, so the sessions gave them the opportunity of exercising when they wouldn’t otherwise.

I objected to this position on the grounds that it inferred women are justified in feeling intimidated, when they’re not. It also has the effect of increasing women’s irrational fears. I said that on the same basis, the council should introduce ‘men only’ sessions to address some men’s irrational fears of women.

The hapless civil servant then changed tack and said that in some religions, it was forbidden for mixed bathing to take place. I asked him to inform me which religion(s) forbid mixed sessions and allow women-only sessions but not men-only sessions. At this point the man cracked – I sensed he was starting to lose the will to live – and he admitted that key government grants were conditional upon the centre offering women-only sessions. Quelle surprise.

I confess I gave up the fight at this point, to my eternal shame, but the British journalist Peter Lloyd is made of sterner stuff, as we’d expect of a ‘Winston’ award winner (one of only three to date). Peter lives in North London and wishes to challenge his local council-run facility, which offers women-only sessions in both the gym and swimming pool. He’s found a sympathetic solicitor who’s willing to charge just £240 ‘to cover everything up to a court appearance – all letters, phone calls, research, representation and administration.’

I appeal to you to contribute to Peter’s ‘fighting fund’. We need victories in areas like this. More specifically, victory will mean councils across the UK either have to cease offering ‘women only’ sessions, or start offering equivalent ‘men only’ sessions. Either way, this would attract considerable media attention and raise public consciousness about one of countless discriminations against men. A great return for just £240. Peter can be contacted at peter@handsomecopy.com. Thank you.

Update 26.2.13 – Peter’s just had an article on this matter published on ‘A Voice for Men’:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/misandry/kentish-town-sports-centre-to-men-get-out/

We’re expecting the party to be formally recognised by the Electoral Commission in around two weeks’ time, but we’re already in a position to publicise our new logo:

130217 J4MB logo

Full credit for the design must go to an expatriate British Graphic Designer and Illustrator who now lives and works in Vancouver, Neil Westlake. He was a real pleasure to work with. Neil’s well known (as ‘LimeyWestlake’) to visitors of the American website ‘A Voice for Men’, and we thank him warmly for his work on this project, which he’s kindly carried out at no charge, as a gesture of support to the party. His website is here:

http://westlakedesign.net

We’ve revealed the logo to a small number of people already, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Do feel free to post any comments you may have about it. Thank you.

From a Samaritans report I’ll be covering shortly:

Death by suicide can be described as a problem of men. Suicide incidence is higher among men than women across the western world. In the UK, men are three times more likely than women to end their own lives. The male to female ratio for completed suicide has increased over time in the UK; rates of suicide among women have steadily decreased over the last 50 years, while suicide rates among men overall are at comparable levels to the 1960s.

One of the areas in which we expect to be making proposals when we officially launch Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them) will be male suicide. Disadvantaged men in midlife are at particular risk of ending their own lives, and I learned today of a Samaritans report, Why disadvantaged men in mid-life die by suicide. Many of these men are, of course, systematically disadvantaged in a society which relentlessly and ruthlessly advantages women at the expense of men. The public sector was once a major employer of men, but now almost two-thirds of public sector employees are women. This helps drive the differential between female and male unemployment rates (for every three women registered as unemployed, four men are), yet the provisions of the Equality Act (2010) permit public sector organisations to favour women over men in recruitment and promotion terms. Such legislation drives unemployment among men, and drives up the male suicide rate. It’s an issue I covered at length in Feminism: the ugly truth (2012).

The Samaritans report is downloadable here:

http://www.samaritans.org/sites/default/files/kcfinder/files/press/Men%20Suicide%20and%20Society%20Research%20Report%20151112.pdf

It’s about damned time society cared more about the male suicide rate.

A typically powerful and insightful blog post (link below) by the American anti-feminist blogger ‘JudgyBitch’, occasioned by a report on negative gender stereotyping of British schoolboys. The feminisation of the primary and secondary education systems has been a disaster for boys and young men, and we shouldn’t be surprised that for every two young men who go to university, three young women do. Because that’s what the system’s designed to deliver.

http://judgybitch.com/2013/02/12/right-problem-wrong-solution-how-to-help-boys-in-school/

It’s been estimated that in the UK some 10% – 30% of babies’ biological fathers aren’t the men who’ve been led to believe they’re the fathers. It’s the leading but not only form of paternity fraud (I cite another form below). You may recall a recent case in which a man discovered his three children had been fathered by three different men, none of them himself. Given that many (if not most) of these deceived men – there must be millions of them in the UK alone – will work for 20+ years in order to support those children, this is anti-male fraud on an incredible scale. Would we expect women to work for 20+ years to support other women’s children? Of course not. It’s just one of countless double standards in relation to the genders. The answer to this problem is simple, and we’re considering putting it in our manifesto. Compulsory paternity testing as soon as a baby is born, with the results physically handed over to both parents.

There’s another form of paternity fraud, of course, most notably where women cease taking the contraceptive pill, but fail to inform their partner(s). Which brings me naturally on to a number of excellent articles I’ve read on the American website, ‘A Voice for Men’. The first is titled, ‘France upholds the ban on paternity tests’, and it’s written by AVfM’s correspondent in Eastern Europe, Lucian Valsan. The start of the article:

Don’t worry! There’s no mistake in the title. It is true – French men are forbidden by law to attempt to find out whether the child they are paying for is in fact their child or not. In fact, it has been illegal for men to attempt to find out if their child is theirs for many years. But a few days ago, the ban was challenged once again–and the government upheld the ban.

Is it really a surprise that a socialist government disagreed that men have human rights too?

A link to the full article:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/france-upholds-the-ban-on-paternity-tests/

Now something that would reduce the incidence of paternity fraud would be a male contraceptive pill. That pill is nearer than you might reasonably expect, given how little publicity the matter has achieved so far. The male pill is one of the feminists’ worst nightmares, and for an excellent account of why that is, I refer you to two more articles on AVfM. On the comment thread of Lucian Valsan’s article I was alerted to the fact that as long ago as January 2012 there’d appeared on AVfM two articles written by Stephen O’Brian about the possible impact of the male pill. The future’s starting to look brighter for men. Enjoy:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/men/mens-issues/the-next-red-pill/

http://www.avoiceformen.com/men/mens-issues/the-next-red-pill-part-ii/