My thanks to a tweet from @mensrightsrdt for alerting me to this. I urge you to find 15 minutes in your busy lives to listen to this interview. You won’t regret it, I promise.
Month: June 2013
IT’S NOT FAIR!!! Some women impacted negatively by other women exercising choices.
It’s just been discovered, apparently, that when one group of people makes choices, it may impact negatively on other groups of people. Who knew? Now if the first group consists of women, and the second group of men, that’s not a problem. Indeed it’s long been the default setting for how most societies operate across the developed world.
But what if the second group also consists of women? The second group wouldn’t complain about that, surely? Forgive me, I couldn’t resist that. Of course they do:
The end of the piece is priceless:
Clearly, what we need are work environments where the specifics of your home life shouldn’t matter at all, and a culture that supports everyone having a life outside of work, regardless of whether that life includes raising kids or not.
Translated into plain English, I think this means:
Clearly, what we need are work environments which give women special treatment, regardless of whether or not they have children.
How could anyone possibly object to that happy state of affairs?
Anti-feminist women
I’ve just googled the term ‘anti-feminist women’ and some interesting websites and blogs emerged. I thought the following was particularly good – not only the pieces, but also the comments. Such blogs are the thin end of the wedge, and we’ll surely see ever more women writing such blogs in future.
http://darlingdoll82.wordpress.com/anti-feminist-woman
Intelligent and independently-minded women are increasingly prepared to self-identify publicly as either non-feminists or anti-feminists, which can only be a good thing for civilised society – for the vast majority of women, men, and children.
Drew Barrymore continues anti-feminist streak, says all women are moody
Drew Barrymore, one of my favourite American actresses – note: not ‘actors’ – has made some interesting remarks on American television:
Sarah Ditum
My thanks to LN for suggesting to me that Sarah Ditum, a freelance writer and journalist, might just be that most elusive of people, a feminist prepared to provide feedback on our public consultation document. I did all I could to persuade her to do so, and our exchange of comments on the matter can be seen on one of her blog posts (link below).
I had no prior intention of publishing the exchange of comments, regardless of the outcome, and as you’ll see, I was even prepared to consider paying a ‘freelance fee’ for her feedback on our consultation document. But she wasted so much of my time that I thought I should get something for my efforts, given that (along with virtually all men’s human rights activists) I ‘work for free’, unlike her:
http://sarahditum.com/2013/06/21/6-things-that-happen-when-you-write-about-feminism/
Please contact me mb1957@hotmail.co.uk if the blog post and/or exchange of comments are ‘pulled’. I’ve taken a copy. Thank you.
Wife finds husband’s body in garage, hands and feet tied up, decapitated. Police suspect suicide.
Confounding my expectations, I’m starting to become a fan of Twitter. I’m indebted to @mensrightsblogs for publicising this gem from across the pond:
http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/man-found-decapitated-police-suspect-suicide/nYNZh/
An open letter to five Conservative MPs
Last Thursday the final report of the House of Commons inquiry into ‘Women in the Workplace’ was published, and we posted both the report and our critique:
A couple of supporters have suggested I write an ‘open letter’ to the five Conservative MPs involved in the inquiry, and I’ve done so. These MPs were among the nine MPs – including the Labour chairman – present in the meeting at which the final report was approved (see p.72 for details). What times we live in…
The following is a link to my letter to Nadhim Zahawi. Letters will also be sent to Brian Binley, Caroline Dinenage, Robin Walker and Rebecca Harris:
‘David Cameron made a huge error when he embraced the NHS’
An outstanding article by Charles Moore in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph:
It’s official. Women’s votes are worth more than men’s votes
An extract from a Daily Mail piece about the government shelving plans to raise the motorway speed limit from 70mph to 80mph:
The Prime Minister’s inner circle is said to fear that an increase in the speed limit could alienate women voters. Polls have shown a majority of drivers would support the move, but significant numbers of women were against it. (my emphasis)
Mr Hammond had originally announced the plan at the 2011 Tory party conference, saying the 70mph limit had resulted in millions of motorists routinely breaking the law, undermining the principle of policing by consent.
He said: ‘The limit was introduced way back in 1965 – when the typical family car was a Ford Anglia.’
He claimed a rise to 80mph would ‘restore the legitimacy’ of the system and benefit the economy by ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’.
The Daily Mail piece:
Quentin Letts: ‘Does Maria Miller, the prosaic plodder, deserve chivalry?’
Quentin Letts – one of only three ‘Winston’ award winners to date – has been justifiably critical in his newspaper articles of Maria Miller, a cabinet minister. So I found one of his articles, published yesterday, very revealing:
Let me summarise the key point. A (female) cabinet minister’s (female) special adviser responds to a leading journalist’s criticism of the cabinet minister by expecting the journalist to submit to the ‘chivalry’ card. It’s to his credit that Quentin Letts has responded as he has, by publicising the story.
What does the expectation of ‘chivalry’ towards poorly-performing female ministers say for the notion that David Cameron should appoint more women into his cabinet?
Justice for Men & Boys 