Five minutes ago, I was happily reflecting that it’s been a golden week or two for the men’s human rights movement. The Mankind Initiative video has been watched by over 6.5 million viewers. AVfM’s campaign to raise $25,000 to fund additional security at the Detroit conference – in response to death threats against speakers, delegates, other hotel guests, and hotel staff – reached its target in under 22 hours. And today Ally Fogg posted an outstanding blog piece on domestic violence, portraying Mark Brooks and Mankind Initiative in a justifiably positive light, Polly Neate and Women’s Aid in an equally justifiable negative light.

And at exactly that moment of happy contemplation, David Moseley – hitherto unknown to us – decided to rain on my parade. He posted the following comments in response to one of our YouTube videos about the world’s most prominent whine merchant, Laura Bates:

Lack of female CEOs is related to sexual violence insofar as it represents the wider social perception that women are inferior and are therefore not suitable for business, in the case of big companies, and are objects for the gratification of men, in the case of sexual assault. I reject your claim of her as an “emotionally-driven hand-waving loudmouth” and other comments (not necessarily yours) about her voice as ad hominim (sic) and not about her argument or stance at all. “emotionally-driven” is also a rather loaded sexist term and unless you would consider yourself sexist, it would be advised (advisable?) to avoid it as it belongs to that field. Women are often diregarded (sic) as being ‘over-emotional’. As per, you have conflated “women’s rights” and “men’s rights” and “sexism” with “feminism”. Feminism seeks to promote gender equality, this is not about making men “less” or making women “more”, it’s about awareness and creating an environment where men don’t have to fulfill (sic) typical stereotypes (as opposed to ‘untypical’ stereotypes, presumably?) of masculinity, and women do not have to be objectified by the media,, corporations and ultimately individuals. Men’s rights, as far as I can tell, are not under attack, (oh, you so can’t tell) and certainly not from the feminist camp (oh, OK!). If you doubt this, I would invite you to read feminist literature, bell hooks “Feminism is for Everyone”, most notably. (Yes, David, that certainly wouldn’t be an ideologically-driven book on the subject.)

When men can be so brainwashed, what hope is there? There’s only one thing for it, to raise the spirits for the long battle ahead. A large measure of Hennessy cognac, and a packet of Mild Bombay Mix. That generally does the trick, I find.