Less than 12 hours after its launch, donations to the AVfM Detroit security costs fundraiser – its target is $25,000 – have already passed $17,500, and I thank all the J4MB supporters (and others)  who’ve made such generous donations. I honestly can’t think of anything that has ever given me more optimism about the future of the struggle for men’s and boys’ human rights, than the speed and size of the response to this appeal. I’m reminded of a sentence in Victor Hugo’s Histoire d’un Crime (1877):

An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.

The Detroit conference must take place and will take place, whatever the enemies of men and boys might throw at us.

Another day, another article demonstrating we live in a deeply gynocentric country in which women – unlike men – are routinely not punished for committing crimes.

As usual the story is related by a female reporter, but the gist is clear. The 38-year-old woman (who was in tears in the court, as invariably happens in such circumstances, our hearts bleed) is being required to pay a fine of £106,000, which shouldn’t be a strain given she owns a flat worth £300,000. She swindled over £70,000 in housing benefits, which with interest amounts to about £91,000. She’s being required to pay half the cost of the prosecution (although you might well ask, why only half?) of £15,000. The message being sent by the justice system to women is the usual one:

If you’re caught swindling taxpayers or ratepayers, you’ll only have to pay back what you’ve swindled. YOU WON’T BE PUNISHED FOR YOUR CRIME. So go for it, and good luck!

We’ve covered stories in which women don’t even have to pay back what they’ve swindled. One related to a 21-yer-old barmaid who stole over £3,000 from her employer. Her ‘punishment’ was to pay back just £500… at £5.00 per week. Well, she’ll have learned her lesson from that! Sadly, not the one she should have learned.

You may or may not be familiar with the longstanding feminist account of where the term ‘rule of thumb’ originated. Either way, this short but excellent new video from American equity feminist Christina Hoff Sommers is well worth watching.

About three weeks ago a supporter pointed us to a nasty article by Eva Wiseman, an Observer columnist. From her photograph, she appears to be one of those feminists who chew on thick slices of lemon first thing every morning, to set their facial expressions for the day.

The article was titled, ‘How not to be a dick’, and this should give you an idea of the quality (or otherwise) of her arguments:

Don’t eat all the food. Don’t drink all the wine. Replace the milk, and the toilet paper, and the light bulbs. Remember birthdays, anniversaries, and that people close to you have relatives dying. Have difficult conversations, even when you don’t want to – offer help and food to friends who are having bad times, talk about things they want to talk about.

Don’t smoke with the windows shut. Be considerate on public transport – don’t stretch your legs as wide as a canal so the person next to you gets less than a third of the seat. Don’t tell people what you think of them, unless they specifically ask.

I left the following comment:

Eva, good morning. A supporter has pointed me to this article and nominated you for our next ‘Gormless Woman of the Month’ award.

The comment received 15 ‘upvotes’. Since I wrote it, we’ve launched our ‘Gormless Woman of the Month’ awards. The women working at the Fawcett Society, and their supporters, were the inaugural winners of the award. Somehow this new award seems more appropriate for Ms Wiseman, apart from which we have a long list of ‘Whiny Woman of the Month’ candidates for June, as we have every month. Ms Wiseman’s award certificate is at the bottom of this blog piece.

There were some interesting comments left in response to the piece, here’s a selection:

Boniface Ruckus • Radio Presenter at Tudno fm
Interesting perspective coming from a movement (or organisation?) whose whole premise is based on: ‘boo hoo! It’s not fair on our poor emasculated gender. But never mind, there is a solution – Don’t be a Dick, Mick

Peter Gregory Kelly • Top commenter • Works at Retired
Boniface Ruckus Have you stopped beating your wife yet?

Matt Adams
Don’t tell me what to do. Don’t be a c***.

James Goddard
Mike Buchanan is right, if a man wrote an article telling women how to behave all hell would break loose.

Peter Nolan • Mount Austin High School
Eva, western women are deeply evil people now. 99.9%+ of western women are liars and hypocrites on the issue of equality before the law. Maybe you should read my book called “How to be a good wife” http://www.wo-man-zon.com/Categories/Books/A0001/B0001.aspx

Diane Murphy
I agree with a lot of the men on here, who is this person to tell men how to behave and think. I’ve met and dated some amazing men throughout my life, who have never treated me badly or in her words “been a dick”! I think this is called a sweeping generalisation of the opposite sex and they should be upset by this crap article!

Rick Hill
She sounds like a dick.

Oliver Bingham • Top commenter • Los Angeles, California
Most of these things could also be said to a woman, oh…I see. You’re a very stupid person! Got it.

Keith Lodge
Nag nag nag.

As you must know by now, death threats against speakers and delegates at the forthcoming Detroit conference, as well as staff and guests unconnected with the event, and threats of damage to the historic building, have led to the Hilton hotel requiring AVfM to pay for 8 armed policemen around-the-clock. Along with insurance against property damage by people hostile to the idea of discussions about men’s issues, the cost will be around $25,000. In the past few hours AVfM have published this piece – a video presented by Janet Bloomfield – seeking donations. Over $4,000 have already been raised, including one ‘Platinum’ donation of $1,000.
It is critical that this event – the first international conference on men’s issues – goes ahead. I’ll be speaking at the conference, thanks to the generosity of J4MB supporters who financed my flights. J4MB will be making a donation, and I ask you to make one too, whatever you can afford. A link to the fundraising website is on the blog piece. Thank you.

Today I learned from AVfM’s updated list of speakers in Detroit that Terrence Popp – an American, and a former soldier – will be one of them, which is welcome news. He’ll be talking about ‘Men in the military’. For those of you who may not be familiar with the work of the estimable Mr Popp, let me introduce you. He’s a prolific video maker, and this is his YouTube channel. The following videos are among my personal favourites. Enjoy:

H.O.E. vs Ex-Wife
Deadbeat Dad Dilemma

Now this is a petition we should all be able to support, in the light of death threats against speakers, delegates, staff and guests at the forthcoming Detroit conference. I’ve signed it, and ask you to do likewise. The target is a modest 1,000 signatures, and at the moment just 109 more are required.

Our thanks to James for pointing us to this video from Aca Demy.

Yesterday we posted a short blog piece on gynocentrism. In 2011 AVfM published a series of landmark lectures by Adam Kostakis on the subject, and they’re currently republishing the series. They’ve just posted lecture #7 The personal, as contrasted with the political which we thought would be of particular interest to followers of this blog.

A short new post from Paul Elam, the founder of AVfM, concerning the Detroit conference.