Roz Hardie reinforces the stereotype of feminists being humourless

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Mike Buchanan

We’ve had strong positive feedback to our YouTube clip of the Irish radio show in which Roz Hardie’s arguments and narratives were destroyed by Niall Boylan. A donor has called to ask about her claim, in the course of the programme, that I’d written in one of my books that women photosynthesise, i.e. put on mass in the same way as plants.

Almost three years ago my book Feminism: the ugly truth was published, and it’s available only in ebook editions. They can be read not only on e-readers such as Kindle, but also on PCs, tablets etc. with excellent free-to-download software. For some reason feminists have been upset by the book’s cover design. I have no idea why…

When Ms Hardie stated that I’d written that women photosynthesise, I assume she was trying to imply to the presenter and the listeners that I have bats in the belfry. Niall Boylan groaned softly and moved on, perhaps assuming (correctly) that if I had written such a thing, it would have been in a humorous context. Is Roz Hardie so humourless that she took my comments on women photosynthesising seriously?

To celebrate her woeful performance on the programme – which has led to nominations for both our ‘Whiny Feminist of the Month’ and ‘Gormless Feminist of the Month’ awards – I’ve prepared a PDF of three short successive chapters from Feminism: the ugly truth. Photosynthesis is covered in the first chapter, ‘Why are fat women fat?’

About Mike Buchanan

I'm a men's human rights advocate, writer, and publisher. My primary focus is leading the political party I launched in 2013, Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them). I still work actively on two campaigns I launched in early 2012, Campaign for Merit in Business and the Anti-Feminism League. In 2014 I launched The Alternative Sexism Project, aiming to raise public understanding that the sexism faced by men and boys has far more grievous consequences than the sexism faced by women and girls.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

  • I remember the section from your book well. You were of course referring to the fact that many overweight women deny that they eat too much, so you made the tongue in cheek suggestion that they must be photosynthesising.

    I wonder too whether this tendency to avoid responsibility for the consequences of their actions, is particularly pronounced in feminist women.

    Attached is a link to an article in which Jenni Murray blames anything and everything but herself for her obesity

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2736130/Why-I-m-getting-gastric-band-JENNI-MURRAY-years-battling-weight-s-taken-momentous-decision.html

  • rawbradford

    I did wonder what on earth Hardie was on about when she mentioned photosynthesis. I can’t believe she actually brought this up as a serious point. Incredible. (But she’s clearly read your works closely, Mike!).

    By the way, your theory may be more scientifically credible than you realise since there is already an orange photosynthetic pigment, namely carotene. (So Hardie can now add me to the list of believers in the Buchanan photosynthesis theory of fat women).