We’ve had a very productive (and enjoyable) afternoon and evening outside Manchester Central – formerly GMex – the venue for the Conservative party conference. We’ve been supporting the good people from Men Do Complain and we handed out well over 2,000 leaflets to politicians, delegates, media people, and others. Photographs and video footage will be published in due course.
We’ve had a huge number of productive conversations, many with people with little or no understanding of the harm caused by MGM. Memorable moments included:
– a heavily bearded young man, accompanied by a young woman, freaking out upon looking at the leaflet, and screeching theatrically to his lady friend, ‘OH MY GOD- IT’S HIM!!! The bloke who campaigns for men’s human rights. (Turning to me…) F*** off mate! F*** off!! Seriously, f*** off!!!’ The middle digit of one hand was raised most emphatically during his temper tantrum, and he appeared disinclined to engage in a rational discussion about the rights and wrongs of mutilating infant boys’ genitalia. The irony of a man being opposed to men’s human rights was, we must assume, lost to him.
– a young feminist informed me that we should be campaigning to abolish FGM, seemingly unaware FGM has been specifically illegal since 1985. She asked me why we were focused on men’s and boys’ rights – she scornfully dismissed this as ‘sexist’ – so I told her that in our election manifesto we explored 20 areas where the human rights of men and boys in the UK are assaulted by the state’s actions and inactions. I asked her if she could tell me of even ONE area where the human rights of women and girls (specifically) in the UK are assaulted. This question appeared to confuse her, whereupon she told me two women a week are being killed by their male partners in the UK. I informed her we’d presented numerous ‘Lying Feminist of the Month’ awards in recognition of this lie, did she have any other lies she wanted me to refute? She did. She told me a woman is raped every six seconds. I don’t know if she was referring to central Manchester, or a wider geographical area. I contemplated telling her I understood the latest official statistic is that 27 women are raped every second, during breakfast, but there comes a point when this degree of ignorance needs to be ignored, so I walked away. She shouted that I couldn’t just walk away, so hopefully she was further confused when I continued to do precisely that. Entitlement Princesses, eh?
I hope you can join us tomorrow. We’ll be handing out leaflets behind the Midland Hotel, near Starbucks, from around 11am. It would be good if you’re willing to be video interviewed – whether you oppose MGM, or you’re a fan of the procedure.
