A tip of the hat to AVfM for this. In common with AVfM, we shall shortly start publicly revealing the identities of those in the UK – doctors and others, whether men or women – who perform non-therapeutic circumcisions on male minors (Male Genital Mutilation, MGM) whether for personal gain, religious convictions, or any other damned reasons. These barbaric and illegal mutilations of boys’ genitals have to STOP.

I told you MrShadowfax42 is a trooper. Hot on the heels of Ruth Morris’s petition, please join me in signing his open letter to the University of York.

We haven’t heard of Ruth Morris before, but we thank her for launching this.

Her motivation is clear. She sees herself as a ‘good’ feminist, not at all like the ‘bad’ ones (and their obedient manginas) who signed the open letter. It’s too late in the day to go over the ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ feminist thing for the umpteenth time – in brief, all feminists are bad, they differ only in the extent of their badness – but please join me in signing the petition anyway.

We’re experiencing a good demand for pre-registrations for ICMI16, and I would remind you that it’s important people pay the pre-registration fees of £22, to provide a stronger steer on likely delegate numbers. This will enable us to select an appropriately-sized venue. More details can be found in the event announcement.

We’ve noticed some slight misunderstanding about the various payment options for conference tickets. Early Bird Discount tickets will cost £225, otherwise the normal delegate fee of £265 will apply up to and including payment at the door during the conference. Other than Early Bird Discounts, the ticket cost can be made easier by paying in four instalments with no premium.

We decided to offer this method of easy payment after listening to feedback from friends after the Detroit conference in 2014, and knowing the ticket price is always an important factor in people’s minds. This leads me to an explanation of how we decided on the ticket prices, which is directly related to an initial estimate of delegate numbers, based on the numbers at the ICMI14 conference in Detroit.

The quality venues in the locations we wish to hold the conference, able to accommodate that number of people, will cost in the region of £30,000 – some of them a lot more – to which will have to be added our covering some or all of the travel, accommodation, and subsistence costs for some of the speakers, the cost of A/V hire, registration, and other services during the entire three days, including of course, security for our delegates.

We thought long and hard about the pricing of tickets, and used a very sharp pencil to keep them as affordable to as many as possible. However, the financial analysis forced us to conclude that if we charged a lower price, we couldn’t make the project work. Conference venue hire costs rise sharply in proportion to delegate numbers, so apart from a lower ticket price making it impossible to cover the costs, really large delegate numbers, encouraged by a lower price, would force us to relocate to a bigger, more expensive venue, and send the project into a spiral of loss.

ICMI16 will be a three-day conference. It had to be like that to make it worthwhile for those people who will be travelling from across the world to attend, and with ticket prices from £75 per day, admission to ICMI16 is comparable to the average cost of most conferences. I hope anyone who is perhaps tentative about booking at present will see it as excellent value for the chance to meet and make international connections with others of a like mind – and, of course to meet and befriend the stellar lineup of speakers who are probably already so familiar already that they seem like friends to most of us. Without exception, all of them accepted our invitation to speak with enthusiasm.

I know that the Detroit ICMI14 cemented those who attended into a bond of friendship and mutual understanding, and I know London 2016 will do the same, and more! It will be a wonderful get-together for all of us concerned about men’s and boys’ issues across the world. Certainly, I can’t wait to see old friends again and to making new ones, and I believe everyone who attends will look back on it and remember its value, not its cost.

We must make this conference pay its way, and if there is a surplus, that will go into the J4MB ‘war chest’ to fund our campaigning, not least that relating to the 2020 general election here in the UK, where we plan to field 20 candidates, challenging the Conservative party in its most marginal constituencies.

In the last two weeks we’ve seen a major breakthrough for men’s and boys’ human rights in the British Parliament, after a particularly vicious radical feminist MP, Jess Phillips, who had blocked an application by Philip Davies MP for a debate on men’s issues on International Men’s Day, was over-ruled by her committee. The debate will go ahead on Thursday, 19 November. We’ll be protesting against MGM in Parliament Square that day.

Come and join us at ICMI16 in London, be inspired, enjoy the fellowship, and together we’ll make a difference.

Good news. The 191 academics, students, and alumni, who signed an open letter seeking to halt recognition of International Men’s Day at York University – and succeeded – should hang their heads in shame.

A tip of the hat to Herbert Purdy, a remarkable blogger on feminism and related topics, for this.

Our thanks to Greg for pointing us to this. I’ve left the following comment, and reproduce it here, in case it doesn’t get through moderation:

Our blog piece on the matter:

//j4mb.org.uk/2015/11/16/gormless-feminists-of-the-month-191-academics-students-and-alumni-at-york-university/

The ‘Gormless Feminists of the Month’ award collectively presented to 191 people, including many men (including three professors!):

//atomic-temporary-215937230.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/151116-191-york-uni-academics-students-and-alumini-collectively-gormless-feminists-of-the-month.pdf

Mike Buchanan

JUSTICE FOR MEN & BOYS
(and the women who love them)

http://atomic-temporary-215937230.wpcomstaging.com

ANTI-FEMINISM LEAGUE

http://fightingfeminism.wordpress.com

A tip of the hat to MrShadowfax42 for this video (20:17). He was very helpful with door-to-door leafleting in the weeks leading up to the 2015 general election, he was at the anti-MGM protest outside the Tory party conference six weeks ago, and he’s going to be at the anti-MGM protest in two days’ time. A real trooper.

In the final third of the video piece he makes an erudite and heartfelt appeal for MRAs to spend more time on street activism, and less time on internet activism. I couldn’t agree more with him. The MRM long ago hit the point of diminishing returns on the internet. It’s time for MRAs to get onto the streets, to make some noise, and show the general public we’re angry, whilst explaining why we’re right to be angry.

At the International Conference on Men’s Issues, to be held in London over July 8-10, 2016, Professor Janice Fiamengo of Ottawa University will be giving a talk titled:

How Feminism is Destroying Higher Education

The actions of the 191 cowardly men-hating co-signatories of the open letter against the recognition of International Men’s Day by York University – many of whom are men themselves, including three professors – perfectly illustrate the major problem Professor Fiamengo will be talking about.

Only two days to go before the anti-MGM protest in Parliament Square, London – details here. We’ve been pleased by the number of people who’ve said they’ll be joining us, but we’d like more. The more people, the more impact.

With her permission, I can now reveal a TV documentary producer will be joining us on Thursday, along with a cameraman, to film the protest, interview protesters, passing members of the public etc. All this is in connection with a planned hour-long TV documentary on men’s human rights and MRAs, for a major broadcaster. If people don’t want their faces shown, they can be pixellated.

We’ve sent out press releses to 300+ journalists, and we’re hoping for good media coverage. So please join us, and do your bit to end the illegal mutilations of male minors’ genitals. The more protesters there are, the greater will be the impact. Thank you for your support.

We’ll be going for a recuperative beer or two after the event, which will run from 12:00 – 16:00.

Enjoy.