A piece published by The Times online this afternoon:
MPs will decide on Wednesday whether to make misogyny a hate crime for the first time.
Labour MP and women’s rights campaigner Stella Creasy has put forward an amendment to the upskirting bill that would add misogyny (hatred of women) as an aggravating factor in England and Wales.
If passed in the Bill, which will be debated in the Commons tomorrow, the new offence would be punishable by up to two years in prison. [J4MB emphasis]
Although the crime will be recognised only in relation to upskirting, it will force police to start recording incidents, and Ms Creasy hopes this will be a first step towards recognising it as a hate crime across the board.
Ms Creasy, MP for Walthamstow, said: “Upskirting is a classic example of a crime that is often motivated by misogyny. [J4MB: A ridiculous “argument by assertion” from a ridiculous woman. Some men hate women so they wolf whistle at them, take pictures under their skirts etc.? The lunatics (feminists) have truly taken over the asylum.] At the moment while you would be protected in your workplace from being targeted because of your sex characteristic, i.e. being a woman, out on the street we don’t make that distinction.
“Unless you situate those [misogynistic crimes] in terms of that wider hostility we end up with a situation where there are get-out clauses. So it doesn’t matter how the woman felt, it doesn’t matter how she was treated,” she said.
Ms Creasy said her amendment would give MPs the chance to take a stance on whether they think street harassment is a serious matter.
The amendment has been co-signed by eight MPs: Tonia Antoniazzi, Martin Whitfield, Luciana Berger, Debbie Abrahams, Peter Kyle, Lucy Powell, Rosie Duffield and Jess Phillips.
It comes a month after police chiefs were urged to recognise public harassment of women as a gender-based hate crime.
A study by Nottingham and Nottingham Trent universities revealed overwhelming public support for the policy. Researchers found that nine out of 10 female respondents had either experienced or witnessed street harassment. Women from black and minority ethnic backgrounds said they felt doubly vulnerable to attack because of their race as well as their gender.
Nottinghamshire police became the first in the UK to record public harassment of women in May 2016. During a trial, the force recorded incidents such as groping, using explicit language, or taking unwanted photographs.
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