Brendon Marotta’s award-winning film American Circumcision – a trailer is here (2:31) – was highly regarded by people (including myself) who watched it at the recent London conference.
We’ve come to a commercial agreement with Brendon to host screenings in the UK, where it’s not yet available to order (and will not be for some time). J4MB will cover the screening fee. For reasons I won’t detain you with, I need to be present at the screenings, and will bring the equipment to play the film (other than a projector). We won’t be able to fund the hiring of rooms or projectors, and would request a minimum audience of 25, possibly people ordering free tickets on EventBrite, or paying a low ticket price to cover the costs of the room and projector.
If you’re interested in this offer, please email me (mike@j4mb.org.uk).
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Just noticed: a thread on Twitter from @womensmarch with photographs of a sit in outside the Supreme Court and a video of “Women arrested for peacefully protesting”. Interesting…
A hilarious piece by Deborah Ross in today’s Times, emphases ours:
I have just taken receipt of a “vaginal egg” from Goop. It costs £65, is made from jade, and looks almost exactly like the jade egg my grandma had on display in a cabinet, but I don’t think that was one of these. It is bitterly cold to the touch, which is not welcome news, given where it has to go. Dare I? Shall I? Just so we all know what such eggs are all about? Just so we can put it to bed for all time?
I have my reservations. I am pretty scared. What if I take to it then forget to remove it? When we’ve all seen what heavy earrings do to lobes? What if I sneeze violently and it shoots out, crashes down a trouser leg and rolls across the floor? How would I get out of that one? Should I just be completely straight: “Oops, sorry, there goes my vaginal egg. I’ll just pop it back up, shall I?” And should one blow on it before popping it back up, or would that be unnecessary?
But here it is and here I am. It was bought from the Goop pop-up shop in Notting Hill, west London, opened by the actress turned “wellness” entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow. The shop has proved the talk of the town with everyone trucking up to take the piss, basically, but I do think you have to respect Paltrow, who has always soldiered on regardless and has never given up on her mission to help us all to improve ourselves to death.
The egg has also been in the news. It was said to balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles and prevent uterine prolapse until the California Food, Drug and Medical Device Task Force declared such claims “unscientific” and Goop was forced to pay $145,000 in civil fines. But the eggs remain a Goop product — sold now on the basis of increasing “feminine energy” and improving muscle tone down there — and if you read up on the subject, some women do swear by them. One says that regular use of an egg means she can lift a tin of beans with her vagina. I am impressed, sort of, but wonder how this skill might be useful, or how you might convey that you had mastered it. If someone else were reaching for a tin of beans, for example, should you exclaim, “Out of the way, let my vagina do that”? And would you be narked should the offer be declined? “Great. You went ahead and did it yourself even though I said my vagina would do it. What’s wrong with you?”
But I am stalling. Here it is and here I am. It comes in a pretty little drawstring cotton bag. When I was a kid I carried my jacks around in a bag just like it. I’m remembering my teenage years and wishing my older sister were here. Back in the day she taught me how to use Tampax by directing me through the crack in the toilet door, in the manner of The Golden Shot. “Left a bit, left a bit, right a bit . . . shoot!” That said, she never specified that the cardboard applicator wasn’t part of the deal, insertion wise, so for the rest of that day I walked about very stiffly, unable to bend, quite like Dobbin from Vanity Fair. And now I’m stalling again. Understandably.
I open the little bag. The egg is just a bit bigger than a quail’s egg. The card inside says that yoni eggs, as they are sometimes called, were “once the strictly guarded secret of Chinese concubines and royalty in antiquity” and will “harness the power of crystal healing”, but first I must allow my egg to sit in recently boiled water for ten minutes, let it cool, then, for “bonus points”, “burn sage around the egg to clear the energy”. I don’t have any sage to hand. I have basil. And mint. And also parsley, in fact. But I don’t want this to become all about salsa verde, so I skip that bit.
Goop’s £65 “vaginal egg”
I notice that the egg has two little holes drilled in one end. There is nothing to explain these, but I figure it’s for some kind of thread, so I feed some string through because I don’t want my yoni getting lost up there and becoming a matter for the police and their sniffer dogs. I allow my egg to sit in the warm water while my adult niece, who happens to be around, gets impatient and keeps asking: “Is that egg up your foo yet?” I tell her I would never have asked my aunts such a question. I tell her the egg and my foo are not her business. My egg, my foo. “Yes, but when are you doing it?” Oh God. Now, I suppose.
Let me tell you plainly: it hurts. Perhaps I have a particularly resistant foo — a foo fighter? — and my foo was saying: “No, no, no.” But I persisted and now it’s in and I can feel it. It’s not painful. It just feels as if I want to do a poo with my front bottom, which is weird. You’re meant to squeeze and release for 10 to 15 minutes, should you wish to increase your “chi” and your “orgasms”. Sounds good. I am squeezing and releasing right now but I wouldn’t dare to put my socks on, in case it shoots out and takes out my niece’s eye. And now I’m going to remove it. Plop, it goes, which I think is foo-speak for “Yay!”
I feel no better and no worse. Up to you. But just so you are in possession of the full vaginal egg facts, “you can recharge its energy by placing it in the light of a full moon”. [J4MB: What is wrong with some women, that they believe such nonsense? And why do they have the same voting rights in elections, as sane people?] Also, they are non-refundable. Still, I could always stick it on eBay, right?
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Times caption: Alison Saunders, director of public prosecutions, said that crimes against women and girls made up a fifth of the CPS caseload TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
A piece by Frances Gibb, Legal Editor, in today’s Times. Emphases ours.
Prosecutions for rape have dropped by 23 per cent in the past year even though those for other violent attacks on women and girls have reached record levels, official figures show.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) took on fewer rape cases for the fourth consecutive year, partly because fewer cases were being referred by police, the data reveals.
The fall in the number of people in England and Wales charged with rape from 3,671 in 2016-17 to 2,822 in 2017-18 was condemned as “shameful” and as a “collapse in rape justice” by women’s campaigners and MPs. They accused prosecutors of making more conservative charging decisions in response to the crisis over disclosure. [J4MB: A reasonable lessening of the witch hunt against men, which still has a long way to go.] Cases referred by police are down by 9 per cent.
Other prosecutions for violence against women and girls last year were at a record high. [J4MB: No mention of the stats on prosecutions for violence against men and boys, predictably.] Three in four cases of violence against women and girls ended in a conviction, the highest level since data was first compiled in 2006-07.
The CPS report, Violence Against Women and Girls, also shows wide variations in the time taken for rape suspects to be charged, from 38 days in the East Midlands to 123 days in the east of England. When cases do come to trial, the rate of conviction is 49.3 per cent, the highest since 2012-13 when the figure was 51.9 per cent.
Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, said: “Crimes of violence against women and girls continue to make up a fifth of the CPS caseload. Our focus is on making sure the right person is prosecuted for the right offence, and bringing offenders to justice wherever possible.”
Cases of violence against women and girls were among the most complex the CPS handled. “Our priority is to continue to work with the police, to bring strong cases and respond to challenges such as the substantial increase in digital evidence that is now a common feature of these cases,” she said.
This week the CPS was accused of weeding out “weak” rape cases to improve its conviction rate.
Sarah Champion, shadow secretary for women and equalities, said: “The CPS statistics released today are shameful and serve as a condemnation of the effectiveness of the government’s strategy. The statistics clearly demonstrate the cuts have taken their toll and the government can no longer effectively prevent or prosecute violence against women and girls.”
Sarah Green, co-director of End Violence Against Women, said that the 23 per cent drop was “shocking” and came as the number of rapes [J4MB: Alleged rapes.] reported to the police was increasing exponentially annually. “This is a collapse in rape justice and we need to know why this has happened and what those in charge of the justice system are going to do about it,” she said.
Dame Vera Baird, victims lead for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said: “Despite progress by the police and the CPS in recent years, there are significant shortcomings in the system and vulnerable women and girls are still being let down.” [J4MB: Vulnerable men and boys are being treated fine, then.]
The report also showed the conviction rate for domestic abuse at its highest level since comparable data began eight years ago.
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Girls who self-identify as boys are to be asked to leave the Girl Guides in a move that has been lambasted by parents and guide leaders as “cruel, unfair and appallingly hypocritical”.
The organisation has recently broken with years of tradition as a single-sex movement to welcome boys who identify as female as part of its controversial “transgender inclusion” policy.
It says it sees no problem with allowing biological males to join girls on camping trips and share showering and changing facilities, insisting that “Girlguiding is for all girls, and that includes trans girls”.
The Times can reveal that the same policy advocates the exclusion of girls who say they are transgender. Those who identify as male or “non-binary” will be discouraged from joining the Guides, while those who are already guides and have taken the “Promise” — the Guides’ oath of allegiance — will be asked to leave, the charity confirmed.
“Girlguiding is for girls and therefore we expect a young person who identifies as male wouldn’t look to join,” the charity said.
“We would expect a trans boy [a biological female] to move on from guiding at a time that is right for them and we would support their leader to ensure that their move out of guiding is done sensitively and at a pace that suits the young person.
“Guiding will be an important support network for them and we would want to ensure that the process of leaving is done through conversation with the young person and planning what is most appropriate for them.”
Women who identify as male will also be forbidden from taking any adult role that requires them to make the Promise. The policy, which was written with the help of the transgender interest group Gendered Intelligence, has angered parents and guide leaders, who accused Girlguiding of double standards.
Carrie Wheeler, 37, a Guiding leader for five years and a mother of four whose own daughters have joined the movement, said that the policy was appalling. “If Jenny Smith says she wants to be known as Joe Smith, they’re saying, ‘we don’t want you’. That’s so cruel and very, very unfair,” she said. “It’s also really hypocritical. At a time when that girl is so vulnerable, trying to work out who she is, and who she wants to be, they’re just going to pull the whole rug out from underneath her?
“I feel so sorry for the leaders and the parents who are going to have to enforce that, because it won’t be London HQ telling her she’s no longer welcome and that she can’t join her guide friends anymore. It will fall to us.”
Sarah West, 59, a guide leader in Shropshire who has been involved with Girlguiding since she was a child, said: “I feel angry and betrayed. We’ve always been there for girls and young women. Now we’re being told, no, that’s not what’s important anymore. There’s a new type of girl who’s more important and these [trans] females are more important that the rest of the girls who may feel embarrassed about sharing tents or who may be anxious about their own identity. It’s disgraceful.”
Girlguiding recently faced criticism for expelling two guide leaders who claimed that the new transgender policy contradicted elements of their safeguarding duties. The women questioned why boys who identify as transgender must be treated differently from the sons of guide leaders.
A Girlguiding spokeswoman said: “We’ve had advice from Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence and continue to review our policy as new guidance and best practice emerges.”
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The U.S. Economist have dedicated their latest issue to #MeToo. Exclusively non-critical of the movement, in one article even arguing that it hasn’t gone far enough, the journalism is nevertheless well researched and written. There is a particularly interesting piece that links #MeToo to increasing political polarisation.
Paul Lavelle bled to death after being attacked by his girlfriend with a shard of a broken plate.
His mother and brother spoke to Birmingham Live about how male victims need to break their silence (although the fact that police were called several times during Lavelle’s relationship with his accuser raises a question over whether his silence was to blame or systemic failure on the part of the police?).
They are setting up a charity phoneline to provide guidance and support for male victims. Facebook page: here.
I’m looking forward to an interesting (free) panel discussion on male suffrage in the wake of WW1, in Portcullis House, London, late November.
The Hansard Record for the debates around the Representation of the People Act 1918 show that the women question was largely settled and most of the discussion was based around the fact if that working class men were good enough to risk their lives for their country, they were good enough to have the vote for their representatives.
It’s interesting to think about the sacrifices imposed on the majority of men at this point in time – and also the fact that they had to earn their rights (whereas women were really granted theirs). I tend to think that this is still the case in many ways in our society (look at the struggles of separated fathers seeking meaningful access to kids with obstructive ex-partners). In the U.S. it’s not changed with enfranchisement and many social services being dependent on registering for the draft, if you’re a man.
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A piece in today’s Times. Our sympathy goes towards Belinda Bingham.
An Australian woman survived an attack by a flying mackerel after it launched itself from the sea and sliced her throat.
Belinda Bingham was watching her husband, Neil, fish near a boat ramp about 30 miles from Darwin in the Northern Territory when she was injured. Her husband turned around to see her lying on the floor of the couple’s small boat with blood streaming from her neck.
A 22lb metre-long mackerel had sprung from the ocean at a height of more 5ft and left a deep wound. “It sure had some momentum. It just knocked me off my feet. I didn’t see it coming, didn’t see a thing,” Mrs Bingham told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Her husband tried to stem the wound with his shirt. “Neither of us had a line in the water at the time. I was putting bait on so my back was towards Belinda,” he said.
“Next thing she’s on the floor at my feet going, ‘Something’s hit me, something’s hit me’. I looked up, she had her hand to her throat. You could see the blood coming out through her fingers, pumping.”
He called the emergency services and Mrs Bingham was taken to Royal Darwin hospital. She was released this week but is still recovering from the incident. The fish had nearly cut into her thyroid, she said. “Other than that it’s the chest pain and my voice, because the fish bashed my throat. It’s like whiplash and it’s very sore. And they have been worried about the voice coming back,” she added.
The mackerel died after jumping at her and fell lifeless into their boat. Asked if they then went on to eat the fish, Mr Bingham said they had decided against it as it had been too long by the time they got his wife to hospital. [J4MB emphasis.] “We survived it. We got over it, well we’re getting over it,” he added.
Craig Garraway, the St John Ambulance operations manager, said that Mrs Bingham could have ended up “a lot worse off”.
He said: “I believe from the paramedics report there, it had actually impacted on a number of major vessels within the throat area.”
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Justice for Men & Boys 