The Rights Of Man

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BOOK : A MAN IN A WOMAN'S WORLD BY JACKIE HAYDEN

A new book - A Man In A Woman's World - has been published. Written by Jackie Hayden it outlines his disillusionment at the anti-male culture and anti-male sexism in the domestic violence sector in Ireland. A sector that he worked in including four years as Chairman of the Wexford Rape Crisis Centre. His testiimony is therefore unquestionable.

The book is available at (link) or (link).

Two reviews from Ireland show that this is a must read for anyone wanting to read more about the anti-male culture we live in where it is acceptable for those who believe in 'equal opportunities' to berate men.

Eilis O'Hanlon writes in The Independent 'that they can lose the active support of Jackie Hayden is a dreadful indictment of feminists:

'He has seen, too, the way in which problems which afflict men have been sidelined and ignored, and no one seems to find it at all strange that they should be, while those affecting women are automatically assumed to be more important. He even details one shocking incident when, in a piece he had written for Hot Press, he mentioned the need to help victims of domestic abuse "to return to a life of non-violence that is the human right of every woman, man and child", and was urged by the female director of the Wexford Centre to drop the word "man" from the sentence because it was "inappropriate in the context".

'He has seen how women are allowed to joke about men in a belittling and derogatory way and no offence is allowed to be taken, whereas men are "permanently under scrutiny and threat" for the slightest remark. He knows that relations between the sexes are constantly shifting and under negotiation -- "Human behaviour," he writes, "is not robotically controlled." But still feminists speak as if all social and sexual interaction can be subject to cast-iron rules, with the severest punishments for transgression.'

The full article is here (link)

John Waters from the Irish Times stated: 'Hayden tells of his disquiet at the level of anti-male sexism and hostility he encountered within the rape crisis and women's aid networks. Somewhat typical of his and my generation, he describes growing up in the rock 'n' roll counter-culture and being easily persuaded that sexism against women was wrong and violence against women utterly unacceptable. But, in the trenches with feminist activists, he found the dream gradually unravelling.

'Conditioned by feminism to avoid any form of sexism, he found himself "confronted with sexism almost at every turn". Many women he worked with "revealed themselves as harbouring a cynicism about men in general that was profound and far-reaching"'.

LOTHIANS COUNCIL ANTI-MALE PRACTICES THWARTED

Double-standards being applied to men and not women has been a recurring theme of this site in the past year. It has always been a clear example of the extra rights afforded to women over men, often perpetrated by those organisations (the government, council's etc) that claim they believe in equal opportunities.

A good example was shown by Lothians Council in Scotland who when having to give 300 female employees £1,800 compensation initially refused to give the compensation to 50 male employees who do the same job. They claimed they did not have to because they were men and that legally they were not entitled to the compensation. It would have meant that male staff would be paid less for doing the same job as a woman.

The story was revealed by Scotland's Evening News  which stated:-

'Around 3000 women are being offered average pay-outs of £1800 after they won the sexual discrimination battle. They successfully argued they had been unfairly treated because men in similar grade jobs, such as binmen and road repair crews, had been paid more.

The pay-outs are designed to compensate them for years of missing out on bonuses paid to the bin and road crews. But around 40 to 50 male cleaners have been told they will not get the same payments. Their claims are likely to cost the council less than £100,000 to settle.'

After the story was revealed, there was rightly uproar and the trade union, UNISON, threatened the council with taking them to court. Lothians MSP George Foulkes described the situation as "outrageous" and lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament, demanding the council treat all staff equally. He placed a motion which stated '"The City of Edinburgh Council should abide by the spirit of the Sexual Discrimination Act and ensure that equal pay means equal regardless of gender."

The council in the end relented. The unfolding story can be found at these links (link), (link) and (link).

What lies behind this shameful act is that firstly the council and those running it (Lib Dem / SNP)thought that because it affected male pay, then it didn't matter and that they could get away with it. In their politically correct pecking order, equal pay does not apply to men.

It is the thought process that shows this double-standard though because if it related to women, the council would never ever had thought about not applying the equal pay principle. The council still did not sorry to those men and only grudgingly accepted defeat. They were still talking about legal loopholes. Unbelievable, or is it?

ALL-WOMEN SHORTLISTS - MEN ARE POLITICALLY DISENFRANCHISED IN 26 SEATS AT THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION

One of the least explored and ignored areas of male discrimination in the past 12 years has been the introduction of all-women shortlists for Parliamentary seats which has lead to the political disenfranchisement of men by the Labour Party.

By operating all-women shortlists in large numbers of seats, they are denying men the opportunity to stand for Parliament and becoming MP's in key seats up and down the UK. It is a clear denial of the political franchise and many men who wish to represent their community in Parliament are stopped from doing so, on the sole basis of their gender.

This blatant form of sexual discrimination is unacceptable in a modern democracy but this can never get in the away of the "higher principle" of political correctness and feminist fundamentalism. Under these ideologies, individual identity is ignored whilst group victim status is placed as a higher virtue and as we know women's rights are top of the pile, whilst men are at the bottom.

The outcome is that 49% of people who happen to be men are denied the political franchise solely because of their gender. If it was a small unknown political party, it would still be an issue, but because it is the biggest party (in terms of MP's) in the UK, this sexual discrimination is completely against all known norms of equality and equal opportunity.

Often, the feminist fundamentalist groups like The Fawcett Society, The Commission of Equality and Human Rights (under its former guise as the Equal Opportunities Commission), The Women and Equalities Unit and others complain that more women need to be MP's.

To achieve this they loudly and proudly declare that they want all women shortlists and want to discriminate against individual men. This site is agnostic on this as MP's should be chosen on the basis of talent alone and their gender is secondary. A grown up democracy that is not overrun by political correctness would accept this but these organisations are not made up of democrats, they are single-issue pressure groups dedicated to the advancement of women over men. They do not believe in equality.

Historically fewer women in the UK are MP's and this is not because of sexual discrimination but because fewer women have wanted to be MP's than men. Instead of dealing with this supply issue and finding ways to encourage women to be MP's, these pressure groups take the easier politically correct discriminatory option and make seats all-women only.

This stops Labour supporting men, especially those involved in their local community like councillors (many of whom are trusted with actually being Council Leaders or council cabinet members), from even putting their names forward. This is solely because of their gender, a clear and unequivocal act of sexual discrimination. It cannot be disputed.

So desperate have Labour's politically correct army to enforce these all women-shortlists, they had to bring in a law The Sexual Discrimination (Election candidates) Act (2002) (link) that effectively gave political parties an opt-out from the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act. This law was introduced because of a legal challenge (via an employment tribunal) under the SDA (1975) brought by some Labour men in the late 90's. So all-women shortlists are now legal but of course all that has occurred is that this form of sexual discrimination has been legalised and used hand over fist to disenfranchise men.

Under the well-known 'Law of Unintended Consequences', there has been some fallout. Peter Law, a long serving Labour man and council leader was denied the opportunity in 2005 to stand for his local seat (Blaneau Gwent) because Labour wanted an all-women short-list. He rebelled and stood as an independent, winning handsomely. He unfortunately died in 2006. This great stand makes him a hero of the men's rights movement but this has largely gone unsung, especially as the media (BBC etc) did not really cover the issue in any great detail. They purposely wanted to hide the heroic stand that he made.

In addition, many in the Labour Party have complained that the party needs more people from a black and ethnic background (BME) to become MP's, yet all women-shortlists, often in BME areas, has meant that BME men have not been allowed to stand either.

Ambitious Labour men cannot complain aloud about it because they will simply be told to shut up, go away and be stripped of any chance of standing for Parliament in the future.

In addition to the political disenfranchisement issue, it has also lead to large swathes of Labour MP's whose sole qualification for being in the House of Commons is because they were a women, not because of their talent, experience or skill. This is because they only became MP's because 49% of the population were not allowed to compete against them for the seat. They are second class MP's who have their seats because of political correctness and sexual discrimination. Some are now Ministers and a link to those elected to Parliament from all-women shortlists are here (list).

The list below shows the seats that have used all-women shortlists so far in preparedness for the next General Election in either 2009 or 2010. The message is clear to all men who have a vote in these seats:

Do not vote Labour because they stopped you and your fellow men from having the chance to represent your local community in Parliament solely down to the fact that you are a man.

Labour have selected their candidate from an all-women shortlist in the following Parliamentary constituencies:-

• Brighton Pavillion
• Burton
• Camborne & Redruth
• Cardiff Central
• East Dunbartonshire
• Gravesham
• Hackney South
• Hemel Hempstead
• Hornsey & Wood Green
• Ilford North
• Kenilworth & Southam
• Leeds North West
• Leeds West
• Manchester Withington
• Nottingham South
• Nuneaton
• Reading East
• Rochester & Strood
• Scarborough & Whitby
• Selby & Ainsty
• Sunderland Central
• Walthamstow
• Washington & Sunderland West
• Wellingborough
• West Ham
• The Wrekin

MEN - MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT

PROSTATE CANCER : LABOUR GOVERNMENT'S BETRAYAL CONDEMNS MEN TO DEATH

As reported in the Sunday Telegraph on 17th December 2007, "a life saving treatment will be denied to tens of thousands of victims of Britain's most common male cancer after a U-Turn by the NHS rationing body."

NICE (laughably called the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence) is a government quango which rations health treatment in England and Wales and decides what treatment the NHS can deliver. This though is a great lie as it rations health care and recently and rightfully there was uproar when it tried to restrict the breast cancer drug Herceptin.

This time it originally recommended that an ultrasound technique (HIFU) should be free on the NHS for prostate cancer victims as it is non-invasive and kills nine out of ten prostate tumours. The one-off cost is £13,000 whilst Herceptin is about £26,000.

NICE, according to The Sunday Telegraph, have decided to reverse this decision in an announcement due in February which means that many of the 10,000 men who lives are lost through prostate cancer each year will be denied the treatment that would save them.

The Sunday Telegraph story and debate is here (link) and a link to an article by Professor Roger Kirby, the Chairman of the charity Prostate UK is here (link).

What is frightening is the fact it shows how cheap the Government feels mens lives are and that they are not prepared, despite all the extra taxes, to pay for this treatment. If, as some commentators have said, it was women's lives at stake, the money would be found because of the outcry. But women's lives are at stake because men who die of prostate cancer are also husbands, fathers and brothers of women.

The only logical conclusion is that men are disposable and dispensable under this Labour Government and they are condemning many to die if this is unfunded.

Now, more than ever, we need a Minister for Men who will champion this issue.

We need a Government that supports all sexes, not one that purposely ignores men.

BRUCE HYMAN CASE : FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

After reading the latest Familes Need Fathers magazine (McKenzie) I was amazed to read about Bruce Hyman's character witnesses in the infamous story of how he was jailed for perverting the court of justice in his attempt to frame a man fighting for access to his children (link).

One of the character witnesses was Sir Mark Potter - President of the Family Division of the High Court. He is in charge of the family courts. 

What chance have men got when the man in charge of fmaily courts is prepared to be a character witness for someone who was trying to corrupt a family court and smear a father?. 

MINISTER FOR MEN PETITION : DISMISSIVE RESPONSE FROM THE GOVERNMENT

There has been a government e-petition calling for a Minister For Men (link). It received over 380 signatories. The petition is set out below and the site has been alerted to the government's response. It is, as to be expected from this government which puts ignoring men at the centre of its policies, completely and arrogantly dismissive. It doesn't even answer the question why there is a Minister for Women and not one for Men.

In this era of single parents, divorce and blended families, the role and reputation of a man has been diluted to a point where he is severely discriminated against in almost all arenas.

I call on the Prime Minister to show true equality to men by creating a Minister for Men to reflect balance in Parliament as Ruth Kelly is currently the Minister for Women.

Government response

Thank you for your e-petition about the creation of a Minister for Men. Though the Government recognises that there are areas where men face disadvantage or discrimination, a glance at the income and poverty figures will show that, overall, inequality in our society affects women to a far greater extent than men.
That is why the Government appointed a Cabinet Level Minister for Women in 1997 whose remit was, and is, to promote equality of opportunity in our society. The current holder of this office is Harriet Harman QC, MP and she is supported by Barbara Follett MP.

Despite the passing of the Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination legislation over 30 years ago, and other improvements since 1997, women in Britain still experience significant disadvantage in our society. For example:

• Women account for over half of the United Kingdom's population, but only make up 19% of MPs and 29% of local councillors.
• Black, Asian and Ethnic minority women account for 8% of the UK's female population but make up less than 1% of local councillors.
• Only 10.3% of the directors in the boardrooms of the top 100 FTSE companies are female;
• The gap between the pay of male and female workers is currently 12.6% for full time and a staggering 40% for part-timers.
• Women are the main victims of domestic violence in the UK and 83 of them are killed by their partners or ex-partners in 2005.
• Women still shoulder the lion's share of caring for the old and the young and 90.5% of lone parents are female.

However, the Government recognises that men do want to spend more time with their families and this is reflected in the action we have taken to improve work life balance. That is why, in 2003, we introduced the right to request flexible working for all parents with children of under six years old or with disabled children of under eighteen years old. In April this year this right was extended to include people who care for adults.

Our Government is determined to fight discrimination and ensure everybody in Britain can make the most of their talents regardless of their gender, race, sexuality, age, faith or disability and we are committed to tackling these inequalities to create our vision of a fairer society and the role of Minister for Women is crucial in delivering our aims.

The Government have established the new Equality and Human Rights Commission which will champion equality, diversity, and human rights as defining values of our society, encouraging all our institutions to operate for the benefit of every individual.

Harriet Harman will be working across Government with Ministerial colleagues to ensure that we deliver on this ambitious agenda.

THE SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ON MEN

In a fantastic commentary piece in the Independent on 20th November, Philip Hensher, articulates the social acceptability of domestic violence on men by women.

He uses the example of the infamous MFI advertisement showing a women hit her husband because he left the toilet seat up.

Please read, it is one of the best articles of its kind to appear in the national newspapers for many a year (link).

THE DISGRACE OF THE ALL MEN ARE BASTARDS KNIFEBLOCK

Following on from the Superdrug punchbag and MFI stories (link), the site has been alerted to this sick product from the 'I Want One of Those' web-site (link). Entitled 'All Men Are Bastards Knifeblock', it is meant to be a joke product. It is no joke if you are man that has been stabbed by your female partner.

The site tries to justify its sale by passing off views from customers saying how it great it is. 

It just shows how socially acceptable female violence on men is, whilst rightly male violence against female is not acceptable. Could you imagine the outcry if the roles were reversed on the knifeblock from the Fawcett Society, the Minister for Women etc? The double standards of the politcially correct.

 

   

SUPERDRUG WITHDRAW PUNCHBAG ENCOURAGING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST MEN

Following a complaint from The ManKind Initiative (link), Superdrug have withdrawn from their stores an inflatable punch-bag that encouraged women to hit men. They have also pledged to donate any profits to the charity that helps male domestic violence victims.

The box and the punch bag encouraged the owner to insert a photograph of a man where the face is. In addition, the box and punch bag has an arrow pointing to the head stating ‘hit him here’ and an arrow pointing to the groin stating ‘kick him here’.

Mark Brooks, Chairman of The ManKind Initiative, said: “As a charity that receives hundreds of calls a year from distressed men suffering from domestic violence, it is disgraceful that a national retailer like Superdrug should be openly selling products encouraging such acts. We are demanding that they remove these offensive ‘Christmas gifts’ immediately.

“The fact that Superdrug rightly does not sell a similar product encouraging domestic violence against women or violence against animals suggests violence against a man is more acceptable. This is characteristic of the brick wall that male victims face in terms of lack of support, understanding and acceptance.”

Thankfully Superdrug acted responsibly in removing the offedning items from their stores.

The story was covered in The Guardian (link), The Times (link) and elsewhere (link), (link) and (link).

 

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS WEEK 2007 PROVES INSTITUTIONALISED SEXISM : NO SUPPORT FOR MALE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Over the past two weeks, this site has been collecting on-line stories coming from the 2007 domestic violence awareness week. I would also thank those from Mensaid (link) for sending over information.

What has been instructive is that with all of the pledges, promises and comments from politicians and the state, there has been nothing for men. Not a comment, not a grant, not anything.

The reason that this is proof of institutionalised sexism is the fact the Home Office itself recognises that 1 in 6 men will be a domestic violence victim in their lifetime (1 in 4 women) and that at least 1 in every 3 acts of domestic violence is against a man. Yet, they, other politicians and the state in general choose intentionally to turn a blind eye to helping these victims. They know it happens but choose do nothing about it.

Below are a selection of comments and pledges with the links to the relevant pages to prove the point.

Home Office Press Release

The Home Secretary has called on men everywhere to make a personal pledge never to commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women. (link)

Nothing about violence against men.

GMTV : Crisis centre shortage

Victims of domestic violence are being subjected to a postcode lottery. Victims of rape and domestic violence have no crisis centres or refuges to go to in some parts of Britain, according to a report published today. The Commission's chair, Trevor Phillips, said the organisation may take legal action in a year's time under gender equality legislation to ensure women have access to services. (link)

No mention from Mr Phillips about any legal action to ensure men have access to services, especially as practically none exist anywhere in the UK.

Peterborough Today - White Ribbon Day

The White Ribbon campaign aims to get men to stand up for women, and help to stop abuse in the home. Jemma Walton reports.

Men attacking the women they live with isn't the woman's problem. It's our problem. (link).

So the 1 in 6 men who will be domestic violence victims in their lifetime is not a problem?

£40 million in Scotland to tackle domestic violence.

Scotland's Children's minister Adam Ingram has outlined £40 million of proposals to tackle domestic abuse and violence against women.(link)

Nothing for male victims in Scotland

Other stories ignoring male victims include campaigns fronted by footballers can be found here: (link) and (link).