The Rights Of Man

NEWS UPDATE

As ever, here are a few below but keep checking the Fighting Feminism and Helping Men websites for UK based stories.

The Guardian - The other gender divide (Mona Chalabi) Very welcome piece but framed from a feminist perspective bizarrely ('It's difficult to deny that women suffer more than men as a result of their gender') - it is almost like an apology has to be written before the Guardian will accept anything about men.

 

 The Independent - Need knows no gender (Ally Fogg) Brilliant piece from Ally including coverage of Earl Silverman - a male equality hero. Plus Barbara kay article.

Men's Heath Forum - Men's Health Week

News Statesman - The uncomfortable truth about male suicide (Holly Baxter)

Voice for Men - Karen Straughan presentation brilliant presentation should be compulsory on any gender studies course

Karen Ingala-Smith - This thing about male victims proof beyond doubt that some people don't want to recognise male victims exist!

Hiromi Uehara - Piano Woman

MRA LOndon - Mumsnet discussion

 Newsletter - Ulster judge warns against positive discrimination

The Guardian - Feminism is not strong enough (Jill Filipovic)

Posted by Skimmington

INNOCEAN EUROPE AND HYUNDAI'S SICK ADVERT AND THE CHANCE FOR REDEMPTION

One sure sign of the everyday institutional sexism that men face in today's society can be seen by the recently banned  advert created by Hyundai  and the laughable advertising agency Innocean Europe who said  they are "a company that espouses strong family values" (Innocean Europe is owned by the chairman and his daughter...)

Hyundai claim they knew nothing about it which is a lie. No company allows an advertising agency to produce and broadcast an advert (online or not) and no one at the organisation sign it off.

The sickest thing about the ad is not the ad per se, it is the fact that the creatives and executives at both Innocean Europe and Hyundai actually came up with the idea, then created it, then broadcast it. Did no one stop and say something. 

How could anyone come up with such a sick idea and think it was funny (and of course would they ever reverse the genders). Well someone did and it shows that people thought it was OK to do so. And these are not people without a brain (supposedly), they are running one of the world's biggest ad agencies and car companies.

With three out of every four suicides being a male and with both the Men's Health Week and International Men's Day being  about mental health and health respectively (and of course CALM), both Hyundai should sponsor these and Innocean Europe should create an advert for International Men's Day/Men's Health Week or CALM as a penance.

Posted by Skimmington

 

PS Read Holly Brockwell's open letter

 

BOWEL CANCER BETRAYAL MADE EASIER AS MEN ARE AFFECTED MORE

The BBC ran a story this week from Cancer Research UK that bowel cancer is on the increase and its worse for men than women:

Bowel cancer rates among men have increased by more than a quarter in the last 35 ears, contrasting with a rise of just 6% in the rate for women over the same time. A disease that kills 16,000 people per year.

Literally two days later the Beating Bowel Cancer charity stated that "new figures which highlighted that as many as 6,500 bowel cancer patient a year could have access to vital drugs cut off in January 2014 when the CDF comes to an end.  We have written to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health, raising our concerns and asking for assurances that bowel cancer patients will continue to get the drugs which their doctors say will help them." The detail is here.

So the rates are increasing and the government is considering taking away support in terms of drugs for extending people's lives. It happens to men more, so this in their eyes makes the decison far easier - we are after all the disposable sex.

Posted by Skimmington

Media coverage - BBC and Daily Mail

PSPS - some great research on Glen Poole's Helping Men website

MALE CIRCUMCISION BAN GATHERS PUBLIC SUPPORT BUT WHY WILL NO POLITICIAN SPEAK UP FOR EQUALITY?

When news emerged this week through the Jewish Chronicle that the majority of the public believe that banning circumcision is supported by the majority of Britons, it is clear there is now momentum on this issue - but a voice in Parliament is now needed. The poll showed:

• 38 per cent supported a ban,
• 35 per cent were against a ban, and,
• 25 per cent were undecided

I would expect that the 27 per cent was largely made up of people who had not thought about the issue or were unaware that it was an issue. According to the Jewish Chronicle Dayan Yisroel Lichtenstein, head of the Federation Beth Din, said: “It’s worrying and it shows we need to do a lot more public relations to put our case." A public relations campaign would be fantastic because the figure in favour of a ban would increase greatly so we look forward to Dayan Yisroel's campaign.

An issue (covered here, here and here) led by the excellent Norm UK and sister campaign.

As a further post by Glen Poole's Helping men website revealed that this issue is more popular than any political party.

One of the key themes now, is whether any politician will speak out against it. We know Ed Miliband will not as he agrees with it.

We know no leader of a party will, but considering there are 650 MP's, we can hope one will. Looking at the political landscape it is an issue that the secular Liberal Democrats are more likely to speak out as they are not beholden to the religious or politically correct lobby that Labour are (Female Genital Mutilation is awful but for men it is OK) plus Labour has always had support from the Muslim and Jewish communities and they will not want to lose that.

It is also interesting that the Conservatives dare not speak about it. While not getting into the debate about gay marriage, but the Conservatives are happy to take on Church of England/Catholic Christianity on the issue of gay marriage but are scared of the Muslim/Jewish communities when it comes to butchering young boys in the name of religion. Why are the Conservatives so scared or are they as politically correct as Labour?

The National Secular Socity is clear on the hypocrisy of British politicians and the General Medical Council on this issue

"In an article released last week by Frisch et al in the American journal Pediatrics stated that 'circumcision fails to meet the commonly accepted criteria for the justification of preventive medical procedures in children', that it 'constitutes a violation of the UN convention on the rights of the child' and can have 'serious long-term consequences'. The 38 authors from 18 countries included senior representatives of the German Pediatric Association, the Royal Dutch Medical Association and the British Association of Paediatric surgeons amongst others.

"It is unlawful under the Equalities Act 2010 to discriminate unfairly on the grounds of gender. The SMF calls on the GMC to amend this new policy on forced infant and child genital cutting which adversely discriminates against male children. The main body of GMC guidance places the healthcare needs, dignity and integrity of the patient as of primary concern. The tenets of a religious belief held by somebody other than the patient can never be sufficient reason to justify the forced removal of intimate parts of a patient's body."

It is untenable on the basis of equality that there is rightly an act against female genital mutilation and pressure groups and the Guardian campaign against it but there is no problem with male genital mutilation in the eyes of the politicians, government and media. Their tacit acceptance (doing nothing) and explicit acceptance (Ed Miliband) is a real sign of the anti-male and anti-equality culture we live in when it comes to men and boys.

So, when will a politicians in the UK - a Member of Parliament- speak up for equality - and call for a ban on male circumcision. As the polls show the public wold support them or are they too scared of the religious lobby (Jews and Muslims) and are not interested in equality if it means equality for men and boys.

Posted by Skimmington

TAKING ON THE BBC'S FEMINIST BIAS (AND WINNING)

Readers may have recently seen the BBC article of the disproportionate impact suicide has on men, and I expect many were as confused by their coverage as I was. Although the article seemed to imply that thing had got worse for men, it also prominently stated that the rate of male suicide was "more than double" that of females.

Anyone with even a passing interest in such issues surely knows by now that men commit suicide at at least three times the rate of females in the vast majority of countries, with such contrasts especially common in reasonably "developed" countries. Therefore upon reading the article, one assumes the situation in the UK has much improved for men or that women have started committing suicide in much larger numbers than previously.

Hidden deeper in the article are the actual suicide figures for males and females, 4,552 men and 1,493 women, meaning the correct statement is "more than treble". The clear implication of the BBC using the statement "more than double" is that the quantity in question is NOT three times the rate, nor even approaching it, never mind more than this. Thus the BBC clearly downplayed the plight of men and misled viwers on the scale of the gender gaps in suicide rates.

In fairness to the BBC I contacted their correspondent Clive Coleman about his article, and it was fixed within two hours of my complaint. The excellent Newsniffer site shows us the history of the changes  regrettably, Clive didn't bother to thank me for helping tackle BBC bias, nor apologise, nor even acknowledge my complaint (other than fixing the article), thus I'm exposing the history what occurred here for all to see. This is far from the first time I've successfully complained about BBC's gender feminist bias in an article, for example their horrific smear of Dominic Raab was even more disturbing case.

I strongly encourage others to contact BBC staff directly about their bias when possible, the format for email address is firstname.lastname@bbc.co.uk

Update - it's all worth noting that it's also misleading for the BBC to focus the begining of the article and gender differences on the raw figures for suicide, it's the suicide rate that is the key. There are almost 1.4 million more females than males aged 15+ in the UK (partly due to so many men killing themsleves), so whilst the raw figures for males are barely more than three times that of females, the actual rate is more comfortably exceeds three fold due to the female deaths being spread over a significantly larger population.

by John Kimble

MALE SUICIDE RISES AGAIN BUT GOVERNMENT AND HEALTH PROFESSIONALS DO LITTLE

This week, the annual suicide figures were released albeit covering up to the end of 2011:

• There were 4,552 male suicides in 2011 (a rate of 18.2 suicides per 100,000 population) and 1,493 female suicides (5.6 per 100,000 population).

• The highest suicide rate was seen in males aged 30 to 44 (23.5 deaths per 100,000 population in 2011).

• The suicide rate in males aged 45 to 59 increased significantly between 2007 and 2011 (22.2 deaths per 100,000 population in 2011)

As the Daily Mail pointed out, more men commit suicide than die in road accidents. There was more coverage in the Guardian and Independent. CALM's, Jane Powell was in the Guardian (Suicide is a gender issue)

Norman Lamb, the care services minister, said the figures caused very real concern, and they needed to be tackled "head on". This was after he launched a new suicide prevention strategy last year (if you click on the link at the bottom of the release it is broken - says it all).

So what are the issues.

Firstly, despite the biased rhetoric the recession and continuing problems in the job market will lead to more suicide and more amounts men (and women). Liverpool University showed that between 2008 and 2010, an extra 846 men had taken their lives and an extra 155 women.  When anyone from the Guardian, Fawcett Society, TUC and Labour Party state this remind them that men are literally dying because of the recession.

Secondly, the policy response in the strategy is startling and weak. If you compare the policy response to domestic abuse (c33% victims are male/66% are female) and suicide (c75% victims are male/25% are male) there are huge differences which prove once again the institutional discrimination faced by men in Britain.

For domestic abuse, the government strategy to tackle this is called Ending Violence Against Women and Girls  - and covers all genders (yes, I know, how can men be represented in a strategy called this and they get one mention). Yet the strategy for suicide is not gendered - it is not called Ending Suicide Amongst Men and Boys.

If there was no institutional discrimination and sexism against men then this is what the suicide strategy would be called.

The suicide strategy strategy's press release cannot even bring itself to mention men in the text (only in a fact at the end) even though the strategy does talk about men as the biggest high risk group. If 75% of those who committed suicide were women, it would run through it like words in a stick of rock. The strategy itself just seems full of public-sector speak with very little practical action. It looks like a tick box exercise. 

There is an argument rightly that strategies should be overarching but have gendered approaches within them if required (men and women are different and may need different approaches where necessary) so long as they do not negatively impact on the other gender. It is just the hypocrisy of highlighting gender when it affects women and not mentioming it when it effects men.

Posted by Skimmington

NHS MISANDRY - 5 A DAY ADVERT ON CAUSES OF OBESITY

More everyday misandry - on the taxpayer this one from the NHS (yes the very same NHS that treats men as second class citizens)- portaying men as buffoons. Seen on TV this weekend.

Posted by Skimmington

INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION AGAINST MEN EXPOSED BY PROSTATE CANCER UK

Thanks to Brian for sending over the link to the Daily Telegraph article on "prostate cancer -the neglected killer, loses out on research cash."

Breast cancer receives twice as much research funding as prostate cancer despite both diseases killing similar numbers of people, a charity has said.

Despite being the most common cancer in men and the fourth most common cancer overall, prostate cancer lies 20th in the “league table” of annual cancer research spend per case diagnosed, figures show.

Breast cancer, the most common female cancer which has a similar death rate to prostate cancer, received more than double the annual research spend with  £853 per case diagnosed compared with £417.

Prostate Cancer UK are really stepping up a gear. Not just in launching their sledgehammer campaign  and their advertising campaign, but also in publishing this research. It certainly builds on the responsible campaigning theme and does make the case rightly that money should be switched from breast cancer research to prostate research.

The chief executive alludes to what part of the problem is in his comments: "Men in the UK have a problem and they don’t want to talk about it. Neither do the wives and partners who will end up supporting them, the doctors who will treat them, nor the politicians who will count on their vote. Prostate cancer is the UK’s best kept worst secret."

What he is saying but doesn't want to 'say it', is that this is as clear an example of the  institutional sexism and institutional discrimination that men face.

Play the 'reverse the gender' game and does anyone really think that politicians, and doctors would not do anything about, not lead campaigns, not increase funding etc. Of course they would but they stay silent when comes to men's health because as we know men are the disposable sex.

It also shows why we need a Minister for Men to ensure this state discrimination does not take place.

 And of course where is the anti-male Equalities and Human Rights Commission in all of this? They have a statutory duty under the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that this type of state institutional discrimination does not take place in terms of government research. Why are they so silent?   

This is a great start to 2013 in exposing discrimination against men, and then doing something about it  - fighting male discrimination that actually costs men their lives.

Posted by Skimmington

Media update - BBC and Daily Mail

CHRISTMAS EVE NEWS UPDATE

Sorry for slackness, here are a few from the last week or so and thank you to those who sent them on.

Daily Telegraph: So you think you know about homeless (Cathy Newman) - No one wants to see anyone homeless, man or woman, but what would be good is to see an article about why 85% of those who are homeless are men and what is to be done about them - and of course those women in the same boat. There is a lazy acceptance that men being homeless is Ok and acceptable.

Daily Telegraph: Sexual display around board table is why women won't succeed (Louisa Peacock) - Coverage of Steve Moxon and Mike Buchanan at a recent select committee.

Daily Telegraph:  How Louise Mensch and the A-List will make it harder for women (Cathy Newman) - Ms Newman is taking on the we need special treatment and discrimination against men mantle in the Telegraph.

Daily Telegraph: Will Jimmy Saville case put men off from childcare (June O'Sullivan)

Daily Telegraph: Fathers earn more, mothers earn less (Patrick Hennessy) - Proof of the strength of the family unit and the clear cause of the diminishing gender pay gap - not discrimination against women.

BBC: Five things about women in the press - Nothing about all men being portrayed as idiots or potential sex offenders.

BBC: Child Abductions up 88% - FCO press release but Huffington Post says 70% of abductions are by mothers so why is this not in the headline. If it was 70% men then the headline would 'fathers responsible for spiralling numbers of child abduction cases'.

Daily Mail: Connors' family jailed for slavery (Mark Deull et al) - Now lets never hear a story about slavery in Britain without men being a core part of the narrative.

Front Page (US): Women's Studies and the spread of men hatred (Ben Bawer)- Plus watch the link to the Toronto video to see full-on misandry.

BBC News: Teenage fathers feel marginalised - Research by Barnado's show how teenage fathers are ignored and never thought of by the authorities. Groundbreaking work by the charity not only because of the research itself but just the fact it is putting it out there and speaking up for fatherhood. The report says the authorities are "driving fathers apart from their children through a ‘culture where fathers are not valued."

Daily Telegraph: A dad is tenth most wanted Christmas present (Hannah Furness): Perhaps if their mothers had not gone through the family courts to stop them enjoying life with their fathers then this would not be an issue.

BBC: Nurse kills baby in botched circumcision and calls for a ban

BBC: Half of men to get cancer by 2027 - The story touches upon but does not delve into why there is no effective screening for men and why there is such a lack of pace in making it happen. The Men's Health Forum are as pathetic as ever, blaming men for not getting screening for bowel cancer rather than taking on the authorities who do not tell men it is available.

The Sun: X Factor glasses ex and avoids jail (Alice Everley) - Equality in British courts and this laughably weak sentence shows what happens when you have campaigns against women going to prison. The subliminal message gets to judges.

The Guardian: More protection needed in family courts (Amelia Hill): Notice how the judge mentions crimes committed by 'fathers' and others by 'parents' - I wonder if the 'parents' were mothers but it would do to mention that in the Guardian.

Daily Mail: More boys put off university than girls due to hike in fees (Laura Clark) - Mary Curnock Cook, UCAS chief executive, said: ‘The fact that women remain more likely to enter higher education than men are  to apply is a striking and worrying finding.’ So what is she and government going to do about it? 

The Guardian - Education is leaving boys behind (Ally Fogg)

Merry Xmas everyone and thank you for your support.

Posted by Skimmington

NEWS ARTICLES

Hi Everyone

A couple of things - first as you know sometimes my work and other activities mean I am unable to keep up with posting which sometimes leaves the site looking a bit outdated. It means many readers link new articles or news in the latest post. I think this does those who kindly do that a grave disservice because they want to start a debate but I cannot keep up.

One way around this is to go back to A-level days ( I would have said O-level but only those of a certain vintage would know what I meant!) and if I post something like "GENDER PAY GAP NEWS - PLEASE DISCUSS", due to a news item then readers can comment away.

Happy for comments on this and here are some latest news articles anyhow - in no particular order:

The Guardian - Why do so few men take gender studies courses (Jane Martinson): An amazing article when gender studies should be renamed men-hating studies. The front of it.

Lords Select Committee - Women on Boards report

Daily Express - We are the battered husbands (Sadie Nicholas)

Daily Mail - BBC News snubs economist becuase he is a man (Tom Kelly)

The Independent - Movember, why would a woman grow a moustache (Rita Amin)

Daily Mail - Met Police could be sued for promoting women (Martin Beckford)

Daily Mail - Men are better at multi-tasking (Mark Prigg)

The Guardian - It's time to break the glass ceiling (Viviane Reding): Reding desperately wanting sexism

Men's Network - German government funds men's conference

Daily Telegraph - French minsters attend sexism classes : There is a women's ministry. These classes sound like sonme Opus Dei-like self flaggelation!

The Guardian - Female experts wanted (Caroline Criado-Perez)

The Guardian - Government reforms place domestic abuse victims at risk (Alexandra Topping): Men not mentioned.

The Guardian - Boardroom quotas are dangerous (Zoe Wood)

Equalities and Human Rights Commission - Equality Advisory Service launched

Business Insider - F4J want Asda advert banned (JIm Edwards)

The Guardian - Judge wants poistive discrimination for female judges (Owen Bowcott) Lord Sumption, another sexist judge

CBBC - Should Guides just be for girls

Ally Fogg - Reconciling feminism with the Men's Movement

The Guardian - Gender discrimination is banned, car insurance and annuities (Patrick Collinson)

Daily Telegraph - Male presenters on Today too aggressive

Daily Telegraph - Girl Guides are the ultimate feminist organisation

Sunderland Echo - Vera Baird pledges to not bother about male victims of domestic abuse

The Guardian - Men to blame for not going to Doctors (Jamie Doward): Always men to blame

Reddit - British male nursery teacher speaks out

Daily Mail - Women winning gender pay war

Daily Mail - 20% of primary schools have no male teachers (Laura Clark)

Posted by Skimmington