2012 REVIEW OF MALE INEQUALlTY AND DISCRIMINATION IN THE UK

Thank you to everyone who has supported the site (despite the sometime intermittent service) and this year (the seventh year it has been going), the site had 83,000 page views and 160 published pieces.

Thanks to everyone who contributed either in submitting articles or in commenting upon them. I have also updated some of the groups on the left hand side of this page - please remember to send over any that are missing.

In terms of what progress has been made in male equality and ending male discrimination, this year can again be seen as two steps forward one step back. The gain has mainly due to the efforts of individuals and groups taking up the mantle of male equality through organising themselves and not relying on politicians or other groups to do it for them. As we know, institutional sexism remains rife in Britain, so the welcome realisation is that we cannot rely on those same institutions for help.

In terms of the positives on particular issues, there have been some.

Family Law reform is moving forward with the concept of shared parenting being the accepted direction of travel (Parliamentary Briefing and subsequent announcement). This was despite the Norgrove Report denigrating shared parenting - though the fact Norgrove remains Chair of the Family Justice Review Board is surely untenable.

Boys Education remains the truth that dare not say its name. While boys continue to lag behind girls, the public policy silence remains deafening, despite some starting to publicly recognise it as a concern. The one glimmer of light is that the government is to bring back O-Level type examinations (one of the first big topics this site set out) however this will not be until 2017 (in terms of first exams), so that means 30 years of destruction has befallen the education of boys by bringing in an examination system wholly unacceptable to the way boys learn. The problems facing boys was eloquently laid out in this report and can be seen feeding through into pay.

The re-introduction of O-levels though is more down to Gove's desire for rigour rather than an acceptance that the education establishment has got it wrong for three decades and left generations of boys behind.

Women rejecting discrimination and excuses - we know that modern-day radical feminists that dominate the BBC, the Guardian, the senior parts of the civil service/academia/publc sector, the media and politics (including their "White Knight's") are out of touch with the thoughts and needs of modern women. Especially those who actually like men and want their fathers, brothers, sons, husbands, boyfriends etc to succeed. Research at the beginning of the year showed this as did this report at the end of the year.

Three issues that were never 'seen' as affecting men have also started to be recognised - human trafficking, forced marriage/honour violence and circumcision (and here). The latter has really taken off with the German court verdict and the manslaughter of a baby in the North West.

Lastly, this was the year that male equality issues started to enter the mainstream. In addition, to the above issues and groups working within them, the 'movement' started to mature. We saw the fruits of sensible campaigning by father's groups, Mike Buchanan's work at the Campaign for Merit in Business challenging the status quo leading to Select Committee appearances and even campaigns against the NSPCC succeeding. We have also seen campaigns against Virgin in Australia.

The National Conference for Men and Boys continues to grow, as does International Men's Day in the UK and also the celebration of Fathers on Father's Day. This maturity can be seen against the growing desperation of anti-male feminist groups trying to keep their requests for discrimination against men and special treatment on the political agenda.

On the negative side, we saw the continuing clamour for quotas and the ending of meritocracy over boardoom appointments gathering pace, however, while the governmet refused to accept EU legislation, there remains the social stigmatisation of companies if they do not comply with an 'unofficial quota'. Some have given in.

Mike Buchanan's campaign for Merit in Business has stood up to the argument mainly I think from a biological determinist sense, while this site's approach is mainly that quotas etc are discriminatory in blocking men because of their gender not talent and are against the fundamental tenets of equality.

Other areas that continue to be ignored are the male suicide rate, men's health especially on continual delays on a national screening programme, male victims of domestic abuse, male homelessness, male unemployment and the general demonisation of men by society, the media and groups such as the Fawcett Society, the Guardian and the government. We still have mobile phone sites defaming men's rights websites. There is still no Minister for Men, the most visible expression of anti-male equality (15 years).

What I am hoping for 2013, is that the growing maturity of the male equality sector continues with new sensible groups being created (only where there is a gap) or men and women joining existing ones.

There needs to be the celebratory groups such as International Men's Day and Father's Day, conferences, campaigns on particular issues, practical goups (like CALM, FNF, ManKind Initiative, Centre for Separated Families etc) providing practical on the ground solutions and also probably a more political group (not necessarily  political party).

The growing desperation of anti-male feminist groups like the Fawcett Society will be called into question mainly by women who are rejecting their hatred of the men they share their lives with.

This is what I would like to see so that come this time next year - we are starting to see equality for men, and the barriers that prevent them enjoying equality being further dismantled.

Posted by Skimmington

PS Forgot about this article

 

 

Comments

[Brian]

Nice "state of the union " address skimmington, can't say I am as optimistic as you though, not yet :-)

Happy new year guys. let the next one be the turning point for our cause and let it be free of female interference or manipulation.

Let us openly and aggressively refute all men who are white-knights and manginas to any degree, refuse them and let them know it. At the same time educating them as to why. (yep that's going to be a hard one)

Skimmington says we have started to see equality in some places, I say we have only seen the shadow of 0.001% of equality for men, we are a LONG way from even getting properly started yet. Do not fall into apathy easily, you have decades of indoctrine, bad law and practises in every corner of every system we have to overturn, this will take many years of hard core work, not one or two of back patting talk on blogs.

Let us rip the backsides out of the legal system for its unforgivable pussy passing, its constant imprisoning of men with mental issues in their tens of thousands, while giving endless funding and victim status to women of the same.

Let us expose and tear apart the family court system a system which openly practises and supports child abuse, pussy passing and incredible gender bias in order to undertake the agenda.

Let us be unforgiving to the Media, pouncing on every article that has comments open in every publication where they spread misandry and lies or down-talk the male in any way.

Let us take to task the 3rd sector, a core bastion of major marxist-feminist funding and propaganda platforms.

Let us rip to pieces every M.P, especially male ones who sell out, who do not openly recognise all of the things mentioned here and act on them according too true and absolute equality...either way !

Finally, lets just celebrate being men and do many manly things that men enjoy !

[Mike Buchanan]

Thanks, Skimmington, for a useful review. Just one small point. Our objection to 'improving' gender diversity on corporate boards is based not on biological determinism, but on the established fact that it invariable leads to a decline in corporate financial performance. This is mainly because with quotas (or the threat of quotas) less experienced/talented women are appointed to boards than the best available men. An inevitable consequence of quotas, obviously...

I do personally hold to the view that there's a degree of biological explanation for why more men than women excel at the top levels of business (and numerous other fields). I lean towards the theories expounded by Prof Simon Baron-Cohen in 'The Essential Difference' (2003). But this view is, I recognise, not universally accepted, not even among C4MB or AFL supporters, and it has no place whatsoever in our campaigns' arguments.

May I take this opportunity to thank you and your contributors and commentators for your support in 2012, and the excellent and concise nature of your posts. I have no doubt we'll collectively make substantial progress in 2013 and the years beyond. The future is ours to seize, for the sake of men, women, and children across the country.

Mike Buchanan

CAMPAIGN FOR MERIT IN BUSINESS
http://c4mb.wordpress.com

ANTI-FEMINISM LEAGUE
http://fightingfeminism.wordpress.com

[brian]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/9773688/Prostate-cancer-the-neglected-killer-loses-out-on-research-cash.html

About time but their facts need addressing funding differences are far higher than twice as much for breast cancer !!