The Rights Of Man

MFI SHOW NO REMORSE OVER BANNED AD SHOWING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST A MAN

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) this week banned an advertisement from furniture group MFI because it had received complaints that it trivialised domestic violence. See the full ruling here (link).

The ASA said "The woman's action of slapping her husband twice as punishment for leaving the toilet seat up gave the impression that aggression and violence enabled people in everyday life to get their own way. The scene of domestic violence was likely to cause serious or widespread offence and could be seen to condone intimidation, domestic violence and aggression as an acceptable way to resolve issues.”

In the adverts, produced by advertising group M&C Search, domestic scenes are played out in their stores and finish with the end credit "feel right at home".

In the articles that followed, MFI were quoted in the Daily Mail (link) as stating "The dialogue and action was vigorous but it was not offencive or shocking."  In addition, complaints had been made on five of their ads with the domestic violence one being upheld.

The Daily Mail stated 'Responding to the investigation, MFI said the five commercials had aimed to be an original, humorous take on common domestic scenes'. They try and defend the ad!

What is concerning is the fact that MFI and M&C Search did not even think that this is offencive, trivialises domestic violence and would upset the thousands of male domestic violence victims who already are bereft of help and support. It did not even cross their radar. It is almost as though they think it is acceptable behaviour and that raises a real social problem that male victims face, the lack of acceptance that their plight is serious.

The last point, is the usual one. If this ad had featured a man hitting a women, firstly, the outcry would have been deafening. But as ever, nothing from the Equal Opportunities Commission and other equalities groups because it was a man who was the domestic violence victim.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMISSION TO MERGE IN OCTOBER INTO NEW COMMISSION: MEN STILL TO BE IGNORED

When, at the end of September, the Equal Opportunities Commission is subsumed into the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, do not believe that things will change for men.

After 30 years in existence, the plight of men has worsened and partly this is because the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) purposely ignoring male issues and promoting discrimination against men in the guise of positive discrimination for women.

One of the biggest changes in that period was the equalisation of retirement age but this clear discrimination was ignored by the EOC. It took campaigns from a charity called Parity (link) to make that happen, as with a number of other cases ofinstitutional sexism by the state against men on issues like prescription charges and bus passes.

When the changeover happens next month, the same old ignorance of the needs of men will be maintained and the same old refusal to deal with male sexual discrimination and male gender discrimination will continue.

There will still be no call for a Minister for Men, which the Equal Opportunities Commission does not support (link), despite actively supporting a Minister for Women.

There will still be the same old denial about the need to raise the profile of male domestic violence victims and how the education system is failing boys.

To get around the latter fact they even commissioned research this month to try and prove that class is the biggest factor affecting boys education, not the feminised education system (link). The EOC would never commission similar research if it was an issue affecting girls!

It also ignores issues around pensions, prostate cancer and other issues (see sidebar on the Minister for Men manifesto).

Just because the name on the door will change on 1st October 2007, the people will not, as nearly all will be joining the new Commission. Their ignorance of the needs of men will be harder to track as will facts like those revealed in August where it was shown that only 18% of employees (link) at the EOC were men.

The new EHRC will still ignoring men and only promoting women's issues.

It will still be promoting male discrimination under the politically correct guise of positive discrimination for women.

It will be the same old story that men will continue to be sexually discriminated against and the state will merely look on.

TV REQUEST : GENDER DIVISIONS

London-based television company Brighter Pictures are hoping to make a new programme about gender divisions in society.

They are looking for people who feel antipathy towards, or are uncomfortable with, members of the opposite sex; or more importantly for readers of this site, people who feel that the rights of members of their gender are being subjugated in today's society.

If any readers feel this way or know anyone who feels this way, they should get in touch with Andy at Brighter Pictures on - [email protected] or 020 8222 4898.

Brighter Pictures have stated that all correspondence will be dealt with sympathetically and in complete confidence. They are looking for UK-based individuals only so if you are from the UK and feel this way, do get in touch with Andy as soon as possible.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMISSION : INSTITUTIONALLY SEXIST

After the Liberty and Law Journal kindly pointed out (link), it is the ultimate in hypocrisy for the soon-to-be defunct Equal Opportunities Commission (it is being absorbed into the Commission for Equality and Human Rights) to lecture British business and the public sector about gender equality when it does not practice it itself.

Only 18% of its employees are men. As the graph below shows this has been the case at least since 2000.

   

No wonder in its last Annual Report (link), it fails to talk significantly about campaigns to raise boys education results, or, more research into prostate cancer, or, male victims or domestic violence et al. Its all about so-called women's issues such as the statistically spurious gender pay gap and other issues.

To use the standard mantra from the politically correct, the only conclusion can be that its failure in its 30+ years existence to tackle issues facing men is because it is institutionally sexist. With only 18% of its staff being men, this should come as no surprise.

THE ILLEGALITY OF GIVING REDUCED OR FREE ENTRY FOR WOMEN BUT CHARGING MEN : NAME AND SHAME

Despite the fact that it is clearly illegal under the Sexual Discrimination Act (1975) to charge men entry fees to clubs, nightclubs still perists in this.

The Equal Opportunities Commission have a briefing available (link) and state clearly:-

If a nightclub tries to attract women with free entry or free or reduced price drinks but charges men fees and higher prices for drinks then this would be a breach of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 A man successfully challenged a wine bar's practice of charging men an entry fee but allowing women in free. A county court judge made a declaration that he had been discriminated against.

This site has received e-mails over the past six months complaining about this and trawling through the web, these places have been charging men but not women:-

Thai Square Nightclub, London SW1 : Women free entry on Fridays;

Julie's Nightclub, Newcastle : Ladies free on Tuesday and Wednesday, Men £3;

The Barracuda, Ealing : Ladies free before 10.30pm on Friday and Saturday;

The only remedy men have is to either complain directly to the club management or take a civil claim against the club. The EOC, whilst having advice, do not seem to want to take this up and support anyone through the courts, as they do on many other cases.

If any readers know of any clubs that operate such a policy, please could they send details (name of club, the club night, the detail on the entry policy and the town) to [email protected]. These places will then join those above in a hall of shame.

WHY THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT IS A VITAL TOOL FOR MALE RIGHTS CAMPAIGNERS

The Freedom of Information Act combined with the Gender Equality Duty has opened the door for campaigners in their fight against male discrimination by the state.

The Men's Aid web-site has an excellent forum where campaigners publish their Freedom of Information requests and then publish their answers (link). The most interesting ones are:-

• A request to the BBC as to why they have no men's hour whilst they have a women's hour, especially as the Gender Equality Duty is in place;
• A request to the Equal Opportuinites Commission asking why they still ignore statistics on male domestic violence victims.

Whern the answers provide fruitful information, links will be placed on the site.

If anyone wants to see how the Freedom of Information Act works, please link here (link) and for the Gender Equality Duty see here (link).

WHY MEN WILL BE IGNORED BY NEW EQUALITIES CHAIRMAN TREVOR PHILLIPS.

The Trevor Phillips cat has been let out of the bag and it is an ominous sign for men.

Trevor Phillips, who is now chairman of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) supposedly blew a fuse recently and threatened to quit because Gordon Brown's Cabinet does not have enough people who are female and/or from an ethnic background (link) and (link). Ignoring the latter issue and concentrating on the former which is what this site is about,  Mr Brown lowered the number of women Cabinet members from eight to five.

Trever Phillips' outburst showed that he believes that filling gender quota's are a more important qualification for being in the Cabinet than ability.

Gordon Brown has picked the people he thinks are best for the job (including the first ever female Home Secretary link) but this will not do for the politically correct world that Trevor Phillips and his organisation inhabit (at taxpayers expense).

As Trevor Phillips, no doubt, will continue in this vein, there are two ominous signs for men.

Firstly, Trevor Phillips lumps all people into different victim groups (except men) so instead of treating people as individuals first, gender second, gender is more important. In Phillips' world a girl from Rodean (link) has less opportunity than a man from an inner city comprehensive.

Secondly, in pursuit of his gender quotas, it means he wants positive discrimination for women which means negative discrimination for men. He would want a man dropped from the Cabinet to be replaced by a woman solely because of their gender. This is sexist of course, but not in Trevor Phillips' eyes.

The CEHR, like it's predecessor the 'Equal' Opportunities Commission, can now be expected to give no support on issues surrounding forms of male discrimination, in fact, Trevor Phillips wants more of it.   

BRIEFING ON MALE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE / MALE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS

Every year, thousands of men become domestic violence victims and these male domestic violence victims find they few places to turn to. They are the forgotten victims of domestic violence.

This briefing Download male_domestic_violence_victims_briefing.pdf outlines the plight of men and has been collated over the past six months with up-to-date statistics and issues.

There is clear evidence that local authorities,the government and the Equal Opportunities Commission are purposely ignoring the plight of men leaving themselves open to a Gender Equality Duty challenge.

The Executive Summary of the briefing is outlined below.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Men make up 24% of domestic violence victims in the past five years

• 1 in 6 men will become victims of domestic violence in their lifetime

• There are no male-only refuges in the UK as opposed to over 470 for women. There are five women’s refuges that have at most 11 places for men.

• There are only three small charities funded mainly by donations helping male victims whilst female charities receive huge state funding

• Local authorities receive £59 million per year in government funding to support female domestic violence victims and receive nothing to support men

• Local authorities are measured by the government on the support they give to female victims but are not measured on the support they give to male victims

• Society’s view, driven by the state, the courts and the media, is that only women are victims of domestic violence.

• It is time for the government and all elements of the state to officially recognise the problem and to produce, fund and implement a nationwide strategy to help male victims

It is time for the government, local authorities, media and society to recognise that domestic violence is a social problem and that it affects men as well as women.

Male victims need help.

CHANCE TO QUESTION THE COMMISSION FOR EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS ON MENS ISSUES

In October 2007, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (link) will be launched and it will subsume organisations like the Equal Opportunities Commission.

2007 is the European Year for Equal Opportunity for All and the CEHR are organising  regional roadshows which are open to the public (link) though if you work it will be difficult to get to them as none are at a weekend (you can't expect civil servants to work at the weekend surely!).

The roadshows will be at:-

6 June    London - Oval Cricket Ground
12 June  Birmingham - NEC
21 June  Leeds - Leeds Park Plaza
26 June  Cambridge - University Arms Hotel
28 June  Gateshead - Gateshead Hilton
3 July     Bristol - Bristol Marriott
5 July     Reading - Crowne Plaza
12 July   Blackburn - Blackburn Football Club
17 July   Leicester - Leicester City Football Club

This is a real opportunity to ask questions on why issues affecting men are so routinely ignored especially by the EOC and ask what the new Commission are going to do about them.

A list of some issues can be found here (link)

PHILIP DAVIES MP : EQUAL OPPORTUNITES COMMISSION'S UNEQUAL PAY

Philip Davies MP (Shipley : Conservative) asked the Minister for Women how many men worked at the EOC and what the average pay was (link).

There are 30 men working at the EOC and from previous information they only make up 20% of its workforce. So much for equality and shows why so many male issues, like the underachievement of boys, are ignored by the EOC.

The figures on pay showed that

Average Male salary	26,962
Average Female salary	25,128
Average for All Staff	25,463

The story was covered here (link).

On the face of it, it does show hypocrisy especially as the EOC constantly campaigns on the gender pay gap which is one of the most abused and manipulated statistics used by the politically correct (just because women get paid less than men does not prove discrimination because it depends on the job, overtime, job experience, skill and the company they work for).

However, I fear this is a Pyrrhic victory and to neutralise this embarrassment, the men at the EOC will probably see their female colleagues receive larger pay rises solely because of their gender.

In addition, by making a story out of it, means that the mythically discriminatory gender pay gap has more substance than it deserves.