The Rights Of Man

MEN'S MENTAL HEALTH WEEK IN BRIGHTON

Just a quick link but the excellent Men's Network in Brighton are running workshops all week on this important subject.

Posted by Skimmington 

ARTICLES UPDATE

Sorry everyone...very hard to keep up at the moment. Here are a few must read articles for one or reason or other...

Daily Mirror - Saving the men who live in fear  (Louise Baty)

Evening Standard - I hate to say it but we need a quota to put girls on top (Chris Blackhurst)

Daily Mail - Judge launches stinging attack on Wren as fellow soldier she accused of rape is cleared (Tamara Cohen). Note everyone how the woman remains nameless but the two innocent men are named, forever having their names publicly available but she remains anonymous. That's equality in Britain today!

Daily Mail - Sexism is dead, say Most British Women (Steve Doughty). More analysis to come at a later date.

Daily Mail - Teacher who had sex with schoolboy is spared jail (no byline)

Straight Statistics - Standard recycles out of date figures on domestic homicides (Nigel Hawkes)

Daily Mail - How Facebook is turning women into stalkers (no byline)

Men's Network - Mens Mental Health Week

Dads on the Air (Oz) - Erin Pizzey interview

The Guardian - Where are the women directors? (Kerry Fox) - Spot John Kimble's comment

The Guardian - When Women are victims of growth (Jane Martinson)

The Telegraph - Another 'horrible' case for you Mr Loughton (Christopher Brooker) - child abduction by the state.

Posted by Skimmington

 

 

CANCER RESEARCH UK STOOPS EVER LOWER IN ITS SEXISM AGAINST MEN

A great many people concerned with equality (not to mention cancer) have been deeply disturbed by the conduct of Cancer Research UK and their sexist Race for Life. I'm sure I don't' have to tell you that the race is a female only event where men are banned from taking part. We're not talking about mere segregation here with separate events for the two genders at the same time, it's a completely blatant exclusion of 49% of the population.

Until recently CRUK also ran a half hearted attempt at involving men called "Run for Moore" but quite frankly it was doomed from the start given the institutionalised sexism which runs throughout the organisation and the fact the event was clearly an afterthought rather than anything CRUK ever had any commitment to. This year the inevitable has happened and CRUK have abandoned any pretence of trying to involve men by giving up on Run for Moore completely.

If we had a more enlightened attitude to gender equality in this country then Race For Life would have long ago been declared illegal. Events in other countries aimed at appealing to women or focusing on mostly female cancers generally do not bother being so petty as to ban men. Regrettably one of Harriet Harman's last acts before finally getting kicked out of office was to sneak in explicit legalisation of Race for Life misandry in the "Equality" Bill, though such legislation is at least an acknowledgement that CRUK were previously on extremely shaky ground indeed with regards to their treatment of men over the last 15 years.

Not only is CRUK's sexist in it's fundraising activities of course, it also fails to fund research into male cancer sufficiently, instead spending far more money on female only conditions. There is now increasingly widespread awareness that our society's obsession with breast cancer is having a hugely detrimental effect on all other cancer suffers and it's now fair to say that men and pretty much anyone suffering from any less fashionable form of the disease is now effectively a second class citizen.

So many other people are doing so much great work in taking CRUK to task over their sexism and this has previously meant I've not bothered writing anything new about the organisation as quite frankly I didn't have much to add to my previous piece. Regrettably they have now stooped to a new low and spurred me into writing once again.

Incredibly CRUK have begun a campaign of objectifying men on their website as a way of promoting their sexist Race for Life events. Visitors to the website (mostly women of course) are invited to meet CRUK's "Race for Life hotties"  in the organisation's "E-male" app where they get to choose who they wish to perform for them. Women then gets to personalise the sex object of their choice with CRUK kindly inviting them to take ownership of him and "make him yours".  Visitors then finally get to see a video of "their" "hottie" stripping off his shirt and going topless (note I won't be linking to the content as I do not wish to promote sexism nor the charity concerned).

Now I want to make it clear I'm not some some prudish, anti-sex "Object" style fanatic here. I don't have any problem with sex or nudity and we live in a free society where men are woman are quite rightly able to parade around half naked and do whatever they wish with their bodies for whatever reason.  Sex sells and I accept that.

The CRUK campaign is certainly at the very worst end of the scale in terms of bad taste and the double standards of a lack of female "hotties" arguably makes things even worse. However the real reason such content is so objectionable is because it's a part of the wider campaign of genuinely harmful sexism and exclusion by a genuinely discriminatory organisation who really should be helping everyone. We're not talking about some random inconsequential top shelf magazine printing questionable content. CRUK is a hugely influential and powerful organisation, it's the UK's biggest cancer charity supposed to be responsible for finding cures for diseases that kill millions and helping countless cancer sufferers.

As we noted above CRUK has deliberately excluded men from it's biggest events for well over a decade now. It's then refuses to give sufficient funding to male cancers and ultimately fails to engage with men and get the interested in the issue of cancer, despite themselves admitting men are the biggest suffers of the disease and have the worst outcomes by some distance. CRUK now adds to its sexism by parading topless men all over it's website in something akin to a Nevada brothel style line up.

This isn't first such objectification of men by CRUK either, the organisation has history here as you can see from this breast cancer "awareness" video (warning it's even more tasteless than the Race for Life "hotties" videos ). Once again there is no corresponding video where a male figure of authority molests a semi nude female in the name of prostate cancer awareness.

These videos sum up the philosophy of CRUK and its Race for Life and shows just how sexist the charity has now become. Divisive environments only concerned with one gender or openly hostile the other no only alienate the other half the population, but can makes issues such as objectification more acceptable and therefore more likely. How on earth can men become concerned with cancer when all the messages about the subject in our society are delivered in bold pink writing accompanied blatantly sexist women-only rules and topless men presented as sex objects? Respected author Brian Clegg tells us that just because Race for Life is for a good cause, it doesn't' justify discrimination. Similarly, it doesn't justify tasteless objectification of those CRUK is already discriminating against in all their work either.

On a more positive note these videos do at least further prove all along what we've all suspected about CRUK. If it were in any doubt before, it's safe to say we're now clearly at a stage where the organisation is a lost cause. Please do not donate to such sexist organsiaitons instead support one of the many far better, charities and unfashionable causes out there who survive on tiny budgets without demeaning or discriminating against anyone.

by John Kimble

STILL NO EQUALITY IN THE RACE FOR LIFE

Last year John Kimble wrote a great article about Cancer Research UK and its Race for Life which bans men from participating - an event this year sponsored and promoted by Tesco.

John Taylor who has been campaigning for over a decade to make the event gender neutral and in the name of equality allow men to participate. In this letter (Download CRUK and its discriminatory race for life _Mar 11_) he gives a summary of recent events in his quest for equality.

Posted by Skimmington 

ARTICLES UPDATE

Sorry been really hectic recently so here are a few recent articles on the Mancession and violent women. The former is the sure sign of the victory the anti-male feminists have secured against men.

BBC News - Male depression set to increase

Daily Telegraph - Western men becoming depressed (Richard Alleyne)

Daily Mail - Depressed men : It's down to the Mancession (Jenny Hope)

The Independent - Why men are the losers (Jeremy Laurance)

Daily Mail - Bad Girls (Harriet Sergeant)

Posted by Skimmington

ARTICLES UPDATE

Just a quick update on some recent and varied articles of interest on male equality issues. Health warning - some may make your blood boil!

Channel 5 News - Shocking rise in male victims of domestic violence

The Sun - Dads in despair (Antonella Lazzeri)

Daily Telegraph - It's babies not discrimination that hold women back (Jemima Lewis)

Daily Telegraph - Mother's horror as court takes children after 15 minutes hearing (Nick Britten)

Office for National Statistics - Suicide statistics show three times as many men still commit suicide than women

Daily Mail - Jailed the solidiers cheating wife who made false rape claim

The Guardian - What is the nicest thing a man can do for a woman - shout at a bigot (Suzanne Moore)

The Independent - Men blew it (Janet Street-Porter)

Daily Mail - Escape from your husband and duck your duties as a mother (Daniel Bates)

 

ARTICLES ROUND-UP

As is traditional, there have been a number of articles/stories that the site has not covered or linked through to over the past month or so. A list is set out below:

UK Poverty - Suicide statistics show 80% of young adult suicides are by young men

Daily Mail - Amber Portwood charged with domestic violence

Prince's Trust - Youth happiness

Oxford University - Men's weight

Porstmouth News- DV policy is a war on men

Daily Mail- Amanda Bradley jailed for false allegation

BBC News- Emma Bunden jailed for false allegation

BBC News- Merthyr 16 year old jailed for false allegation

Daily Mail - Judge Coleridge says women should have children taken away if they do not allow contact with father.

BBC News - 61 women sent to trial over false allegations

Posted by Skimmington

 

2010 - ANOTHER BAD YEAR AND ANOTHER BAD GOVERNMENT FOR BRITISH MEN

When the coalition government came together (also with lots of new MP's) there was some hope that the prospects for equality for men would improve after 13 years of a proudly anti-male Labour government with Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman, proudly proclaiming her anti-male credentials.

When the coalition government came to power, there were a number of positive things it outlined. Family law reform (still pending), anonymity for rape defendants unless found guilty and a commitment not to implement the controversial 'positive' discrimination sections of the Equality Act specifically designed to undermine the employment chances of men. Plus there was a general feeling that there would no longer be the harsh anti-male tone of the previous Government.

There were still troubling issues such as the fact that there was again a Minister for Women but no Minister for Men (how can a government state it believes in equality and have a Minister for one gender and not for the other, if it has to them at all). It also talked about equality in the boardroom (now going ahead), continuing with pension age discrimination and also nothing on men's health or education.

So what has happened, well its worse than we feared:

(1) The government performed a heinous u-turn on anonymity for rape defendants.

(2) The controversial section (section 159) of the Equality Act was implemented (on the link see latest news on 2nd December 2010) and hidden in the small print on its announcement on its Equality Strategy (see 8 below). This pernicious part of the Act was substantially covered on this site (1 and 2 ) and the u-tunr was covered in the Telegraph, Daily Mail, Metro, Daily Telegraph 2, Daily Telegraph 3

(3) Still no Minister for Men

(4) The government adopted the End Violence against Women & Girls strategy which has meant that male victims of rape and domestic abuse do not feature in government, police or local authority plans in tackling rape or domestic abuse. The outcome can be seen by the way the government handled its trials on 'stop' orders which were framed at female victims (thereby setting the tone for the way the police will handle the issue) or its Christmas campaign. For an example of how it percolates through the system, see a response the ManKind Initiative recently received from the Equalities Commission.

(5) Its continuing and deliberate misinterpretation of the gender pay gap, even though we now know younger women earn more than younger men. Plus resurrecting the issue that there are not enough women in the boardroom (1 and 2) and stating it has an aspiration to ensure 50% of appointees to public bodies are female.

Lord Mervyn Davies who is leading the taskforce looking at the female make up of boardroom has already declared "let's put women first for 2011". I kid you not. With this and the Equality Act, men are being shut out, make no mistake. Academies for female executives, board internships and now the 30% club.

Equality should mean the best people, now basing people on their gender but that is now what is happening and in many circumstances men (and of course that means their wife/partner or daughter as well) will lose out because good men will be held back to allow a woman with less skill to take their place. How can this be equality, gender is irrelevant.

Can Lord Mervyn Davies hand on heart say that a black boy from a run-down council estate attending a sink school has more chance of being on a board of a FTSE-100 company that a white girl living in Knightsbridge and going to a private school. Davies thinks so. 

(6) No action on boy's education, men's health (Prostate Cancer society article shows why) or suicide (80% of young people committing suicide are men).

(7) No one in Parliament (including the 232 new MP's - 35% of the total) and certainly no one in the Government is standing up for men and men's issues. It means the anti-male feminists in all parties are again riding roughshod over the true meaning of equality and doing all the can to marginalise men. 

(8) And finally - the coup de grace - the government's shiny new Equality Strategy - Building a Fairer Britain. At no stage (except fleetingly on Caribean boys)  does it ever mention men and boys or the isuses facing them. None of them in this post are ever mentioned. Nothing on education, higher rates of unemployment, health, suicide - just example after example on issues affecting women.

The Equality Strategy published this month, makes it completley clear - this governement is no better and no more interested than the last in tackling issues that affect men & boys (and consequently their mothers, sisters, daughters and wives/partners/girlfriends).

It actually wants to make things worse not just by the overt discrimination (see 1, 2,3,4 and 5 above) but the covert discrimination of discrimination by omission. And with Parliamentary terms lasting five years now, we have over four years of this to go.

There have been a few advances, equality of pesnion age, a family review still pending (who know what the result will be) and Mirko Fischer's BA win. Plus some organisations seem to be pushing more and more (Men's Network, ManKind Initiative, Prostate Cancer Society, Families Need Fathers, Parity, False Allegations Support Organisation, Men's Health Forum amongst others) and they will need to be encouraged by us all to continue.

However, looking back, the hopes at the beginning of the year have proved unfounded and it is clear that things have got worse in 2010 for men and boys.

Posted by Skimmington 

MEN'S HEALTH FORUM HIGHLIGHTS SEXIST BOOTS ADVERT

The Men's Health Forum (MHF) is really doing some good stuff and campaigning hard to ensure men's health needs are not forgotten. We will be looking at one of the issues they raised on health priorities in a little detail later on and also they put a marker down on missed appointments. The Chairman, Peter Baker, saying it could be down to waiting times or an inability to get time off work with the implication that there should be no blame game in saying men are lazy etc, the usual knee jerk reaction.

This week, they raised the issue about an advert making light of the women's magazine invention "man Flu" which is now de rigeur amongst feminist , chick-lit writers, columnists and anyone that wants to mock men - so tediously  'Sex in the City". You can tell MHF what you think on their website.

It reminds me of the infamous MFI ad. The key thing is, would Boots and whoever the advertising agency they paid to produce it, run such an advert with a man mocking a women with a cold/flu or suffering from her time of the month. No, but its men, so its OK then.

Posted by Skimmington

MEN'S HEALTH FORUM CALLS FOR EQUALITY IN HEALTH

The Men's Health Forum this month responded to Government's White paper on Equity and Excellence.

It makes the case clearly that the NHS can no longer fail to take into account the needs of men and if it does it is in breach of the Government's equalities legislation. The paper also brings up the issue on making GP surgeries have men-friendly opening hours.

As in yesterday's post, supporters of men and male equality seem to have gained renewed confidence in putting the case forward that equality also includes men. The previous government either ignored them or had the subliminal axeman waiting to cut their budgets (if they received government funding) if they attacked the government.

 Also a regular reader pointed out that the NHS in the North West are conducting a survey about why men do not go into nursing. It is featured on the Men's Health Forum website. Please fill it in.

Posted by Skimmington