The Rights Of Man

WILL MALE CIRCUMCISION IN BRITAIN NOW BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY?

The Sunday Times reported today (link via Sunday Telegraph, Sky video and Daily Mail) that as many as 100,000 have had their genitals mutilated. Very sad and unacceptable. But there still continues to be a conspiracy of silence on the issue of male circumcision.

This case raises the issue and Peter Baker of the Men's Health Forum has called for a public debate which will be further aided by the conference on the subject being run by Glen Poole of the Men's Network. The excellent NORM-UK has been leading the way and this site commented on it nearly a year ago.

The issue though for men continues to be ignored by the media, government and other 'equality' campaigners.

Ending female genital mutilation has been a focus for the government certainly under its Ending Violence Against Women and Children strategy (the strategy that treats men as second class victims in everything). But where is the focus or even mention of men and boys who have suffered in this way. Nothing. In many parts of the world this mutilation of boys is normal (see end*)

Does the Sunday Times article or the other coverage today and no doubt tomorrow as the story will now continue througout the week mention men and boys. When with the mutilation if men and boys get a mention as part of this story.

The work undertaken by Norm-UK, The Men's Network and the Men's Health Forum will certainly now start to put it on the agenda and well played to those groups for doing so. The fact that men's groups are now coming together and argue sensibly for change and running conferences themselves shows the strength and confidence that the men and women in these groups now have as they get a grip by  sensible and rational protest issue raising.

What we hope to see is an equivalent story about the number of men and boys mutilated in this way at some time soon. We then will know that equality is starting to take root.

Posted by Skimmington

 * Watching Celebrity Big Brother (long story - don't ask) the American Twins said it was normal that all men in America were circumcised! 

MAJOR UPDATES ON TOM MARTIN

It's been a busy week or two in the news for men's equality issues. Mr Martin has been debating at University College London, had coverage in The New Statesman and even got to appear on Women's Hour on Radio 4! He performed especially well on Radio 4, you can listen to the discussion on sexismbusters.org. It was great to see Tom making use of thsi blog's research into the activities at the NUS and let a wider audience know of their sexist policies.

The bad news is that the case against LSE was heard on Tuesday and rejected by the judge. I'm not aware of the judge's reasoning at present and all is not lost as he has the chance to appeal, but I find it a baffling decision given the weight of the evidence against the LS, not to mention the fact that Mr Martin studied there beofre Labour's sexist "Equality" laws were introduced.

The publicity Tom has received and the resulting debates are a already a victory in themselves but it's a shame he's missed out on the bigger prize for now.

For me, the most interesting and revealing outcome of the above has been the reaction by feminists to the debates. Some of the treatment men's equality campaigners have been subject too is nothing short of outrageous. Regrettably I was unable to attend the debate, but there was much discussion on Twitter with one of the first comments coming from a feminist suggesting that Mr Martin and his friends looked "a bit rapey". I've seen gender feminists stoop to pretty low levels numerous times, but making false rape smears to silence dissent surely down there with the lowest of the low? I suppose it was quite a pertinent statement given that Tom went on to discuss the issue of false rape allegations and actually proves a point about the problem of our culture tolerating the most horrific smears against men. Then, of course, there's the incredible double-standard of feminists judging people on their appearances too!

A further feminist tweeter by the name of Sarah Lesniewski later went further, likening Martin to the perpetrator of one of the worst massacres in Canadian history and questioning his mental state. So in summary, dare to quesiton the more sexist aspects of feminism then you're basically a mass murdering, mentally deragned idiot and probably a rapist too. It goes without saying than none of these critics actually addressed the issues at hand and if people have to resort to such staggering personal attacks then it suggest we're the ones"winning the arguments". Voters in Walthamstow may also be interested to see which side of the debate their sexist MP chose to support. If LSE gender studies department is 1% as hostile, sexist and narrow minded as the gender feminists on Twitter then there most certainly be any doubt as to the outcome of the appeal.

I look forward to the upcoming documentary by Mr Martin covering his experiences over the last few months, though he has a lot to live up to given the quality of his previous efforts.

By John Kimble (contributing this post to keep things ticking over here, hopefully normal service from Skimmington will resume shortly).

NEWS UPDATE

Sorry everyone, likely to be away working this week so here are a few articles:

Girl Writes What - How feminism conned society

BBC News - Women only bus stop

Politics home - Women in Parliament (Nadine Dorries MP)

The Guardian - Male rape charity's hard-hitting campaign (Tracey McVeigh)

Irish Independent - Boy facing sex trial as court holds' Romeo and Juliet' law (Tim Healy)

Daily Mail - Male anorexia (Victoria Wellman)

BBC News - Male Y Chromosone extinction challenged

ManKind Initiative - Authorities must do more to help men come forward

Men do complain - Vigil at BMA

Posted by Skimmington

CORONATION STREET ACTOR CLEARED - ANOTHER REASON FOR ANONYMITY

During the autumn the story broke that Coronation Street actor Michael le Vell (he plays Kevin Webster) was accused of child sex allegations and arrested and bailed. The story was front page news everywhere and his name was dragged through the mud.

A few days ago it was announced that the CPS had dropped the charges because of 'insufficient evidence'. The CPS were very weaselly in the words they chose in stating the charges were dropped.

Due to the nature of the accusation and his public profile and the publicity it therefore received, he will forever sadly have this associated with him.

This is why the government's backing down on granting anonymity to rape defendants unless found guilty was such a betrayal. Not just because Michael's case is another example of how someone's name can be dragged through the mud based on a false accusation (if he is not being prosecuted then it must be false - surely) but also because the coalition government put it in their manifesto.

Another sad chapter in the anti-male society we live in and to the anti-male modern-day feminists, he is just collateral damage.

Posted by Skimmington 

NEWS UPDATE

Will be away for a few days so here is some to catch up on:

A Voice for Men: Interview with Tom Martin (Paul Elam)

Register Her: New website listing false accusers

Northampton Chronicle: Domestic abause campaign launch - Jumping on the false bandwagon that more men beat up women when the sport is on.

Daily Telegraph: The perversity of Britain's diversity regulators is bad for men, women and minorities (Graeme Archer)

Huffington Post UK: Female quotas needed in tech industry (Sue Black) - Read the comments

The Guardian: As the Topman T-Shirts show, misogny is so common it's mundane (Ellie Mae O'Hagan) - I spat my coffee out when I read this from new anti-male rabble rouser who I never saw write a complaint about the "throw rocks at men they are stupid' T shirts.

Daily Mail: Dinner ladies win payout from Sheffield Council (Jessica Satherley) - This case has the hallmarks of a similar case and would be useful to know what happened to men in the same position in Sheffield.

The Observer: Having ovaries does not make you a better person (Elizabeth Day)

The Sun: Taser attack hubby beaten by his wife for 30 year (Amy Little) - Why are the police and CPS not prosecuting this woman! 

Kent News - False accuser gets suspended sentence

Men's Health Forum - Bowel cancer campaign

International Men's Day UK - New website

Posted by Skimmington

SCOTLAND'S WOMEN'S AID DOES NOT BELIEVE MALE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE SHOULD GET THE SAME RECOGNITION AS FEMALE VICTIMS

One of the key things about the debate going in the domestic abuse sector is how the dinosaurs continue to cling onto the gendered view which treats this hideous crime as a crime against a gender (women), thereby relegating men (heterosexual or gay) to second class victims.

Partly this is ideological, driven by the anti-male feminist hatred of men, and partly it is down to funding because the emergence of organisations that either only help men, or want to help victims of both genders puts the fear of God into organisations (Refuge, Women's Aid and Respect) who are spoon-fed millions of pounds to support female victims.

With the current cuts and the closure of services for women, which is something this site would not want, it means it is vital to them to cling onto the gendered analysis. They don't want money transferred from them to organisations that support men or both genders - they want to protect their empires.

The public sector equality duty cannot have helped their cause because it means statutory agencies need to prove they look after both male and female victims. Though many many do not and only pay lip service at best to male victims, there continues to be more recognition, as this storyon BBC Wales shows. Safer Wales and the Dyn Project mention men but the Welsh Minister (Carl Sargeant) clings on to the dinosaur view. The story encapsulates it in one go.

In addition to this, as shown recently, statutory agencies are seeing with their own eyes, the rise in the number of violent women who commit domestic abuse crimes.

The reason for setting this out is below is a key example of where the dinosaurs cannot let go of their sexist notion of domestic abuse.

Scotland's Women's Aid responded in the Herald to Professor Dempseys' plea for the Scottish Government to change its definition of domestic abuse to include men and those in same-sex relationships. Instead of coherence in return, Women's Aid cling on with all sorts of spurious facts and issues - the worse being the claim the CPS have a gendered definition when they do not - it is illegal and in breach of the public sector equality duty.

Read it below for yourself and make up your own mind on whether Women's Aid in Scotland believes in equality for all victims of domestic abuse.

Posted by Skimmington

Letter in The Herald (12 September 2011)

(c) The Herald

 It is essential to take a gendered approach to domestic abuse

Brian Dempsey, in his article for the Edinburgh Law Review reported in The Herald, claims that the Scottish Government’s gendered definition of domestic abuse is firstly unique, and secondly detrimental to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community (“Gay people’s violence risk”, Herald Society, September 6) .

A gendered approach is not a Scottish “peculiarity” – as well as the recognition of the importance of a gendered approach by the UN and the World Health Organisation, the Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales identifies in its definition of domestic abuse that the majority of domestic abuse incidents are perpetrated by men against women, while acknowledging that domestic abuse can and does happen to men and in same-sex relationships.

 More than 80% of domestic abuse involves a male perpetrator and a female victim, an overwhelming majority by anyone’s standards, however, the argument for a gendered analysis of domestic abuse goes far deeper than the statistics.

A gender-based analysis of domestic abuse is not just about defining “who does what to whom” and it does not assume that abusers are always men and victims always women, nor does it assume that domestic abuse exists only in the context of a heterosexual relationship. It seeks to understand the context, meaning and impact of the abuse and how the abuse of individual men and women impacts differently on women, as a group, and men, as a group. We know that domestic abuse happens to far greater numbers of women. We also know that women experience domestic abuse differently on the whole and are more likely to live in extreme fear and be seriously physically assaulted. Women are more vulnerable to poverty and homelessness as a result of being abused.

Numerous research reports demonstrate that domestic abuse is a cause and effect of women’s inequality; therefore a different approach is needed – one which is based on an accurate analysis of the issue and which addresses both prevention and response. Our understanding of and response to domestic abuse has a great bearing on how we should target scarce resources.

A non-gendered service would fail on several levels, not least because it would deter vulnerable women from seeking the help that they need. It is important that anyone experiencing domestic abuse gets the support and help they need – when they need it – however last year nearly two thirds of our members (61%) reported a reduction in funding from their local authority and a quarter have had to reduce the level of service they provide.

Tanya Rhodes, Scotland Women's Aid

SIGN THE E-PETITION ON RAPE DEFENDENT ANONYMITY

Peter Gordon has created an e-petition calling for anonymity to be granted to rape defendents as set out in the coalition governement's mainfesto. An issue they u-turned over.

Please sign it here.

Posted by Skimmington

NEWS UPDATE

A few articles of interest (perhaps)

Town Hall - The new battleground of child custody reform (Rachel Alexander)

Parliament - 91 men raped in 2010 and 222 male victims of sexual assualt :scroll down

Guardian - Clare's Law offers nothing but empty empowerment (Libby Brooks): the comments section full of men demanding to know if it helps them - the male voice for equality is not silent.

The Observer - The rape of men (Will Storr): coverage of the shameful deliberate silence on this issue

Men's Network - New council post targets men : Is this a first?

The Guardian - Why are we afraid of male sexuality (Ally Fogg)

The Guardian - Norway's boardroom quotas are working (Agnes Bolso): Not if you are talented man excluded from the boardroom becuase of your gender - but who is interested in that.

Posted by Skimmington

MEN CAN USE FALSE ALLEGATIONS CRITERIA BUT WHY SO MANY WOMEN'S GROUPS ARE SILENT?

The Crown Prosecution Service this week announced the results of its review on prosecuting those who retract allegations of rape and domestic abuse (covered on the site here). The CPS decided that the law in this area needed to be clearer because of a case in Swansea where a woman was sent to prison for retracting an allegation, even though she was forced to retract it.

The problem with a case like this is the failure of the CPS and police to understand why this woman was placed in this position which therefore opens up the floodgates for the anti-male feminists to bring in new laws and rules in favour of women. They never miss a trick.

However, given the epidemic of prosecutions in the papers each week (61 women prosecuted for false allegations last year), the CPS have also recognised this remains a problem. This has been helped by some male Conservative MP's raising the problem in Parliament before the government's infamous u-turn on defendant anonymity, the numbers of clear cut cases where women have been sent to prison and the pressure from organisations like Parity, Men's Aid and of course the False Allegations Support Organisation (respondents listed here).

Whilst the premise for the CPS policy remains on protecting women who retract allegations and making it easier for them to do so (thereby it can be said encouraging them to make false allegations), there is now a clear test in the guidance for prosecuting false allegations which will help organisations helping men, men themselves and the police/prosecutors. Not just rape but also domestic abuse/violence.

These are in section 26 of the guidance which says:

Applying the public interest factors set out in the Code, prosecutors should bear in mind that a prosecution for perverting the course of justice is more likely to be required where -  

• a false complaint was motivated by malice
• a false complaint was sustained over a period of time (particularly where there were opportunities to retract)
• the suspect in the original allegation was charged and remanded in custody
• the suspect in the original allegation was tried, convicted and/or sentenced
• the person who made the original allegation has previous convictions or out-of-court disposals relevant to this offence, or a history of making demonstrably false complaints
• the suspect in the original allegation was in a vulnerable position or had been taken advantage of
• the suspect in the original allegation has sustained significant damage to his or her reputation.

By stating it so clearly, this actually gives men and organisations supporting the falsely accused clearer power to challenge those making false allegations and put pressure on the police and CPS who refuse to prosecute.

One last point is on the silence of female groups involved in providing support to women who are raped or are victims of domestic violence. Whenever there is a story of women going to prison for a false allegation, you never hear a peep from Refuge/Women's Aid/Fawcett Society etc, even though that person making the false allegation is damaging those women who have been raped.

The only conclusion is that anti-male Marxist feminsists can never bring themselves to criticise a woman no matter how awful she has been. Their ideology dictates it so and shows that beneath the bonnett, no matter what has happened it is men=bad, women=good.

Posted by Skimmington 

Media coverage - Guardian

NEWS UPDATE

Lots been going on this week, so to keep up here are a few of the articles of relevance:

The Sun - Tories worse than Labour on U-Turns (Tom Newton-Dunne) Recognition of the infamous rape anonymity u-turn as this u-turn seems to have been erased when others talk about u-turns. Well done The Sun.

The Independent - How does slut-walking advance feminism (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown) - she attacks slut walking but then makes wild accusations about men

Daily Telegraph - Chivalry is benevolent sexism (Andy Bloxham) - madness from the USA making feminism a laughing stock

Daily Telegraph - If chivalry is dead, blame it on the selfish feminists (Lucy Jones) - sensible women fight back

Daily Telegraph - Why I'll be keep opening the door for women (Stephen Bayley)

Daily Mail - Equalities Office where women earn more than men (Gerri Peev) - Great work from Dominic Raab MP showing the hypocrisy of the Government's Office where equality only counts if you are a woman (and in Telegraph).

Conservative Home - Andrew Bridgen MP has no case to answer - Another man having his name dragged through the papers when he is not guilty, no mention of the girl's name - perhaps Mr Bridgen may want to campaign against his government's u-turn?

Daily Mail - Forgiving husbands begs police not to charge wife he stabbed him

Northampton Chronicle - Brian Binley MP hits out at Nuffield Foundation

The Guardian - Don't turn the clock back on women (Rachel Reeves) - More anti-male, pro women special pleading

Daily Mail - Feminism is so passe, it's boy's who need help now (Sandra Parsons) - Brilliant from Sandra Parsons

Daily Mail - Female drunks at Take That concert (James Tozer) - What will the feminists think of this sign of empowerment?

BBC - Russell Crowe backs downs on circumcision - The anti-male (including many men) out in force to force the actor to backtrack

The Sun - Bulimia rise in boys (Emma Little) - Emma's first class research which was on the front page of the Sun shows the paper has its serious side on men's issues (it run a front page on male victims of doemstic abuse two years ago). The Daily Mail and Telegraph  followed it up.

Posted by Skimmington