Thursday 19 March 2015

Justice for Men and Boys

In a few weeks time there will be an election. And some lucky constituencies get to vote for the Justice for Men and Boys party. Lucky them.

This is an openly anti-feminist party - the same people that run it also run an Anti Feminist League.

The basic tenet is that the rise of feminism is impinging on the rights of boys and men, and is also bad for girls and women.

The party is run by Mike Buchanan (left), a former Tory consultant, who radiates white middle class male smugness. I don't like to be personal, but sometimes I can't help it.

Lazy lazy lazy

The ole 'feminists hate men' chestnut is the easiest, laziest way to have a go at feminism. It's so lame, I'm struggling to find the energy to defend it. It's playground argument.

No, feminists don't hate men. We just want women and men to be treated equally. That's not the same thing. Sigh.

Women generally don't hate men, we're just not like that. In fact there's a well known word for hating women, 'misogyny'. There's also a word for hating men - 'misandry'. It's certainly not feminism.

"Balance justice" by Eurobas. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via
Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Balance_justice.JPG#/media/File:Balance_justice.JPG

'Man'-ifesto

The party says a number of scary things, bolstered by some badly thought-out arguments.

  • Feminists are trying to destroy the nuclear family: because a unit in which a man and woman work together in an equal partnership to bring up children is clearly a threat to feminism. Down with that sort of thing.
  • Feminism is the pursuit of female supremacy: no, it's the pursuit of equality
  • Lying Feminist of the Month: indeed
  • Women in the boardroom leads to financial decline: women are happier outside the boardroom. When people tell me that I'll be better off not doing something that I want to do, I'm always deeply suspicious. 
My *favourite* thing about the Justice for Men and Boys party is how they make out that they're trying to be helpful to women. They're big on promoting women's roles as mothers, suggesting we shouldn't be pressurised or encouraged into high powered jobs. 

Feminism is about allowing choice. Some women don't want to climb to the top of the career tree because they want to put their energies into being mothers. And that's OK. But for those who want to get to the boardroom, they should have the choice. 

Democracy is about giving people the freedom to stand for what they believe in, so it's important that everyone can air their views, even Mr Buchanan and his friends. But it's sad and a bit scary that feminism has to be seen in a dirty word by this section of society, so much so that they feel they have to form a political party against it.