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Five reasons feminism should deal with women who abuse children

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Feminism is failing children by refusing to acknowledge that the majority of perpetrators of child abuse are women, according to one writer at the online magazine Everyday Feminism.

Men’s rights activists have long pointed to numerous examples of international research which show that mothers perpetrate more child abuse than fathers. Rather than acknowledge this inconvenient truth, women’s organisations tend to deny and minimize the child abuse committed by women and seek to place the blame for the majority of child abuse on men’s shoulders.

The sexist belief that “women HAVE problems and men ARE problems” is so pervasive that the last UK government formed a taskforce to address “violence against women and children,” ignoring female perpetrators and male victims in the process.

In his book The Myth of Male Power, Dr Warren Farrell claimed that feminism articulates the shadow side of men and the light side of women, but neglects the shadow side of women and the light side of men. The unwillingness of feminism to acknowledge women’s dark side, as demonstrated by women’s abuse of children, is one of the reasons anti-feminists believe the movement is sexist against men and boys.

Speaking as a feminist herself, the writer Shannon Ridgway suggests five reasons why feminism needs to address the fact that women commit the majority of child abuse. Whatever you think of Ridgway’s “five reasons” (listed below), she deserves credit for daring to wash one of feminism’s dirtiest pieces of laundry in public.

5 Reasons why feminism needs to address child abuse:  

1. Feminism should tackle all “-isms” not just sex-ism against women—and ignoring child abuse is a form of ageism

2. Women are not “natural caretakers” and our unwillingness to admit women abuse children is based on this sexist stereotype

3. Women who sexually abuse children are not “seductresses” they are “sex offenders”

4. Matriarchy is no better than patriarchy

5. Child abuse victims should not be made to feel that feminism has failed them, they should feel that they can embrace feminism

You can see Shannon Ridgway’s full article at Everyday Feminism today.

—Photo credit: NSPCC 

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Why men should learn from feminism and dismantle matriarchy

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Men can learn from feminism by adopting a “we can” philosophy, which acknowledges that gender is no barrier to individual capacity, says Jack O’Sullivan.

—This is article #9 in our series of #100Voices4Men and boys

To realise our full potential as men, we need to get the analysis and the alliances right.

First, the analysis. A big barrier to self-realisation is anything in our heads – or in other people’s heads – which suggests that being male is a limitation rather than an aspiration. ‘We can’ should be reclaimed as the core of masculine identity. That means junking and challenging notions that we can’t … express emotions, multi-task, care for children, care for ourselves and each other, listen, be valuable people even without a job… ‘We can’ does not claim innate ability. It establishes goals and entitlements. If we’re not instantly good at something, it means that we seek help. We make sure that boys as well as girls emerge fully equipped for adulthood. We give men – as well as women – who might have missed out, both the opportunities and inspiration to catch up.

If that’s the analysis, then we should make alliances with those who also say ‘We can’. And we should challenge those who don’t. Let’s start with feminism. It has championed a philosophy that gender is no barrier to individual capacity. Women picked up this insight, historically considered to be a masculine paradigm. They ran with it and have travelled far together, outstripping men’s sense of our own possibilities. Feminism should be our inspiration.

Patriarchy hurts men

Patriarchy is our enemy because it confuses control over women and children with male self-realisation. We don’t need to control others – we need to develop our own capacities. And patriarchy gets in our way because it dictates that only women do certain things. That stops us from doing them. Patriarchy says ‘We can’t’ to men just as it tells women ‘You must’.

Feminism has done us a favour in beginning to dismantle patriarchy. But it’s left matriarchy for us to challenge. Matriarchal values – claiming that women are innately superior to men and that we are incompetent in key parts of the private and domestic arena – has messed up the heads of women and men. We have not supported equality in the public arena to then be policed and infantilised in our homes. Perhaps, in the old world, patriarchy and matriarchy somehow provided a balance, but both systems are out-dated as men and women reject gender-based power and its inevitable diminishing of the ‘other’ gender.

We’re stronger together

Then we have to talk about mending fractured relationships between different types of men. ‘We can’ requires mutual support. So, for starters, heterosexual men should dump their historic hostility to, and discomfort with, homosexuality. Straight men have a lot to learn from, and share with, our gay, bisexual and transgender counterparts, who have bravely and successfully said ‘We can’ about their contested identities.

And then there are fathers living with or separated from the mothers of their children. These fathers often act as strangers to each other. Men in ‘intact’ families provide little support for those fathering children after separation. Yet we’re all saying, ‘We can’ be good parents. The power dynamics between fathers and mothers that become so obvious after separation are all present inside ‘intact’ relationships. They are just better hidden. We need to share our understanding of these dynamics.

Lastly, there’s that word ‘We’. Too many of us lack the will to collectivise in order to create a better world for everyone. Yet, individually, we are often unable to understand and tackle the cultural pressures that we face. Together, ‘we can’.

Jack O’Sullivan is author of ‘He’s Having a Baby’, the BBC Guide to Fatherhood. You can follow him on twitter @ThinkOSullivan or read about his work on Fatherhood at his website.

—Cartoon credit: Jack O Sullivan

You can find all of the #100Voices4Men articles that will be published in the run up to International Men’s Day 2014 by clicking on this link—#100Voices4Men—and follow the discussion on twitter by searching for #100Voices4Men.

The views expressed in these articles are not the views of insideMAN editorial team. Whether you agree with the views expressed in this article or not we invite you to take take part in this important discussion, our only request is that you express yourself in a way that ensures everyone’s voice can be heard.

You can join the #100Voices4Men discussion by commenting below; by following us on Twitter @insideMANmag and Facebook or by emailing insideMANeditor@gmail.com. 

 

Why are the Lib Dems supporting men who buy sex?

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What’s large, gold and has wings? According to the former MEP, Chris Davies, it’s the flying golden penis trophy he won for being Politician of the Year at the Erotic Awards 2010.

Davies proudly shared this information with his Lib Dem colleagues in Glasgow this week, as the party revisited its policy on decriminalising sex work. True to their promise to fight for a stronger economy and a fairer society, the Lib Dems want women to be free to sell sex (and men to be free to buy it), without fear of prosecution—and who can say fairer than that?

Forget the NHS and Europe and the bedroom tax, this is one area of policy where the Lib Dems have put a “bit of blue” clear water between themselves and the other major parties.

Earlier this year, an All Party Parliamentary Group of mostly Labour and Conservative MPs called for an overhaul of the UK’s laws on prostitution, which would make it legal to sell sex and illegal to buy it.

Do men drive women into sex work?

According to the Labour MEP, Mary Honeyball (yes it’s her real name), the aim of this approach is to target “men who treat women’s bodies as a commodity without criminalising women who are driven into sex work”.

The policy is supported by a bizarre alliance of left-wing, feminist, female MPs, who see prostitution as violence against women and right-wing, male, Christian politicians, who take a hard moral stance on abortion, gay marriage and men who pay for sex.

Meanwhile, in a conference room as empty as a Lib Dem promise on student loans, a few of the party faithful were busy congratulating each other for having the best prostitution policy in the country.

We’ve all heard of punters who visit prostitutes and “just want to talk”, well when the Lib Dems visit sex workers, they just want to listen. The biggest disagreement during the debate came when two delegates argued about being the first politician to invite sex workers to speak at a party conference.

Should consensual sex always be legal?

The conclusion the Lib Dems have arrived at is that the industry isn’t as grim and oppressive as we’re led to believe and we should all be free to buy and sell sex as we please, as long as we’re being kind to each other and not breaking any other laws in the process.  “It is a fundamental liberal value,” said Councillor Matthew Winnington from Portsmouth, “that consensual sex between adults should be legal”.

So why should men care about this? The vast majority of us don’t use sex workers so why should we give a damn about the way male “Johns” are policed?

Some men’s rights campaigners have, not surprisingly, framed the issue as a fight against feminist zealotry. There is some truth to this position. The proposal to decriminalise prostitutes, while simultaneously making it illegal for clients to pay for sex, is known as the Nordic model and is a feminist approach pioneered in Sweden. It’s built on a view that women don’t choose prostitution, but are forced into it by we bad men and our evil patriarchy.

Is this a feminist issue?

However, many of the key people who want to rescue female prostitutes and punish their male customers, are far from feminist. They are in fact traditional conservatives who take a paternalistic view of “sexual transgression” and think that we good men and our benevolent patriarchy should be saving fallen maidens in distress from the few bad guys.

At the same time, the liberals who oppose the Nordic model see themselves as progressive feminists. So the distinction here isn’t between feminists and non-feminists, it’s between authoritarians and libertarians.

As a man, I’m not particularly concerned which side of the authoritarian/libertarian divide you come down on, as long as you treat people equally. It seems only fair that if we make selling sex a crime, we should make buying sex a crime too. Similarly, if we decriminalise prostitution, then surely this should apply to both the buyer and the seller?

The idea that prostitution is predominantly a one-way crime perpetrated by men against women, is absurdly sexist and discriminatory. The suggestion that all prostitution is violence against women and all female sex workers are driven into the oldest profession by evil men, infantilises women and ignores what sex workers are saying about their own experiences.

Sex work is worth £5 billion

Yes there is exploitation, abuse and trafficking and this should be stopped. Yes there are sex workers who are controlled by addiction and they should be helped. But if the Lib Dems, with their flying golden penises have got it right, then Labour and the Conservatives are lying to us about sex work. Whether you like it or not, the sex industry is worth £5.65 billion to the economy and, according to the Lib Dems, the majority of people earning that money are doing so through personal choice and free will.

Is prostitution a social evil caused by men and suffered by women? Not according to Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon, a lecturer in Psychology who summed up the debate for the Lib Dems saying “any amount of criminalisation, no matter how slight, gives authoritarians the excuse to harass women, men and transgender sex workers”.

She asked conference to spare a thought for the diverse range of punters the Nordic model would criminalise. “Consider the young man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, paying for the first non-medical touch he’s had in his life,” she said. “Consider the widow or the war veteran, whose life’s been ruined, paying for a bit of company. Consider women in posh spa hotels, paying for a full massage with a happy ending.”

However you vote at next general election, if you want to speak out about the criminalisation of men who pay for sex, at least the Lib Dems have given you a “respectable” argument: “it’s not the male punters I’m most concerned about about, no, it’s the rights of disabled men, war veterans and sexually frustrated posh ladies I’m fighting for!” Nice trick, as sex workers say.

—Picture Credit: Flickr/brh_images

If you liked this article and want to read more, follow us on Twitter @insideMANmag and Facebook

Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

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Where are young men’s voices in the gender debate?

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Young women’s voices are at the forefront of our cultural conversation around gender issues.

From the banning of Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ by university student unions, to Pussy Riot and the Femen phenomenon, as well as the unexpected up-rising of #WomenAgainstFeminism, young women are speaking out and being heard.

The silence from young men, however, is deafening.

What do they think about this conversation that is, by default, being had about them? Equally, what do they have to say about issues such as suicide, street violence and educational underachievement, that primarily impact upon their own gender?

Here teenage vlogger Josh O’Brien gives his take on the situation.

Why do you think so few young men are speaking out about the issues they face? What do you think the impact might be on young men of not engaging with the discussion of gender that goes on around them and about them? Tell us what you think in a tweet or a comment.

Feature image: flickr/floeschie

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To watch more of Josh’s videos, check out his YouTube channel here.

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How did a women’s equality campaign get turned into a social media movement against male circumcision……..?

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If you like this article and want to read more, follow us on Twitter @insideMANmag and Facebook

Earlier this month Cynthia Maloney, a 48 year old mother of two from Newtown, Massachusetts, started a social media craze that has seen women all over the internet publicly supporting the global campaign to end unnecessary male circumcision.

She didn’t plan it. In fact this online phenomena was so spontaneous that Cynthia was still in bed in her pyjamas when it kicked off. “The morning I was called into action I wasn’t really thinking,” she told insideMAN magazine, “all I knew was that I saw red when I saw a picture of a young woman holding a sign”.

The picture that stoked Cynthia’s anger came from the news site Elite Daily, which asked 12 of its female staff what they would do differently if they were men and posted photographs of the women holding their answers alongside the hashtag #IfIIWereABoy.

The young women’s responses were a list of personal grievances against men including:

  • #IfIIWereABoy I’d treat girls as humans that should be respected
  • #IfIIWereABoy I’d educate myself about feminism
  • #IfIIWereABoy I’d keep my hands to myself
  • #IfIIWereABoy I’d never tell a woman to ‘smile’
  • #IfIIWereABoy I’d be courteous and remember to put the seat down

But it wasn’t these messages that caused Cynthia to leap out of bed, but the words of a woman holding up a sign that said: “#IfIWereABoy I’d be able to make choices about my own body”.

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As an intactivist (a campaigner against male circumcision and other genital mutilation), Cynthia was instantly struck by the absurdity of making such a statement in a country where routine infant circumcision is still prevalent.

“It really speaks to how blind the American culture is to the forced genital cutting of infant boys,” said Cynthia. “The same women who are complaining about not having choices are handing over their own sons to have their genitals amputated”.

Cynthia knew, without thinking, that she had to take action and hastily scribbled her own message and posted on the Elite Daily website. Without pausing for breath, she began to encourage others to do the same and before she knew it, the internet was flooded with pictures of women holding up placards with messages like this:

“#IfIWereABoy I would have been strapped down to a board and raped with a knife 27 years ago. My outrage at this violation would have been ridiculed. Instead of enjoying sex as nature intended it, I would be missing the most sensitive part of my penis. #Boys deserve better #genital cutting is not a parental right.”

Emily Kirsch

Cynthia is overwhelmed by the response and is convinced it can make a difference.

“It’s raising awareness” she told us. “People see it in their newsfeed with their morning coffee. It’s sparking conversations. The more we talk about it the more the truth will be exposed to the light. Once it’s seen, it can’t be unseen. It will soon be socially unacceptable to take a knife to the genitals of all babies: male, female and intersex. Cynthia has always believed circumcision is wrong and is committed to ending the practice for ever. “I knew the difference between intact and cut sex and I knew intact sex was better,” she says. “I also knew from working with babies that there was a drastic difference in their personalities before and after circumcision. But it wasn’t until I really started researching it when I found out just how dark and twisted the whole thing is.

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Cynthia believes the practice of “forced genital cutting” in America has changed the nation’s psyche. “No-one escapes harm in a cutting culture” she said. “Primarily it’s the men who’ve been cut, but the women are brainwashed to pass over their sons without question. Intact men suffer from these women’s ignorance about the natural male anatomy.

“Every time a woman says ‘gross I would never have sex with an uncut guy’ it’s abusive, it perpetuates the violence against our newborn sons. Once I started learning I couldn’t stop speaking out. As we stay silent more babies are violated. More men live in silent struggles afraid to speak about the violent sexual assault they experienced as an infant. I have to do everything I can to stop this.

One of the unusual twists in this extraordinary story is that some Men’s Rights Activists have joined in with the #IfIWereABoy conversation online seeing it is an opportunity to challenge and ridicule the original campaign with its feminist sensibilities. Some recent tweets carrying the #IfIWereABoy hashtag have included:

  • #IfIIWereABoy being raped by a woman would be called a rite of passage, not rape.
  • #IfIIWereABoy I’d learn that #feminism means all people are equal but women are more equal than men
  • #IfIIWereABoy then I’d be accused of being a sexist member of patriarchal rape culture just because of my gender by #feminism

For intactivists like Cynthia, circumcision is not a question of feminism versus anti-feminism. We need to stop the gender wars on both sides,” she told us. “We’re all human. If your fellow human being is being violated we need to step in and help them. It’s time we started treating humans humanely.”

You can find out more about the #IfIWereABoy initiative at Intact News or on tumblr or Google+.

Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

If you liked this article and want to read more, follow us on Twitter @insideMANmag and Facebook

Misogyny is man’s worst friend and ending it is good for everyone

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Is campaigning against misogyny men’s work? Chris Flux from Men Against Violence in Preston says it is and explains  here why he thinks tackling sexism against women is good for everyone.

—This is article #45 in our series of #100Voices4Men and boys 

It always concerns me when people blindly attack feminism on social media, labelling the entire movement as ‘evil’ and its proponents as ‘man-haters’.

This does not mean that feminism is some perfect ideology that should never be challenged or that there aren’t some women with some deeply unfair ideas about men. No, what bothers me is that often when someone challenges or merely expresses concern about the way in which some men treat women they get an aggressive response, their ideas misrepresented and constant accusations of man-hating which rarely have any foundation. (most feminists I have met in person or online have been okay with me as a man)

There can be a similar response when anyone (male or female) suggests that men should be more caring, thoughtful or respect women. This doesn’t mean that men should put women on a pedestal (that’s not equality) or that men should be ‘emasculated’ ‘weaklings’ who are prevented from enjoying traditional male pursuits such as sport, beer and sex. It’s just that it’s SO frustrating that there is so much effort aimed at trying to silence these progressive ideas instead of trying to assess them through thoughtful analysis and respectful dialogue.

How does misogyny hurt men?

Whilst reactionary defences of misogyny (the hatred of women) is obviously bad for women, its also VERY BAD for men too as it holds us back as people and causes us a lot of suffering too. These are some of the ways in which misogyny actually hurts men:

  1. Misogyny believes the worst about men. (i.e that we are innately brutal sexist jerks)
  2. Misogyny makes men look bad and creates distrust between the sexes.
  3. Misogyny literally hurts and sometimes kills women (through domestic abuse etc…) that men care about like family members and friends.
  4. Misogyny demands that men conform to very rigid gender roles which limit men’s choices as well as women’s. Men who don’t conform to certain ideals are shamed, abuse and ridiculed for it.(often by being compared to women)
  5. Misogyny creates such a fear in men of being perceived as feminine that they refuse to get medical or emotional help which increases their chances of committing suicide or dying of health conditions which were preventable and treatable (e.g. prostate cancer)
  6. Misogyny creates such a fear in men of being perceived as feminine that they must constantly compete with other men (sometimes through violence) to prove that they are ‘Real Men’. This creates a ‘dog eat dog world’ where women wanting to prove themselves must follow the same rules as men.
  7. Misogyny in porn and the sexual objectication of women damages men’s relationships with women by creating false expectations of sex and damaging intimacy.

Finally, there is often a lot of talk online about misandry and whilst some women are prejudiced against men, amongst the worst and most prominent misandry I have come across comes (ironically) from male chauvinists and rape apologists who excuse sexual violence as being an expression of ‘uncontrollable male lust’. This offensive idea is rejected outright by most feminists who also believe it puts the blame for sexual assault onto the victim.

My message to men is that Misogyny is not your friend but probably your worst enemy! If we unite with women to attempt to end it then we ultimately help ourselves.

If we have a society where women are respected and treated as equals, we also have a society where:

  1. Men are seen as innately caring, decent and trustworthy.
  2. Men don’t have to worry about whether their female friends or relatives are safe.
  3. Men can freely express who they are and choose their own roles. (whether traditional or non-traditional)
  4. Men can access social, medical and professional support without fear of ridicule.
  5. Men are so confident in who they are that they don’t have to prove their maleness.

And finally! In a world without where women are seen as ‘sexual beings’ rather than ‘sexual objects’; sex is going to be better for EVERYONE!

Photo Credit: flickr/Jeremy Keith

Chris Flux is the Campaign Director of Men Against Violence which is “a men’s campaign to end violence against women” which is also “concerned about male victims of abuse and homophobic bullying.” This article is his own opinion and not necessarily the opinion of Men Against Violence.

To find out more visit menagainstviolence.co.uk or follow on twitter @MAV_Preston  of facebook.

You can find all of the #100Voices4Men articles that will be published in the run up to International Men’s Day 2014 by clicking on this link—#100Voices4Men—and follow the discussion on twitter by searching for #100Voices4Men.

The views expressed in these articles are not the views of insideMAN editorial team. Whether you agree with the views expressed in this article or not we invite you to take take part in this important discussion, our only request is that you express yourself in a way that ensures everyone’s voice can be heard.

You can join the #100Voices4Men discussion by commenting below; by following us on Twitter @insideMANmag and Facebook or by emailing insideMANeditor@gmail.com. 

 

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New book highlights sexism against men in Scotland

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A new book from Scotland called On Being A Man aims to confront some of the most difficult issues facing men today. 

A new Scottish book published this month will highlight how 21st century society can be sexist against men. The book—On being A Man: Four Scottish Men Speak Out—includes a conversation with John Carnochan, a policeman who formed Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit, who  told The Scotsman newspaper that men are the victims of sexism. He said:

“From the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 up to October 2010, 43 Scottish service men lost their lives…In the same period 5,624 men in Scotland committed suicide… where is the war being fought? Where are the men most at risk?

“I think many of us men have recognised that women have a good case, we feel a bit guilty about it all, we recognise the unfairness of things and support their cause. But have we allowed this argument debate to be too one-sided?

Feminism is not about equality 

“I’m not suggesting that we should roll back decades of change towards a more gender-equal society, but there are often unforeseen or unexpected outcomes or consequences to such significant changes and maybe what we are sensing as individuals are these outcomes.

“Feminism is not about equality when women think ‘now it’s our turn to do it to them’. There is the obvious sort of sexism where men are largely absent from jobs in nurseries, teaching and social services. But there is the casual sexism directed at men too, every day.”

Carnochan is one of four men interviewed by Gerry Hassan, a political commentator, who is the book’s editor. According to Hassan:

“Men are everywhere in Scotland, in public life, in sport, on television, making a noise in pubs. But the contradiction is that men mostly remain totally silent about what is happening to them. Women have adapted better than men to the economic and social changes over the past 30 to 40 years. This has also led to a tendency to characterise men as more helpless or lost which is a stereotype which can hurt men.”

Masculinity has a dark side

The book’s publishers, Luath, say that On Being A Man brings together four men to consider the condition of Scottish men, reflect on their own backgrounds and experiences, and confront some of the most difficult issues men face. These include the changing roles of men in Scottish society and the role of work and employment.

According to the publishers’ website:

“What it means to be a man today is very different from forty years ago: in terms of expectations, relationships, how men relate to partners, bring up children and what constitutes a modern family. However, there is a dark side of Scottish masculinity – seen in the drinking and the violent, abusive behaviour of some Scots men and this book addresses this directly, getting into issues many of us often shy away from confronting.”

The other men who have contributed to the book are journalist, writer and broadcaster, David Torrance; founder of a youth employment and mentoring charity, Sandy Campbell and public health researcher, Pete Seaman.

To find out more about the book On Being A Man see the Luath’s website.

—Photo credit: flickr/Erich Ferdinand

Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

If you liked this article and want to read more, follow us on Twitter @insideMANmag and Facebook

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France gives way to opponents of ‘gender theory’ in schools

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A left-wing initiative to tackle gender equality in French schools has been dropped after co-ordinated protests by right wingers says Simon Massei of Pantheon-Sorbonne University, in an article originally published at The Conversation.

Everybody in France has a view on ABCD de l’égalité. A controversial school programme aimed at combating sexism and gender stereotypes that was introduced in 275 schools last September as an experiment.

The idea was to teach children that some differences between the sexes are biological, but others are socially constructed. It was met with fierce pressure from conservative and religious parents, angry that their children were being taught théorie du genre (gender theory) at school. Those on the left supported the programme as an important step to promoting equality in France.

But now it seems the French government has bowed to the sustained campaign against the programme. Confirming revelations by L’Express newspaper, on June 29, France’s minister for women’s rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, announced that ABCD de l’égalité was to be discontinued.

A new action plan to teach children about equality between girls and boys at schools has now been announced by the education minister Benoît Hamon. But the government’s backdown appeared inescapably like a victory for the opponents of théorie du genre, who have been mobilising in France since the law allowing gay marriage was passed in May 2013.

No revolution

The ABCD de l’égalité programme was far from revolutionary when it came to educating children about the politics of equality between the sexes. It was actually a continuation of steps taken by the French state since the 1980s to change perceptions on gender stereotypes.

Yvette Roudy, minister for women’s rights under France’s first socialist President François Mitterand, had given the issues particular attention at school in the 1980s, by bolstering the representation of women in school text books and changing the practices of teachers. With the co-operation of the ministry of national education, she established training courses for primary school teachers devoted to the analysis of sexism and to a new egalitarian pedagogy.

In any case, the sensibilisation work that the ABCD de l’égalité programme was meant to introduce, has actually been carried out for years by associations volunteering with pupils of all ages to teach them about sexism and homophobia.

The only “new” thing in the programme was the notion of gender, or “gender theory”. This was popularised in the 1970s by feminists, and has been widely used since by social and human scientists to explain the inequality between the sexes. But it has been struck out of the new action plan presented by the French government.

Under the guise of being even more ambitious, the new action plan actually goes back to the old formula of gender equality education, emphasising the training of teachers instead of the awareness of children. It forgets that the ABCD programme was brought in precisely to remedy the inefficiency of the old modus operandi.

From misinformation to victory

Behind this backpedalling has been vociferous lobbying by parents against the introduction of this so-called “gender theory” into educational establishments.

At the end of January 2014, a collective called Journée de Retrait de l’Ecole launched a huge campaign of misinformation. The JRE collective is made up of parents who were pulling their children out of school one day a month to protest against the ABCD programme. It spread the rumour by text message that masturbation would soon be taught at school.

The campaign’s widespread media coverage gave it big visibility and introduced “gender theory” as an important element of public debate. But French phobia against gender theory is not new. It was sparked by the 1995 World Conference of Women, when the Roman Catholic Church took its first position against the idea of mutable sexual identities.

The phobia was then revived in 2010 by the insertion of a chapter in French biology text books entitled “becoming male or female”. And then exacerbated again by the introduction of gay marriage in 2013.

It would be wrong to think that it was just Catholic opposition that led the call to mobilise. It’s true that some of its opposition movements like the Manif Pour Tous or the Printemps Francais have a christian militant base, and have managed to reunite practising Catholic members of both the middle class and Catholic bourgeoise. But the JRE movement also reverberated strongly through Muslim communities and the lower class. The far right has also added its voice to the movement. In response to the government’s decision on the ABCD programme, conservative author Farida Belghoul spoke of the “unquestionable victory” of the JRE collective.

Boundary between public and private

Aside from the religious and social questions being asked in the current debate, the polemic around the teaching of gender theory at school seems to have reignited old passions. It has revisited a debate that started at the end of the 19th century around the role of the school and, by extension, the state. The phrase “children do not belong to their parents, they belong to the state”, attributed to the socialist senator Laurence Rossignol by the Catholic movement Civitas, has played a big part in the debate. She protests that she did not say the phrase, and has been subject to a campaign of manipulation.

Apart from the questions about gender equality at work and the disconnection between sex and sexuality which is at the heart of the gender studies, some more conservative parents were also incensed by the imposition of public power into personal lives.

But erecting a boundary between the private and public underestimates the porous borders between the two spheres. Issues such as the pay gap between men and women and sex abuse continue a system of beliefs and representations about the world which remain solidly anchored in people’s heads.

The refusal of practising Catholics and the French right to acknowledge the social origins of the differences between the sexes, and talk about these issues at school, won’t change anything. Unfortunately, we don’t have to believe in masculine dominance and inequality between the sexes for them to exist.

Simon Massei does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.
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Teenage boy tells Yvette Cooper why she has no right to re-educate young men as feminists

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Last week Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper wrote in the Independent that boys should be taught in schools to “grow up as confident feminists”.

She said there should be compulsory education in schools to teach boys not to be abusers, in order to tackle what she described as widespread violence against women.

Her article is the latest in ongoing commentary and concern by leading political figures about a perceived culture of misogyny among Britain’s young men.

What has been missing from the discussion, however, is how boys themselves feel about being cast as potential abusers, who need to be re-educated about their masculinity.

We asked YouTube broadcaster Josh O’Brien, a 17-year-old sociology and politics student, to respond to Yvette Cooper’s statement.

‘Lad Culture’

The Shadow Home Secretary’s article, follows last year’s high-profile speech by Labour MP Diane Abbott in which she said Britain’s boys are growing up in a culture of “hyper-masculinity”, which she said is fuelling misogyny and homophobia.

Then in February 2014, following the banning of controversial pop song “Blurred Lines” by numerous student unions on the basis that it promoted “rape culture” on campus; the NUS held a summit calling for universities to tackle what it says is an endemic “lad culture” which normalises sexual assault of female students.

Meanwhile, the “Great Men Value Women” initiative has been launched as a pilot workshop for boys in London schools, to ensure that young men take an “active role in promoting gender equality”.

The workshops aim to “improve the experience of boys and girls at school and challenge negative gender stereotypes affect which a boys’ behavior, mental health and academic performance, as well as the ways in which they interact with young women”.

What do you think? Should schools be teaching boys to be “confident feminists”? Do you recognise a widespread culture of misogyny among Britain’s young men? What do you think is the impact on boys and young men of teaching them that they are potential abusers in need of re-education?

Josh O’Brien writes and makes youtube videos from an anti-feminist, pro MRM perspective. He has one novel currently released, Supercenaries, and is working on a gender issues book called “On Gynocentrism and Patriarchy” in his spare time. Watch his other videos on his channel and follow him on twitter @fruitbatob

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