Justice for Men and Boys: what we learnt from the manifesto
Britain's anti-feminist party says men are underrepresented in politics and compares feminists to Nazis
An anti-feminist party that seeks to advance men's rights has announced that it will contest May's general election.
Justice for Men and Boys (And the Women Who Love Them) was founded by former Tory consultant and author of Feminism: The Ugly Truth, Mike Buchanan. He will stand in the Ashfield constituency, currently held by shadow minister for women and equality Gloria de Piero.
"We hear a lot about misogyny, which is actually very rare, but a hatred of men is very commonplace," he said. He also claims that the state has become "increasingly hostile" towards men even though "it's largely funded by men".
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The party hands out "lying feminist of the month" awards, with previous winners including Everyday Sexism Project founder Laura Bates and feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez.
Here's what we learnt from the party's manifesto, which quotes extensively from the Daily Mail, Wikipedia and anti-feminist blogs including JudgyBitch.com:
Employment
J4MB denies the existence of a glass ceiling and argues that women are simply "less driven" and "naturally don’t put the effort in [to their careers] that a man would". It criticises the government for encouraging women to become involved in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine, claiming that it has left men who "favour these subjects for reasons of aptitude" unable to find work.
The criminal justice system
The party accuses radical feminists of "infiltrating" government inquiries, allowing them to "influence inquiries so as to advantage women and disadvantage men". It also claims that the Crown Prosecution Service is a "deeply anti-male institution" and that male police officers put themselves in additional danger by working with female officers.
Rape
The group calls on the government to introduce anonymity for suspected sexual offenders, and says existing laws are "nothing less than a charter for malicious women to make false sexual offence allegations, thereby ruining innocent men's lives".
Political representation
"There are no ways in which the state disadvantages women and girls," the party argues, so it is therefore "perverse" that the government has a minister for women and equalities with responsibility for women, yet no minister with responsibility for men. Despite conceding that women only form a small minority of MPs, the party argues that they are "over represented".
Feminism
The party praises an anti-feminist blogger for making "accurate parallels between feminists and Nazis". It also attempts to redefine feminism, describing it as a belief system based on "conspiracy theories" such as the existence of the patriarchy, as well as other "fantasies, lies, delusions and myths".
Buchanan argues that feminism is a "hatred" and should be a "badge of shame". "To call yourself a feminist should be no more acceptable than calling yourself a bigot or a sexist or a fascist," he told Buzzfeed.
"I guess our target demographic is more men than women," he concedes.
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