Times article, 'Misogyny is a gateway belief, justifying abuse' Heather Brooke

[R0wantrees]

concludes:
"Let’s be clear: it’s not the law on hate speech that is at issue here, it’s the addition of misogyny. This is a challenge to patriarchy itself, an ideology and political system that divides society into two groups: adult men and everyone else, where everyone else is of lesser value.

To reduce misogyny to mere wolf-whistling is exactly the kind of minimisation and rationalisation we’ve seen in attempts to reduce the MeToo revelations of serious sexual assault, even rape, to “knee touching”, or devastating sexual harassment in the workplace to “banter”.

Misogyny is the gateway belief justifying domination, entitlement and, in too many cases, abuse and violence. Anyone claiming they are in favour of law and order needs to take misogyny seriously. Turning a blind eye to the systemic abuse of women is not making anyone safer.

For too long women have been victims of a most virulent form of hate. It is only in the past few years that crimes against women and children have been talked about and taken seriously. Action and accountability against perpetrators is still a rarity. Sara Thornton and Cressida Dick are on the wrong side of history if they think they can tackle violent crime without taking misogyny seriously."

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/misogyny-is-a-gateway-belief-justifying-abuse-ghdpmvzs5

Great article and so true

Thanks for posting this R0wantrees - a good start to the day. I think one of the problems we/the police are up against is that 'hate speech' is conflated with hate crime. The latter can be dealt with under existing laws; the former has led to this barking situation where pronouns and stickers are being policed. And then the massive rise in reported trans hate speech (for example) is presented as proof of vulnerability and oppression. If hate speech stays on the statute books then it absolutely must include misogyny but it's surely preferable to get rid of the whole category and the notion of 'literal violence' that has accompanied it.

I think one of the problems we/the police are up against is that 'hate speech' is conflated with hate crime. The latter can be dealt with under existing laws; the former has led to this barking situation where pronouns and stickers are being policed. And then the massive rise in reported trans hate speech (for example) is presented as proof of vulnerability and oppression. If hate speech stays on the statute books then it absolutely must include misogyny but it's surely preferable to get rid of the whole category and the notion of 'literal violence' that has accompanied it.

This.

Great article, thank you for posting R0wantrees

95% strongly misogynyist comments though sadly :(

Sharetoken link

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/misogyny-is-a-gateway-belief-justifying-abuse-ghdpmvzs5?shareToken=d5596b080471aeb657dfd1d8d4ae8206

It was interesting to see the comments under this article in woke news.
People really are starting to see the problems with hate speech / crimes:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/04/if-police-ignore-minor-crime-how-long-before-we-take-it-upon-ourselves

I see misogyny as something which follows from traditional/conservative 'strict father morality' which places white adult males at the top of the hierarchy

This comment from Claire D is really special.

As for the ridiculous idea of a wicked ' Patriarchy ', a bit more gratitude would'nt go amiss; the Rule of Law, Parliament and Local Government, our towns and cities, farms and industries, buildings of all kinds, electricity, running water, all transport, the Police and Armed Forces. All, all, sons, fathers, brothers and husbands of women.

Gratitude to men for giving us all good things on earth. Yes. That's where we are going wrong.