MP Mark Field grabs female protester by throat

Had Jeremy Vine on in the car and had to turn off and pull over because too angry to focus on driving. I know stupid people are allowed to say offensive, stupid things because of freedom of speech, but WHY WOULD THE BBC GIVE THEM THE OPPORTUNITY?

The upside was I had my teen dd with me, so we had a good rant and I'm glad she's waking up to the reality of the MRA movement.

It's pretty terrifying.

He definitely has form for violence against women, it's obvious from his knee-jerk response
I wonder if anyone will come forward to corroborate this?

Yes! The famous woman so obviously cowed, hurt and emotional that the famous husband was simply pushed to violence!

I remember being so very angry about the media take on that too!

Sorry for typos, am really angry about this!

The attempts to downplay are similar to what was said by some people when a a famous woman was attcked in public by her husband. It's disgusting.

He could have just put an arm out to stop her, he could have tried talking to her, but no, he slams her up against a pillar with force.

How have we got here??

Quite.

We have just been listening to Jeremy Vine in the office. Overwhelming support for Mark Field.

I feel like we are sliding backwards at such a rate. How have we got here??

Apparently, "if you want equality then this is what happens". Sometimes I think it must be easier to be a blinded handmaiden of the patriarchy!

Not only is that vile, it's also untrue. Does anyone seriously believe he'd have attacked a male protester in that way? I very much doubt it. He attacked the woman because he could: because she was smaller, lighter and weaker than he was. And almost certainly unarmed, because, as we all know, armed attacks by women are exceptionally rare.

People defending an act of male violence against a defenceless woman sicken me to the core. Utterly despicable.

Jesus, some of those comments are vile!

From 'silly girl' to 'unwashed gimp' some of the posters, male and female alike, are really quite scarily foul!

I did like the 'they stormed the buildiing' type comments... they queued with everyone else and asked to come in... some made it passed a confused concierge team, others didn't! Not exactly 'storming' was it?

Anyone had Jeremy Vine on? This was a discussion and their last caller, a guy, let's call him Slappy Dave was in agreement of the action and at the end of his call I shit you not said, and I quote "she should be in hospital with a broken nose". WTF! That kind of comment from Average Joe sums it up for me. It's totally ok for men to use their biology as a weapon.

And Jeremy Twat Vine didn't call him out on saying something so disgusting.

I'm sorry I haven't yet RTFT but I just wanted to post that. It was quite sickening to hear.

He instinctively knows that the way to subdue a woman is to grab her by the neck
he will be well aware that grabbing a man by the neck would likely result in fists flying

Mark Field is just a man who felt like attacking a woman and did so. His career is over

I don't think his career will be over. The other thread on the AIBU board is making me feel furious and depressed in equal measure. The amount of women who are lining up to excuse this piece of shit of a man - the numbers are overwhelming!

I have just had a 'heated discussion' about this in my office. Everyone bar me thinks she deserved it. Apparently, "if you want equality then this is what happens". Sometimes I think it must be easier to be a blinded handmaiden of the patriarchy!

He will be on breakfast tv in a week apologising and talking about how he is in therapy for his anger and all will be forgiven.

To be fair ScottishDoll as a witness I think there would have been an element of shock which would have taken a few moments to sink in.

Interview with victim of assault.
twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1142033046599692288

I don't know what is more horrifying about that video, one enraged entitled male savagely forgetting himself and his audience, the immediate glance about for intervention female response to male violence on the faces of the few women observing, or the head down hands in pockets ignore it response of the men present.

How did not one person at that table stand up and shout "LET HER GO, TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER, ALRIGHT THAT'S ENOUGH NOW, STOP IT".

Nobody did or said anything.

Cannot understand the people who don’t recognise the violence in this attack.

It wasn’t self defence. But yes it was instinctive. It was a violent man’s instinct to subdue a physically smaller woman with excessive force. He is clearly enraged and his instinct is to assault her.

FFS are we really living in a society where this sort of behaviour is condoned?

it would be an enitely different debate if it had been a man, and it's quite likely we wouldn't be talking about the end of his career. Or if it had been a woman that stood up and marched the protestor out of there.

Yeah, and if your auntie had certain appendages she'd be your uncle.

In the BBC article he defends himself by saying that he reacted instinctively, does he not realise that being a man who instinctively grabs a woman by the throat is not a good look

He was probably hoping to appeal to the Mark Francois territorial army lot, who cream themselves over the idea that someone might mistake them for Special Forces, with their cat-like instincts in the face of danger.

It's actually rather pathetic. Angry, inadequate, delusional men. Doesn't stop them being a danger to women, though.

hard to see how his (public) career won't be ended. but it would be an enitely different debate if it had been a man, and it's quite likely we wouldn't be talking about the end of his career. Or if it had been a woman that stood up and marched the protestor out of there.

There's one poster there actually comparing it to the Brighton Bomb. Yes, seriously.

Well, AIBU does have a reputation for a reason. It doesn’t exactly attract the most intelligent users does it.

The main argument on the AIBU thread seems to be "Yes the chances of a female climate change activist being a terrorist are exceedingly slim, especially given that she was at an event attended by professional security and with baggage screening. However, you never know, there's a first time for everything and it's OK for male Tory MPs to use violence because that's the way they felt and it's OK to be ruled by you emotions. If you're a male Tory MP."

In the BBC article he defends himself by saying that he reacted instinctively, does he not realise that being a man who instinctively grabs a woman by the throat is not a good look?

The increased support in this country for violence in politics full stop is concerning in this (and other) countries. Attacking politicians, eggings/ throwing milkshakes, assaulting people at political rallies and protests, trying to get events shutdown/ people fired, threatening/ abusing people engaging in political discussions. It's not just the gender debate, it's everywhere. It's left, right, and centre voters. It's men and women doing it, and supporting others doing it. It's mainstream newspapers minimising it or justifying it. We should all be very afraid about this cultural shift because we have a lot of things that need public debate coming up: trans issues, surrogacy and prostitution laws, brexit, the climate crisis, and at some point in the not too distant future I predict there'll be a lot of debate about the rise of AI. We need to fight for a society where we can discuss, debate, protest without fear of violence. We need to look at the cracks in our democratic process, such as how men like Field make it into office in the first place, or how policy capture occurs, and plug them up. We are moving forwards into a world of huge social, economic and political change, and we need a healthy democracy to get us through that in tact. ATM it feels like a stiff breeze could blow it all away.