To think mysogeny should not be made a hate crime?

[Olympiathequeen]

Of course mysogeny is rife (sadly), but women make up 50% of the population so we are hardly a minority, like disabled, BME or religious minorities.

There are plenty of laws to protect women against men’s aggression and plenty of laws to protect both sexes against discrimination.

I can’t even see what practical application this has and would tie up valuable police time.

And how can we have equality if 50% of the population are pitted against the other 50%? Surely we can’t have a situation where a man is charged with mysogeny for putting vile stuff on the internet, yet a woman could say the same about him and not be prosecuted?

We’re in danger of alienating reasonable, decent men by having a law which would cast them as the villeins and of giving entitled men more reasons to abuse women.

On the other hand I think there should be something to prevent the type of abuse Diane Abbott and other female politicians suffered but this doesn’t need to be female centred but applicable to men and women.

I’m happy to be convinced otherwise if the arguments are good.

But there are already laws against molestation and flashing and stalking. No point in more laws if you can't enforce them. I really don't see cat-calling or knee patting as hate crimes. And the whole area of 'consent' is a minefield of ambiguity. As Germaine Greer has said, what we need is a closer look at what sexual assault actually means.

I really don't want the sort of society where people have their social interaction policed to the extent that some feminists seem to be demanding.

There may be laws against many different things, but sometimes it's useful to put them all under the same umbrella or to create a bag for instances that are less clear cut but still deeply affect their victims.

Treating women with contempt. That's what this covers. And what needs to be stopped.