This is Billy Bragg being interviewed by the Telegraph a few years back.
Now he will have a chance to explore these ideas further at the first Being A Man festival - a weekend which will see Grayson Perry, Alastair Campbell and others discuss their experiences of masculinity as well as featuring workshops on subjects like depression, promiscuity and race. Bragg will appear for an evening of music and discussion with the rapper Akala, comedian Phill Jupitus and singer Tom Robinson, which will close the festival on Sunday evening. He will also take part in an event on the Saturday evening with novelist Nick Hornby and designer Wayne Hemingway.
“I think men need a place where we can talk about things that are a problem,” Bragg explains when asked why he was so keen to be involved. “I don’t think any man who’s watched the news since Christmas can feel comfortable with what’s been going on with Operation Yewtree, with Lord Rennard, with those men who were convicted in Peterborough. I look at the TV and I despair for my 20 year old son.
I don’t think any of us can be complacent. I think there’s a responsibility for all of us to be putting out a message. I’m hoping that Being A Man will open up a can of worms and allow us to start talking about these issues.” Bragg bemoans the lack of a "blokesnet" - a Dadsnet does exist, but it has nothing like the same scope as its female counterpart - and other online forums where this discussion could otherwise happen.
Quite an interesting interview. You can read it in full in the Telegraph's Thinking Man section. Perhaps the Thinking Woman of mumsnet would also care to think about "those men convicted in Peterborough". Does it make you fear for your sons? Why? Here's an extract from the BBC.
A gang of men and boys convicted of sexually abusing teenage girls in Peterborough used "sophisticated" tactics to groom their victims, detectives have said.
They befriended vulnerable girls, gave them gifts, money, drugs and alcohol and used violence and intimidation to control them, subjecting them to "appalling" abuse in places such as children's playgrounds.
Two men and three teenage boys were found guilty of a series of rapes and sexual assaults on five girls.
Their convictions were the result of a "victim-led" investigation, involving Cambridgeshire Police, Peterborough City Council children's services and other agencies.
It formed part of a wider investigation, called Operation Erle, into allegations of sex abuse by other groups of men and boys against young girls.
I think there is a rule of misogyny for this: the worst thing about Male Violence against Women and Girls is that it makes men look bad?