Anti-feminist group to stand in UK general election
An anti-feminist group, claiming to stand for the rights of downtrodden men across the UK, is trying to win three seats in the 2015 general election.
The Justice for Men and Boys (and women who love them) party, known as J4MB, was founded by retired businessman Mike Buchanan, and aims to quash the “destructive force” of feminism by standing up for the rights of “subjugated” men.
Buchanan told Buzzfeed his man aim was to “make feminism a dirty word.” The party’s website contains articles with headlines such as “13 Reasons Women Lie about Being Raped” and “I Don’t Need Feminism Because… #WomenAgainstFeminism.”
Buchanan formerly worked as a consultant for the Conservatives, but stood down in 2009 after Conservative leader David Cameron approved a number of all-female parliamentary candidate shortlists.
The J4MB candidates will aim to oust current shadow Women and Equalities minister Gloria de Piero in the 2015 general election, as her constituency is one of the three seats they are attempting to win in the Nottingham area.
“Feminism is a hatred, and it should be a badge of shame,” Buchanan told Buzzfeed. “To call yourself a feminist should be no more acceptable than calling yourself a bigot or a sexist or a fascist. It is a deeply vile, corrupting ideology and the idea it’s a benign movement about gender equality is dangerous nonsense.”
Ideas in their manifesto include making drinking while pregnant illegal, nearly halving the maximum time women can get an abortion and reinstating the “father” figure as a pivotal point in society.
He also claims that feminist politicians in the 1990s were responsible for the destruction of the family unit, and for the decline of functioning society. Buchanan says families without a father figure are poorer and experience more social problems than those with a father.
He is also convinced that men have been as maltreated within society as women.
“We hear a lot about misogyny, which is actually very rare, but a hatred of men is very commonplace,” Buchanan said.
“As far as the state is concerned, males are pretty much subhuman and they’ll do anything they can to destroy men’s lives.”
Buchanan further believes there is no lack of equality in the workplace. It is simply, he claims, due to women wanting “other things” and are “less driven” to succeed.
“Women just want to do other things with their lives,” he said. “They’re less driven and have less to gain from getting to the top of their professions, so they naturally don’t put the effort in that a man would. They’re more suited to things like medicine, caring, and social work.”
The prospect of funding for Buchanan’s election campaign, however, looks bleak.
The group’s attempts to raise £39,500 on crowdfunding website indigogo have so far yielded a meager £5,055 response, meaning their billboard advertising campaign, featuring slogans such as “Women are as aggressive as men (or more),” may not get the coverage it was hoping for.
Buchanan maintains that he is not sexist, but says people write off his opinions rather than listening.
“Rather than engage with me on the issues, people call me sexist,” he said. “I’d suggest those people simply need to educate themselves about gender politics.”
