A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in February 2014:

Out thanks to a number of people who alerted us to this story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2564094/Women-try-CHEERLEADING-look-gorgeous-says-Helen-Grant.html#ixzz2txbf9qyv

We were undecided about whether to do a post on it, but our favourite professional whine merchant Laura Bates is quoted in the piece (below) so we just had to do a post:

Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism project, insisted Miss Grant was wrong to focus on the looks of sportswomen and suggest the purpose of sport is to be ‘girlie and feminine’.

“We shouldn’t say women should only do sports while they look radiant and beautiful. It’s actually discouraging for a minister to say this. It suggests the problem is coming from the young women themselves, when I think a big problem is societal response.”

‘It suggests the problem is coming from the young women themselves…’. Young women not playing as much sport as young men can NOT be attributed to the choices freely made, or not made, by young women. Women must never be held accountable for the consequences of their actions and inactions. No siree…

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A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in February 2014:

It’s time to discuss the extra burden that gravity places on women, says Colleen Hyphenated-Lastname, president of the Propaganda Organization for Women.

“Feminist scientists on an archaeological dig in Mesopotamia have discovered illustrations of women who seem to be floating in the air,” Hyphenated-Lastname says. “This cutting-edge research indicates that there once was a time when gravity did not exist. In fact, these artefacts indicate that society was once gender equal, and women held most high offices of power and controlled the television remote.”

“But all this changed with the onset of western patriarchal societies that wanted to keep women down. If there were no distinctions between men and women, patriarchal oppressors had to invent them. And if there was no gravity, the patriarchy had to invent that, too.”

“Gravity is designed to benefit men, who have thicker bones and greater upper-body strength. Today, we see the results everywhere of the patriarchy’s efforts to keep women down. Gravity causes women to fall to their deaths out of windows or down stairs. It makes buildings collapse, killing women and children. It damages women’s cars when some inconsiderate construction worker topples from the tenth floor and bounces off the hood. Gravity makes the complete, leather-bound editions of Carrie Chapman Catt fall off my bookshelf and give me such a smack I can hardly see straight.”

“Navy pilot Kara Hultgreen would not have crashed her jet except for gravity. Clearly, she was set up to fail.”

“Women seek treatment for depression at far higher rates. Obviously, more women are feeling ‘down.’ Gravity is just another way in which women’s health is being shortchanged.”

“This oppression is historical, the product of white, western men who wanted to hold onto power. The laws of physics were written long before women had the right to vote. If women had had more input, the laws of physics would have been kinder, and gravity would have been supportive. Instead, we are shackled with the competitive, conflict-oriented mode of men. Isaac Newton, a typical dead white European male, was obsessed with ‘opposing’ reactions, even if he hypocritically admitted that some of them were equal. When he declared that for every action there is opposed an equal reaction, he was doing nothing less than defining the backlash. If women had had a chance to shape these laws, their conflict-free style of interaction would have made sure that there were no opposed reactions. All reactions simply would have been equal.”

“We can undo the oppressive, patriarchal mindset that would have us believe that gravity really represents the ‘natural’ order of things,” says Hyphenated-Lastname. “It will require spending money on programs to elevate girls’ self-esteem so that they are not held down by artificial concepts of patriarchy.”

“This will cost a lot of money,” says Hyphenated-Lastname.

“But I’m up for that.”

Please support Mike Buchanan’s work on Patreon. Thank you.

A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in January 2014:

The fetching TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp (42) spills the beans about housework:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2534388/Why-women-secretly-love-doing-ironing-Kirstie-Allsopp.html

I’ve known a number of men who, after divorce, and whilst holding down full-time jobs, were struck by how little time and effort need go into housework in the modern era, with so many appliances to lighten the load.

Please support Mike Buchanan’s work on Patreon. Thank you.

A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in January 2014:

Yet another story one for the ‘You couldn’t make this s*** up!’ file:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537566/Woman-sues-solicitors-did-not-explain-finalising-divorce-terminate-marriage.html

More stories of whackadoodle wives, from the same article:

The curious case follows another bizarre divorce proceeding – a woman who is splitting from her husband over peas. Just one week after getting married, a woman in Kuwait has filed for divorce after discovering her husband prefers to use bread, rather than a fork, to eat peas. Traumatised by the ‘shocking sight’, she said she could no longer live with him, owing to his lack of etiquette.

The case of the ‘shocking’ peas, reported in the daily Al Qabas today, is not the only bizarre reason for wanting a divorce in Kuwait. One woman wanted a divorce because her husband insisted on squeezing the toothpaste tube in the middle and not the end. ‘We are always arguing… He is so obstinate,’ she said.

Another woman divorced her husband on their wedding day because the groom had not made the costly arrangements that she had asked for.

Please support Mike Buchanan’s work on Patreon. Thank you.

A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in January 2014:

This Daily Mail piece from 2009 needs no commentary from us:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1168182/Catfights-handbags-tears-toilets-When-producer-launched-women-TV-company-thought-shed-kissed-goodbye-conflict-.html

Please support Mike Buchanan’s work on Patreon. Thank you.

A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in December 2013:

[Note: the material on this blog piece was later published, on 20.12.13, by ‘A Voice for Men’:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminist-governance-feminism/qantas-places-women-in-its-management-sp-reduces-credit-rating-to-junk/

The comment stream is worth reading, as usual with AVfM.]

We now know a good deal about the impact of increasing female representation on corporate boards. Longitudinal studies (the only ones of any relevance, as they separate causation from correlation) of companies in the United States, Germany and Norway show it leads to corporate financial decline. Our briefing paper on the matter has the Abstracts and URLs of five such studies:

http://c4mb.wordpress.com/improving-gender-diversity-on-boards-leads-to-a-decline-in-corporate-performance-the-evidence/

Across the developed world major corporations are increasing female representation on their boards and senior executive levels, sometimes under government pressure, sometimes not. For anyone with an interest in this subject we suggest spending some time on the website of our associated initiative, Campaign for Merit in Business http://c4mb.wordpress.com.

We’re indebted to M, a supporter who lives in Eastern Europe, for pointing us to some intriguing pieces. He’s just come up with a new one, a real gem, relating to Qantas. From Wikipedia’s entry on the company:

Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally ‘QANTAS’, an acronym for ‘Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services’.

Nicknamed ‘The Flying Kangaroo’, Qantas is Australia’s largest airline, the oldest continuously operated airline in the world, and the second oldest in the world overall…

Qantas carries a 65% share of the Australian domestic market and carries 18.7% of all passengers travelling in and out of Australia.

Qantas has been going through turbulent times (pun intended). With fairly stable revenues and passenger numbers, it moved from an A$249 million profit after tax in 2010/11, to losses of A$244 million in 2011/12, and a derisory profit of just A$6 million in 2012/13. Also from Wikipedia:

In August 2011 the company announced that, due to financial losses and a decline in market share, major structural changes would be made. Up to 1,000 jobs would be lost in Australia…

The last thing Qantas would need in such difficult times would be time-consuming and distracting initiatives to drive up female representation on its board and senior executive levels. Under government pressure, however, that’s exactly what it’s faced for years, since at least 1999. Our thanks to M for pointing us to a 24-page document which will be depressing reading for any normal intelligent person – gender feminists, by contrast, will love it – Qantas’s 2011/12 report to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA):

131207 Qantas 201112 report

To protect your sanity we’ve extracted from the document just a little of the content, from p.3:

Introduction

The Qantas Group is covered by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999 (Commonwealth) and to comply with the Act is required to:

– Develop an equal opportunity for women in the workplace program

– Report annually (by 31 May) to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) on the program and its effectiveness.

The report is being submitted on behalf of the Qantas Group and covers our workplace program gender diversity activities during the reporting period 1 April 2011 – 31 March 2012.

Diversity Highlights for 2011/2012 

Representation:

– The Qantas Board of Directors appointed one additional woman, increasing female representation to 25%, up by 8% since the last reporting period.

– Qantas has 57% female representation on the Qantas Foundation Board, as 4 of the 7 Directors are women.

– 2 of the 10 Directors of the Qantas Superannuation Board, including the Chairman are women, representing 20% of the Board.

– During the reporting period, the number of women employed on the Qantas Executive Committee (ExCo), reporting directly to the CEO increased to 3 or 27%. This is a significant increase from having zero representation 3 years ago in 2009.

– Qantas’ Company Secretary is female.

– The number of women in Senior Management roles (levels 2-4 in Table A) increased by 2% to 29% during the reporting period.

<End of extract. We apologise for inflicting that on you.>

So what’s been the consequence of the relentless march of women into senior roles at Qantas, both before and during the period in which the company has faced severe financial difficulties? Well, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) have just cut Qantas’s credit rating to ‘junk’ (link below). Oops.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25252286

In an effort to pour salt into Qantas’s wounds, Australia’s government is refusing to bail out the company, despite having assaulted it with gender diversity initiatives since at least 1999. We expect this matter will be resolved by an Asian company – probably a Chinese one – taking over Qantas, and immediately cancelling all such stupid initiatives. We assume that Australian feminists, and the politicians who’ve pandered to them for so long, are proud to have brought a once-great company to its knees.

As time goes on, across the developed world, we’ll see ever more examples of major companies being destroyed by gender diversity initiatives, and the Chinese in particular buying the assets at rock-bottom prices.

Please support Mike Buchanan’s work on Patreon. Thank you.

A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in December 2013:

[Note added 18.10.14: This post was originally published with a figure of £15,000, but it later emerged that the sponsorships available only to women and male-to-female transsexuals are £22,750, not £15,000.]

We recently posted a piece about how female postgraduate students at Brunel University will received £15,000 more grants solely on account of their gender. It prompted us to make a Freedom of Information Act request:

Would male postgraduate engineering students who have gender reassignment surgery either before or during their postgraduate courses, be entitled to the £15,000 p.a. grants?

We’ve just received the following response, which is much in line with our expectations:

131220 Brunel University FoI response

So male-to-female trans-sexual students – even those who are ‘transitioning’ – WILL receive the additional £15,000 p.a. grants. Our eye was caught by the following:

The University’s Equality and Diversity Statement states that, “… all members of staff, students, visitors and applicants for employment or study are treated on the basis of their merits and abilities and that no one suffers discrimination or disadvantage regardless of their race, age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex and sexual orientation.”

In a moment we’ll be sending a new FoI request to the university:

Giving £15,000 p.a. additional grants to female postgraduate engineering students is discriminating against, and disadvantaging, male students on the basis of their sex, which clearly conflicts with your Equality and Diversity Statement. Do you agree? And if you agree, how do you intend to resolve the matter?

Please support Mike Buchanan’s work on Patreon. Thank you.

A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in December 2013:

Our thanks to a regular contributor, M, for sending us two emails this morning. AVfM have published the story and as always with AVfM, the comments section is worth reading:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminist-censorship/santas-warned-ho-ho-ho-offensive-to-women/

Please support Mike Buchanan’s work on Patreon. Thank you.

A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in December 2013:

Our thanks to J for pointing us to yet another story for the ‘You couldn’t make this s*** up!’ file.

The Thomas the Tank Engine books were written by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, an English vicar, in the 1940s. Here we have shadow transport secretary Mary Creagh MP convincingly presenting the case for there to be fewer female MPs:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2529783/Thomas-Tank-Engine-blamed-lack-female-train-drivers-engines-male-says-Labour-minister.html

Ms Creagh has clearly been overdosing on the Stupid pills again. Let’s analyse a few extracts from the article:

‘There is a preponderance of men in the transport industry and I am very keen to unpack some of the myths that stop women from taking up what are often highly-paid and highly-skilled jobs,’ she said.

Ah, that’s it, highly-paid jobs. She doesn’t care about the ‘preponderance of men’ in – say – the low-paid waste disposal industry, one must assume.

Ms Creagh said that the tales of the little blue steam engine should follow the example of CBeebies series Underground  Ernie, which features a main character called Victoria.

She also suggested that train companies could up the numbers of female drivers by advertising in women’s interest magazines,  or offering more part-time posts.

Advertising in women’s interest magazines. Yes, I can see Ms Fawcett idly flicking through her new copy of Bolshy Harpy Monthly and penning an application after spotting the advert.

Offering more part-time posts. Yes, that would make sense. There’s nothing quite like increasing the number of female employees (part-time ones, in particular) to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of organisations, is there? Such a success in the NHS.

Let’s introduce some FACTS into this, shall we?

Four in seven unemployed people are men.

Unemployment is a bigger driver of suicide among men than among women.

More than three times more men than women commit suicide every year in the UK.

Suicide is the #1 cause of death of men under 45.

Many young men would jump at the chance to become train drivers.

Here are three alternative ideas for Ms Creagh to consider once the effects of her Stupid pills have worn off:

Save long-suffering taxpayers’ money by NOT advertising in women’s interest magazines. British men pay 72% of the income taxes paid in the UK, women only 28%.

Don’t offer more part-time posts.

Preference unemployed young men, and unemployed men who’d previously been their families’ primary breadwinners, to become train drivers and work full-time.

MPs are about to be awarded significant salary increases. If Ms Creagh were on the minimum wage, she’d be overpaid. Maybe it’s time to add another category of awards to our ‘Whiny Woman of the Month’ and ‘Harpy’ awards:

Stupid Woman of the Month

So many obvious contenders. Ms Creagh could be the inaugural winner. Harriet Harman would, of course, receive a Lifetime Achievement award, to sit on her mantelpiece right next to her ‘Harpy’ Lifetime Achievement award:

120401 the inaugural Harpy Lifetime Achievement award

Please support Mike Buchanan’s work on Patreon. Thank you.

A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in December 2013:

J has pointed us to another story for the ‘You couldn’t make this s*** up!’ file. We’re constantly being told we ‘need’ more women at the top of business. Exactly why we ‘need’ them there, when longitudinal studies show that increasing the representation of women on corporate boards leads to financial decline, is a mystery. But at least high-flying women are as rational as high-flying men, right? Oops.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2530821/Psychics-Why-high-flying-women-ditching-therapists-psychics.html#ixzz2oxCY27CV

From the article:

The recommended psychic, Susan Kennard, was not cheap — sessions cost £100 an hour.

 

‘But I’d been feeling so awful, I didn’t see how it could make it any worse,’ says Catherine.

 

‘My friend is incredibly down to earth — she works with computers and you wouldn’t expect her to be into this type of thing. But she kept saying how fantastic Susan was.’

 

The experience was transformative.

 

‘It was quite incredible,’ says Catherine, who lives with her husband Bernard, 51, and is a partner in their architect firm. ‘It was as if she knew me, without me even having to open my mouth.’

 

Susan is a qualified psychotherapist who uses her psychic gift to enhance her understanding of her clients, their pasts and the things that are troubling them.

 

‘Within two sessions, the negative feelings had disappeared,’ says Catherine. ‘I can only describe it as a feeling of lightness. The issues don’t go away, of course, but I felt empowered to handle them.’

 

You might think professional psychics have had their day — but they’re back, and they’ve had something of a makeover.

Rebranded as ‘intuitive therapists’, they are increasingly sought-after by high-flyers for advice on everything from fertility problems to choice of partners and even business decisions.

Let’s pause to relish that last sentence. High-flying women are using the services of psychics to help them make business decisions. What could possibly go wrong?

From later in the article:

Susan says her psychic ability allows her to tune in to her clients’ feelings; she also has visions of their futures, although she’s cautious about sharing them.

 

‘I think telling people their future takes their power to act away, but I might gently steer someone according to what I see, saying for example: “I feel it might be helpful for you to think about this”.’

Hmm… ‘visions of the future’. I wonder if Susan can tell me which horse is going to win the 2:30 at Doncaster tomorrow? That would be worth £100…

Please support Mike Buchanan’s work on Patreon. Thank you.