I should like to start this piece by thanking AVfM supporters from around the world for their generous donations toward funding J4MB advertising materials for the May 2015 general election in the UK.
The other day someone anonymously donated £1,000 to our current appeal, the largest donation we’ve yet received as a party. We had the person’s pseudonym—”numbCruncher”—and an email address, so we wrote to thank him (from experience we know donors of substantial sums are far more likely to be male than female) for the generous donation and asked him for his motivations. He turned out to be a British man, and he responded to the question over a couple of emails. With his kind permission, the content is reproduced below:
No problem, Mike. Thank YOU for the great work you are doing.
I made the donation because there is nothing else in the world that I want to do with my money. Every time I switch on the TV, every newspaper I look at, I see men being run down and demonised. It is ME they are talking about. It is ME that is the target of their contempt. Society makes a hell of a lot of demands on me and gives very little back except spite. I have no desire to engage with it on these terms.
I’m not interested in providing for some ungrateful woman who will openly show her contempt for me and my gender whilst expecting me to make her feel wonderful. I am not interested in funding feminist propaganda via my taxes. I would much rather spend my money on people who respect a fundamental part of who I am. I would much rather work for people who represent my interests.
I’m also more than happy to provide this financial support. I don’t know when I’ll be able to make another donation but I’m confident you will use the money well.
I think we’ve all seen so much of the “men bad, women good” narrative in our lives. I see so many biased treatments of gender issues in the media—particularly on the BBC. I have been in contact with the Equalities Commission about the lack of men in primary school teaching, but they simply ignore men’s issues. I’ve contacted my MP about the vast differences in unexpected deaths between baby boys and baby girls, but ministers are not interested in funding research into the problem. I contacted the CPS about their case handling guidelines—I think the domestic violence guidelines had been created with the input of an organisation called Women against Violence. No men’s organisations were consulted. Again, my protests were simply ignored.
At the same time, I see even the most tenuous feminist causes splashed all over the media and given unbelievable levels of publicity. Feminist commentators get away with displaying the most blatant prejudice and contempt for men. Even going back to when I was in school (which was a LONG time ago!) I remember us being taught feminist ideology as a formal part of the curriculum. The lessons said nothing about the issues men face. Instead, the teachers actually taught us that the boys would become obsolete and irrelevant in a few years’ time.
It’s no good us sitting around saying “why doesn’t somebody DO something about all this?” WE have to do something—no one else is going to do it for us. I don’t have the verbal dexterity, the dialectic skill or the pugnacity to be a politician. But I CAN spare this money now, and I want to use it to help people who are working for political change.
I don’t particularly agree with UKIP [United Kingdom Independence Party], but their example does give me hope. Five years ago they were written off as a joke or ignored completely. Now the whole political establishment is sitting up and taking notice of them. Five years ago no one could raise the question of immigration without being labelled a racist. That has changed too. Through their persistence, the Scottish Nationalists also experienced a massive increase in the respect they receive from “mainstream” politicians.
At the moment, when they are not busy ignoring us, a lot of people label us as misogynists for even questioning feminist propaganda. I hope the gender debate can mature in a similar way and I see J4MB as an important part of that process.
I’m tired of being ignored by officialdom whenever I raise men’s rights issues. I think we’re socially conditioned to not care about men and the struggles they face. Feminists reinforce this and try to shout us down or silence us when we stand up for ourselves. They can bring all sorts of social pressures—both traditional and new—to bear on men, to make us do what they want.
But the one thing they can’t do is tell us how to vote. Once you get in the voting booth, no one can shame you or ignore your views.
J4MB seems to me to be the most politically-savvy and well-organised men’s rights group in the UK. I have seen you getting airtime on the BBC (of all places!) and in other interviews, and you come across as a serious politician with an important cause. I wanted my money to be used in the way that I think is most likely to bring about change, and I think J4MB has the right strategy and leadership to achieve this.
Keep up the good work.
numbCruncher
Following an overnight donation of £100, the appeal total now stands a £3,165. This campaign is going to run for another seven days, to 23:59 on Sunday, November 9. We invite you to donate whatever you can afford to help us campaign for the human rights of men and boys—here. Thank you for your support.
