In light of the multitude of spiking and injecting cases across the country, we must consider the vast extent of misogyny that still persists despite the apparent progress we have made over the last century. Yet a key question is raised – why do we care about women? Should misogyny really be a hate crime? If only women made up around half the world’s population. Maybe then politicians would care.
Women only have to face sexism from a young age; verbal abuse, harassment, rape, spiking, catcalling, domestic abuse, violence, constant sexualisation, and criticism about every possible choice they could make. Mental health issues come along with all of the above. So what’s the big deal?
The government’s understanding of misogyny is perfectly embodied through feminist icon Dominic Raab, who is determined to fight misogyny “whether it’s a man against a woman or a woman against a man.” Why should we worry about misogyny when we have esteemed intellectuals like Mr Raab fighting our corner in parliament, by rejecting misogyny as a hate crime?
OK, Raab may not know the definition of misogyny, but why does he need to when it’s being discussed in parliament and has the potential to become a hate crime? And who has the time to Google “What is misogyny?” before doing a nationally televised interview on the matter, it’s not like he’s the justice secretary or anything…
Despite this, as PM Boris Johnson tells us, we already have “abundant” legislation in place designed to tackle misogyny. Considering this is his excuse to prevent misogyny becoming a hate crime, this must mean current legislation is effectively tackling this and misogyny apparently doesn’t exist anymore!
A 2020 UN study found that 90 percent of the world’s population have an ‘ingrained bias’ against women, 40 percent believe men are more entitled to jobs in a weak economic climate, and 28% believe it’s fine for a husband to beat his wife. But why should we attempt to make the UK safer for women if it’s already such an “ingrained bias”? It’s clearly too much work!
The Crown Prosecution Service already recognises hate crimes on the basis of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity. Clearly they’ve got enough on their hands and, as the Prime Minister so sagely points out, making something a crime only makes more crime.
There were around 3 million theft related crimes in 2020 and apparently we can just ignore things if it makes the police too busy, so maybe we should ignore theft as a crime because the police clearly don’t have enough time to deal with 3 million thefts.
The government spent £2.1 billion on unusable PPE during the pandemic, £37 billion on a test-and-trace system that supposedly prevented the 2 extra lockdowns we were promised wouldn’t happen, but nevertheless had the amazing opportunity of experiencing. The government clearly had significant amounts of money they could have used for funding the police, allowing them to be better equipped for this increase in work due to the extent of misogyny in the UK. But again, who cares?
The government seems to have less of an understanding of why misogyny needs to be tackled, than the guy working at the local chippy who stares at you the entire time you’re there – offering a new line about his latest sexual fantasy or how your tits look.
So, should misogyny be a hate crime or does the government want to make a public statement concerning the irrelevance of 50.8% of the country?
Image via Wikimedia Commons