Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - Saudi Britannia

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April 18, 2014 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin

08:17

Saudi Britannia

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	Mr. Hull Rockers sent me a wonderful article about the misogyny that is modern Britain.
	Now any of my foreign listeners probably aren't aware that modern Britain is a cesspool of misogyny.
	It's more sexist than Italy, Azerbaijan and India put together.
	And we know this is true because Rashida Manju said the UK sexist culture was more in your face than other countries.
	That's right, it's more patriarchal than India.
	It's more sexist than Italy.
	It's probably more oppressive than Saudi Arabia.
	But she's got facts to back up her ridiculous assertions.
	So let's check them out.
	The article by the Independent begins.
	Britain has a boys' club sexist culture, according to a damning investigation by a UN human rights expert.
	That is more pervasive and in your face than anything she has seen before.
	And that's someone coming from India who's saying that.
	So like you, I'm looking forward to seeing how thorough this investigation was.
	The findings are the result of a 16-day fact-finding mission by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Rashida Manjou, who has just finished travelling across the country examining the prevalence of violence against women.
	She said sexism was more visible in Britain than any of the countries she had visited, which included Algeria, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, India and Croatia.
	I mean holy shit.
	If after only 16 days she thinks that we are worse than these shitholes, then we have some serious problems.
	In a remarkable revelation, she also said she was denied entry to the controversial Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire by the government on Monday, despite having to monitor conditions for women in the detention centre as part of her brief.
	She said she was told the refusal came at the request of those at the highest levels of the Home Office and was of deep concern.
	You can see that this is clearly the old boys network in the government protecting itself.
	And since it came from the highest levels, that means it must have come from the Home Secretary, which is, of course, a woman.
	Obviously, this woman is a part of the old boys network, the patriarchy, as it were, who just happens to also be a feminist.
	I mean, fuck.
	This is why the patriarchy just can't be fucking defeated.
	They're using feminists to defend themselves from the fucking feminists.
	That's genius.
	The article continues that she concluded that violence against women remains a pervasive challenge throughout the United Kingdom.
	Drawing particular attention to the sexualization of women and girls in the media, she referenced the Sun's page 3.
	For those not aware, the Sun's a British tabloid.
	It's got a reading age of about 7.
	And every day they have a Page 3 model, which is a topless woman that I don't have a picture for.
	It's not surprising that Rashida's not actually aware that we started outsourcing the manufacture of our Page 3 girls to foreign countries through exclusively female sweatshop labour.
	So she can be completely forgiven for not having gone there to try and do some good.
	The article continues with misogynistic advertising, harassment on tubes and public spaces, the bullying of girls in schools, which are all actually law from Edward I, if I recall correctly.
	And there is indeed absolutely no chivalric tradition associated with garters and protecting a woman's honour or anything like that.
	And it's in no way part of British culture.
	She goes on to say that the disproportionate effect of austerity measures on women and the inability of the criminal justice system to respond to women and girl survivors of violence.
	This point is self-evidently true, because anything that affects anyone affects women more.
	And my sister actually works in a rape crisis centre, and I did actually ask her, if a man came to you and he had been raped and he was a survivor, would you help him?
	And she said, no, we only help women.
	Because of the patriarchy.
	I'm not making that up either.
	She genuinely does.
	Rashida goes on to say, I am also concerned by legal and policy responses that are often limited to some harmful practices, such as early forced marriages of young women and girls.
	Now that is an indigenous British tradition that does need to be stopped.
	She then goes on to mention female genital mutilation, and that while ignoring all the harms emanating due to a sexist culture that exists in the country and which impacts all women and girls, she added, Again, female genital mutilation is such a tragic practice that originated in modern Britain.
	We did manage to stop the Celts from cutting off people's heads, but we couldn't stop this.
	There is only so far a society can evolve.
	They have to understand.
	But we are trying.
	Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Independent that the statement exposes the government's blind spot when it comes to supporting women.
	She added, Under this government, the clock has been turned back on gender equality.
	Women have been hit harder by the spending cuts, and for the first time in 20 years, the pay gap has widened.
	Now we have a government with fewer women sitting around the cabinet table than at any point since 1997.
	Urgent action is needed from this government to stop a decline in women's equality.
	Yvette Cooper is, of course, female, and she is also a feminist.
	So I imagine she knows exactly what she's talking about and would in no way misrepresent the situation by omission by identifying violence by area, particularly areas with high immigration.
	But far be it from me to point out that Yvette Cooper was actually part of the Labour government that allowed such unlimited immigration, because pointing out facts is sexist and racist, and I don't want to be either.
	She goes on to say that around 1.2 million women have experienced domestic violence in the last year, according to the Home Office, with 30% of women having experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16.
	But Manju said that reforms to the funding of trauma services and the benefit system continue to adversely affect impact, well, that doesn't make any sense.
	Continue to adversely affect impact women's ability to address safety and other relevant issues.
	She is of course correct, and you'll note that the rape crisis centres located around the UK are located where most of the actual rape crimes occur, as in where they are most needed, which is good, but could be better, and cutting these would actually be a significant impact to the poor women who live in these areas.
	Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, told the Independent that it was absolutely vital that we take the findings as a wake-up call to recognise the depth and severity of the problem.
	We still have gender inequality in the UK, yet we are so quick to point the finger at other countries and suggest women here are equal.
	The reality is girls are suffering in schools, women are discriminated in the workplace, and large sections of the media continue to portray women as dehumanised sex objects, because we are absolutely sure we have concrete proof that it is page 3.
	A naked girl as sexualized as a statue and utterly dehumanized to show that she has no feelings or opinions of her own, that is causing all of this violence against women, all of this inequality against women.
	There is no giant fucking elephant in the room that the world is too PC to want to talk about.
	There is absolutely nothing else could be contributing to the increased violence against women figures.

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