Dominic Raab is no more keen on the Equality Act than he is on the Human Rights Act
Esher and Walton MP Dominic Raab has just been made justice minister alongside Michael Gove.
Raab is a longtime critic of the Human Rights Act – this appointment looks like David Cameron’s way of saying he is serious about scrapping it. In January 2014 Raab voted to allow human rights grounds to be used to prevent a foreign criminal being deported only in cases where there would be a breach of right to life or the right not to be tortured.
In 2013, he voted to remove the duty on the Commission for Equality and Human Rights to work to support the development of a society in which people’s ability to achieve their potential is not limited by prejudice or discrimination.
And in 2013 he also voted against making it illegal to discriminate on grounds of caste.
Raab also took an unusual stance on gender equality in 2011, when he expressed his fears that ‘from the cradle to the grave, men are getting a raw deal’. He attacked the ‘obnoxious bigotry’ of feminists and complained that men work longer hours than women (no mention of pay gap etc).
“While we have some of the toughest anti-discrimination laws in the world, we are blind to some of the most flagrant discrimination – against men.”
Seeming to have fallen at the first hurdle – assuming that feminism is anti-men – Raab also suggested that men start ‘burning their briefs’, presumably as a long- overdue retaliation against the feminists of the sixties (who did not, in fact, burn their bras.)
Raab’s diatribe continued:
“Britain’s not perfect, and we will never eradicate all human prejudice.”
This is especially true when we do not understand that prejudice. Another interesting choice from David Cameron.
Ruby Stockham is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter
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398 Responses to “He thinks feminists are ‘obnoxious bigots’: meet the new justice minister”
Rashmi Singhania
I am cautioning you against slandering women of substance on AVFM website. I am a hard core feminist from India and you don’t mistake me to be meek, gentle, polite Asian bride. I am not that.
I am a feminist now and you better mend your dirty ways.
You and that driversuz of avfm.
That driversuz thinks that she can shut up dissent and she lingers around the comments section throwing her weight.
She reminds me of an obnoxious character from Tv series GLEE and bears an uncanny resemblance to her.
She is sick and so are you. You both are warned.
Rashmi Singhania
Yessssss, some men of a particular website are in dire need of MENTAL HEALTH services. Paul is right for once. I just read it.
fmf
If you call it “equality” you entirely erase the history and meaning and origin of gender inequality caused by the commodification of female bodies and creation of the female gender role.
I don’t care about whether you have a ‘female’ or ‘male’ body, I care about who people are and that everyone should be free. There are however some feminists who do care what bodies people have, and even they want to access more than just what is arbitrarily constructed as “feminine” or “masculine”
If you still have a problem with how I chose to describe my politics, that’s seriously your myopic problem, not mine. I’m not doing this for critics.
fmf
Oh no, the consequences!
You’re rude. How mature I am doesn’t change that. Imagine talking to even a 14 year old in the street like that, you’d look like a pretentious asshole. Imagine talking to an adult like it, they’d be insulted. Refusing to recognise your (bullshit) authority over me does not make me immature.
I would have read your essay if you had legitimately commanded the respect required. Calling me immature just lowers my respect for you even more.
Rex Duis
So it is about feeling special after all. Well tough. There has never been ‘equality’ FMF. Men have had unfair burdens placed upon them for centuries too. They’ve not always enjoyed the full rights and privileges of other men. This is why I HATE Feminism with a vengeance. It selectively edits history until it’s so bent out of shape no one has any perspective anymore, and this feeds into the insecurities, and prejudices of people like yourself who actually believe the crap you come out with.
Since when did everyone sit down and decide to ‘create’ a female gender role? When was it decided that we should ‘commodify’ the female body? Do you realise how puerile that sounds? No one decided to create anything, our roles in life were born of necessity and it’s only recently since we liberated women from those necessities that they’ve become spoiled and ungrateful and behave like spoiled children. You had babies, because only women could have babies. You suckled them because in prehistory there was no infant formula for Dad to feed them, so never any nagging that he should do a share…. there was no store to buy pre-made nappies from… so swaddling cloths and textiles had to be found and woven into something suitable for the purpose… and women largely did this. No one told them.. they just did it, cos there was no other option…. and so on and so far until very recently. Do you see how this works?! No Patriarchal oppression… it’s such an incredibly child like way of viewing things I’m simply staggered that adults could even countenance such an idea.
There were no arbitrary constructions of masculine or feminine.. this is the sort of sh*t old bitter lesbian man-hating academics sat around bemoaning in the 60’s… inventing things out of smoke and shadows and unhappy minds. Masculine things were things that men traditionally did for centuries… feminine, things that women did. There was no law forcing this.. no one drew up a list! It evolved. You are complaining about evolution as if it’s an actual person who could invent things to explain why your life is so miserable or why you feel disadvantaged.