The False Accusation Campaign
The issue of False Accusations has been a key issue for MVI since our inception, one which is well known to many men who have fallen foul of such an accusation but who have got little or no redress from the state on foot of it.
The petition we put up for Sept. 9, Falsely Accused Day, garnered 233 signatures. The title was: The State Must Investigate and Prosecute False Accusations. This, our first foray into online petitions, was the MVI contribution to the campaign for Sept 9 launched by Davia, the international alliance.
We have written to the Minister for Justice with an account of our petition calling for realistic and sustained action on false accusations
There were events in 12 countries accounts of which can be found here. One of the most striking was the march to the Ministry for Women in Buenos Aires by about 200 women calling for justice for their menfolk and captured on video.
We have written to the Minister for Justice with an account of our petition calling for realistic and sustained action on false accusations.
Jordan Peterson spoke to a huge crowd, (8000?, 10,000?) at 3Arena on Sept 11, proving yet again that he continues to have magnetic appeal for a great many people, men in particular. MVI was present at the event where we handed out leaflets on the Great Domestic Violence Coverup. This is an issue which is now central to Davia.
Davia’s New Campaign
DAVIA’s next campaign is to establish Nov 18 as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Men. Many people will recall that the UN named Nov 25 as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women many years ago. Last year Davia wrote to UN Women asking for an inclusive event; the letter did not even get an acknowledgment so this is Davia’s response.
The title alone underlines the bias within the UN against men and boys. In an age when “progressive groups” are all making the demand for inclusivity, the UN ought to have simply instituted a day inclusive of all, men and women.
A future Davia campaign is set to draw up a list of those corporations, companies, institutions, foundations providing funding on social issues which affect both men and women, but which donate to women’s organisations only, entirely ignoring men’s groups.
In Ireland there have been two such cases in relation to Domestic Violence that we know of in recent years. The first was in 2019 when AIB made a video, the Abusive Teller Machine, in support of Women’s Aid and made false claims about financial abuse in the course of it. The video is still on their website. One man actually initiated a discussion on Liveline about it at the time.
Allianz supports Women’s Aid
The recent one is that of Allianz, the global insurance corporation : Over the next three years, we are committed to investing over €1 million as part of our partnership with Women’s Aid, working to help raise awareness of domestic abuse and the resources and services available for women across Ireland who may be experiencing it.
That’s why we are extremely proud to be partnering for the next three years with Women’s Aid, a leading national charitable organisation working to stop domestic violence against women and children in Ireland since 1974.
In an unmistakeable pointing of the finger Allianz alludes to the comparison between the world of physical strength and the strength of the women who are victims of it, despite acknowledging that abuse comes in many different forms.
As we have pointed out repeatedly, Men’s Aid gets less than 1% of total funding in this sector from Tusla and the State. It needs the money far more urgently, cannot afford a 24/7 helpline and a full service on weekends, let alone a shelter yet no corporation or company seeking public goodwill will make a contribution to this cause. They prefer to play safe and cute.
The move by AIB and Allianz is typical of a corporate aim to capitalise on what is seen as a deserving cause, one which arouses strong emotions, and thereby gain brownie points with the public.
The move by AIB and Allianz is typical of a corporate aim to capitalise on what is seen as a worthy cause but to take the “winning” side
The Gillette ad and the APA Campaign against Men
We recall the Gillette ad on Youtube of some years ago where the company tried to ingratiate itself with a certain mood then popular with sections of the media by rounding on men. There was much talk at the time about “toxic masculinity” and arguments to the effect that traditional masculinity stems from prejudice, power and patriarchy. The theme was taken up in the most cynical, truckling, toadying manner by Gillette in an ad which caused much furore in the media, both mainstream and social.
We wrote at the time: The Gillette ad represents a new departure where commercial firms enter the fraught field of gender relations, social policy, openly take sides in a sociological debate and become a partisan player and supporter of a pernicious ideology. All of course founded on believing it is on the winning side here. Toxic masculinity is mentioned along with the #MeToo campaign at the outset and sets the tone. It finishes in a smug, sanctimonious nod in the direction of good fathers and their influence on children.
One of the many comments at the time is worth repeating:
Assuming the goal of advertising is to build brand awareness, the new Gillette ad should be seen as a staggering success: Within 48 hours, it already had about 5-million views on YouTube—even if the 3-to-1 dislike-to-like ratio wasn’t what the creators might have expected.
An instance whereby an institution captured by ideologues launched a disparaging campaign against traditional masculinity was that of the American Psychological Association’s guidelines to practitioners in how to deal with troubled men and boys in Jan 2019.
“Traditional masculinity – marked by stoicism, competitiveness, dominance and aggression – is, on the whole, harmful.”
The campaign drew a ferocious response from many in the media and academia including many psychologists who pointed out the complete reliance on the long-discredited doctrine that gender and therefore masculinity is socially constructed, and that biology plays no role: Twelve Scholars Respond to the APA’s Guidance for Treating Men and Boys.
All of which goes to show the extent to which ideology has captured not only huge swathes of academia, much of the media but also has spread into the corporate and business world as well.
It looks like the Davia campaign in this regard will have plenty of names to draw on.