“To call yourself a feminist should be no more acceptable than calling yourself a fascist,” the party leader told BuzzFeed News.
An anti-feminism party called Justice for Men and Boys (And the Women Who Love Them) is standing for parliament in May's general election.
Mike Buchanan, the leader of Justice for Men and Boys (And the Women Who Love Them).
Mike Buchanan / Via facebook.com
The party, which hands out "Lying Feminist of the Month" awards to female journalists, will be fielding three candidates in the Nottingham area, including one candidate who will attempt to unseat shadow women and equalities minister Gloria De Piero.
The party was founded by retired businessman Mike Buchanan, who told BuzzFeed News it's his party's ultimate aim to "make feminism a dirty word".
Buchanan used to work as a business consultant for the Conservative party, but quit in 2009 when David Cameron backed all-women parliamentary candidate shortlists. He has since dedicated his life to anti-feminism, writing three books, Feminism: The Ugly Truth, The Glass Ceiling Delusion, and David Cameron – The Heir to Harman?
"Feminism is a hatred, and it should be a badge of shame," he said. "To call yourself a feminist should be no more acceptable than calling yourself a bigot or a sexist or a fascist. It is a deeply vile, corrupting ideology and the idea it's a benign movement about gender equality is dangerous nonsense."
The party's website is home to articles such as "13 Reasons Women Lie About Being Raped", "10 Reasons False Rape Allegations Are Common", and "Feminists – Enemies of Men, Women, and Children".
The party has also produced a detailed 80-page manifesto for the general election which includes policies on halving the length of time after conception a woman can legally get an abortion, creating all-boys schools with all-male teaching staff, and the introduction of a government minister for "men and equalities".
"We hear a lot about misogyny, which is actually very rare, but a hatred of men is very commonplace," said Buchanan. "As far as the state is concerned, males are pretty much subhuman and they'll do anything they can to destroy men's lives."
The party logo.
Mike Buchanan / Via facebook.com
Buchanan, who believes Ched Evans' rape conviction was "probably a miscarriage of justice", said the state fails to recognise important differences between genders and that the "glass ceiling" preventing women from reaching high-ranking jobs doesn't exist.
"Women just want to do other things with their lives," he said. "They're less driven and have less to gain from getting to the top of their professions, so they naturally don't put the effort in that a man would. They're more suited to things like medicine, caring, and social work."
In the general election, Buchanan is pessimistic about winning enough votes to retain any of the three £500 deposits he's put down, but thinks it's worth the expense in order to raise awareness of what he called "the only anti-feminism party in the English-speaking world".
"I guess our target demographic is more men than women," accepted Buchanan. "But people in general are increasingly joining up the dots. There are so many areas where men are assaulted by the state, and there's only one political party they can turn to."
The leader of Justice for Men and Boys laughed off the suggestion that he was a misogynist, and said anyone who calls him that just needs to get to know him better.
"Rather than engage with me on the issues, people call me sexist," he said. "I'd suggest those people simply need to educate themselves about gender politics."
