How can a petition to get a misogynist pick-up artist refused entry to the UK get 158,000 signatures and our petition to stop the Home Office just leaving people to drown gets 3000? Go figure.
This is just a short post to reflect and maybe vent a little. I just read that Julien Blanc has been denied a UK visa. Something I don’t have much interest in either way, he certainly sounds like an A-grade asshole. So it’s no loss him being unable to enter the UK. His refusal is seen as victory for feminists and women’s rights campaigners . In total the petition got over 158,000 people to sign it. The person who started it wasn’t some leading women rights campaigner, rather just a regular person who felt compelled to do something, which I think “good for her”
I know its a disturbing picture but this what the UK governments decision looks like in its most stark and tragic light.
As some readers of the blog may recall I started a petition with Shauna Dicks also petitioning the UK home office to get the UK government to reverse their decision to cease all rescue operations in the Mediterranean , so far we have just over 3000 signatures. It’s a decision the UK government has even openly acknowledged will result in more men, woman and children dying. But in the long run they say it will save lives. I cover the fallacy and the outright lie of this logic in two previous articles here and here.
What we have seen is politics most ugly and cynical as the Tories knowingly let people drown just to seem as tough as UKIP in the polls. Part of those dying will be women. Women desperately struggling to leave behind them war, poverty and immense hardship. Yet why has the “Stop Julian Blanc entering the UK” got so many signatures over and above “African women being left to drown by white men in UK?” I am happy they got the numbers they aimed for, yet you would think the urgency and seriousness of saving “actual” lives would think trump getting a misogynist douchebag refused entry into the UK. How the mechanics of how it got so many people signing I don’t quite understand. Did some high level celebrity tweet it out? Were grassroots feminist organisations involved? I saw it got a lot attention in the media but I still don’t know if that explains everything.
I also know our petition isn’t the first important “call for action” that just fades out of the news cycle and into irrelevance. Like I said, just a bit of moan really and a heavy hearted sigh. Maybe we need to change the campaign to “Stop misogynist politicians pushing women over board whilst they manically laugh”. This isn’t sour grapes, more just sadden bafflement. Whatever the case for those celebrating the victory of getting Julien Blanc barred from Britain, spare a thought for those other “sisters” who will soon be drowning in the sea.
Follow up: Just came across these two other petitions making the headlines. One to get a canceled the ITV show “Dapper laughs: on the pull” which sounds like something 13 year old would think of, with 68,000 signatures. The other to stop the convicted and unapologetic rapist Ched Evans playing professional football again, with 168,000 signatures. Again, they worthy in there own right but especially the one regarding the TV show, how can that even come close thousands of people drowning?
Worst case scenario: change the channel.
Worse case scenario : everyone on your boat is dead and in few minutes so will you.
How does that not constitute being a “first world problem” ?
https://www.change.org/p/adam-crozier-cancel-dapper-laughs-on-the-pull-on-itv?lang=en-AU
Things that matter 
Reblogged this on listen to the babe and commented:
“Stop misogynist politicians pushing women over board whilst they manically laugh”– this should get your attention. This here is a good post about what grabs people by the throat and what they ignore. What gets under their skin and what they can let slip. It’s also a rant but we love a good rant. And perhaps we should start reading those petitions that pop up in our inbox even if the headline makes us sigh and think ah fuck another fucked up thing happening in this fucked up world.
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Thanks for that listentobabe 🙂 Well said
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I saw and signed your petition – I was shocked and horrified by the story and the government’s callous, blase attitude. But I don’t like it when people create an either/or situation, like when councils position funding cuts to be ‘well, either you can have this local museum, or you can have day care for older people – your choice’. These petitions and issues aren’t either/or. They all have value and reflect a more proactive public standing up for stuff. It is just a massive shame that some of the bigger issues (because yes, human life/death is a massive issue) get lost in an over-saturated media. There’s so much shit in the world some of the shit gets more attention than other shit. It makes me very sad.
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Hey BigPads, Thanks for the feedback.I agree with what your saying, there lots of shit and each person trying to do something about are clamoring for the same exposure so its bit of the luck of the draw with some of these things.I was also talking about this with someone else that issue like Ban Julien Blanc are straight forward easy stories for people to think “agree” or “disagree” The political complexity of what determines how migrants are treated, how the public see and understand that, maybe people just feels it too complicated to have an opinion .Also in retrospect we should done simpler title like “Stop the babies drowning” seriously probably would have done better. When in truth is actual simple but i guess in the government best interest to muddy the waters. Thanks Ewan
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