Owen Davies, we salute you

It’s frequently claimed by British feminists—in speeches, articles, in media discussions, on their websites—that more than two women per week are being killed by partners or ex-partners in the UK. The statement was last true in 2002, and the number of women has declined by 25% since then. In 2012/13, 76 women were killed by partners or ex-partners—this link will take you to the government’s statistics on the matter.

The most prominent young feminist in the UK is Laura Bates, the “brains” behind The Everyday Sexism Project, which, ironically, solicits stories only of anti-female sexism. In a TEDx presentation in December 2013, Bates claimed that more than two women per week are being killed every week by partners or ex-partners. Herbert Purdy wrote an insightful article about the matter. We publicly challenged Bates to provide evidence for the claim or to retract it. She didn’t respond, so we awarded her a Lying Feminist of the Month award and emailed her to notify her of the matter.

A week after we presented her with the award, Bates was on a panel in a televised debate being broadcast live by the BBC, a program titled Free Speech Live. The program has a studio audience of young adults, and it’s aimed at young adults. The topic being discussed was, “Is Britain a sexist country?” The extent of the program’s anti-male bias was astonishing, even by BBC standards. The program’s makers had solicited examples of sexism only from women, and the video of the discussion started with:

We asked women to send us the comments they hear from friends, online, in everyday life …

This was followed by a 86-second piece with photographs and short video pieces that plumbed new lows of stupidity. Some of the remarks these women claim were said to them seemed highly unlikely, to put it kindly. Some were so preposterous, they made me laugh out loud.

The panel consisted of three women and a man, a typical gender balance for a discussion about sexism. One of the panelists was a non-feminist, Angela Epstein, a writer and broadcaster. The other three panelists were feminists, one of them a male comedian I’d never heard of, who appeared to have made a serious mistake in his choice of career. The (male) presenter was feminist-friendly. The audience was overwhelmingly female and clearly acolytes of Laura Bates. The young men in the audience were mainly feminists, with two or three exceptions who made points about issues such as MGM, none of which were put to the panelists.

Early in the program, between 1:26 and 2:38, Laura Bates repeated the lie that had resulted in her Lying Feminist of the Month award. At 2:39, the undoubted star of the program, a young man, challenged her on her claim, pointing out that J4MB had publicly challenged her on the matter, and she hadn’t responded. Bates defended her claim vigorously, ending with this astonishing statement:

That is ABSOLUTELY the official figure.

This blatant lie was predictably met with enthusiastic cheering from the audience, both women and men.

Laura Bates has become an asset for J4MB and men’s human rights advocates globally. A prominent feminist who publicly lies … then publicly lies about having publicly lied.

So who was the young man prepared to challenge Laura Bates in an extremely hostile anti-male environment? We’ve just learned he’s Owen Davies, a student at Brunel University, and we have his permission to reveal these details. Brunel University is, of course, the university where postgraduate engineering students are entitled to a £22,750 sponsorship … if they’re female. That story is here.

While there are courageous young men such as Owen prepared to stand up for men’s rights, the future looks bright.

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