00:03:40.120So I guess what you're really talking about when you talk about the culture war and some of the examples that you give is that the mainstream narrative has been for quite some time that women are disadvantaged, oppressed, etc.
00:09:46.100And usually a certain type of woman, usually a middle class professional woman.
00:09:50.960And why do you think that feminism, you've touched some very salient points.
00:09:55.680You know, for instance, the horrors of the grooming gangs where we had Ella Hill and she talked to, I think, was about half a million girls who have been abused or, you know, the way women are being oppressed in places like the Middle East.
00:10:07.140Why don't they address these particular issues, even though these are very important issues regarding women?
00:10:13.760Well, what a terrific question that is.
00:10:16.140I mean, I think we've all been asking that question of feminists for a long time.
00:10:19.320And I think the answer is, A, it's a thorny issue.
00:10:34.740All they're interested in is, you know, these kind of mythical pay gap issues or, you know, I mean, recently, I mean, only today I read a story about a woman who's taking legal action against the only male-only club in London called the Garrick, which is very historic.
00:10:52.460It's a place Laurence Olivier used to hang out in.
00:10:55.680You know, it's just a nice space for men together. And I'm happy with that. I'm happy for women to have women-only clubs. But, you know, she's launching this legal campaign against the Garrick. But she's totally fine with all the women-only clubs that exclude men.
00:11:13.640So, you know, they seem to be filling their minds with all this subterfuge and all these inconsequential matters, which either aren't real or aren't important.
00:11:22.440And then they don't have time to focus on the really important things, which is difficult and requires complex thought and having to have consistent principles.
00:11:32.020That's the tricky bit. And I always say that to feminists, both male and female.
00:11:36.080I say this to feminists is that the trick is you've got to apply your principles consistently.
00:11:41.700so you know and that's the hard bit there's a lot of inconsistency flying around definitely
00:11:46.820let's talk about men though because i think that what you said which is men checking out
00:11:52.620is a big part of why this issue concerns me and concerns us because uh i think what you're
00:12:00.660talking about broadly speaking is quite accurate which is there's a sort of unspoken or sometimes
00:12:06.300spoken feeling that there's something wrong with men men by definition are bad masculine qualities
00:12:12.920that traditionally would be considered virtues and our vices etc and we have seen this sort of
00:12:20.660particularly fueled by the internet and the ability of people with sort of very peculiar
00:12:25.340ways of thinking to band together and to reinforce each other's whatever the sort of incel and all
00:12:33.340of this sort of stuff. And I don't know whether you feel, I feel all of that is deeply unhealthy
00:12:37.700for men and for women, for there to be this sort of, you know, pressure on men, and then they
00:12:43.920check out, and then you end up in this really weird place between men and women. Is that your
00:12:48.660take on it as well? Or do you have a sort of different perspective? No, I agree. I don't
00:12:52.520think it's masculinity that's toxic. I think it's the narrative about masculinity that's toxic.
00:12:57.560We, you know, we hear all the time that we shouldn't body shame people, or we shouldn't
00:13:02.380slut shame people we shouldn't make people feel bad because if you do that then it might damage
00:13:06.360their mental health and who knows what that will lead to and yet despite being told that
00:13:11.640the exact opposite is true when men are spoken about they're told that they're defective they're
00:13:17.700deficient that they should be more like women that they're emotionally illiterate uh you know
00:13:22.620they are told that they are potential abusers in waiting and really that there's surplus of
00:13:28.620requirements we're constantly told the future is female messages like this and i it doesn't take a
00:13:34.540rocket scientist to work out that after a while that builds up and it's cumulative and if you are
00:13:41.560i mean i'm lucky i've never been clinically depressed but if i were depressed or if i was
00:13:46.360feeling disenfranchised that narrative over a relatively relatively short period of time could
00:13:53.320easily push someone over the edge or push someone at least to the point of checking out of
00:13:58.560society and do you think we have we're facing a crisis of masculinity at the moment men going that
00:14:04.140not really certain what their role is in the world no i think that's bollocks finally another episode
00:14:09.420and not even by me peter keep going mate carry on if i can be frank i think it's bollocks yeah i i
00:14:16.160think uh you know if masculinity is in a state of flux because of perhaps where we are in the
00:14:21.640states of the world then you know what so is femininity men are in no more a state of crisis
00:14:26.900than women are um and so i think really the reality is that we need to stop focusing on
00:14:34.720men at being a fault and holding womanhood as the gold standard because it's just not true
00:14:39.740and you mentioned male mental health obviously if anyone is watching this and are affected by
00:14:43.820as a man you need to man up but i make the joke deliberately to make the point that
00:14:50.080i mean i think we definitely do treat men and women differently um do you but do you think
00:14:56.380i mean i feel with mental men male mental health i thought you're gonna say mental men then mental
00:15:02.120men mental health same thing enough about you francis yes same thing but um i almost feel like
00:15:08.560we're starting to move too far now where it's like oh i mean one of the important qualities for men
00:15:14.760and the three of us will know this if you want to do anything in life you do need a dose of sort of
00:15:19.560get on with it attitude right so teaching men to be more like women and talking about their
00:15:25.560feelings all the time i'm not sure that's helpful to young men it's totally not helpful men and
00:15:30.220women process emotions and their feelings and their life experiences in different ways all the studies
00:15:35.980show that men are typically more emotionally flat throughout whatever they're going through
00:15:41.200whereas women tend to be more up and down and that's fine it's what i was saying earlier is
00:15:46.760that we treat the female experience the female way of doing things as the gold standard and how
00:15:50.860men should behave and it just doesn't translate and i really get frustrated with this narrative
00:15:56.580and you see it all the time whenever there's talk about male suicide or male mental health
00:16:01.200it's the implication is always that the men themselves are to blame rather than the really
00:16:08.220grotesque culture in which they're forced to live so it's you know uh this man's depressed and he's
00:16:13.560suicidal that's because he's not able to talk about his feelings and he's not able to cry
00:16:18.360if he opened up more he'd feel much better and he wouldn't be such a burden on society
00:16:22.920and you think maybe that isn't the problem maybe the problem is what made him to feel suicidal in
00:16:28.920the first place which might just be the fact that who knows he's been divorced and he's not allowed
00:16:33.500to see his children or that he's lost his job after all men are the majority of the unemployed
00:16:38.080in this country or maybe it's the fact that he's just sick of being told that he's unwelcome in
00:16:45.540modern britain and do you think part of the problem as well is that we expect and we've
00:16:50.360touched on it as well we expect men and women to be exactly the same that there's no difference
00:16:54.380between men and women when we both know and everyone knows that there is yet somehow there's
00:17:00.060this narrative being propagated it's like there should be no difference between the sexes whatsoever
00:17:04.820right but what always makes me laugh is that we are told exactly that there are no differences
00:17:10.160between the sexes there is no such thing as a male and female brain even though we know that's
00:17:14.500not true yes that there's lots of overlap but there are differences between the male and female
00:17:18.980brain so we're told that they're exactly the same that gender is a social construct until it benefits
00:17:24.700women and then and then we hear ah see females are better leaders because they're more compassionate
00:17:31.280and men aren't compassionate so you know or women are just more women advance better at a younger
00:17:36.920age girls grow up and mature better than boys because that's just how they're wired i think
00:17:41.220that's true yeah no i think it's true but it's funny that we say oh there are no differences
00:17:45.500between the genders until it benefits girls yeah yeah absolutely broadway's smash hit the neil
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00:19:45.020i'm really glad we have you on the show because i think this is a really important conversation
00:19:48.660but the thing that worries me at the back of my head is i don't want men and women to be in this
00:19:55.780sort of conflict the battle of the sexes is the most retarded thing i've ever heard right too much
00:20:00.180fraternizing with the enemy right right like it i men and women need each other you know it's
00:20:07.340always been that way it will always be that way that's the way it is right so for for everybody
00:20:12.120to do this sort of let's do a tally of the of what men suffer from and let's do a tally of what women
00:20:17.580suffer from and let's compare notes and go no no we're more oppressed no we're more oppressed right
00:20:21.700that is the most counterproductive and stupid thing i've ever fucking heard right and yet here
00:20:27.260we are sort of doing it right so how do we have a more healthy conversation about these issues
00:20:31.980well i think a lot of the responsibility lies with the the sisterhood really i think they need
00:20:40.380to moderate themselves and we were talking earlier about the labor party weren't we and how and they
00:20:44.520kind of moderated slightly now kia starmer is is the leader of the party and i think maybe it will
00:20:50.520take somebody or some group of people to you know to kind of modulate the message that comes out of
00:20:58.440the sisterhood um but i also think that it's it's different for men because or at least i feel like
00:21:06.140my motivation in doing this is not to come across as the victim because i don't really think
00:21:12.320i think men can be disadvantaged and sometimes systematically but i don't really think of us as
00:21:17.800victims. I don't really think of women as victims either. But, you know, I feel like my motivation
00:21:26.660is good and men discussing this would also have good motivation because they're defending something
00:21:31.980that's being attacked rather than attacking someone else. I think that's the difference
00:21:36.760between how men and women approach this debate. But I totally agree that, you know, the genders
00:21:42.560are you know men and women are the yin and yang of the genders right and we are designed to you
00:21:48.900know couple up and procreate and all those other things and life would be pretty boring if there
00:21:54.060was only one gender in the world unfortunately there's 27 64 actually you bigger there's been
00:22:01.420one invented since we started this interview but one thing that i really wanted to talk to you
00:22:06.940is fathers because there's this idea now that you know that a single mom can bring up her kids and
00:22:14.340of course she can all the rest of it but fathers are a little bit redundant we don't need dads we
00:22:18.780don't need them do you agree with that well i agree that that's that's the message that's put
00:22:24.340out yeah and it's frequently believed but i think that all the evidence points to the contrary if
00:22:29.320you look at all the data on this children who grow up in families without fathers are frequently
00:22:35.600more disadvantaged they frequently fail more academically professionally generally in life
00:22:42.620and you know that lack of a role model can sometimes lead to things like you know gang
00:22:47.720culture so I think it's a myth I think people are deluding themselves if they believe that
00:22:55.380you can have a family and that if the absence of a father isn't going to make a big difference I
00:23:01.820I mean, if my father, who I love dearly and I'm very close to him, I'm very lucky,
00:23:08.040if he died, God forbid, people would say, I'm so sorry for your loss.
00:23:14.340What a huge hole in your life you would have.
00:23:18.560And yet, if I never had him from the start, people would never even think that.
00:23:23.220They wouldn't think that I had a hole in my life.
00:23:25.440They would just think, well, what did you need a father for? You had a mother.
00:23:27.880but i would also say to women it's bs that you think you can raise the child on your own a lot
00:23:34.320of single mothers do a very good job of raising children and you know often suffer a lot of
00:23:39.980hardship but come through it anyway but most of the time they're reliant on the state so they
00:23:44.460might not have a husband who they rely on financially or for support but instead what
00:23:49.000they do is they rely on the state and who is the state most funded by men so they might not be
00:23:56.280relying on the fathers of their children but they're relying on other men it's a really difficult
00:24:00.880thing to talk about because i think i have tremendous admiration for single mothers in
00:24:05.880the sense that it is incredibly difficult to bring up a child with two parents right you know
00:24:11.300to do it on your own is really difficult and i have tremendous respect for women who do that
00:24:15.280and do a good job but there's no denying that it's more difficult it makes you it makes your
00:24:20.500job more difficult as a mother and it's more difficult for the child it's more difficult for
00:24:24.940them to they need positive role models that they don't necessarily have as you say the evidence
00:24:29.800shows that children without fathers are much more likely to to get in trouble to go to prison etc
00:24:34.960etc but i think there's this desire to somehow cover it up by pretending that anyone who talks
00:24:41.360about the need for fathers is really just blaming the single mothers when i i think it's much more
00:24:46.080of actually an area where men do need to step up step up you know yeah and i'm not in any denial
00:24:51.780over the fact that there are lots of feckless fathers out there and there are lots of men who
00:24:55.640who could step up and do a much better job of raising their children but at the same time
00:24:59.980let's be honest it's 2020 and for all the talk of equality fathers in this country and throughout
00:25:08.140the west including america do not have equal parenting rights how can that possibly be a thing
00:25:14.800for decades of talk about equality and fairness and equity, fathers still don't have equal rights.
00:25:23.060So men are expected to do 50% of the childcare. They're expected to do 50% of the financial
00:25:29.760rearing of a child. And yet they don't have 50% rights over that child. That's absurd.
00:25:38.540And people wonder why fathers are disenfranchised from the system.
00:25:41.920So you say that they don't have 50% of rights.
00:41:46.780of the world is going to be better and we're all going to be much
00:41:48.640up yet but of course that's really the case as we've seen so many times throughout history but
00:41:52.800yeah i think maybe that maybe there is an element of divide and conquer with with the race aspect
00:41:58.180and um you know it's at least they've changed the record slightly
00:42:04.260not in a better direction you know i mean i can't say it's any better but at least
00:42:09.180at least it's slightly different for a change so where do we go from here because it does feel like
00:42:14.220you know the media has been there's been a mass over correction i mean people more and more have
00:42:19.340started to balk at what they feel is you know messages and slogans being rammed down their
00:42:24.560throat so how do we come to a world where we're just more pleasant to one another and more civil
00:42:30.720i think probably one of the starting points would be to end the grievance stoking
00:42:37.660I think that is a crucial, critical, fundamental first step and perhaps that is getting rid of defunding, forget defunding the police, I think we need to defund women's studies at universities and this culture of teaching young girls and young women that they're victims and that they should be suspicious of men and that they're going to go into a workplace which is rigged and stacked against them
00:43:06.180and that they are, you know, on the back foot before they've even started in life.
00:43:11.420I understand why that happens, because for the movement to survive, to be future-proof, to continue,
00:43:20.180it needs new recruits, and those new recruits need to be emboldened and angry.
00:43:24.760But it causes so much unnecessary grief, A, in a person's mind.
00:43:31.520I feel for a lot of young women who are kind of gaslit by this message,
00:54:08.240right go let's i was going to say let's elaborate why don't we stretch the conversation i've actually
00:54:14.840got a picture if you wouldn't know by the way i've never seen our producer look so interested
00:54:19.920in a conversation he looks like he knows what i'm talking about yeah of course he does yeah
00:54:25.320you know i'm 40 years old i recently turned 40 and i can say that throughout most of my adult life
00:54:31.340I have had to listen to derisory comments about the penis, how it's not big enough, how it's not fat enough, or how it's not used properly.
00:54:41.900I'm not talking about my penis, I'm talking about all penises.
00:54:45.020Penises in general are, breasts are revered, naked women are revered, but the male appendage, the penis, is mocked.
00:54:54.940Even President Trump is humiliated over allegations about his penis.