Oh dear…
It seems the recently appointed Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, may not understand the definition of a fairly important socio-political prejudice after he claimed “misogyny is absolutely wrong whether it’s a man against a woman, or a woman against a man”.
Speaking live on BBC Breakfast earlier this morning (October 6), Raab was asked his thoughts on Boris Johnson‘s comments that he does not support calls to make “misogyny a hate crime”, to which he replied with the following:
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab MP was asked on #BBCBreakfast whether he believed misogyny should be treated as a hate crime.
He said “misogyny is absolutely wrong whether it’s a man against a woman, or a woman against a man”https://t.co/RIWo6f2kXN pic.twitter.com/8RGrwhlnnF
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) October 6, 2021
Upon being prompted for clarification, Raab went on to qualify that he thinks just dealing with “insulting language, even if it’s misogynistic, doesn’t deal with intimidation, violence and the much higher level of offence, harm and damage”, that cases like Sabina Nessa and Sarah Everard have raised once again.
However, Raab – clearly having not taken the hint – is then read the dictionary definition of misogyny: “hatred against/directed towards women”.
Though he was clearly commenting on the damage that can be caused by any sexist attitudes towards another person and/or gender – whether that be towards a woman or a man – the question was specifically regarding misogyny, which is still deeply rooted in British society.
As for the comments that presenter Sally Nugent refers to at the beginning of the clip, the Prime Minister was interviewed by Dan Walker during the early morning show on Monday October 4. As you can see below, he comments that “rather than introducing new laws, what you need to do is enforce the existing laws.”
BBCBreakfast: Nottinghamshire Police are recording incidents such as wolf-whistling and cat calling as a misogynistic hate crime.
On #BBCBreakfast the Prime Minister is asked if other forces should follow suit. https://t.co/ANfHupnFFe pic.twitter.com/4gSr9aKACJ
— Patrick Kolipson (@PKT_develop) October 5, 2021
Related links:
- Dominic Raab’s five worst moments as Foreign Secretary we won’t forget any time soon
- Government set to reduce earnings threshold at which graduates start repaying loans
- Priti Patel to give police powers to stop disruptive protesters going to demos
