MP Michael Fabricant: Just Another Violent Man
![[Image: Evening Standard.]](http://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/fabricant.jpg)
[Image: Evening Standard.]
I discovered this story on Facebook, where an Evening Standard piece described Fabricant as a “maverick”. My response – “Is that how we’re describing people who threaten violence to women these days?” – should make my position clear.
Here’s Ms Pennington:
“Michael Fabricant is just another violent man who knows perfectly well that threatening a woman with physical violence won’t result in any punishment to him since violence against women is “just a joke”. And, we won’t hold him accountable for such an abusive statement because, hey, he “apologised”.
“Let’s be very clear here: Fabricant didn’t just say something silly or ‘off the cuff’. He made a very clear threat which doesn’t need to be followed with actual physical violence. Fabricant knows perfectly well that he doesn’t need to actually intend to carry through the threat; he knows that he can count on several millennia of male violence against women that has silenced women for the threat to be real. This way Fabricant can ‘pretend’ it’s a joke and not something he’d actually do.”
She goes on to suggest that men say things like this because “they actually believe that violence against women isn’t a real crime” and adds that those of us who take a different view will be “calling out Fabricant right now. They wouldn’t just be asking for an apology. They would be demanding he be suspended from his party pending a formal review and Fabricant undertaking mandatory training on violence against women via either a national or local specialist service such as Women’s Aid or Ending Victimisation and Abuse.”
She say a few other things in her article, so please visit her site and enjoy it there.
Then come back and let us have your opinion. I’d really like to see what you think.
Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike
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I agree his threat should be taken seriously and he needs to be pulled up in parliament and by the police, did she report it to the police? To tag most men as being violent or condoning violence against women, is just wrong,considering there are many violent women, who think nothing of using it against men. Violence is violence. However, that rug he wears on his head is so obviously a crime in itself!
Unfortunately, there are lots of misogynists out there and Micheal Fabricant is one of them. I think that men of his ilk don’t like women who are assertive and/or opinionated, maybe because it makes them feel inferior in some way and because of their privileged background they don’t normally feel inferior to anyone.
Toupée or not Toupée. That is the question.
Cameron is standing by him, so it’s a dead cert he will have to resign.
Personally I would have thought Fabricant to be at the back of a very long queue.
To resign?
No, to give Jasmin Alabiah-Brown a slap, (and Rod Liddle as well.)
You want to be careful where you say that sort of thing.
My own gut feeling on Michael Fabricant was that he said this as a joke as his type of character is always off the mark and has never been a serious person in his life and never will be
However, he needs to remember that although his constituents like and understand his humour there will be those thinking he means every word and not that he was just joking around
he is in the same mould as Boris Johnson who will put his foot in it as and when and should never be taken seriously and thankfully never is
The trouble is, that kind of joke is not – and never has been – funny.
indeed mike it’s not funny but as i said that’s Michael Fabricant character and that’s what his constituents like about him and in a democracy there’s nothing you can do about it other then to vote him out as and when the time comes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTr8IVWBuPE
this is another typical example of the way the likes of not only Michael Fabricant think but most mp’s and government ministers
the reality is mike there all the same and think the same and that’s always been the case hence all the hassle they make in people lives
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown was very clear about why she held Rod Liddle in such contempt, and said so. A lot of men (Liddle and Fabricant are in this category) are simply not used to women having opinions and being prepared to assert them. I find it interesting that the interviewer, Cathy Newman, was clearly just as fed up with Liddle but, being a professional, tried to remain an impartial presenter. Fabricant didn’t say he wanted to punch Newman in the throat, so it is not Alibhai-Brown’s opinion that he has a problem with, just her temerity in voicing it.
That tells me all I need to know about Fabricant.
What a dreary bunch of prigs this website attracts! If people like you get their way then all interaction will be sterilized of facetiousness,never mind humour.Every word and inflection weighed and checked ,careers ended and people jailed for breaking the language laws.And don’t try and pretend that your response to this incident isn’t evidence of priggishness,only somebody suffering from an advanced case of Socialism would view his remarks as a serious statement of intent rather than a healthy blowing off of steam.
It’s true; this website does, occasionally, attract a dreary bunch. They’re called Tories, and they turn up loudly decrying any kind of criticism of their behaviour (or the behaviour of one of their own) – often by trying to belittle the critics.
You wouldn’t want to be mistaken for one of them.
This buffoon needs to be educated in what is acceptable and what is not. Without being brought to task he will continue and every time he is supported he will feel it is more right. He is a small, small minded coward and should never be in public office.
Great post but – He is just another violent man however one elected into a position of elevated power; his knowledge (and abuse) of this power makes this worse.
What a weary bunch of people you are. I despise everything to do with Tories, but this guy is obviously just making a harmless humorous remark. You lot have always damaged your otherwise very worthy cause by your bleak humourlessness. Lighten up.
You haven’t read the blog very much, have you?
Bleak humourlessness doesn’t really figure very strongly here.
… and Fabricant’s comments were out of order.
Jezebel, a prominent feminist website, ran a feature in which contributors and readers spoke of the times they had been violent towards a (male) partner. Lots of lulz, little to no shame, and next to no media outcry. Now I know Jezebel is “just” an online magazine, but it is considered part of the feminist mainstream, attracts a wide readership, and its opinions are widely discussed.
Fabricant’s comments may have been stupid, and reprehensible, but let’s put things into perspective here. I note the article you linked to claimed “society does not take violence against women seriously”; on what basis could anyone make such an assertion? Contrast the outcry over Fabricant’s comments with the near complete silence in the wake of Jezebel’s piece on violence against men and I think it’s easy to see which type of violence our society is willing to brush off or make jokes about.
Perhaps you’d appreciate another woman’s viewpoint on the question of domestic violence…
http://thoughtcatalog.com/janet-bloomfield/2014/06/350587/
Fabricant is a bully much like the rest of the political class, the educated elite and any one else who dismisses the working class as a problem
As for Ms Alibhai-Brown…she is no stranger to making of the cuff, anti-male.. racist jokes herself about “White Middle class men”…..
“On 25 August 2008, she appeared on Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff television discussion programme. In a discussion about an employment issue relating to white men, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown joked: “Take his advice. Don’t apply. It would be great if you lot just went away; white, middle class men. We’d just walk in wouldn’t we.” When challenged by the host for the day, Richard Bacon, “Is that not a racist comment?” she replied: “Of course”.[25]”
She is part of the problem, not the solution and the phrase people in glass- houses spring to mind
That does not make Fabricant’s comment any more acceptable.