UK: Making misogyny a hate crime is sinister and absurd

Article here. Excerpt:

'Nevertheless, the man who was foolish enough – and, it transpired, drunk enough – to put his hand on my behind clearly thought he was perfectly entitled to do so and that he could get away with doing it.

What he did was rude, unacceptable and wrong, as I explained in no uncertain terms, before insisting he apologise.

But was his bottom-slapping a crime? And does the fact that he only did it to me because I am a woman make it an even worse crime?

According to Labour MP Stella Creasy and her band of feminista warriors, the answer to both those questions is an overwhelming Yes.

The MP, along with the Fawcett Society and a litany of other women’s rights campaigners, wants to make misogyny an aggravating factor in hate crime. Extraordinarily, the Government agrees with them.
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‘For the first time, we are now saying as a country that misogyny is not a part of life,’ Ms Creasy said as she welcomed the Government’s announcement. ‘It is something that shouldn’t be tolerated. We have just sent a message to every young woman in this country that we are on their side.’

But have we? Or has the Government taken us one step further along the road of creating the Thought Police? This isn’t just politically correct madness, it’s downright sinister. Misogyny, after all, is a strong word. It is not simply someone (usually a man) being a bit sexist, a bit of an old dinosaur who thinks a woman’s place is in the kitchen. It’s the actual hatred of women. (None of the campaigners is calling for the new law to include the crime of misandry, the hatred of men, it should be noted.)

So who gets to decide if a man who does or says something nasty or mean to a woman is motivated by misogyny?

Under the current law, judges can already give harsher sentences to anyone convicted of assault, threats or abuse if those crimes are, as the Crown Prosecution Service’s official definition states, ‘perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by hostility or prejudice’ towards the victim’s disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity.'