Sadiq Khan says there is a single word that can help challenge sexist violence and misogyny. But the word he has picked is pathetic and actually trivialises crime. The word Khan wants to hear more often is ‘Maaate’.
It’s part of a new campaign with online adverts which, we are told by his office in the gruesome jargon of the day, is aimed at ‘empowering’ men to challenge misogyny.
When they see or hear a man demeaning or brutalising women, and want to intervene but don’t know what to say, they are advised to bleat ‘Maaate’, a bit like Shaun the Sheep.
A press release on the Mayor of London’s website explains that the peer pressure will stop the abuse: ‘For a mate to call out a mate, the most effective way to do it is from a place of friendship.’
How utterly wrong-headed. What a farce. It goes without saying that, as a lifelong campaigner against men’s violence towards women and girls, I would fully support any initiative that took it seriously. But in my book, the single word that can really challenge violence against women is ‘prison’.
It’s part of a new campaign with online adverts which, we are told by his office in the gruesome jargon of the day, is aimed at ‘empowering’ men to challenge misogyny
Sadiq Khan says there is a single word that can help challenge sexist violence and misogyny
A press release on the Mayor of London’s website explains that the peer pressure will stop the abuse: ‘For a mate to call out a mate, the most effective way to do it is from a place of friendship’
A campaign of ads and posters telling men to say ‘Maaate’ is absurd. It is political posturing dressed up as action and it isn’t going to work.
Khan’s job is to make women feel safe on our streets and help to end the misogyny that runs rife in the Metropolitan Police. It is not to bombard us with terrible adverts in an attempt to burnish his credentials.
And believe me, the advert is truly terrible. It manages to infantilise and patronise men at the same time as making light of the real problem of abuse and violence against women.
It features half a dozen young men sitting around in a flat — a mix of black, Asian and white — looking sheepish while one of them spews a flood of sexist threats and boasts, disguised as ‘banter’.
This ‘lad’ has a Cockney accent and a cheap haircut, presumably because misogyny in the campaign’s view is mainly confined to the white working classes.
Beginning with a rant about female officials in football, the yob in the four-minute video goes on to detail what he’d like to do to some of the women players, before fantasising about beating up an ex-girlfriend and bragging about sending pornographic photos to women.
There is a button on the side of the screen, marked ‘maaate’. Viewers are encouraged to click it when they think the verbal abuse has gone on long enough. When they do, the actor looks abashed and mutters: ‘Oh, yeah. You’re right.’ And the stream of sexism dries up.
We all know the response in real life would be very different. My experience is that there is only one way to challenge that kind of invective, and that’s head-on. Hints and mild admonishment will only invite mockery at best — or a punch in the face.
Most ‘banter’ doesn’t happen in public. It’s a private language, one that excludes the wider world. That’s the point of it.
Peer pressure won’t change it because the men who talk that way thrive on showing their approval of each other’s actions, no matter how offensive or gross. Things they would never say in front of their mothers or girlfriends become the very taboos that bind them.
It features half a dozen young men sitting around in a flat — a mix of black, Asian and white — looking sheepish while one of them spews a flood of sexist threats and boasts, disguised as ‘banter’
There is a button on the side of the screen, marked ‘maaate’. Viewers are encouraged to click it when they think the verbal abuse has gone on long enough. When they do, the actor looks abashed and mutters: ‘Oh, yeah. You’re right.’ And the stream of sexism dries up
And a disapproving ‘maaate’ is even less likely to be effective in a crowded pub or Tube where a man is pawing a woman, or when you hear the thuds and shouts of domestic abuse through the wall from next door. No one imagines having a friendly word in those situations will do anything but provoke more violence.
Sadiq Khan must think he is parading his feminist credentials. But he is actually reminding us he has no idea what life in the real world, outside his political bubble, is like for ordinary Londoners.
For my part, I will never allow him to get away with posing as a feminist while he promotes the cause of trans women over real women. Khan wants to abolish single-sex spaces such as women’s refuges, rape crisis centres, prison wings and hospital wards. These are places where women feel safe, where a trans woman’s presence can feel threatening. He is trying to remove the hard-won rights of women like me. And he lectures us about misogyny!
Khan’s overt hypocrisy is typified by his treatment of a friend of mine called Joan Smith. She was sacked as co-chair of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls board after she wrote to him politely asking why he refused to accept women-only spaces.
Joan Smith is a veteran feminist who deserves huge respect for her decades of campaigning, and the author of a classic book, Misogynies, highlighting the horrors of men’s violence. She has done infinitely more to ensure women’s safety than any childish video could ever achieve.
But Khan failed to respond to her letter and left it to a lackey to tell her she was out of a job. Since then, he has consistently refused to explain his decision to her.
If he’d asked Joan Smith, she could have told him that women don’t want men to police their mates’ banter. We want men to stop threatening, assaulting, raping and murdering us.
If Sadiq Khan had stopped to think for even a minute, he would have realised how insulting the video is. Suppose it was aimed at stamping out racism: imagine the public fury at seeing an actor spout racial slurs, only to be chastised mildly by a friendly ‘Maaate’.
Sexual harassment is not a petty behaviour. It isn’t merely antisocial, like talking loudly in the cinema or eating smelly food on a bus, and it is inappropriate to suggest dealing with it through peer disapproval.
As I say, Khan should instead be tackling misogyny and abuse with action. This campaign is a woefully misguided use of public money. His job is to keep London functioning safely, and that can’t happen as long as violent misogyny runs unchecked in the Metropolitan Police force.
Earlier this year, firearms officer David Carrick, who at one time stood guard at the gates to Downing Street, pleaded guilty to 85 serious offences against women, including rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment.
Sexual harassment is not a petty behaviour. It isn’t merely antisocial, like talking loudly in the cinema or eating smelly food on a bus, and it is inappropriate to suggest dealing with it through peer disapproval
That followed the 2021 conviction of PC Wayne Couzens for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard, who was bundled into his car after he stopped her on the street and showed her his police warrant card.
In the wake of that killing, officers swapped grossly misogynist messages on WhatsApp groups about her murder. Some police routinely shared tips on how to get away with rape, and boasted about attacking women.
Hundreds of serving officers are now under investigation. The Mayor’s team should be leading this campaign to root out violence against women within the force, but it is left to legal charities such as the Centre for Women’s Justice.
They are fighting institutional misogyny — and they can’t do that by folding their arms and saying ‘Maaate’ with a disapproving look.
Rather than pushing window-dressing adverts at us, Khan should be tackling the ubiquity of porn in schools, and highlighting the connection between graphic sex videos and the objectification of women and girls.
Boys in their teens and even younger are learning about sex through violent, sickening clips shared online, and that is directly fuelling rape and other assaults.
I don’t believe boys are born to become sexual abusers. It isn’t innate and it isn’t natural. It is something that gets programmed in later. Treating it as a faux pas that can be fixed with a bit of online fun makes it worse.
Schools need the power to crack down on the spread of pornography, as well as the tools to stop children from sharing explicit images and texts.
And society needs a justice system that prosecutes men for sexual abuse and makes them fear the consequences. Because tutting and saying ‘Maaate’ isn’t going to protect anyone, mate.
DailyMail
