London Calling - Richie's Story

Richie's Personal Story: MRA London member, Richi, gives his own account of why he became involved in the struggle for male human worth. These are his words...

Like many I had noticed the misandry that permeates our society for a long time but had not wanted to deal with it directly. "Gender issues" were for fucked up nutters. I was reading Warren Farrell's "The myth of male power" in 1994 whilst lying in bed. In it he told of the disparity in medical expenditure between the sexes and of the 100% rise in testicular cancer rates over the previous decade which no one appeared to be paying the appropriate attention to. I had noticed some discomfort, checked myself and found one testicle, which had a lump in, it to be more painful than the other.

Anyway thanks to Warren I was treated before the cancer had spread to my lungs and brain. There was no other source of information in the MSM on this that I had come across. As far as I'm concerned that's one small service that the men's movement has rendered me.

I have suffered the usual gamut of predations that feminist ideology has brought upon us - relationship breakdown, false accusations, concern over contact with my son, but due to my early awareness, am currently relatively unscathed.

I look after my boy for most of the week and have done so for the last 4 years. Thanks due in part to the advice received at a "Families Need Fathers" meeting or two. He is 11 now and doing well but entering that stage where he is asking for advice on women. A difficult one.

I can tell him of the time that the single mother below us in our block tried to have me arrested by falsely claiming that I was banging on her doorway threatening to kill her so that she could make a claim for a better flat from our landlord. This didn't work for her because the person who had actually been knocking on her door to ask her to turn her music down was my then partner. I was across town rehearsing with a band. What disgusts me about this incident is not just her complete confidence that her story would be believed and acted upon by the white knights in the police but that she was prepared to put myself and my family at risk of homelessness and unemployment (I was teaching guitar in schools at the time and needed a clean CRB record) for such a tawdry reason.

I could tell him of how the same woman enlisted the aid of a female council employee's prejudice to utilise the council's mandatory powers against us by pleading the victim role and how it took our being spied on for 6 months and 7 court appearances to have their actions revoked and an apology issued for the councils malpractice.

I had to represent myself whilst the council utilised the massive resources available to them and paid for a barrister and his team which had I lost I would have been liable for.

I can tell him of my brothers school friend who got married, became a father and one day whilst sitting at home with his child on his knee watching the tv had the police arrive to arrest him for beating up his wife who had just made an emergency call requiring assistance.

He thought she was in the kitchen making some tea.

Actually she had gone into the back garden shed, punched and bloodied herself in the face and then made the call. This only came out during the court case at which he was found not guilty. Afterwards on the steps outside the court she said to him "Let that be a lesson to you". No penalty for her.

I can tell him of my brothers friend who hung himself in his garage because he could not face the breakup of his marriage and loss of contact with his daughter.

He already knows about my brothers first wife who, having been a very well provided for SAHM (stay at home mum for the unintiated), decided she was leaving him, took him to the cleaners, took his kids to australia and tried to take a huge bite out of my fathers firm. She also stole £10,000 from her own fathers company before she left.

I can tell him of a good friend who reads meters for EDF for a living who recently became the subject of a police investigation for 3 months as the result of a woman who fabricated a story claiming that he flashed her whilst in her flat to read her meter. It transpired that she did this to obtain financial "compensation" from EDF. No charges were brought, she suffered no consequences and his traumatic few months will appear in no official statistics anywhere.

I can tell him about the friend to whom I recommended Corams Fields childrens park for his young kids. He was passing and stopped to have look but noting the sign on the gate which reads "No unaccompanied adults" followed the instruction and looked through the railings at the facilities. He was accosted by two "Community" police officers on the basis of the suspicion that he might be a paedophile.

There are numerous examples of the misandry that permeates our society that can be referenced. New ones occur everyday. Here's an example from today of a jocular (I hope) article in which a woman describes her revulsion at the idea of giving birth to her son.

Dailymail Article - I wish my unborn-baby wasn't a beastly boy

My son had already complained of the favouritism shown to the girls in his primary school.

I have concluded that battle must be joined. I attended the court case that Tom Martin brought against the LSE. I recently attended an MRA meeting.

It is not with any particular joy that I have become engaged in "Gender Issues" but as a matter of self preservation and out of concern for my son.

There will be many more like me.

I'd like to thank all those engaged in men's rights activism for breaking the silence.