another fine day, another fine example of gross misogyny in your elected officials
i fear for little girls growing up in a world where someone like this is elected to public office. it makes me deeply, deeply sad that there are sick people like this in positions of power.
A senior BNP leader with a strong chance of winning a seat in the London Assembly next month has written that rape is a “myth” and that “some women are like gongs – they need to be struck regularly.”
The Standard can reveal that Nick Eriksen, the BNP’s London organiser and the second-highest candidate on its list for the Assembly, is the author of “Sir John Bull,” a notorious far-Right blog which has regularly advocated hatred and abuse against women. The disclosure will be a serious blow to the BNP’s hopes of London electoral success.
On 24 August 2005, Mr Eriksen wrote: “I’ve never understood why so many men have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by the feminazi myth machine into believing that rape is such a serious crime … Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal.
“To suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that forcefeeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched.
“The demonisation of rape is all part of the feminazi desire to obtain power and mastery over men. Men who go along with the rape myth are either morons or traitors.”
On 5 November 2005, in an item entitled “Give her a slap!,” Mr Eriksen approvingly quoted Noel Coward as saying: “Some women are like gongs – they need to be struck regularly.” On 8 November, he claimed that “the vast majority of domestic [assaults] are initiated by the woman.” Mr Eriksen also wrote on 24 November 2005 that mothers “should never go out to work” and described career women as “unnatural and vile… it is a strange kind of woman who would want to invest [her] energies into her job rather than into a man.”
Eleven of the 25 Assembly members are elected on a London-wide basis using a form of proportional representation. The BNP is likely to win at least one of these seats, for which it needs around five per cent of the vote, and has strong hopes of winning a second, for which it needs around seven to eight per cent. If the BNP does win two seats, one of them will go to Mr Eriksen and one to London party leader Richard Barnbrook.
…
Contacted by the Standard last night, Mr Eriksen admitted the blog postings were written by him, but said they were “deliberately provocative” in order to stimulate debate.
“I was trying to make the point that there are two kinds of rape,” he said. “There is stranger rape and there is so-called rape by somebody the woman knows. I was raising an important issue in a provocative way to allow people to make up their own minds.”
Mr Eriksen insisted that he “did not condone violence in any way,” but was “trying to highlight the fact that violence against men is unacceptable.” He said: “It’s typical of the media to distort what the BNP say.”
Mr Eriksen, a former Tory councillor and ex-civil servant at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport who lives in Richmond, says he will not resign. If he and Mr Barnbrook are elected, BNP leader Nick Griffin says the party will be invited on the BBC’s Question Time.
i’ve taken the liberty of linking the appropriate blogposts, for your edification.
luckily he hasn’t had to resign. he’s been sacked.
Comment by Your Sister
4.04.2008 @ 13:55 pm
good holy jinkies frigging christmas! who the hell actually thinks that, nevermind says it. someone should go “pulp fiction” on his ass and introduce him to zed.
Comment by Thomas Foolery
4.04.2008 @ 14:43 pm
I think the answer is: almost nobody really thinks that. And you will never totally eliminate the idiots of the world, so let’s chalk it up to a test of commitment to free speech that idiots are allowed to say stupid things.
As for being an elected leader, he isn’t, as far as I can tell. It might have been possible that he would have been elected, but when this came out he was dropped. The public don’t elect people whom they know say or believe these things. This is as it should be, QED.
Furthermore, as he says, he was trying to be ‘provocative’. He’s succeeded I guess, by the fact that you were provoked. Most of this seems pretty tongue-in-cheek; a pseudonymous Rush Limbaugh act with clown shoes on. Nontheless it’s good that he was exposed and won’t be elected.
I’m not trying to suggest that his blog is/was harmless; just that idiots will be idiots and the best way to deal with them is to ignore them and/or laugh at them. Taking them seriously doesn’t do anybody any favours, and a hyperbolic blog title about gross misogyny in elected officials in this case seems to be a) wrong; and b) too reactionary.
And I still think your “like a fish needs a bicycle” heading is derogatory. :-}
Yo
PS since men also like sex, presumably he doesn’t think being raped by a man he knows would be more serious than having his wallet snatched.
Comment by Jen
4.04.2008 @ 16:09 pm
well the fact that someone unmasked his blog is the only reason he won’t be elected. and true provocateurs don’t hide behind anonymity – he wasn’t looking to engage in debate, he was seeking allied minds. (edited to add: the article states he was a former tory councillor… which *would* in fact make him an elected official.)
i’d also respectfully suggest it’s much easier to call stuff like this “tongue-in-cheek” when it’s not you they are talking about.
but the “like a fish needs a bicycle” tag? now *that* is tongue-in-cheek.
“PS since men also like sex, presumably he doesn’t think being raped by a man he knows would be more serious than having his wallet snatched.”
if i were a more vengeful person, i’d suggest we put that theory to the test
Comment by Erin
5.04.2008 @ 09:32 am
It was difficult for me to read about this and not get very angry. Part of me says “He can’t really think that, he’s just trying to stir things up”. But, that the BNP allowed itself to be aligned with such a blog has pissed me no end. To simply brush it off as “being taken out of context” and to actually claim to have acted honourably by removing him, after 3 years of happily being associated with the blog is disgusting and very foul. Shame on the BNP, I truly hope they lose all hope of ever being elected into office.