Extreme misogyny will be treated as a form of extremism under new government plans, the Home Office has said.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has ordered a review of the UK’s counter-extremism strategy to determine how best to tackle threats posed by harmful ideologies.
The analysis will look at hatred of women as one of the ideological trends that the government says is gaining traction.
For some years there has been concern around “Incel culture”, an online movement of mainly young men who describe themselves as “involuntarily celibate” and blame women and “alpha males” for their problems.
A mass shooting in Plymouth in 2021 by 22-year-old Jake Davison, who killed five people before fatally shooting himself, was linked to Incel ideology.
At the time no further policy action was taken, but incidents like that one, and also the rise of social media influencers such as Andrew Tate – a self-proclaimed misogynist – may have pushed the new government to think again.
Source: Misogyny to be treated as extremism by UK government
I can’t decide if this is a win or not. Didn’t Yvette Cooper declare herself as a true believer in men who are “ legally” women? Here’s hoping this new law focuses on the true definition of women as those needing protection from extreme misogyny.