Nope, not arguing. Don't even bother. I don't have to pretend to think someone who expresses a wish for a demographic she is prejudiced against to die of a virus in even greater numbers than they already are is not an arsehole.

If you are defending this as humour or hyperbole, think about whether you'd also see it that way if someone were saying it about racial minorities who are also more vulnerable to contracting and/or dying of the coronavirus.

If you would, congratulations. You're an equal opportunities arsehole but still an arsehole.

People misunderstand my defence of freedom of speech. I don't think people should be fired or prosecuted for wishing men would die even faster in a pandemic that disproportionately affecting them. It's still allowed to call them an arsehole. That's also freedom of speech.

I'm not even a particular advocate for men's issues. I have about as much sympathy for people going on about gynocentrism as I do for people going on about patriarchy. Victim-mentality is rarely helpful. But ffs, we must be able to name & condemn genuine misandry when we see it.

I do think men and women have different 'privileges' on a social level & that these can be reasonably & usefully pointed out. I think, during the coronavirus, we are seeing the greater concern that exists for women's safety & even our lives.

Again, this isn't a claim that a system of oppression exists & men are victims of it at the hands of evil women. I think the main driver of society's lesser concern for the safety & lives of men is men being less concerned about their own safety & lives.

But where a lot of analysis has gone into issues where social expectations affect women more - eg, we might well be the ones expected to take time off when kids are ill - very little has gone into looking at issues where they affect men more.

And I think that manifests not in people saying things like Clementine Ford did - very few people do that - but in her comments not seeming as shocking as if someone had said it about women.

Men who indicate this level of hostility towards women are rightly seen as hateful incels or something in that vicinity whereas women who show such intense hostility towards men cld be respectable feminists making a political statement with some use of hyperbole. That's worrying

We really need an understanding that loathing half of the population is a sign of a pathological state of mental health. We might pity it in some situations where someone has had a traumatic experience, but it should never be seen as normal or a bit hyperbolic & shrugged off.