Tom Martin (activist)
Encyclopedia
Tom Martin is a men's rights
activist, bringing a sex discrimination case against the Gender Institute of the London School of Economics
(LSE), where he began studying a 'Gender, Media and Culture' MSc degree in the 2009/10 term. According to an article in The Evening Standard, Mr Martin attended classes for six weeks, before withdrawing, and filing a lawsuit at the Central London County Court, claiming damages of £50,000, for 'breach of contract, misleading advertising, misrepresentation, and breach of the Gender Equality Duty Act'. Martin claims the compulsory reading materials for the taught course "... were typically packed with anti-male discrimination and bias - heavily focusing on, exaggerating and falsifying women's issues perspectives, whilst blaming men, to justify ignoring men's issues. There was no warning of this sexist agenda in the prospectus."
According to the Evening Standard, the university's defense team argue the case should be struck out, as the texts were available for both women and men to read equally, and therefore did not discriminate against men directly, and also, that "any discriminatory effect [against men] was plainly justifiable".
Subsequently, Jonathan Dean, a former researcher at LSE's Gender Institute, wrote an article in The Guardian, dismissing the idea that gender studies might discriminate against men, and justifying any focus on women in gender studies by claiming other academic disciplines focus on men "It strikes me as utterly bemusing that one would want to direct one's ire towards one of the few academic spaces in which the implications of biases that go largely unchallenged elsewhere are explored".
Subsequently, Mr Martin responded in the Guardian, claiming other academic curricula may typically focus on men, but rarely on men's equality issues, and that gender studies programmes typically ignore fathers rights issues, male victims of domestic violence, men's shorter life expectancy, and instances of sexism against men, Martin pointing to research finding women four times more sexist than men.
Current Director of the Gender Institute, Anne Phillips, told LSE's student union newspaper 'I find it almost surreal when the Gender Institute is portrayed as representing 'women as good, men as bad'.
During an interview with Paul Elam, on A Voice for Men Radio, the show's co-host 'John the Other' challenged Tom Martin to publish the allegedly sexist reading list for all to see. Mr Martin obliged, also publishing an analysis of one opening core text on his website for an example to support his claim that the curriculum presents "an overwhelming male-blaming bias".
Mr Martin appears in a video, asking LSE students if they think discrimination against men within the gender curriculum is justifiable as the university's legal defense team have argued. Many students justify any discrimination against men by citing various women's issues, but when pressed, typically over-estimate the extent of female victim-hood in any given area, according to statistics provided within the short film. One respondent angrily proclaims "There's no discrimination against men... .", her outburst followed by a scrolling A to Z list of 160 discrimination issues said to be faced by men.
In a Forbes Magazine article, Mr Martin is quoted as saying "I want gender studies to be more inclusive for men".
The case currently awaits a hearing date.
Men's rights
Men's rights is an umbrella term, encompassing the political rights, entitlements, and freedoms given or denied to males within a nation or culture....
activist, bringing a sex discrimination case against the Gender Institute of the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
(LSE), where he began studying a 'Gender, Media and Culture' MSc degree in the 2009/10 term. According to an article in The Evening Standard, Mr Martin attended classes for six weeks, before withdrawing, and filing a lawsuit at the Central London County Court, claiming damages of £50,000, for 'breach of contract, misleading advertising, misrepresentation, and breach of the Gender Equality Duty Act'. Martin claims the compulsory reading materials for the taught course "... were typically packed with anti-male discrimination and bias - heavily focusing on, exaggerating and falsifying women's issues perspectives, whilst blaming men, to justify ignoring men's issues. There was no warning of this sexist agenda in the prospectus."
According to the Evening Standard, the university's defense team argue the case should be struck out, as the texts were available for both women and men to read equally, and therefore did not discriminate against men directly, and also, that "any discriminatory effect [against men] was plainly justifiable".
Subsequently, Jonathan Dean, a former researcher at LSE's Gender Institute, wrote an article in The Guardian, dismissing the idea that gender studies might discriminate against men, and justifying any focus on women in gender studies by claiming other academic disciplines focus on men "It strikes me as utterly bemusing that one would want to direct one's ire towards one of the few academic spaces in which the implications of biases that go largely unchallenged elsewhere are explored".
Subsequently, Mr Martin responded in the Guardian, claiming other academic curricula may typically focus on men, but rarely on men's equality issues, and that gender studies programmes typically ignore fathers rights issues, male victims of domestic violence, men's shorter life expectancy, and instances of sexism against men, Martin pointing to research finding women four times more sexist than men.
Current Director of the Gender Institute, Anne Phillips, told LSE's student union newspaper 'I find it almost surreal when the Gender Institute is portrayed as representing 'women as good, men as bad'.
During an interview with Paul Elam, on A Voice for Men Radio, the show's co-host 'John the Other' challenged Tom Martin to publish the allegedly sexist reading list for all to see. Mr Martin obliged, also publishing an analysis of one opening core text on his website for an example to support his claim that the curriculum presents "an overwhelming male-blaming bias".
Mr Martin appears in a video, asking LSE students if they think discrimination against men within the gender curriculum is justifiable as the university's legal defense team have argued. Many students justify any discrimination against men by citing various women's issues, but when pressed, typically over-estimate the extent of female victim-hood in any given area, according to statistics provided within the short film. One respondent angrily proclaims "There's no discrimination against men... .", her outburst followed by a scrolling A to Z list of 160 discrimination issues said to be faced by men.
In a Forbes Magazine article, Mr Martin is quoted as saying "I want gender studies to be more inclusive for men".
The case currently awaits a hearing date.