MP John Cryer: 'It is ignorant to deny undercurrent of misogyny'

As a man, my experience of walking alone after dark is vastly different from women’s. I simply do not feel vulnerable in the same way that women in our society tragically do. That is not to say that men and boys are not at risk, as the knife crime in our communities goes to show. It is a separate issue.

It is easy to explain away alleged perpetrators as aberrations; born killers whose behaviour society can do nothing to control.

They are individuals who, if convicted, deserve nothing less than the harshest sentence available. But to deny the role that an undercurrent of misogyny plays in creating the conditions for horrendous crimes is, in my view, being willfully ignorant.

John Cryer has been overwhelmed with Covid-related matters (Image: Parliament UK)

This undercurrent includes comments on the street that reduce women to objects, to the targeting of women and in particular female public figures on social media with rape threats or misogynistic comments.

Unchallenged, these attitudes legitimise a perception among some men of women being subservient to their will.

An overuse of storylines on TV drama and film which focus on violence towards women as entertainment also helps bring this into our homes on a regular basis. I am no Mary Whitehouse, but I do think there is too much of this use of this trope.

I have had constituents get in touch, men and women, saying there should be subsidised self-defence classes, and the legalisation of mace, pepper spray and stun guns. To that I can only say: "Why should women feel so unsafe that they have to go out 'tooled up?'"

It is for us as a society, but also as families, friends, fathers, sons and brothers, to educate about consent, behaviour and allowing safe space and distance on pavements, in train carriages and on nights out.