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What it's like to be made whiny woman of the month by Mike Buchanan

What it's like to be made whiny woman of the month by Mike Buchanan

Mike Buchanan has found himself in the news after revealing he intends to stand three candidates for his political party, Justice for Men and Boys (And the Women Who Love Them), at the next general election.

For the uninitiated, Buchanan is a former businessman who took early retirement to run an anti-feminist organisation full time. His hero is Margaret Thatcher, he cancelled his Conservative Party membership in 2009 and has since written a book questioning if David Cameron is actually the heir to Harriet Harman (spoiler alert: David Cameron is not).

In a new interview with BuzzFeed Buchanan details plans for Justice for Men and Boys (J4MB) to run for three seats in May 2015. On J4MB's website it states Buchanan will be one of those candidates - he plans to stand against shadow equalities minister Gloria De Piero in Ashfield.

Women should be wary of writing about and engaging with Buchanan: As a previous winner of his (June 2014) whiny woman of the month award, I certainly am. I'm not alone: other female writers I have spoken to who have dealt with him have described him as "deliberately intimidating", "perturbing" and "difficult".

My altercation, after debating sexism with him and the writer Daisy Buchanan (no relation) on London Live, led to my Twitter mentions being clogged up with anti-feminists, this weirdness, several disturbing YouTube videos and the aforementioned whiny prize. Why? Because when Buchanan asked me to outline areas women are disadvantaged in, I cited the gender pay gap.

One writer I spoke to about Buchanan suggested the best thing to do with people like him is laugh – so in that spirit, here's what happened when we appeared on London Live.

More: This is how the UK ranks on gender equality

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