Tom Martin, a former gender studies student at the London School of Economics, recently became a minor celebrity amongst Men’s Rights activists and other angry men when he sued his alma mater for alleged sexism against men.
He’s now had his case thrown out of court. Let’s go to the Camden New Journal for details:
Tom Martin, 39, who lives in Covent Garden, claimed he suffered “anti-male discrimination” while studying for a master’s degree in gender, media and culture at the world-famous university in Holborn.
Representing himself at his application for a trial at the Central London County Court on Tuesday, Mr Martin complained of a lack of men-only sessions in the university’s gym and the preponderance of posters in the corridors advertising services for women without the presence of similar materials geared towards men.
Mr Martin, who describes himself as a feminist, said “hard” chairs in the library were uncomfortable for men and that a “male blaming culture” was evident in course materials, which “ignored men’s issues” and focused on wrongs done by them.
Damn those misandrist chairs and their man-hating hardness!
The judge didn’t buy it, saying Martin’s case had essentially no chance of success. He threw out the case and ordered Martin to pay LSE’s legal costs.
Martin, welcome to reality.
On Twitter, Martin responded to the news by calling his critics “whores.” One of many examples:
But I was really discriminated against, you whores!
And, yes, his Twitter handle is indeed Sexismbusters.org.
EDITED TO ADD: Actual headline today on What Men are Saying About Women:
EDITED AGAIN TO ADD: Tom Martin has replied to this post in the comments. Some highlights:
My legal complaint did NOT involve a complaint about the seating. You have been misled by the press – The Times and the West End Extra/Camden New Journal both mysteriously got it wrong.
One year prior to joining the university, when visiting its library, I did complain, that the seating being hard created a greater disadvantage for men than for women, as men have considerably smaller weight-bearing buttock pads than women, and men are heavier too – so for men, on average heavier than women, have more weight bearing down onto a pad which is approximately four times smaller than women’s on average – according to a BBC documentary on the subject.
He then details his attempts to fight this grave injustice. Also, there’s this:
[S]everal comments here are confusing ‘whore’ with ‘slut’. A slut has sex freely, which I am all for. Freedom of association is the ultimate in humanity. A whore charges for sex. Even if a woman is a virgin, but is waiting for Mr Right to buy her something, she’s a whore.
It’s counter-intuitive, but a lot of professional feminists are whores. They expect the government and men to do them special favours. They make up stories to convince men and government to believe that we all owe women something.
But really, if someone were keeping a tab, then…
Women owe men five years pension.
Women owe men some National Service.
Women owe men some inventions.
Women owe men positive discrimination in university curricula.
Women owe men some child access.
It’s women’s round at the bar too.
For the whole thing, see here.
For more charming quotes from Tom, see this post on the blog Butterflies and Wheels.
Thanks, Kyrie, I must have missed that amidst the deluge of the previous 500 comments!
Lemme stop you right here, MRAL. The ridiculousness of your original statement was already thoroughly debunked/heartily mocked by other posters so I’m just going to leave you with this:
Even setting aside your absolutely repellant personality, I still can’t imagine any activity that’s going to place you further away from meeting a nice young woman who might have a conversation with you, get to know you, and possibly be interested in having naked time with you then this pathetic trolling of a site that you’ve been kicked off of numerous times.
You’re. In. College.
It’s saturday night, for the love little fishes! By twenty-year old standards it’s still early! Go outside and do something with people your own age and stop this.
Yeah, well I think it would be polite if the kind of men who think the price of a cocktail/beer/glass of wine should guarantee them partnered sex would state that shit upfront and prior to offering to buy a woman a drink.
Otherwise, she’s liable to think you’re just trying to start a conversation.
No, you didn’t. We asked 15 times for the, he didn’t answered, he gave his (website) email address, so I figured I’d ask him directly, which was much more efficient.
You may have noticed that the padded seating versus hard seating issue is not one of the 164 discrimination issues listed in my A to Z:
http://sexismbusters.org/ref1.html
Kyrie rightly points out, I have not been able to trace the BBC documentary on the subject. I phoned the BBC too, and they said they couldn’t locate the show without its name. I switched channel onto the documentary half way through, so didn’t catch the name, and didn’t realise its significance, until I first visited the Norman Foster-designed library at LSE – the best social science library in Europe, but with trendy minimalist wooden seating.
Be honest, you’re not sitting on a hard seat right now, so why should you when you’re in a library?
My position was vindicated by the authorities taking it seriously at the time.
It is indicative, that now my case has been dismissed, everyone is pouring scorn on my work regarding the seating complaint – even though it wasn’t part of my lawsuit.
They also put a three piece couch and seats into the library after my successful complaint,
so I am actually very pleased about that, and you suck.
A seating issue I do mention in the A to Z, is that in Saudi Arabia, two men have to vacate a bus seat for one woman. This point is picked out as a somehow spurious issue by Helen Smith in a debate with me on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, which plays automatically when you click here:
http://sexismbusters.org/
So, we all know who Rosa Parks was. The black person who didn’t want to sit at the back of the bus – and quite right too, but at least she got a seat.
But when it is men being forced out of their seats, and by economically inactive Saudi whores – professional whore feminists just laugh it off or make BS excuses.
Scum.
You really have a thing for whores don’t you…is that like “your thing”? XD
Actually, I am. That’s the standard equipment for all the student rooms in my school. But that’s hardly the point. These are two different things: “is it a good thing to have comfy chairs?” and “are hard-wood chair are discriminating against men?”. Though I guess again the main point is that you have to count that as an oppression, you’re probably not that much oppressed.
Men in Saudi Arabia: way less socially privileged in their place and time than Rosa Parks was in hers.
You read it here first, folks!
Usually Saudi Arabia is the place assholes pick to say “look, women are actually oppressed over there, so stop complaining about the problems here”.
They also put a three piece couch and seats into the library after my successful complaint,
so I am actually very pleased about that, and you suck.
But Tom! Everyone can sit on that couch, can’t they? Even… feminists! You’ve played right into their hands, you poor fool!
Tell the truth, Martin. You have no idea what caused Rosa Parks to refuse to give up her seat that day, do you? You think she became a Civil Right’s icon because she didn’t want to sit at the back of the bus?
Fucking moron.
Seems like Saudi Arabian women are your ideal. They do as they’re told by men and are forbidden from talking to strange men–y’know, to make sure they aren’t doing any kind of whoring.
Tom, would you say you are the Rosa Parks of misandry?
…Saudi Arabia? THAT’S your example of a matriarchy? LOLOLOLOLOLOL.
Stuff you just made up aside, do you think gender studies should be sexist against men or not?
– and it seems a few of you douches seem to think seating discrimination against men in Saudi is somehow okay because of some other issues women face.
That hoary old trick.
There are no panaceas (although renouncing prostitution in all its forms comes close.
Men, do your bit, by refusing to give women money and gifts).
Martin, do you know how Rosa Parks became a Civil Rights icon?
Martin, your definition of whore is as streched as you presume my vagina to be. Please consult a dictionary for a proper definition.
As far as you calling me a whore, I really don’t care. Most men like you call me a bitch, I call you a stupid mother fucker and as we all know bitch trumps stupid motherfucker everytime.
As far as my saying that you do bring up some valid concerns, they are valid concerns, not glaring examples of oppression. Citing that feminists are the cause BEFORE doing any actual well grounded research is premature and outright idiotic in terms of the standards employed by peer reviewed science. Keep hoisting yourself by your own petard. My opinion is that your valid concerns are being undermined by you and others like you. I strongly encourage you to finish that genderstudies course so that you may sift through your own bullshit and discover where the valid concerns are and perhaps get over the persecution complex you’ve developed.
Showing encouraging signs of humanity? If this is your idea of high praise, please shove it up your ass whilst I proudly flaunt my tart whoreness about the world. I feel no need to answer to the likes of you.
Martin, saying that men are discriminated in Saudi Arabia is like saying white people contemporary of Ms. Park were discriminated because they couldn’t sit at the back of the bus, so see, reverse racism!
Do we really need to go into detail why it’s not the case?
And for the record, sexism is bad everywhere. It doesn’t mean, of course, that I agree gender studies are sexist.
Oh, coming from you, that’s rich. About 90% of what you say is made up, and the rest is misunderstood (by you). Hey Tom, are you enjoying whoring yourself out for donations?
“…Saudi Arabia? THAT’S your example of a matriarchy? LOLOLOLOLOLOL.”
In a way, the Saudi thing makes sense. Saudi Arabia is one of the most openly and explicitly misogynistic countries in the world. If he can prove that if Saudi Arabia is actually a place that favours women over men, then from there it should be easy to prove that men are discriminated against everywhere
The trouble there seems to be that “if”. It’s a million-to-one chance, but it just might work!
BTW, when I was 12, all the cool kids were seated at the back of the bus, and there were almost all white. Which is proof that white people wanted to seat at the back, they were just prevented by racism! And racism is bad, right guys?
@Sir Bodsworth: It’s a million-to-one chance, but it just might work!
Only if you’re standing on top of an abandoned distillery, in the middle of the night, with one sock off, and your tunic on inside out, shooting behind you, and hoping to hit the dragon’s voonerables…………………
Everyone knows million-to-one chances happen nine times out of ten.
True, but I think this time will turn out to be the tenth.
Dracula: I think you just broke probabilities. 🙁