I’d Rather Peg Boris Johnson Than Sit Through Another Male Panel on Women’s Rights
At least the pegging comes with lube and honesty.
“Pregnancy from rape is a blessing.”
“Maternity leave makes women lazy.”
“Women have enough power already. They control the home.”
These are not comments scraped from YouTube or some incel Reddit thread. These are statements made, on record, by elected officials, religious leaders, corporate donors, and panelists who are invited onto national stages to discuss women's rights with the same confidence they’d use to describe the plot of a film they’ve never watched. These are men who speak in public with microphones clipped to their suits about wombs, trauma, cycles, and bodies they’ve never lived in.
If I had to sit through another roundtable where a man in a lanyard explains abortion access like it’s a tax loophole, I would honestly peg Boris Johnson in a press tent just to escape. Because at least Boris wouldn’t pretend to be an expert on uteruses. He’d bluster, sweat, deflect. But he wouldn’t hold a symposium on menstruation and then vote against free period products in schools.
Here’s what they’ve actually said. Not in secret, not in private, not in error. But with confidence and applause:
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” – Todd Akin, US Congressman
“Pregnancy from rape is something that God intended.” – Richard Mourdock, US Senate candidate
“Some girls rape easy.” – Roger Rivard, Wisconsin State Representative
“Rape is kind of like the weather. If it’s inevitable, relax and enjoy it.” – Clayton Williams, Texas Gubernatorial Candidate
“Women who are raped can’t get pregnant. That’s a scientific fact.” – Lawrence Lockman, Maine State Rep
“In the good old days, they used to hang guys like that.” (on women accusing Trump of assault) – Donald Trump, 2020 rally
“When a woman is very attractive, she gets raped more.” – Dino Risi, Italian film director, on national TV
“I’m not sexist, I just think women belong in the kitchen.” – Nigel Farage, paraphrased from multiple public comments
“Working women are destroying the family unit.” – Pat Robertson, evangelical broadcaster
“Women are like children. They need guidance.” – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran
“When women talk too much, they make a bad impression.” – Yoshirō Mori, former Japanese Prime Minister, 2021
“Equal pay is complicated. Men have more drive.” – Unnamed G20 speaker, 2018 closed-session transcript leaked to press
“Contraception has made women more promiscuous.” – Rick Perry, former Texas Governor
“Abortion makes women selfish.” – Ben Carson, neurosurgeon and Trump cabinet member
“Men should make decisions about abortion. They’re less emotionally involved.” – French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, on a panel with 0 women
“Sexual harassment is a part of nature.” – Roberto Calderoli, Italian politician
Because these men don’t just speak. They vote. They shape. They legislate. These aren’t irrelevant fringe opinions. These are the beliefs of the people who decide what’s taught in schools, who gets funded, which bodies are protected, and which ones are punished. Male-led panels have influenced some of the most damaging, tone-deaf and frankly terrifying laws in modern history.
Here’s just a small handful of them:
Roe v. Wade was overturned by a male-majority Supreme Court who decided the bodies of millions weren’t theirs to own.
Ireland’s abortion ban was written by men in 1983 and upheld for 35 years, even when it killed women.
The UK taxed tampons as “luxury items” for decades while male MPs rolled their eyes at protest.
The U.S. spent $2 billion on abstinence-only education approved by all-male legislatures despite no evidence it works.
Marital rape was legal in North Carolina until 2019 because lawmakers didn’t think wives could say no.
Poland banned abortion in almost all cases under a male-led party who thought religion mattered more than women’s lives.
Trump’s all-male advisors reinstated the Global Gag Rule, cutting off healthcare to millions of women abroad.
Equal paternity leave has been blocked in the UK for decades by male policymakers who never had to choose between income and bonding.
The Texas Heartbeat Act was drafted by men who gave strangers the right to sue anyone helping a woman get care.
The FDA refused over-the-counter emergency contraception access because male officials thought teens couldn’t be trusted.
The UK Home Office denied asylum to survivors of gender-based violence under male-led systems that doubted trauma.
U.S. states cut consent from sex ed curriculums because male legislators thought it was “too explicit.”
The UK’s vaginal mesh scandal was ignored by male NHS boards while thousands of women were injured.
Male-led senates in the U.S. slashed contraception funding under the banner of “family values.”
Family courts in the UK gave custody to abusive fathers for decades because male judges didn’t believe women.
Male MPs in the UK still refuse to criminalise street harassment because it’s “too hard to define.”
The U.S. Senate delayed renewing the Violence Against Women Act because male Republicans didn’t like the gun clause.
UK austerity cut domestic violence services under male-led budgets that ignored what women needed to survive.
Male MPs rejected free period products in schools until 2020, calling it “unrealistic” while girls missed class.
Indiana passed a law requiring funerals for aborted fetuses, written by men to shame women one grave at a time.
There is another long, ugly list of what a number of men have done with their microphones, votes and conference slots:
They defunded Planned Parenthood.
Blocked gender pay gap reporting.
Fought against equal parental leave.
They withheld period products from public schools.
They framed consent as “too complex to teach.”
They regulated the morning-after pill like it was a moral offence.
They rejected making misogyny a hate crime.
They allowed religious bodies to chair summits on women’s roles while banning actual women from the table.
They cut funding to maternity wards.
They dismissed domestic violence shelters as “anti-family.”
They decriminalised marital rape.
They scrapped sex ed guidelines and called it preserving tradition.
And they did it all while smiling politely and thanking their daughters for inspiring them. Because a man with a daughter is the feminist equivalent of diplomatic immunity.
The worst part isn’t even what they say. It’s the silence that follows. The lack of consequence. The slow erosion of our rights dressed up as reform. Women are told we are overreacting. That the system is working. That things are better now. But every law written without us is a risk. Every panel that doesn’t include us is a warning. Every quote, every vote, every policy crafted in a room full of suits with zero lived experience is a threat to our autonomy. And if we sound angry, it’s because we are. If we sound tired, it’s because we’ve spent our entire lives being footnotes in conversations about our own bodies.
So no, I will not watch another male-led panel on abortion. I will not listen to a man explain hormones like he’s describing a rare storm. I will not nod politely while someone in a blazer talks about how giving women access to healthcare might harm the GDP. I would rather peg Boris Johnson on live television than sit quietly through another hour of this. At least then, someone would be in the right position for once. At least then, there would be consent.
At least then, it would be honest.