UK Government Treated Misogyny as Extremism

The Home Office said extreme misogyny would be considered a form of extremism under the government’s new plans.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a review of the UK’s counter-extremism strategy to find out how best to tackle the threat posed by harmful ideologies.

The analysis will look at misogyny as one of the ideological trends the government says is taking hold.

Cooper said extremism was increasing “both online and on our streets” and was “tearing apart the fabric of our communities and our democracy”.

The review will look at the rise of Islamism and far-right extremism in the UK, as well as wider ideological trends including extreme misogyny or beliefs that fall into wider categories such as violence.

It will also address the causes and behaviours of young people being radicalised.

Cooper said the strategy would “map and monitor extremist trends” to find out how to disrupt them and dissuade people from them.

She said it would also “identify any gaps that need to be addressed in existing policies to tackle those who promote harmful and hateful beliefs and violence”.

Ms Cooper said the response to extremism had been “seriously weakened” in recent years.

The work will feed into a new counter-extremism strategy promised in Labour’s manifesto, which the Home Office said would “respond to growing and changing patterns of extremism across the UK”.

The review is expected to be completed in October. It is one of several policy reviews Labour has announced since taking office in July, including a strategic defence review, a spending review and a national curriculum review.

Critics may argue that some reviews are just substitutes for real action, but Labour points out that there has been no new strategy to combat extremism since 2015 and that an assessment of emerging threats is long overdue.

This is also not the first time the government has flagged misogyny as a form of extremism.

For years there have been concerns about “incel culture”, an online movement of mostly young men who call themselves “incels” and blame women and “alpha males” for their problems.

In 2021, the mass shooting in Plymouth by 22-year-old Jake Davison, who killed five people before turning the gun on himself, was linked to incel ideology.

No further policy action has been taken yet, but incidents like these, and the rise of social media influencers like self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate, may prompt a rethink by the new government.