A Conservative MP is to speak at a men’s rights conference alongside controversial activists including one who ran a website listing the personal details of feminist writers and called for a “bash a violent bitch month”.
Philip Davies, the MP for Shipley, who is a vehement critic of feminism and once sought to obstruct a bill to protect women against violence, is listed as a speaker at the International Conference on Men’s Issues taking place in Chicago in August.
Among the other scheduled speakers are two Ukip European election candidates, Carl Benjamin and Mark Meechan. Benjamin, who posts YouTube videos as “Sargon of Akkad”, once tweeted “I wouldn’t even rape you” to the Labour MP Jess Phillips, and has argued feminism has caused an increase in mass killings.
Another speaker is Paul Elam, an American who leads a group called A Voice for Men. The Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors extreme and far-right activity in the US, included Elam on a list of “male supremacists”.
Elam set up what he termed an “offenders register” website displaying photos and personal details of women users said had committed offences against men or had falsely accused them of crimes.
The now-deleted website also listed details of some feminist writers such as the Guardian contributor Jessica Valenti. It said Valenti had been put “among her morally bankrupt contemporaries, where she righteously deserves to be”.
In a defence of such tactics, Elam wrote a response to one female critic on the Voice for Men website saying: “You see, I find you, as a feminist, to be a loathsome, vile piece of human garbage. I find you so pernicious and repugnant that the idea of fucking your shit up gives me an erection.”
Elam has defended men responding violently to women who strike them, writing: “If you don’t want to be slapped, backhanded, punched in the mouth, decked or throttled, keep your stinking hands off of other people.”
He has called for a “bash a violent bitch month”, saying this was satire intended to raise awareness of female violence against men.
Also due to speak at the event is Mike Buchanan, the British founder and leader of a small political party called Justice for Men & Boys. Buchanan has argued that in modern society men have “no worth as human beings except in how they support women and children”.
A Canadian speaker, Janice Fiamengo, has sent recent tweets in support of white nationalist extremists and backed the conspiracy theory that the Notre Dame fire could have been the work of Islamist attackers.
Davies said: “Is the Guardian saying that you can only speak at a conference if you agree with the views of every other person who also speaks at the same conference? Or that if you speak at a conference it therefore must mean that you agree with the views of every other speaker? That is not a rule I recognise.”
He added: I am responsible for what I say and what I believe, not what others say or believe.”
The Labour MP Wes Streeting said he was concerned that Davies would attend the event. “The International Conference on Men’s Issues is at best a gathering of insecure and sexist man-babies, but more worryingly it also includes speakers with a whole host of extremist views,” he said.
“Philip Davies should not be lending what little credibility he has on gender equality issues to such an event, and it’s time that more men in parliament called out sexism and misogyny directed at women.”
The Conservative party was also contacted for comment.