#RefuseTheBait Campaign and Year 3 for #NoAbusers on Stage
In January MACS launched a brand new campaign called #RefuseTheBait. The campaign calls on boys and men across the globe to stop contributing to the sexual exploitation of women and girls, paying special attention to so-called ‘sex challenges’ that have been happening this year pushed by OnlyFans.
Our #NoAbusersOnStage campaign returned for the third year and this time we particularly focussed on the return of Marilyn Manson through a collaboration with the activist group No Stage for Abusers as well as local and national supporters. So far the #NoStageForManson campaign has been fairly successful, resulting in the cancellation of Manson’s gig in Brighton and garnering support from local councillors and MPs.
Contributions to Reports
In March 2025, the Centre for Social Justice released their report Lost Boys: State of the Nation and we were thrilled that many of our contributions made it into the final report.
We were thrilled that our submitted evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee’s inquiry into Misogyny: the manosphere and online content was accepted. You can read our submission here.
Campaigning and Achievements
We signed a huge number of petitions, some of which resulted in amazing victories / gains:
- ✅ Demanding Spotify remove Andrew Tate’s harmful courses on trafficking women, resulting in a victory thanks to Collective Shout and their supporters.
- ✅ Demanding Steam remove rape + incest No Mercy resulting in a victory thanks to Collective Shout and their supporters.
- ✅ Decriminalising Abortion, which led to a discussion in parliament, leading to a vote by MPs do decriminalise abortion.
Other petitions we supported or were involved in include:
- Co-signatories of a petition demanding the prohibition of sex education materials that normalising strangulation started by Michael Conroy of Men at Work.
- Providing women-only emergency temporary accommodation. Women out of homeless hotels!
- Stopping the execution of women in Iran.
- Mandating Independent Oversight in Family Court Cases Involving Coercive Control and DA.
We reached out to our MPs multiple times in the first 6 months of 2025. This included emailing them about concerns raised by Surrogacy Concern with regards to drafted proposals to significantly liberalise surrogacy law in the UK. We also emailed our MPs, following a call from Brighton Sisters Salon, to ask them to ensure that single-sex spaces & single-sex services are commissioned and clearly signposted and to support the proposed amendment (NC21) to the Data (Use and Access) Bill that seeks to ensure that digital verification services enable people to accurately verify their sex in response from a call from Sex Matters.
Following a call from the Women’s Rights Network we also emailed the chair of the Women’s TUC Committee to express our concerns about draft motions aimed at decriminalising the sex trade. You can find a copy of the WRN’s letter here.
Networking and Events
In February, Chris attended a livestream of the Fawcett Conference For a Feminist Future. The chair Baroness Harriet Harman in her opening remarks called for more men / male allies to be involved, and to be involved not only in the struggle for equality between the sexes, but also in demanding better rights for men to take paternity leave and undertake childcare.
Stella Creasey MP was the keynote speaker highlighting the lack of equality – e.g. during the election campaign female politicians only spoke in media appearances 22% of the time. Creasey also warned about moves to roll back steps towards equality quoting a recent statistic that 47% of people thought equality for women had gone far enough.
Jess Phillips MP spoke genuinely about the work ahead to challenge men’s violence against women and girls. Phillips spoke of the biggest group offenders being young men under 16 and that a single policy isn’t going to magically change things – it’s about systemic change and that is going to take al long long time!
There were interesting panels on Tackling the rise of Populism, Creating feminist AI, Revolutionizing Work and Demanding Safety in Public Services.
We also attended the GM4Women Scorecard Data Reveal in Stockport in February, where we had a stall. In her opening address Helen Pankhurst spoke about the importance of coming together and connecting, particularly in this time where there is a disproportionate number of powerful men at the top of the world, who are running things very badly.
Make a Difference GM founder Nadia spoke about Indian suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh, who stood shoulder to shoulder with Emmeline Pankhurst a hundred years before. Together they refused to be silenced and pay taxes until women’s voices were rightfully heard. You can find out more about Sophia Duleep Singh here.
We also found out that production company Films Not Words is currently working on finalising a film called The Corinthians: We Were The Champions. This documentary tells the story of the Manchester Corinthians, a women’s football team that defied the FA’s ban on women’s football in the mid-20th century. You can check out the trailer for the film here.
During the event there was a lot of discussion about the data GM4Women is looking to collect as it currently isn’t being collected. Kate Green, Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester Kate Green underlined the importance of collecting data to describe the reality and lives of women and girls in order to hold those in power to account.
Whilst the importance of the aggregated data being used to inform Greater Manchester and enabling them to (better) meet the needs of women and girls was underlined, there was also a recognition that certain data would be impossible to aggregate. Unfortunately one such dataset concerns the safety of women and girls.
Discussion Group
With a lot of time and focus being taken up by our campaigns, preparations for the MACS2025 conference and various events we attended, we are running behind with the publication of our discussions. We are looking forward to sharing our thoughts about Jackson Katz’ Every Man: Why Violence Against Women is a Men’s Issue, the Channel 4 TV Series Groomed: A National Scandal as well as the Netflix Series Adolescence.
NEXT DISCUSSION GROUP MEETING
For our belated August discussion group we’re reading The Unthinkable: A Story of Control, Violence and My Mother by David Challen. The discussion group is taking place on 1 September at 5:45pm (GMT) online. To join us, please email allies@menchallengingsexism.org.uk or contact us on social media.
