Why does our Student Union president keep banging on about misandry?

SU President Yael Shafritz has come under fire for controversially hailing the Student’s Union as a “misandrist bubble”. 

Following a heated debate in the Union on Monday night, Yael claimed she told men to sit down and shut up, calling the event a “misandrist win”.

In a Facebook status, she added: “About halfway through I got really frustrated and gave up trying to appease the men in the audience who seemed convinced their opinions were more important than anyone else’s.

“Happy to say that despite telling the men in the room to sit down, shut up and that their feelings didn’t matter, we still won on competence and conscience!

“Yes the Union might be a bubble, but it’s an excellent misandrist bubble and I love it!’

The motion in question: “This house believes men should be excluded from feminism.”

Feminist and English second-year Heather McDonald said: “It’s disgusting that our President is promoting ‘misandrist victories’ in feminist debates.

“We should all be equal. Her being allowed to say things like that makes me lose faith in our Union.

“If other male officers were shouting about misogyny and how much they love it, they wouldn’t get away with it. So why should she?”

The official SU anti-sexism policy says “any notion of superiority based on sex or gender is unjustified’ and that ‘university life should be free from sexism”.

It’s not the first time Shafritz has endorsed or promoted the hatred of men on social media.

https://twitter.com/Yael_Shafritz/status/538457298482765824

Only last week she quoted X Files actress Gillian Anderson as saying “maleness is a sort of a birth defect”.

She also described Anderson’s show, The Fall, as having “so much excellent misandry”.

“So much excellent mysandry!!!!”

Second year Calum Paver said: “Ultimately, equality is the end goal of feminism, and misandry definitely isn’t equality.”

Pete Abbosh, a second year Economist, said: “It’s an abhorrent way to speak in such a position of authority, joking or not.

“If the tables were turned and it was a male President saying women were ‘birth defects’ and such like, it’d be a completely different story. He’d be finished.”

Since posting the Facebook status, Yael replied online on Tuesday afternoon: “Not that I should really have to clarify this because a lot of people seemed to have understood it fine, but the misandry part is a joke.

“If that wasn’t clear from the tone then it should have been clear from the fact this is debating society, so to take part you don’t necessarily have to 100% agree with everything you’re arguing.

“On a more serious note…the overarching point is that that conversation should be happening between women, and men should listen to it and follow whatever outcomes women decide.

“It is not men’s movement to decide the direction of.”

Despite requests, President Shafritz was unavailable for comment.