As well as helping to “Feed The World” with Band Aid, “Sir” Bob Geldof became one the men’s movement’s most famous advocates because of his first-hand experience of the family courts. After winning custody of his three daughters, following his divorce from Paul Yates, the Nobel Peace Prize nominee became an outspoken advocate for fathers’ rights and the need for family law reform.
Now his eldest daughter Peaches has become an unlikely men’s rights advocate herself by taking a personal stand against Unnecessary Male Circumcision on religions grounds. Peaches converted to Judaism for her partner Thomas Cohen last year and now the pair have had a baby boy.
However the couple have decided to go against Jewish tradition and won’t be circumcising their son – making the pair unlikely icons of the ‘intactivist’ movement that campaigns boys to have the same rights to genital autonomy as girls.
In a bizarre twist to the story, Cohen is frontman of a band called S.C.U.M. The name is taken from The S.C.U.M. Manifesto – a radical anti-male manifesto written by the woman who shot and attempted to murder Andy Warhol – Valerie Solanas.
The irony for this unwitting icon for the “anti-cutting” movement is that S.C.U.M. is short for the Society For Cutting Up Men.
Glen Poole is UK co-ordinator for International Men's Day, Director at the consultancy Helping Men and news editor of insideMAN magazine. Follow him on twitter @HelpingMen or find out more about his work at www.helpingmen.co.uk.
Leave a Reply