A British politician has come under fire for making some rather outrageous statements during a Westminster Hall debate focusing on some of the issues facing men in The UK, including suicide, attainment in school, and the ability (or inability) to discuss mental health problems.
Tory MP Nick Fletcher, who led the debate, believes that "female replacements" in TV shows such as Doctor Who are robbing boys of positive role models. This ultimately leads to an increase in crime, you see, because the only characters men have left to look up to are gangsters the Krays and Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders (apparently).
“Everywhere, not at least within in the cultural sphere, there seems to be a call from a tiny, yet very vocal, minority that every male character or role model must have a female replacement,” Fletcher said in a video that's been widely shared (and mocked) on social media. "Is there any wonder we are seeing so many young men committing crime?"
Fletcher did later attempt to clarify his comments on Twitter, claiming that his point "in no way linked Dr Who being female to crime being committed by men".
"Teachers, parents and carers need to teach young men and boys that males can make a positive difference. Promoting this can be done through various means, including through films and programmes. Yet something not often discussed is that the only characters many boys with no good male role models in their lives see on television and online are increasingly criminal."
He added: "I did not link a Dr Who being female to crime being committed by men - in fact, I was making a statement that boys and young men also need positive role models within the media, just as women do."
To be fair, his follow-up statement is at least a little more reasonable, but he said what he said in that video - whether it was what he was hoping to convey or not.
What do you guys think? Would preventing women from taking on roles originally played by men lead to a significant drop in crime? It's worth a try, surely?