The boys' club is under siege

The result is city cycling will end up being a tamer experience. That's the point. Whenever women muscle in on men's activities or interests, the end project is something very different, often holding far less attraction for either gender.

The classic example is the humble comic book, inevitably featuring the heroic male superhero, which provided endless entertainment for generations of little schoolboys – and a few of their female friends. But when feminism came to control our cultural narrative, it was determined these pale, stale supermales must be shoved off their pedestals.

The comic book creators started tinkering with the formula, introducing all manner of female superheroes and acceptably diverse new characters. We saw Kamala Khan, a Muslim teenager girl, became Ms Marvel, and the introduction of a new female Thor, as well as a black female Ironman.

Well, that all went down like a lead balloon. According to Marvel Comic's Vice president, David Gabriel, it was becoming obvious that "people were turning up their noses" at the new female characters. Speaking to a 2015 sales conference about the studio's falling comic sales, he reported fans "…didn't want any more diversity. They didn't want female characters out there."

His words created an uproar and he was forced to backtrack, stating his company was proud of their new creations. Feminist authors produced surveys claiming growing numbers of young female comic fans and the diversity crusade continued. Recent offerings include the Secret Six's asexual Indian character, Roshanna Chatterji, the deaf Phoenix host, Maya Echo Lopez, and Marvel's first Latin-American LGBTQ+ superhero, America Chavez. A thrill a minute, eh?

Traditional fans obviously don't think so. Last year the very non-woke Japanese Manga comics absolutely dominated the market, accounting for more than three of every four comics in the country. American superhero comics made up a pathetic 6.5%.

Not only are audiences turning their back on the socially engineered comic industry, but Marvel's woke superhero movies are bombing badly. Wonder Woman 1984 lost Warner Bros more than $100 million at the box office last year. According to Wall Street Journal, "since the beginning of 2021, the average global box-office gross of the six films produced by Marvel has fallen to $773.6 million-roughly half the $1.5 billion average of the previous six films."

So, there you go. Superman. Batman. Spiderman. Magical creatures who captured the hearts of generations of young people. But women had to butt in, take over and create their own heroes. Look what happened.

Endless other male bastions are currently under siege. The exclusive Australian Club is holding out, still refusing to admit female members after 146 years of men only. Sydney's Cranbrook School is being bullied to submission, forced by a new head to admit girls. This week the school board resigned after strenuously resisting the move. Given that one of these Eastern suburb schools spawned Chanel Contos who in 2021 encouraged thousands of private schoolgirls to publicly shame males using sexual assault allegations, it seems risky business to invite these woke, privileged young ladies into the fold.

One of the most outrageous examples of women chasing men's toys is their demand for entry into Men's Sheds. Here we have a rare organisation which was started exclusively for males only about 15 years ago – designed particularly for older retired men to come together and support each other. But suddenly women wanted in and sheds found themselves under pressure from women who liked the idea of joining in cosy woodwork sessions with the boys. It's led to a huge split in the movement between those still keen to promote the mateship they believe is vital to encouraging proper support for vulnerable men, and those who prefer to win brownie points from the ladies by embracing inclusiveness.

Four years ago, I had great fun making a video about this controversy and still hear from people on both sides of this fence, including men who say their sheds weren't the same after women joined their benches. The jury is still out as to which side will prevail but given the huge numbers of women's organisations thriving across the country it is quite remarkable that blokes weren't allowed to keep this one for themselves.