BBC Radio 2 and the Coffey Report

October 30, 2014, Erika Garratt - Extreme Crochet, Media Complaints,

I'm sure lots of you have heard about Ann Coffey MP report on the sexual explotation of girls and young women (Greater Manchester being highlighted as a region where it is now seen as 'normal').

Having just listened to Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio 2, I am now in a state of fury and despair.

I'm not the most talented of writers so please forgive me ....

What I heard on the radio show just sums up what we are up against when it comes to protecting girls from being sexually exploited. One caller phoned in saying how he sympathised with a man who was charge with rape as the under age girl dressed up older than her age .... A 14 year old girl cannot give consent for sex - the law says so not just my feminist opinion - and yet the man who abused her was let off because she 'dolled herself up'. I know presenters need to be impartial but Vanessa Feltz really should have given this caller a very hard time over such comments.

Instead Vanessa Feltz went on some bizarre diatribe about feminism and how women need to be tackling girls behaviour as well as men's .

Let's make things clear:

Girls under 16 cannot consent to sex. End of. I don't care how she was dressed. That man should be on the sex offenders register.

Patriarchy is responsible for sexualising girls and making them feel they need to be sexually available to be of any worth. Some very difficult conversations need to be had. We can't keep saying 'we'll, it's how girls are these days'. That's a cop out and when radio stations pump out this rubbish to hundreds of thousands of listeners, we have a vey long way to go to protect girls.

#CoffeyReport, Child Sexual Exploitation, Vanessa Feltz

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