challenging institutional disbelief around domestic & sexual violence and abuse
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2015/jan/21/naked-pictures-this-is-what-i-did-revenge-porn-emma-holten-video Thought this to be an interesting article on how one woman, Emma Holten, decided to reclaim control from those who would attempt to erode her self-worth both as a woman and as a human being. Not sure of her methods, and maybe this is playing right into the hands of those (men) who suggest […]
Child Sexual Exploitation is in the news again – the media are over-run with commentators who are wringing their hands, apologising, claiming that they’re not sure how they didn’t know, telling us that work is in progress to ‘remove this vile scourge’ from our communities. But what are we actually doing? We’ve looked over a […]
We are very concerned about the story circulating in the media this morning concerning a number of Manchester United players. The Independent, among others, is reporting that several Manchester United players recorded an intimate sex act between another player and a woman without consent, and then shared the video with other teammates – again, without […]
On 12th February, Karen Ingala Smith, in partnership with Women’s Aid, will launch The Femicide Census: Profiles of Women Killed By Men, at a conference in London. Meanwhile, less than two miles away, hundreds of fans will be gathering for the UK premiere of Fifty Shades of Grey – the film-adaptation of EL James’ highly successful novel. The two events might seem unconnected. But for practitioners, those who are aware of domestic abuse […]
We are very pleased to see Ann Coffey, MP for Stockport, tabling amendements to the Serious Crime Bill which would see the term ‘child prostitute’ removed from legislation. We have been campaigning to see the removal of the term from language for several years now. The term ‘child prostitute’ suggests consent – that the child made an […]
We spend so much time critiquing safety campaigns from police that blame women for being raped. They focus entirely on the victim and never mention the perpetrator. We’re really happy to this campaign from the Devon & Cornwall police making it clear that sex without consent is rape.We hope they allow other police forces to […]
After the recent introduction of consent classes to students in universities throughout the UK, and the clear lack of understanding surrounding consent in the media response to the Ched Evans case, I initially found the headline of yesterday’s telegraph article: ‘Do footballers need to take rape prevention classes?’ pretty promising. Were these (much needed) consent […]
On Wednesday afternoon, when I got back from work I sat at my PC and watched the Alan Titchmarsh Show. I can’t say it’s something I’m proud of, but I was keen to see it as I knew Laura Bates of Everyday sexism was on the programme discussing whether or not sexism still exists. I […]
Trials have outcomes. Juries make decisions. Judges oversee that process. This is British justice. Or is it? Because it is not good justice if some of the comments made during and after that trial do a deep damage to victims of the past, present and really importantly, of the future. When those comments are made […]
Something has struck me about a whole range of different recent stories, covering many of the different things that I’m interested in: the tendency for the victims to be blamed. I’ve seen it in tech stories, in legal stories, and above all in political stories. It’s often implicit rather than explicit, and often it seems […]