challenging institutional disbelief around domestic & sexual violence and abuse
(Originally published at Crates & Ribbons) As most of you will have heard by now, an anonymous hacker has stolen the private images of a large number of female celebrities, and posted them on 4chan, an imageboard website notorious for being a cesspit of misogyny. Here are a selection of headlines I’ve seen today: The […]
(This piece was originally published at Reading Medieval Books) Today – when I should have been looking for a house to rent for my new job – I read an article in the Guardian by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett on the subject of victim blaming. It was provocatively titled “Have accusations of rape victim blaming gone too far?”. As […]
Before starting, I think I should be transparent and say that I have my own issues with nightclubs and consent, you can read more here. Unless you live in one of those wonderful bubbles in which the popular “news” of the day passes you by, you will have probably seen the stories today circulating around […]
(Content Note – non-graphic description of sexual pleasure during sexual abuse) We’ve noticed a running trend in our website searches recently, and we wanted to address what appears to be a gap in the information our site provides. The topic is still considered ‘taboo’, and very rarely spoken about. We’d like to help change that, […]
The following is a comment posted on our site. We have redacted all identifying information and have chosen not to link it to the original post. Instead, we’d like to address the victim blaming within the response. Obviously, the responder was upset to discover that what they felt was good advice was understood as victim […]
I know from personal experience how challenging it is for women who attempt to have the abusers held accountable through the courts. The odds are stacked against us from the very beginning. The first step in the legal process is in reporting the crimes against us to the police, and as we know, most (estimated […]
Email submitted to Metro on article “27 things that men do that women hate” Good Afternoon I am contacting you to complain about this article which appeared on your website on May 3rd. Firstly, it’s my view that articles of this nature should not be appearing in a daily newspaper. Secondly many of the “things” […]
Rape, Wright describes as ‘unpleasant.’ The OED defines ‘unpleasant’ thus: adjective Causing discomfort, unhappiness, or revulsion; disagreeable: an unpleasant smell the symptoms are extremely unpleasant I hereby challenge Wright to tell a survivor that what happened to her was ‘unpleasant’. The legal definition of rape under Section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 is […]
I’m a writer. I know this. Short words shock. They grab attention. If your house was on fire would you shout ….”A combustible material has been ignited in my near vicinity and appears to be out of control” or would you just shout… “FIRE!!!!” at the top of your lungs, before they filled with smoke […]
Lack of consent is one of the key defining features in the difference between sexual violence and sexual activity. In English law, more emphasis is put on the perpetrator’s “reasonable belief” of consent than the victim’s actions, yet our society seems to centre its discussion around the exact opposite. For the purpose of this piece, […]