challenging institutional disbelief around domestic & sexual violence and abuse
We have been aware of the Black Dot campaign, which asks women living with domestic violence to place a black dot on their hand if they would like others to reach out to them, since it was founded. We have chosen not to speak publicly about the campaign until this weekend as we understood that it […]
We are conflicted about this campaign from The Sun. Raising greater awareness of domestic violence is absolutely essential. Far too many people believe that domestic violence is something that happens to “those women” and most rarely consider who perpetrators actually are. The media rarely gives accurate coverage to the reality of domestic violence: that 1 in 4 […]
These are the 6 issues we will be raising with the various political parties and our individual MPs. Some of these issues will be easy to implement – such as the insistence that no woman ever be denied support due to migration status – others requirement serious commitment by political parties to ending male violence […]
Imagine if instead of saying “why doesn’t she leave him?” we said “why doesn’t he leave her?” Imagine if we thought that men who control, threaten and manipulate women are responsible for their actions and that they should be the ones to leave. Imagine if wondering why she puts up with it, we wonder why he does it in the first place. Imagine if, […]
This week, Cheltenham Borough councillor Barbara Driver has stepped down after using the phrase: “(t)here is a saying and I’m going to say it: When rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it” in reference to a new housing development. This misuse of language by politicians is not unusual. Victim blaming is. Eric Pickles allegedly told a survivor of child […]
Today I have had the misfortune of reading Maureen Messent’s comment piece for the Birmingham Mail entitled ‘Our ‘holy cows’ are own worst enemies’ (http://www.donotlink.com/f0Z) which is heavy on the victim blaming bile and ignorant, pro-police opinion but lacks absolutely any facts, figures or even anecdotes. Even Richard Littlejohn has the imagination to use ridiculous […]