challenging institutional disbelief around domestic & sexual violence and abuse
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 […]
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 […]
(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 […]
In case you haven’t heard, our national treasure, Stephen Fry, reportedly waded into the murky topic of Operation Yewtree and historical sex crimes whilst speaking at a Labour Party dinner. He allegedly ‘went off on one’* and thinks there should be tougher laws to discourage people from inventing false claims of rape and sexual assault. […]
Ray Rice, a member of the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL, is waiting to learn what his punishment will be for violating the NFL’s “personal conduct policy”. Rice’s “misconduct” resulted in him being indicted for aggravated assault. Personally, I’m not entirely certain hitting a woman so hard she ends up unconscious and then dragging her […]
We were extremely concerned when we read David Aaronovitch’s column “Let’s See Some Evidence. Then We Can Panic” published in the Times on July 10th. As a general rule of thumb, anyone who refers to public inquiries and investigative journalism into organised child sexual abuse rings as “paedogeddon” is already starting from a position of […]
Details of the cross examination of witnesses in the trial of Ben Blakeley have emerged, revealing once more the pervasive victim-blaming in cases of domestic violence against women. A known and repeated abuser of women Blakeley, 22, is on trial for murdering of his pregnant, 17-year-old girlfriend, Jayden Parkinson, in December last year. Blakeley, who […]
Survivor Privilege, Fairies, Unicorns and Other Myths (In response to the George Will article which appeared in both the New York Post and the Washington Post, also referenced by Think Progress here: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/06/09/3446557/washington-post-college-rape/). Washington Post pundit George Will has finally blown the whistle on the big secret – those of us who have been lucky […]
When does it become acceptable for a group of people to own an issue? Racism has killed white people and the families who lost their child are the victims of a heinous crime. But these were racially incited incidents, not a trend. White people do not have issues to fight because of their race; as a […]
I quite liked the beginning of Ally Fogg’s latest piece, about the ManKind ad purporting to show the cruel indifference of the public to the silent plight of male victims of female domestic violence. I am not a fan of advertisements or public service broadcasts which purport to be scientific experiments. […] So while I’m […]