Everyday Victim Blaming

challenging institutional disbelief around domestic & sexual violence and abuse

women’s aid

Child First: Safe Child Contact Saves Lives

We fully support the new campaign by Women’s Aid called Child First: Safe Child Contact Saves Lives, which calls on the Government, family court judiciary, Child and Family Courts Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), and other involved services to make child contact safer for women and children. The report Nineteen Child Homicides, which details serious crime […]

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The Sun’s Campaign to Save Refuges

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 […]

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Besotted vs Controlling

The Northern Echo published an article on March 15th with the headline “Besotted Darlington man behind bars after terrifying campaign against partner” The article was promptly challenged by Professor Nicole Westmarland who asked them to change the word ‘besotted’ to ‘controlling’. The online edition was updated very quickly. They also added a link to Women’s […]

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A ‘light-hearted look at who killed Lucy Beale’

BBC article: EastEnders: Lucy Beale’s killer – the likely suspects Having read the Counting Dead women project  I have come to understand that behind the statistics on the murders of women are the murdered women themselves. The women living their lives, striving for survival and happiness having their lives stolen by violent men. Karen Ingala […]

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Why doesn’t she just leave?

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, […]

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Holding our politicians accountable

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 […]

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“Why doesn’t she just leave him?”: The result of false narratives on women’s lives.

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 […]

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