challenging institutional disbelief around domestic & sexual violence and abuse
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]