challenging institutional disbelief around domestic & sexual violence and abuse
(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 more »
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 more »
On June 9th, Leadership Journal (part of Christianity Today) published a piece – several pages long – by a youth pastor convicted of sexual abuse of a child. I will not link to it: it is horrific in its justifications, appalling it it’s narrative. Needless to say one section of the internet at least has more »
Bbc Woman’s Hour have run a series on sex work this week. They hosted the arguments on Monday & Tuesday and you can listen here. I’m not sure where I stand on the criminalisation of the purchase of sex. I’m very conflicted, because I know women who say they choose to sell sexual services, and more »
I Am Guilty. I Am Woman. I’ll just get my coat on I think and then I’ll pop off down the local police station and hand myself in. I may as well really. Because the crimes I’ve amassed as a woman are mounting. I did not breastfeed. I had breasts with milk in them and more »
On Wednesday, Slate Magazine’s Emily Yoffe caused outrage with an article about rape prevention on college campuses. Rife with victim-blaming, the article carried the aggressive tagline: “The Best Rape Prevention: Tell College Women to Stop Getting So Wasted”, and then proceeded to set the example by commanding, “College Women: Stop Getting Drunk”. To me, the more »
In 1977 a middle-aged predatory paedophile selected his victim. Thirteen year old Samantha Geimer was thrilled to be chosen to be photographed by film director Roman Polanski for French Vogue. He then isolated, groomed, drugged and raped her. Fearing a hefty sentence Polanski fled to Paris where, the following year, he was interviewed by Martin more »
CW: The below piece mentions rape. Please read only if in a safe place to do so. This piece will be cross-posted to End Victim Blaming Now tomorrow. Like many others today, I have read Victoria Coren-Mitchell’s piece for The Observer on Roman Polanski and found it troubling to the extreme. I am sorry he more »
“These are unfamiliar feelings; our modern world does not invite us to treat anybody as nuanced. People are heroes or villains, victims or victimisers; sometimes neither, but never both.” While I acknowledge the truth in the above statement, I am troubled by the invitation to feel sympathy for the man who drugged and sodomised a more »
Roman Polanski and the sin of nuance Victoria Coren’s article in the Observer (Sunday 28th September 2013) was one that I read with mounting disbelief and horror. In this muddled piece, Coren stated on Twitter (after its publication) that it is “putting S point across. I’m shocked by how many think she’s wrong so should more »