On the 3rd of March this year, a 33 year old woman, name Sarah Everard disappeared while walking home in Brixton Hill, London from a friend’s home. She was later found dead in a woodland area near Ashford, Kent a week later (BBC News, 2021). Her disappearance and death sparked the discussion and a movement around women’s safety. I personally do not like the way the topic has been situated around ‘women’s safety’ and I believe it should be more focused on the people who commit the violence. It isn’t a problem with women, it is a problem with men (and obviously some women) who commit the horrendous and violent crimes against woman. I have seen some ways of repositioning the topic in this way, however overnight after the conversation began after Everards death, the trending hashtag was #NotallMen. Men have positioned themselves in this way that it is not their problem, due to the fact they are not a man raping or murdering woman. However, as a society, woman experience sexist and misogynistic on a regular basis. I don’t know how many times I have been catcalled. I have had my drink spiked in a bar. I have overheard sexist jokes being made, and other men not backing woman up. Heard comments about his friend of not being capable of being a rapist, even after being accused because he is a good guy. Guys, ranking girls out of 10 based on their looks. Not taking no for answer when a woman is not interested in them, and then take it as a challenge to pursue. I worked in a restaurant, as a chef for years, an inherently male environment, and on a daily basis experienced some sort of sexism or harassment. This culture of how men, and not all men, view and treat woman and placing the blame on others is what leads to the rape culture we now have. Most woman are raped by someone close to them, the statistics show that stranger rape is very low (The Unspeakable Crime: Rape, 2013). This is also not helped by the victim blaming in the media of rape victims, are the media is centred primarily around protecting men instead of woman. Here an entire cultural shift is needed. After Sarah Everards death, on social media their was a backlash and comments about how she made the wrong decisions for walking home at night alone, and this is common from crime committed against women. The culture of victim blaming is high. When in rape cases in court, the defence have held up underwear saying she must of wanted it as she wore sexy underwear. Similarly woman getting harassed and being told well its because what you were wearing. It put the blame on women and not on men.
I saw a very good clip from BBC News with a man speaking about this, and changing the problem from being about women needing to protect themselves to men stopping be violent towards woman. And how it is not all men, however most violent crimes in general and not just towards woman are committed by men, and 97% of women in a recent survey declared they had been sexually harassed and for women this wasn’t a surprising statistic, but from men their was a backlash, some even accusing women of lying of overexaggerating. But also then turning the issue back on themselves, say ‘well men get abused too’ or ‘where are the statistics on women abuse men, I bet it is equal’ or ‘we get abused and harassed the same about but we don’t moan about it.’ And these articles are not declaring that men are not abused or raped, however stating the statistics for woman how it is a large issue for woman. There is a lack of compassion there and a pattern of denial.
I think this has made my question and think about going down the path of PTSD from sexual assault, domestic abuse and rape, as with the current climate it could give an interesting narrative which others may have not thought of about the lasting mental consequences of certain crimes.
Dray, K (2021) ‘Jameela Jamil just underlined the big problem with that “not all men” argument’ Stylist 11 March Available at: https://www.stylist.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/jameela-jamil-not-all-men-debate/494934 (Accessed: 30 March 2021)
Bindel, J (2021) ‘Julie Bindel: Women shouldn’t have to be always vigilant. Male violence is for me to fix’ Evening Standard 11 March Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/julie-bindel-women-vigilant-male-violence-men-fix-b923532.html (Accessed: 30 March 2021)
Rainbow, S (2021) ‘‘Men aren’t even a part of it’: Why we need to change the way we talk about gendered violence’ Evening Standard 12 March Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/sarah-everard-sexual-harassment-violence-women-gender-language-statistics-b923865.html (Accessed: 30 March 2021)
Beaten by My Boyfriend (2015) BBC Three, 25 March, 21:00 Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2XzvBXoNF4 (Accessed: 14 November 2020)
The Unspeakable Crime: Rape (2013) BBC One, 4 June, 22:35 Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQmrqN7ZhzA&t=6s (Accessed: 14 November 2020)
BBC News (2021) Sarah Everard death: Inquest opened and adjourned 18 March Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-56442376#:~:text=The%2033%2Dyear%2Dold%20vanished,was%20released%20for%20a%20funeral. (Accessed: 30 March 2021)