Rape and death threats are all too common in feminist circles, just ask Laura Bates
In the first month of the Everyday Sexism project Bates received up to 200 messages a day threatening her with rape and murder. No-one has yet been charged in relation to any of these threats. On the Conversation: From jokes…
Sexual aggression isn’t an expression of maleness
Navigating our social world can sometimes be like stumbling through fog: intuiting the impact of our actions on other people often involves a confusing haze of speculative guesses about what they are thinking and feeling. However, some actions are clear…
Why anonymity would be a green light to rapists
The outcome of the William Roache trial resulted in a flood of demands for there to be anonymity for defendants in rape cases and talk of women eager to make false allegations of rape against men. I believe that these…
Rape Allegations and Accusations of False Allegations
On megamouthpiece: It seems to be the norm now to say that when an accused (usually) man is found *not guilty* of rape or sexual assault charges that his accusers made ‘false allegations’. That they lied. This is not how it…
Society Is Starting to Wake Up to Rampant Street Harassment of Women
Some Facts About Street Harassment Does a man asking a stranger on a date in a respectful manner without the expectation that he or she will say yes, constitute street harassment? No. Is a man asking a woman he encounters…
Zero Tolerance and Broken Windows Policing Criminalizes Homeless and Poor People … and Can Kill Them
Alternet: The recent death of homeless veteran Jerome Murdough in a Rikers Island cell should be more than a temporary debate in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it New York media cycle that often desensitizes us to tragedies. I know it hit close to…
Sunday feminist roundup (13th April 2014)
And here’s what else I’ve been reading this week. – The Government has a women problem – and its down to the feminist men to fix it (the guardian) – Fox News Hails Doctor Who Said Gay Rights Lead to…
Social Media in Latin America: Brazil’s Campaign Against Violence Toward Women
The Internet has given new meaning to the notion that Latin Americans love to connect. The region has the fastest growing Internet population in the world and 97 percent of its users are on social media platforms. By comparison, in…
The new school detention, where kids make the rules and a prison pipeline ends
Photograph: Picture Partners / Alamy Destiny was in eighth grade when, in the middle of an altercation with another student, she grabbed a teacher’s jacket and threw it out of a classroom window. She was enrolled at the Lyons Community…
Sunday feminist roundup (6th April 2014)
- In Brief: American school district preaches sexually active girls are like ‘dirty chocolate’ (lipmag) – “Why doesn’t she just leave him?”: The result of false narratives on women’s lives (everydayvictimblaming) – Consent in Institutional Sexism (everydayvictimblaming) – Study suggests…
“I do consider “rape culture” to be a useful and accurate way …
I do consider “rape culture” to be a useful and accurate way of describing the way in which sexual violence has been normalized and sexualized in our culture. There is simply no denying that, when we see male students “joking”…
“Crying wolf”: Why don’t the police believe women?
On Feminist Times: In December 2012 Naomi Oni was attacked with acid on her commute home from work by a jealous friend. The fear, pain and panic of this horrific attack are difficult to comfortably contemplate. Unfortunately for Naomi, this was only the…
“The attitude is: these girls are lucky to be at this party.
“The attitude is, ‘these girls are lucky to be at this party,’” Friedman says. “That inherent power dynamic feeds right into rape culture.” Sexual assaults like the one detailed by the brave anonymous Harvard student happen when men feel entitled…
This is the US criminal justice system
Rich white man gets no jail time for raping three year old. Meanwhile, they’re now seeking 60 years for Marissa Anderson’s warning shot in self-defence. On Feminist Philosophers. Disgusting and distressing. More on the first story from feministing: I can’t…
It’s time we stopped using the ‘boys will be boys’ line
From the Guardian: When writing about how men treat women, every female columnist has been told at some point that “boys will be boys”. I’m not overly prickly when it comes to responses to my writing, but nothing goads me…
Britain is going backwards on violence against women
On the Guardian: [...] Women who have been abused, who have lived in a refuge, often have to leave with nothing,” says the charity’s chief executive Naomi Ridley. They are already demoralised and lack self-esteem; their abusive partner may tell…
Sunday feminist roundup (30th March 2014)
Here’s what else I’ve been reading this week: – Teen spirit: the fifth-wave feminists (theguardian) – Moving Forward (everydayvictimblaming) – The Invisibility of Disability (bottomface) – No, I will not stop having ‘feelings’ about women’s lives and human rights (feministcurrent)…
‘Enough is enough’: the fight against everyday sexism
I thought about the night a group of teenage boys had casually walked up behind me in the street before one of them grabbed me, hard, between the legs. I recalled the boss who’d sent me emails about his sexual…
Campus Rape and the Rise of the Academic Industrial Complex
On truth-out: In 2012, it was revealed that the University of Montana and the city of Missoula were being investigated for a mass cover-up of sexual assaults on campus. Eighty reported assaults were either ignored or not prosecuted over a…
From Steubenville to Delhi: Destroying Rape Culture is a Worldwide Effort
On mediadiversified: Last week something quite special happened. Though only witnessed in real time on twitter, it has since filtered through to the mainstream media. It was an important moment in the fight-back against rape culture led by a survivor…