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Feminism: Sex & gender discussions

Essex Police's new safety campaign:

28 replies
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TheGirlFromIpanema · 28/09/2015 20:23

as always

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WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 28/09/2015 20:26

Ive just had a polite go at our local police online.

Some woman was followed to her house and as she then was in her front room the bloke who followed her stood outside and had a wank.

Police are advising women not to walk home alone.

As I pointed out why don't they advise men not to be law breaking perverts?

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WoTmania · 28/09/2015 20:28

Precisely, WhoTheFuck.

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AftosPouEinaiDeMasHezeisRe · 28/09/2015 20:35

Why are these things so prevalent? I'm getting so fed up and tired of seeing the same old victim blaming rehashed over and over, no matter how many times we challenge it and stand up to it.

It's depressing.

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PlaysWellWithOthers · 28/09/2015 20:35

I tweeted about this earlier, and had a woman tell me that men can't help themselves and that we should keep ourselves safe from men.... and they say feminists hate men?

If this was, as Essex Police insist, nothing to do with rape/SA and more to do with "keeping safe" the posters would have shown male victims. Men are far more likely to be attacked by strangers after all.

It IS about rape, and it's more victim blaming bullshit.

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TeaAndNoSympathy · 28/09/2015 20:38

Oh FFS. Not this victim blaming utter bullshit AGAIN. How fucking depressing.

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WoTmania · 28/09/2015 21:03

Even if it isn't about rape Hmm how is this in anyway a realistic aim. I'm assuming it's aimed at women walking home after dark - winter is coming (sorry, couldn't' resist), the nights are drawing in. Are women supposed to be safely tucked up at home by 4pm every evening unless they have someone to walk with? What if you live on your own or you can't find someone you live with to walk with you?

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DiscoGoGo · 28/09/2015 21:04

I've signed the petition, what a load of shit that campaign is.

Simon has there been a lot of incidents or are police telling women not to go out because of that one incident? I'm a bit Confused I mean normally the police aren't interested in "low level" stuff like blokes wanking at you. I'm guessing you're in a quieter part of the country / one with a better police force! I mean their reaction is crap but I'm amazed they've reacted at all!

Is this the way it goes - the police are told to take sex offences more seriously and they react by telling women not to go out? Brilliant!

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DiscoGoGo · 28/09/2015 21:06

That's the thing isn't it Wot.

Clearly most women who have jobs or you know normal lives will need to walk around after dark sometimes. When this is raised there is a sort of sense of "oh we don't mean then obviously" because of course what they actually mean is women shouldn't walk alone after dark after 9pm / after a drink / while wearing a short skirt / & etc and so on.

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DiscoGoGo · 28/09/2015 21:09

If you click the link to the actual campaign it looks like the "don't walk home on your own" picture has been removed (unless it's lurking on a different page).

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WoTmania · 28/09/2015 21:15

Yep, women should curtail their activities so men can't perpetrate crimes...hopefully they have taken it down in that case Disco. It's so frustrating that something like this crops up Every Single Year.
And yes, they never mean 'ordinary' women going about their daily lives but who the fuck else do they think it's going to affect? I once had someone arguing that if you can't find anyone to walk you home you should always get a taxi...of course when I was a barmaid/waitress/shop assistant I had more than enough money to pay for taxis home every night (and I'm sure that would be really reassuring for Worboy's victims, for example)

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RomComPhooey · 28/09/2015 21:16

In the interests of balance and a force that IS getting it right, how about this:

Chief Supt Belinda Davies told the press conference: "My message is one of zero tolerance towards anyone who commits these appalling crimes.

"Crimes like this are never the victim's fault, but I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to follow basic safety advice so they keep themselves and their friends safe."

linky

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PlaysWellWithOthers · 28/09/2015 21:18

There are many police forces who are getting it bang on, I believe Bristol has done some really good PSAs on the subject, which why it's so jarring when one gets it as wrong as Essex has.

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WoTmania · 28/09/2015 21:18

that's great, thanks for linking RomCom

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Katymac · 28/09/2015 21:21

DD has just started college in Essex - the college has been sensible with their advise according to DD & pointed out that boys are as much at risk as girls - it's about violence not sex

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DiscoGoGo · 28/09/2015 21:25

Yes I saw that RomCom kudos to Chief Supt Davies.

I suppose the difficulty with this is that the police aren't generally known for being sensitive progressive types and they presumably haven't got £££ to run all their messaging through some kind of "make sure you haven't gone and cocked it up" agency.

But still it does come up all the bloody time when will they learn?

Just remembered this time last year I was confronted with dire warnings about how horribly at risk of rape I was, while in a shop fitting room. I tried a coat on and turned around and BOSH YOU ARE FEMALE YOU ARE AT RISK BE WARNED. We don't need this shit do we. All it does it try (and often succeed) in making us feel like prey.

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iamaboveandBeyond · 28/09/2015 21:26

Theyve had "dont walk home alone" advice over the assaults in cardiff too :(

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WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 28/09/2015 21:28

disco. Afaik it was a one off and that's how it was reported. Headline news! Some fb comments suggests there has been a peeping Tom in the area recently but not sure that has been reported.

Yes, I live in a quiter part of the country. Grin

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PlaysWellWithOthers · 28/09/2015 21:31

Katymac... that's really good that the college has been giving out good advice. Shame about Essex Police's not such good advice.

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DontHaveAUsername · 29/09/2015 12:29

I am not sure what to make of this. Are there statistics showing that women walking home alone are on average more prone to violence than women who walk home in a group or with a friend? If there are (and the rest of what I have to say is heavily predicated on that IF) then I can sort of understand the police point of view. I think I might be in the minority but they have a situation where a person doing X activity is more likely to be attacked than a person not doing X activity, and the police know that no matter how many times they warn criminals not to attack people doing X activity the criminals will still persist in doing it, I could understand the police then advising people not to do X activity. But are women walking home alone really more prone to being attacked than women in a group? I thought most of the time it was done by someone you know in a place you're familiar/comfortable with, like a partner raping or abusing you, not some random thing in a street.

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Anniegetyourgun · 29/09/2015 15:54

When X activity is "being female in a public place", though, it's actually quite hard to avoid.

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JAPAB · 29/09/2015 16:43

DontHaveAUsername
I think I might be in the minority but they have a situation where a person doing X activity is more likely to be attacked than a person not doing X activity, and the police know that no matter how many times they warn criminals not to attack people doing X activity the criminals will still persist in doing it, I could understand the police then advising people not to do X activity.

Which is all perfectly pragmatic. Problem with these sorts of things is that some people think there is a corollory to advising people not to do X that is along the lines of 'if you do do X and something happens then you are to blame for the actions of the criminal'. ie, advising not to do X is automatically one and the same as "victim-blaming". When of course there is no such corollary. Sometimes an individual person saying the former will additionally think the latter, sometimes they won't. But the former isn't the latter.

But are women walking home alone really more prone to being attacked than women in a group? I thought most of the time it was done by someone you know in a place you're familiar/comfortable with, like a partner raping or abusing you, not some random thing in a street.

The woman alone may be more at risk from a certain kind of attacker. Not the domestic abuser perhaps, but that is a different category of these crimes.

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ChunkyPickle · 29/09/2015 16:47

In fact, there are men who are known to play the good guy, and offer to walk you home because it's safer (after buying you doubles when you thought you were having singles), and then raping you. In that case, walking home alone would absolutely be safer.

It seems to me that these posters are focussing on the stranger attacking you issue, in which case both men and women are at risk for different reasons, yet again, the poster is focussing on women.

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lorelei9 · 29/09/2015 16:54

Police advising women not to walk home alone?

unfuckingbelievable.

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WoTmania · 29/09/2015 17:19

DontHaveA - afaia statistics indicate that a young man on his own is most likely to experience a violent attack, women are most likely to be attacked/raped in their home by an intimate partner, ex partner or someone known to them (i.e the 'friend' who insists on walking you home). Only around 8-9% of rapes are 'stranger' rapes.

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