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Original poster

#120db

30 replies

No1blueengine · 06/02/2018 12:15

I stumbled upon a thing on twitter, a video for #120db which appears to be a anti rape women movement in Europe. Essentially standing up for women who feel they have been thrown under the bus by Western Europe's migrant policy. I am having difficulty evaluating it frankly and wondered if anyone had any experience of it.

I am cautious because of what seems to be a overt anti-migrant position. It is not helped by a google search which brought up as the top response a piece on the movement by Brietbart. Also the Daughters of Europa thing rings in my ears as a call to nationalism but maybe it plays differently in mainland Europe than here on the fringes.

Fundamentally I don't want to see persons fleeing war etc and seeking safety labelled as potential rapists, but it has always seemed to me that the integration of migrant populations into European communities has been badly handled and with little thought to the consequences from what i can see.

As a child my community had a large intake of Lebanese refugees fleeing the civil war and i went to school with these children. There were exceptions of course but I saw the girls slowly disappear from school almost totally by age 14 to go back to Lebanon or elsewhere and get married and i had to deal with the boys whose level of misogyny was off the scale - even for Australia! So it doesn't take much for me to imagine what #120db are describing.

Obviously it is a nuanced subject. All refugees & migrants are not evil rapists in waiting. However, would it be fair to say that some persons, newly come to Europe, have come with a disconcertingly worrying attitude to women which is incompatible with assimilation and puts women at risk and that governments, for fear of giving legitimacy to the more far right/isolationist elements are ignoring the problem?

I feel like i am risking the electronic wroth of the internet for raising these questions but it must be worth a conversation surely?

OP posts:
Ebba84 · 07/02/2018 12:17

First time post, I actually registered so I could reply to this thread.

The 120DB movement has been brewing for a while in Germany and Austria as well as Sweden, but has only recently come to the forefront because of the video that was used to promote it.

Unfortunately the whole video and the movement has been put down in the media as being racist after it was retweeted by a number of far right groups who used the message for their own gains and right wing agenda.

The original message was absolutely not intended that way. 120DB wanted to attract the attention to the fact that more and more women, in Germany in particular, are carrying pepper spray and personal alarms with them because they don't feel safe in public anymore. They wanted to point out that this is a ridiculous situation that women have to arm themselves with these things to be able to go out and do the things they like.

Women of all ages simply do not feel safe anymore and face serious physical harassment on the street every single day. Harassment that goes further than just name calling, but involves groping, theft, beatings, rape and in some cases even murder.

I have personally witnessed this during a recent visit to Dortmund where guys deliberately pushed against me in the train station. Luckily my husband intervened and police presence made them go away, but it was scary to say the least.

I deliberately don't want to mention immigration, because I don't want to give fuel to some of the more rightwing people's ideas. However it is a fact that almost all the incidents are committed by what police refer to as "non-local" men. 120DB wants to attract attention to this because the incidents are not mentioned in the press or the regular media and women are increasingly wanting to know why. It is almost like these incidents aren't happening, but they are.

The movement is an extension from the #metoo campaign, only in this case women aren't just verbally harassed at work or have to put up with lecherous men but are physically targeted and attacked because they are women of a particular demographic.

GoodyHumbygge · 06/02/2018 16:04

I agree... I think both left wing and right wing men throw us under the bus for their own distinct purposes. I think there is valid debate to be had here, but I'm very sceptical about how it's being used. I get the impression that the mindset of right wing men disliking immigrants isn't out of a benevolent desire for women's autonomy, but that they feel a sense that their 'property' is being encroached upon. The whole thing feels very dogwhistly for the far right.

Original poster
No1blueengine · 06/02/2018 15:52

i am wary justabunchofcunts and i think it probably is tied into far right/nationalist elements (the Brietbart connection is pretty damning to me) but on the basis that even a broken clock is right twice a day, perhaps there is a conversation to be had about migrants attitude to women and how the liberal media are ignoring the issue because as collidascope says, it doesn't suit their agenda.

I think it is this tow the line/no debate approach that sees otherwise amazing feminist advocates afraid to object to penises in women's spaces including all women shortlists, rape crisis centers etc. It is the same mentality that saw people afraid to make the connection between the actions of the Rotherham 6 and the culture which informed their actions.

I don't know what the answer is by the way. All i know is that is seems like women are under the bus yet again.

OP posts:
Justabunchofcunts · 06/02/2018 14:07

It sounds like an anti-immigration policy in disguise to me. I would be very wary.

Collidascope · 06/02/2018 12:30

I agree with you. I feel like these happenings (e.g. the Cologne sexual assaults) are either used by the racist (and also misogynist...) press in order to prove all foreigners are rapists, or they're ignored by the press that prides itself on being liberal because it doesn't fit their agenda. I remember looking in vain for Guardian commentary when Cologne happened. It would be nice to have some honest, open coverage, and suggestions as to how to we deal with these problems. Mind you, the powers that be seem reluctant to deal with the problem of toxic masculinity full stop, so it stands to reason that the only ones who will deal with it are the ones who want to use it as a stick with which to beat people of a different nationality. I think a lot of men in positions of power just really don't care about the violent and sexual crimes committed by some men. It's seen as the price we pay to have all these wonderful, inventive, pioneering men at the top. Like the tortured genius trope, but applied to men as a whole. Women as a whole just get to be mediocre but reasonably peaceful.