17 year old girl walking home sexually assaulted by multiple, unconnected men

[NoLoveofMine]

An absolutely horrendous case in which a 17 year old girl trying to get home on a night out was subject to multiple serious sexual assaults it seems by men completely unconnected to one another. What does this say about society, that different men in a small geographical location within the space of an hour all had such contempt for women and girls they chose to commit these abhorrent attacks on her? It's hideous. I don't usually start threads in this section of the board but I feel so enraged by these attacks and feel more should be aware of this misogyny.

[http://news.met.police.uk/news/appeal-after-woman-sexually-assaulted-by-multiple-suspects-following-night-out-267602]

It's an uncomfortable fact, I agree, but to debate the rise in misogyny whilst sidestepping the issue of culture is disingenuous at best.

I agree the debate needs to be had, but you can't just pretend that race and culture don't play a role. Surely nobody is that naive?

Please don't let this racist nonsense sidetrack this thread and divert from the real issue.

Wombling

I am not belittling, or shouting at anyone on this thread??

I haven't once addressed a post to you, and in fact I wasn't replying to you, just giving my opinions.

And it's about time we all got angry. Being nice hasn't got us anywhere, has it??

I haven't asked you, or anyone else to apologise either, I don't expect people to apologise for having an opinion.

I also won’t apologise for thinking that stupid misogynistic comments in no way equate to the physical experience of being sexually assaulted

I don't expect you to apologise.

However I would like to know why you think the two aren't connected?

The attitude is a scale, with jokes about our bodies and talents at one end, through rape jokes and arse slapping, to violent rape.

It's a pervading culture.

If the bloke at the next desk gets away with saying how he's "smash her doors in", then why not try pushing against her in the kitchen.
Get away with that, why not try a bit of groping.

I know a lot of women who have been assaulted and raped and in every single case it was by someone of the same race/culture as them.

Men ALWAYS tried to divert and make it not about them specifically. Fucking useless cowards.

"LanaKanesLeftNippleTassle you seem incredibly angry. I’m very interested in what you have to say, but your delivery is putting me off engaging with you"

There are loads of other people on this thread to engage with! Best ignore the ones you're not happy with.

Incidentally, are you not a bit angry about male violence towards women?

The conclusion I've come to is that while not all men rape, they like and even enjoy the fact that women live under the threat of rape - they use other men's violence to their advantage. So they don't have to rape (and they can still pretend they're good guys) but they can reap the advantages of half the population being restricted by fear.

I've often thought the same Sparrowhawk. There are far too many who are willing to assault women and girls but even those who wouldn't benefit from the power they have over us (even if they hate the fact they do so). They can intimidate us in certain situations as they know we're well aware of male violence and (in most cases) our powerlessness against it, they can look kind and caring by, for example, walking a woman home which they only can do due to the threat of male sexual violence against her from other men and so on. These men in the final group can't help that but it is a way they benefit and they must challenge other men on all misogyny.

Do I see a swift name change?

My eldest son was chatting to me recently on FaceTime and I saw bodies behind him and it transpires that on drunken nights out he often ends up with all the women in his group back at his because they feel safe at his and he can't physically accompany all of them home- the logistics are too much. It makes me happy that he is that safe person. It makes me sad that women need to have a 'safe person'. And they do. Not all men are rapists. I refuse to believe this. But so many are. And this destroys me emotionally. Thank you for your kind words NoLoveOfMine.

Don't engage with the racist.

Pages and pages of people pointing out that it's all men, and culture has fuck all to do with it and they are still determined not to listen, to dismiss lived experiences, and to push their agenda.

ALL. MEN. ARE. THE. PROBLEM.

yes this one caught my attention too

Poor poor girl. how can she even start to rebuild after a horror like this

as a mother of 2 sons this depresses me, and fuck me its probably worse for a Mother of 2 DD reading this

I mean how the fuck must her parents feel.

@MargaretTwatyer
Reading between the lines here, I'm thinking that you think the victim was drunk and therefore somehow complicit in her own assault?

Disgusting. Victim blaming is abhorrent.

Firstly this woman must have gone to hell and back!

But......are the people here tarnishing the entire male species on the disgusting actions of the minority of men also discriminating against the whole of the Muslim population about the actions of terrorists who just happen to be Muslim. Or saying they MUST know something, or they should be doing more to speak out about it. I doubt it - and quite rightly so.

So why are the people branding men as being so sexist towards women, implying that men have no substance in their being other than where they are going to stick their penis next - hypocritical much?

I am also sadly coming to the conclusion that it isn't a minority of men who would do these abhorrent things to women. I have seen far far more disgusting behaviour and attitudes from men and boys than I have seen positive. My teenage BILs shock and disgust me with the things they come out with about girls their age on a regular basis, I'm sure their mother doesn't think she has raised future rapists/abusers but she may well have done. I have been raped, and I have been sexually assaulted more times than I can count, I'm only 22. A girl at my school was gang raped by a group of boys from the boys school connected to mine, these were all 'nice, well brought up boys' nothing was done about it, their parents weren't even informed and there was video evidence. The girl didn't want to report it to police and the school also discouraged this route, because god Forbid these oxbridge bound future lawyers/doctors/captains of industry should have their reputations ruined for a 'silly mistake'. She was shamed and treated as a pariah while these boys continued to have girlfriends and go to parties where they would have access to more vulnerable teenage girls. And that is the problem, the men and boys who do these things rely on the fact so few of them are reported on or convicted for their crimes, that the woman will internalise the blame and the shame and not report them.

Our society is to blame, 'Jokes' about rape are not challenged but met with nervous laughter, someone grabbing your breasts or bum in a nightclub is brushed off as normal. And women are framed as the ones to blame for something that was done to them without their consent, told we should be flattered by any attention a man bestows upon us. We are told to protect ourselves, don't walk alone, cover up, don't drink but the onus is never on the rapist not to rape. There isn't a strong enough consequence to deter rapists as they know they won't get caught, or the victim won't report because society has made her feel shame for 'allowing' herself to be raped. Women are scared of standing up to these men for fear they may do worse than rape you.

I didn't consider my boyfriend raping me as rape until recently, I didn't think that being groped and pawed at on nights out was sexual assault. It is and we need society to tackle this perception because I believe it is widespread.

I don't want to hate men, I have some good honest men in my life, but more and more of these stories are coming to my attention and the reality of how men are (or are socialised to be) seems bleak.

Stop trying to excuse white men.

Stop trying to make it a race or immigration problem.

Do you think there wasn't an issue before immigration in those areas??

Do you think white men don't rape?

I'm the same age as the girl who was attacked. It depresses and enrages me. For the girl attacked most of all. It's also, to me, an attack on all girls and women, as all such attacks are. This isn't meant to appropriate trauma from the victims but I mean because they're attacked for no other reason than their being female. This kind of thing is a reminder of how many men see us and so reductive. We don't matter, our thoughts don't matter, our feelings, our emotions, our families, our hopes, our lives. Their hatred for women and girls is so great that their sexual thrills are derived from brutally assaulting us. Not only one man but, as seen here, numerous men all out within a small area. When I go out later this kind of thing makes me shudder. How many men do we all pass who think like this? Who would do this given a chance? Who view women and girls this way and would do it if they didn't fear getting caught slightly more than some others? Chilling.

Fuck off with the rascism.
I lived in Tower Hamlets for 12 years. I have been assaulted and raped more than once. Guess what? Every man who has attacked me was white. Every single fucking bastard.

And actually, what I don't understand is why men aren't standing up and saying "Not in my name, mate"

Spot on, Bertrand

Where the fuck are they?

GardenGeek much as I don't want to engage with your racist nonsense and let it derail the thread, yeah time and time again like in this case at the Hackney/Tower Hamlets border: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/28/man-who-raped-stranger-hours-before-his-wedding-given-life-term

This is about male sexual violence against women and girls.

You can be sure that many men who've slapped an ass or fucked a very drunk girl would go get their hun if someone touched their sister. They don't even realise it's them,

lozzylizzy, if you can give me one solitary example of a man doing anything practical (besides writing self-righteous articles) to prevent male violence against women, then I'll change my mind. Because, like I said, not all men rape, but all men just stand by and watch it happen over and over and over and do absolutely nothing about it.

Men have such incredibly low standards for themselves. They see other men raping and they think 'At least I don't do that.' At no point do they ever think, 'it's not enough not just not rape, I actually have to do something to stop it.'

Clearly gun, not hun....

I wonder the 1970s radical feminists were actually right. This simpering liberal lets all be friends and reasonable, not all men, cool wife shit has got us here

I went to a talk about a year ago at a book festival, audience naice middle aged women or older. The liberal feminist woman was oh so reasonable but the short haired lesbian radical feminist speaker was amazing, the audience were really responding to her she got a standing ovation from the twinset and pearls audience.

Sent my girls to a girls school btw.

So why are the people branding men as being so sexist towards women, implying that men have no substance in their being other than where they are going to stick their penis next - hypocritical much?

If you read what people are saying then you'll see it's not "hyocritical" in the slightest. All these entirely separate men, within a small area, in the space of an hour, all chose to assault a vulnerable girl. I don't think the issue here is "branding men".