Way back in 1984 Andrea Dworkin asked for a 24 hour truce, during which there is no rape. Only when we have that, can we begin the real work for equality between women and men; When the fear of rape is not a constant presence.
We haven’t had it yet.
“ And I want one day of respite, one day off, one day in which no new bodies are piled up, one day in which no new agony is added to the old, and I am asking you to give it to me. And how could I ask you for less—it is so little. And how could you offer me less: it is so little. Even in wars, there are days of truce. Go and organize a truce. Stop your side for one day. I want a twenty-four-hour truce during which there is no rape.
I dare you to try it. I demand that you try it. I don't mind begging you to try it. What else could you possibly be here to do? What else could this movement possibly mean? What else could matter so much?
And on that day, that day of truce, that day when not one woman is raped, we will begin the real practice of equality, because we can't begin it before that day. Before that day it means nothing because it is nothing: it is not real; it is not true. But on that day it becomes real. And then, instead of rape we will for the first time in our lives—both men and women—begin to experience freedom.”
www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/WarZoneChaptIIIE.html
Today was the first day of a judicial review into the legality of locking rapists and others who identify as transwomen up with extremely vulnerable women in women's prisons.
We have also seen refuges losing their funding for not including men.
We have seen calls for including anyone who identifies as a woman or girl in all single sex spaces.
Am I being unreasonable to say that we can talk about making services mixed sex when we have had a 24 hour truce? It is not much to ask for. Give us that, then we can talk.