To ask women and girls to walk with candles tonight at 6pm - in your local park or wherever you choose

[loveyouradvice]

The vigil for Sarah at 6pm tonight in Clapham Common has been cancelled. All the planned vigils have been cancelled. By the police.

But we are all allowed to walk - in our households or with one friend socially distanced.

Would you tonight consider walking with a candle?

Perhaps encourage others to walk too?

Even tell them where you might be going?

And courage calls to courage everywhere... Janice Turner's tweet summed it up perfectly - pasted below

This is what Janice Turner said on twitter :

I suspect many women will head to Clapham anyway this evening. Will be interesting to see if the Met dares arrest or fine them, given one of their own officers has been charged with Sarah Everard’s murder. What would the Suffragettes do?

Seriously would any other vulnerable group protesting a grotesque death allegedly by a police officer be told be kind, contain your anger, post hashtags online. But ladies: stay home, be nice.

Fuck lighting a candle, quite honestly.

I heard something on the news driving home earlier about leaving ribbons? Need to google further but seemed to be asked to do that.

There is a practical problem with candles if it’s as windy elsewhere as it is here.

I'm in two minds about this

Anything which raises awareness is usually a good thing. But, do we really need to be informed that some men pose a danger to women?

And, I don't hear of rallies every time a young black man is stabbed. I can't help feeling Sarah Everard's tragic death has attracted more publicity because she was white and middle class

And, after clap for the NHS, I feel that standing on your doorstep or going for a walk is virtue signalling / empty gesture. There are better ways to address gender based violence

There are better ways to address gender based violence This is just one of the ways being mooted.

We need others. What do you suggest?

I have a candle in a holder... others can use glowing torches or whatever they want... I think it is important that we are there witnessing it... stimulating others to think

Not I agree, and would add young to your categories.. but I don't really mind what has triggered it .. and this doesn't mean we don't do other things... it is one step alongside so many others. I think the fact it is International Women's Week will have also helped.

And personally I think if the whole of the UK walked with candles or torches at 6pm on a certain day each year highlighting violence against women, it would be such a powerful signal and make more people think.... whether its men thinking about what they can do, or women and girls talking about it more...

I was applauding when the Observer launched the Femicide Campaign last weekend ... long overdue ....

There are better ways to address gender based violence

I would be very happy to hear about and support all ways to address gender-based violence. Whilst the vigil gets a spotlight on the issue, we do need to look for longer-lasting action.

Eradication of violent porn?
Funding for better victim support in DV and family courts?
A push for more rape prosecutions?
A campaign against catcalling and public transport harassment?

What do people think?

The Reclaim these streets organisers have launched a fundraising effort to raise the equivalent of the fines they were threatened with -£320,000. The money to go to women's charities.

It's less visible but feels like a more substantive act than walking with a candle. Not to say we can't do both, for those able to afford it.

I'll be walking between six and seven - I'd already promised myself I would.
When I get home I'll put a candle in the window, and if I find I can donate, I will.

Don't sit at home thinking there are better things to do - get out there and do it. Let people see you care and that you've had enough of the wholesale abuse of women.

There are better ways to address gender based violence
Let's do those too. Come on, tell us what they are.

I like electricity strikes. Switch everything off for an hour. 9pm is a good time. Show 'them' how much you care.

And 'down tools'. That's a good one. Women go on strike for a day. Choose a day, none of us do anything useful. At all. And if you have a partner, you could follow Lysistrata's example. No sex until porn is curtailed and violence against women becomes socially unacceptable. I reckon it might take a fortnight...

Didn't the women in Iceland go on strike once? Must look that up.

TheABC, as a victim of domestic abuse purely from that side of things, if you want ideas, I think we should be educating young teenagers in school about healthy and unhealthy relationships, what the red flags are etc. We should encourage women to speak to their friends about worrying signs in their relationship, even if they are married or have just had a child. And to start collecting “evidence” even if they’re not sure yet if what they are dealing with is abuse. There needs to be mandatory domestic abuse training for police, social services, healthcare workers and everyone involved in the family (and criminal) courts. The family courts should start taking allegations of domestic abuse a whole lot more seriously. And we should be demanding much better government funding of refugees and domestic abuse charities, and a removal of the hoops people need to jump through to get legal aid for family court in a domestic abuse scenario, including means testing.

@notanothertakeaway right now, this is the result of Sarah's murder - who happened to be a white female. Today is about women shouting to be heard.

Other issues can be dealt with on other days. When the BLM protests were happening people were rightly blasted for calling out that "white lives matter too" and the same goes here - of course, Mens Lives Matter too but women need to be listened to!

Male violence is the issue.

Don’t see what the point is really. Who’s not aware that some men are dangerous? All kinds of people are also dangerous. Nothing will change. Nothing will ever change. I’m sad for the poor woman but there’s going to be many others that have also died or been abused. I’d be happy to light a candle in my window for all victims, not just this one lady. But again, what’s the point? Nobody but me will see it for a start off.

I’ve also been attacked on the streets but by a teenager. I don’t see what awareness or money will make?

I live in scotland, very windy here but i will light a candle at home and take a torch with me on my walk. My teenage daughters will be with me.

@loveyouradvice

The vigil for Sarah at 6pm tonight in Clapham Common has been cancelled. All the planned vigils have been cancelled. By the police.

But we are all allowed to walk - in our households or with one friend socially distanced.

Would you tonight consider walking with a candle?

Perhaps encourage others to walk too?

Even tell them where you might be going?

And courage calls to courage everywhere... Janice Turner's tweet summed it up perfectly - pasted below

Which will achieve precisely fuck-all except for making the participants feel virtuous.

You want to stop violence against women? Stop making excuses for male behaviour - call it out whenever you see it or however minor it seems. And stop spouting handmaidenish rubbish like 'not all men', 'boys will be boys' and - my particular favourite - 'it's just banter'.

Educate your fucking fathers, partners and sons.

I have a lantern that holds a nightlight but its tricky to carry it without being burned so will probably just use a torch.

The Suffragette's raised awareness.

Activists raise awareness.

Awareness eventually leads to a change in attitudes which in turn leads to changes in society which is what we need.

The fact that women are warned about becoming a victim needs to change! The language and attitude surrounding male on female violence needs to be looked at shifting the blame from the victim.

I will be at Clapham Common with 1 friend.

Lots of people use the Common anyway - are the police going to remove them? Or just women?

It's ridiculous and as I usually walk around there - like many people do - I won't be told that today, I can't but it'll be alright tomorrow.

If you have an empty jam jar, that works well with a tealight. We won't be walking but my neighbours and I are all putting tea lights along the marina for 6pm (as long as not raining). The council are aware and said it was fine as long as we didn't hold the jars (we can stand a few metres away though, go figure). Where my dd lives it's all students and they are putting candles on doorsteps

@EvilOnion

The Suffragette's raised awareness.

Activists raise awareness.

Awareness eventually leads to a change in attitudes which in turn leads to changes in society which is what we need.

The fact that women are warned about becoming a victim needs to change! The language and attitude surrounding male on female violence needs to be looked at shifting the blame from the victim.

Yeah, and standing around clapping 'raised awareness' of how important NHS staff are to our society - that's why the nurses got such a massive pay rise.

Oh wait....

I will be there walking my dog and leaving a rose.

I will light a candle in my window

@FluffyHippo I work in Health care, trust me I know that there were plenty of hypocrites out there clapping as if it would make any difference (I never did it either)...

I wasn't talking about clapping for the NHS, I'm discussing women's rights 🤨

[quote EvilOnion]@FluffyHippo I work in Health care, trust me I know that there were plenty of hypocrites out there clapping as if it would make any difference (I never did it either)...

I wasn't talking about clapping for the NHS, I'm discussing women's rights 🤨[/quote]
And I was talking about the value of 'raising awareness'.