'Rough sex' defences: Grazia mag asks party leaders to act

[WomanDaresTo]

Hi all

Fiona from We Can't Consent to This here - just thought i'd update you on some progress in our mumsnet viper originated campaign to end the use of 'rough sex' claims in the killing or injury of women.

Grazia magazine have been incredible and are fully supporting our campaign. They have used their UK party leaders questions special to ask Jo Swinson, Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson: will you reintroduce the Domestic Abuse bill and back Harriet Harman's amendment to ban the so-called '50 shades' defence?

And all three said yes (or very like it).

It's not online yet but it's in the shops today -more here graziadaily.co.uk/life/in-the-news/boris-johnson-jeremy-corbyn/

We'll be asking everyone to write to new MPs once they're in place, and also working on media guidelines for reporting on this in the new year. All details will be here wecantconsenttothis.uk/actnow

there is also a petition but please don't link as this'll get sent to the doldrums of the Petitions board

And last week we kicked off Scotland, as the Domestic abuse bill and the proposed additions to it will not apply in scotland. I gave a speech at a Scottish Parliament event and did a whole raft of press. And amazing MSPs are already on the case - we got a couple of mentions in the Scottish Parliament debate, and there is action on the way.

Well done!
Is there a link to this petition on the board - i couldn't spot it.

Excellent news and well done.

Thank you! Errol I haven't shared the petition as I didn't know if it'd immediately get booted to Petitions purgatory. Can set up a thread, although all links on the grazia piece and on our site

Well done on the campaign shame it's Grazia as they have no fucking credibility on women's rights - who could forget the infamous Bergdorf article in Grazia where they lectured women on how they were doing feminism wrong

Your site won't load for me at the moment, but the petition is fairly easy to find in the Grazia article.

If you start a thread with a petitions link it will indeed get booted to the tumbleweed board when and if MNHQ become aware of it - though I can't imagine what sort of person would want to reduce all possible publicity for this issue. (I don't mean MNHQ, they have to keep their own rules I suppose - I mean what would motivate anyone to bother reporting it)

I should shamelessly link to our social media which has frequent updates on the campaign trail and the petition
Twitter: twitter.com/wecantconsentto
FB www.facebook.com/We-Cant-Consent-To-This-104076750999181/
Insta instagram.com/wecantconsentto

Clicky
Twitter: twitter.com/wecantconsentto
FB www.facebook.com/We-Cant-Consent-To-This-104076750999181/
Insta instagram.com/wecantconsentto

Fiona - I saw you on Sky News yesterday afternoon. You were fantastic! So, so, so, so proud of you.

Squee Lang

I've learned yesterday it's not only important to ask broadcasters in advance "how often can we say SEX", it's helpful if you mention why you're asking. Apologies to the actually terrified Sky floor manager bloke who I HISSED this at yesterday

(sky we agreed you can say anything, bbc little bit more restrictive)

I'm on Radio 5 tonight from 1030 in a 45 minute!! piece, will share once I have it.

Here's us from last week, on the horrifying normalisation of violent assault - choking, slapping, spitting and gagging - of women in consensual sex-with 38% of women under 40 reporting this

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07wbvzg

Apologies to the actually terrified Sky floor manager bloke who I HISSED this at yesterday

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

When you're talking about something as serious as this, you have to take the gallows humour where you can! Pity the poor old mansquirm!

Awesome! I really mean that; totally in awe of what you are doing, Fiona. What a woman!

Signed and shared, thank you for your work on this, it needs daylight.

Harriet Harman's tweeted the whole leaders' responses here if you want a nosey
twitter.com/HarrietHarman/status/1204398106672058371?s=19

Well done Woman. To make such progress in such a short time is awesome. And yes, given the silence that politicians have about other matters that negatively affect women, this is long overdue.

AMAZING

have signed the petition.

Fiona that is incredible! Brava, you’re amazing. You’ve done brilliantly to get this out there, sending buckets of gin and

Signed!

Fiona you are absolutely amazing- so many congratulations! Thank you for all your amazing political and media work around this. I’m sure you’ll get this legal change through. Brilliant.

Awesome awesome work!

Sharing your website with friends and family.

Thank you so much Fiona, and congratulations on the progress you are making.

Just want to add a link to your podcast for Feminist Current. Very interesting discussion. I forwarded the link to my daughter at uni with instructions to listen and share with her friends.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/feminist-current/id603245791?i=1000454721813

You are all lovely.

We're in the Indy today:

The leaders of all three main parties have pledged to introduce laws combatting the rising number of killers claiming that women died during “rough sex”.

The defence was recently used by the murderer of British backpacker Grace Millane, as well as a man whose partner died after suffering 40 separate injuries in the West Midlands.

Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson have now all backed new laws to stop the “rough sex defence”, which campaigners say has been used after the deaths of at least 59 women in the UK.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-rough-sex-defence-deaths-grace-millane-natalie-connolly-a9240976.html

This is proper feminist activism

You’re changing the world Fiona

Oh lads

Learned everything here I did, all of it.

Managed to get "you're so open minded that your brains fall out' on the bbc:

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000c5md

skip to 2:13:20, or whole interview starts at 2:03:00

Magdalen

This is proper feminist activism

It really, really is. I might have welled up. DON'T TELL ANYONE.