Ensuring the momentum continues and things change

[Changemusthappen]

Does everyone agree that one of the key questions to come out of the current debate around the safety of women, sexual harassment etc is what happens next and what can be done in the short and long term to tackle this.

Short term - can be put in place/motion immediately:

• continued and increased awareness of the harassment and threats that women and girls receive on a daily basis. There have been many phone ins on the radio this week and newspaper articles, these need to continue/be revisited regularly
• immediate zero tolerance in schools regarding sexual harassment of girls and inclusion of this in PSHE (it may be already). Additionally the emphasis that it is 'everyone's responsibility' to call out this behaviour.
• more police presence on the streets, trains, tubes
• Immediate government action to stop self id and repeal/reform the GRA
• Protection of all women's single sex spaces including toilets, prisons, sport etc
• detailed logging and followup of every report to the police of harassment, sexual assault, threatening behaviour
• increased cctv on tubes and trains

Long term

• a complete review within the police force regarding how sexual abuse/harrasment, threats etc are logged and dealt with
• Better planning around facilities, street lighting etc to improve safety

Obviously this is just a starter but I am interested in other's views. I am planning to write to my MP about this, it is important it is kept in the public eye.

I want them recorded as such. If Greater Manchester Police can experiment with making being an emo a protected category, police forces can damn well cope with recognising that women are abused in the street.

Well let's hope Harry Miller and Sarah Phillimore's cases fail then because they are attempting to prevent that from ever being able to happen.

The op raised the issue of trans people by calling for the removal of existing trans right.

And which rights would those be then?

I saw this from yesterday. I wonder if the creator is even aware of the irony that Sarah Everard isn't actually represented on that flag.

Oh FFS. Can they not, just for one second, give the pandering a rest?

Men are the broken sex, they are the ones who need to change, who need to do something. Women cannot fix it for them. They need to find and champion decent role models and call each other out on poor male behaviour.

I have had a good long talk with DH about what it’s like to be in fear at night on your own. He had no clue, I suspect we can talk to the men we love, and who love us about this and very squarely put the ball in their court to fix their problem. If they love us they should be with us and stand up for us on social media and real life. They’d call out a racist so why not a sexist?

It is not our behaviour that needs to change it’s theirs, and there is so much to fix, absent fathers, casual sexism (banter), porn. It all adds up to male irresponsibility and poor behaviour towards women.

If some people want to remove the right of women to single sex spaces when they know that this will increase the potential for violence against women, let them be honest and own it. Male people know that males of all gender identities present the same risks as the statistics clearly show. So given this , let them be honest, tell women their needs don't matter, tell women that they don't count. Own it!

It is not our behaviour that needs to change it’s theirs, and there is so much to fix, absent fathers, casual sexism (banter), porn. It all adds up to male irresponsibility and poor behaviour towards women.

Perhaps our behaviour also has to change. We should stop ignoring the micro aggressions. We should be demanding that our trade unions centre safety when negotiating with employers. We should report every sexual comment our daughters have to endure at school and demand action etc etc. Men have to take responsibility but until they truly know how endemic this is they'll continue to hide behind NAMLT

Indeed, acknowledging that what some posters have framed as ‘trans rights’ and women’s rights are in conflict is part of this debate. That’s why it is so difficult.

But would you rather be unpopular or would you rather be dead?

I don’t think anything was ever solved by attacking someone. Look at Brexit, look how that worked out when people called Brexiteers ‘thick’ or whatever for refusing to listen. This is why I say we need to talk to the men we love and love us, and get them to change their ways.

Yes absolutely call out all sexism as when it happens and stand your ground. Have done the same and still got paid to leave by my
Previous employer.

Men need to recognise the problem and it seems most don’t even know there is one. That’s where we start.

I really don't think merely adding misogyny to existing legislation helps. I think better specific women focussed legislation is the way to go e.g. there's the Stop Street Harrassment campaign to criminalise street harrassment and the whole overarching VAWG strategy. Women aren't a minority and shouldn't be treated as such. Protecting single sex spaces is part of this. We already have laws but they're not being enforced.
Misogyny like rascism can be clearly defined rather than just relying on 'feelings'. So I see no problem with recording incidents unlike Goth etc 'hate' incidents.
twitter.com/VeraGrayF/status/1370735212104146945?s=19
Email your MP now and support @OurStreetsNow @PlanUK #CrimeNotCompliment

Gemma and Maya Tutton

United Kingdom

12 MAR 2021 —

Will you email your MP and ask them to support our campaign to make public sexual harassment a crime?

Email your MP now

Today, The Telegraph reported that the Government is considering making public sexual harassment a criminal offence.

This is a landmark moment for the #CrimeNotCompliment campaign but we know that the hard work starts here.

The Government will publish its strategy for tackling violence against women and girls in the Autumn and we urgently need to make sure that between now and then, MPs from across the political spectrum are voicing their support for our campaign.

So can you email your MP now and ask them to support the campaign?

Email your MP now

It only takes 5 minutes to email your MP and we’ve written a template email which you can use to get started.If you’ve got a personalstoryyou’d like to share with your MP that would bereally powerfultoo.

www.change.org/p/make-public-sexual-harassment-a-criminal-offence-in-the-uk/u/28698002

Women aren't a minority and shouldn't be treated as such.
Nor are non white people on a global scale
but in ANY situation, whoever is in the minority should be protected from violence and abuse.

Threats of violence and rape SHOULD NOT be acceptable
face to face
online
via any sort of communication

The police needs more funding for resources. On another forum I post on, someone calculated, using average reports to the police, the time taken to investigate etc that there would need to be circa 30k plus additional police just within the Met to ensure that all reports are looked into. Unfortunately in the cuts, a lot of things that overwhelmingly affect women were cut. I think it is safe to assume that many men who do it know that it's very unlikely it will be followed up.

Of course that doesn't 'solve' the issue itself, but acts as a deterrent. I am genuinely not sure of where to start on the societal and institutional issues and how to progress things going forwards.

There seems to be 2 ways to enforce change

Revolutionary or evolutionary - the second having been seemingly well adopted by some charities with the constant drip drip of seemingly benign intentions.
Either way for it to be successful you need everyone to believe that there’s something in it for them

Revolution has its use when you need a change and fast, but still depending in on the cause, if the people you are tying to change don’t see what’s in it for them, it will never stick especially if they didn’t buy into the reason for the change in the first place.

Evolution is often more successful particularly when trying to change culture and values.

The problem now is that women’s and children’s rights , which were lip service at the best of times , have taken a battering. Not just the trans issues, but Covid and the falling populations in many developed countries - China are considering reducing the amount of time women spend in education and employment to get them back making babies
So first we need to stop the rot and that calls for some more revolutionary action. I’m not advocating violence but rather more of the same seen yesterday. Once we’re out of lockdown let the protests begin
-Be social media agitators- drop grenades into seemingly irrelevant threads and run. Yes it may piss people off but some may seek out more information
-we need to start drip drip feeding our own messages to our friends and family of all sexes. My husband has no comprehension of how scared I feel and I can’t believe the number of people well as educated friends who are oblivious to this - so start the conversation with them and sound them out, I bet like me many have an unease and inkling of what’s happening around them but we’re all too frightened to even air our fears. Let them know you are scared and ask for their advice

• get behind all the public actions you can and give you whatever support you can
• talk to our children, not in a confrontational way but start the dialogue. I bet most of them are scared too
• we need to get men to start seeing benefits that working with women brings (the most difficult challenge by far). I’m not referring to sexual relationships as any relationship built on mutual respect and understanding is a good one, but the wider benefits to society). It was Isabella of Castile who sponsored Columbus enabling him to discover the new world, The golden age of Elizabeth giving rise to Shakespeare and Drake, the flocking of women to the factories giving rise to industrial revolution , women’s role in many Asian countries pushing them to the top of the pecking order. I even saw an article on linkedin on how those firms with women at the head provide a better return for investors. Men (not all I add) are often motivated by power and wealth, so use this as leverage . They need to see ‘what’s in it for them’ and then maybe we’ll get the equality we all need (if we haven’t destroyed ourself in the process in account of their wars and climate change). History is littered with examples of how this partnership has benefited all societies.

I’m sure there’s many of you who have studied feminist theory who may have much more to contribute, but I come at it from having worked alongside men in business for so long a, often been the only female in the room and having had to navigate my way through the pit of vipers

YY Baracker...

women aren't a Terra Nullius, we already live here, you can't have our ontology, our spaces, our right to safety and privacy away from your sex. You won't redefine us into your own transgressive fantasy of our subjugation so we become the submissive, subaltern class of humans. No, I will not comply.

"If feminism was reduced to one word, it would be this: no. “No” is a boundary, spoken only by a self who claims one. Objects have neither; subjects begin at no. Feminists said no and we meant it."

"The boundary of “no” extended outward, an insult to one being an injury to all: “we” is the word of political movements. Without it, women are cast adrift in a hostile, chaotic sea, holding our breath against the next Bad Thing. With the lens of feminism, the chaos snaps into sharp focus. We gave words to the Bad Things, then faced down denial and despair to see the pattern. That’s called theory. Then we demanded remedies. That’s what subjects, especially political subjects, do. Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the British suffragettes, worked at the Census Office as a birth registrar. Every day, young girls came in with their newborns. Every day, she had to ask who the father was, and every day the girls wept in humiliation and rage. Reader, you know who the fathers were. That’s why Pankhurst never gave up."

"To say no to the sadist is to assert those girls as political subjects, as human beings with the standing that comes from inalienable rights. Each and every life is self-willed and sovereign; each life can only be lived in a body. Not an object to be broken down for parts: a living body. Child sexual abuse is especially designed to turn the body into a cage. The bars may start as terror and pain but they will harden to self-loathing. Instilling shame is the best method to ensure compliance: we are ashamed—sexual violation is very good at that—and for the rest of our lives we will comply. Our compliance is, of course, his control. His power is his pleasure, and another generation of girls will grow up in bodies they will surely hate, to be women who comply."

Lierre Keith - The Girls and the Grasses

dgrnewsservice.org/resistance-culture/radical-feminism/lierre-keith-the-girls-and-the-grasses/

@ListeningQuietly

Women aren't a minority and shouldn't be treated as such. Nor are non white people on a global scale but in ANY situation, whoever is in the minority should be protected from violence and abuse.

Threats of violence and rape SHOULD NOT be acceptable
face to face
online
via any sort of communication

I think you misunderstand. I mean women don't need to be 'protected' as a minority but to have their rights as 50% of humanity enforced. A 50:50 society would be built around the safety, dignity and consent of women, instead of the perceptions and preferences of men. I never said anything about rape threats being acceptable, they should be presecuted and looked at more in terms of terrorism than everyday abuse (banter).

Fair enough.

I guess the key point is that
"banter" and "lolz" need to be called out EVERY time
and if it means us all hitting the report button
on Linkedin
on Twitter
on Facebook
on MN
on news sites
so that the comments cease to be acceptable
so be it

Zero tolerance for male people invading our single sex spaces. If I come across any bake person in a space designated for women only I will be calling the police and making a fuss with the organisation involved.

Thank you Barracker for your brilliant post.

There is no doubt that the bulk of this change will need to be led by women, as usual we have to do all the work! Not complaining, like a challenge.

I was thinking today that something every woman can do, and it's exhausting, is pick up and call out on every day things that are sexisit/put women down. An example would be a thread a little while ago where a woman had engaged an estate agent and done all the leg work but the agent just communicated with her husband, despite him not knowing anything that was going on. I suppose it seems small and insignificant but if woman, en masse, start to call this out and take action, things will start to change.

I have been thinking about male anger and violence and how this needs to be addressed much much earlier. I assume it's the testosterone surge that causes the anger etc but boys and young men need to be shown how to control and manage this anger and understand how this impacts the people around them. I'm not aware that this is included in PSHE but it should be, more open conversation between teenage boys and girls about sexist comments, threatening behaviour etc. Are boys asked why they do this, well we know I suppose, but there needs to be move to make it unacceptable and disgusting not something to be laughed at/treated as banter.

Anyway I am going to pen an email to my MP this week, hopefully I'll get further than last time. On a last note, I too nearly got caught with donating to the Reclaim lot, so glad I didn't. I think perhaps a list of woman centred charities might be in order so posters know their donactions are in safe hands.

@Barracker your words are perfect.

Yaaaaasssss!!! @Barracker

I have to say, I was really heartened by the pushback on Twitter with regards to Reclaim the Streets saying that they would only be donating to trans inclusive charities. I feel like a couple of years ago, women would still have been too frightened to speak out in that way. Well they can't report all of us to our employers, they can't threaten all of us, they can't accuse all of us of being bigots. The numbers of women speaking out are becoming too big for that.

And its getting increasingly more difficult to dismiss the likes of Karen Ingala-Smith, Jess Taylor or Hibo Wardere as 'right wing fascists'.

The whole thing is built on sand and the tide is coming in.

fab post Barracker; it's made it to twitter in full (can't remember where I saw it!)

Thank you all. I am listening. @Barracker I salute you!

Brilliant, eloquent, inspiring post by @Barrackeron page 2.

Bravo Barracker!