Brendas

[BeenThereDoneThat4]

I felt really uncomfortable reading this... I was not aware of this part of the Samaritans history. The systemic nature of the abuse that these women went through in a misguided attempt to 'be kind' and how normalised it was :

'The important thing is that these women existed and that they did this impossibly difficult, hilarious, terrible, kind thing and they are now all but forgotten'

vs.

'But I’ve since learnt that many of the women felt ashamed or embarrassed about it, which I feel sad about."

I don't feel sad - I feel angry.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy990823ekgo

Christ! I knew that the Samaritans got a load of obscene callers. I’d no idea that they set up a fucking wank line run by women yk indulge it

I can remember a friend of my parents in the 60s/70s saying that a large number of the men calling were perverts. What I don’t understand is why men didn’t deal with these callers. To be fair most helplines whose volunteers are women get hundreds of them

Instead of saying no to pervy men, the organisation provided them with women to perve over, just in case one of them also actually needed the support of the Samaritans. Just awful.