Curfew - new dystopian drama imagines male curfew

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnvdgl37qz3o

'Set in a dystopian future, the show imagines a society where all men live under The Women’s Safety Act and are subjected to a government-imposed curfew from 19:00 to 07:00, with their movements tracked 24/7 by ankle tags.
The goal? To drastically reduce violence against women.'

Looks possibly interesting.

'Curfew also questions whether women are capable of violent acts, challenging traditional gender norms'

Hmm.

I thought this theme sounded familiar, and good ol' Google proved I was right:
there was a play on the theme of a curfew for men in the 1980s by a lesbian group called Siren
Siren Theatre Company 'Curfew' programme | Queer Heritage South
I don't know if any of the company are still around to claim their intellectual property rights..

https://www.sirenbrighton.co.uk/about/

I wonder whether or not this play was inspired by an actual curfew notice which was widely posted around Nottingham town centre as a feminist protest against MVAWG sometime in the late 70s/early 80s? It was just before I moved there in 1983 but I remember that it was formulated as a very official looking notification from Nottingham Police that, due to an unacceptable rise in the increase of attacks against women in the City Centre area, men were instructed to be off the streets from say, 7:00pm until 7:00am the next morning (I can't remember the precise times or phrasing; perhaps if we're lucky someone who was involved in the original action could provide more authentic details than my blurry recollections!). There was a little map delineating the area of the curfew, and I remember being told by women who had been involved in the action that there was a considerable response to the notice, both from men who took it at face value and observed the "curfew", and a not inconsiderable amount of outraged letters to the local paper, the Nottingham Evening Post, from angry men furious about Police overreach and offences against their civil liberties... (I might not have remembered it but for seeing a rare surviving copy of the notice in an exhibition of local feminist history staged at the Weston Gallery of the Lakeside Arts Centre, University of Nottingham over the summer!)

If they did pander to gender identity, presumably people who switched between male & female would decide at the time whether they were on curfew that night or not. Which is obviously ridiculous.

All men could if they had self ID, I guess.

Hey @ArabellaScott no worries - was more a "thinking out loud" comment

And to reply to myself with a less answerable question .. how much more night time MVAWAG would there be if women weren't essentially curfewing ourselves (or at least severely limiting our movements relative to what we'd do on a MVAWAG-free world).

Or all men could just ID as women, & that would just leave the curfew for any trans-identifying females who found it to be gender-affirming.

Lots of different factors affecting day/night risk, I expect.

Visibility, alcohol, numbers of potential witnesses.

Think I'll have to get a month's sub.

I'm really interested in how they will approach the pitfalls which have been discussed here.

As this seems to be the background to a crime drama, I suspect there wont be much insight into the politics of male violence, women's safety.

ie doubt it will be like Handmaid's Tale exploring change in social structures etc.,

However have seen this, which seems to imply, you can get free acess (there must be a catch!) https://watch.plex.tv/en-GB/show/curfew-2024

Slight derail but re: there must be a catch!

Have seen 2 articles that say it is legal, and its free with ads or pay for ad free. And is an internet service(?)

https://support.plex.tv/articles/202526943-plex-free-vs-paid/

I’m going to read the book instead.

From what I heard about the TV version of The Power, it was pretty different to the book version.

Somehow I imagine that this drama will be lacking the obligatory trans character!

Curfew on men? What happens when they decide to identify as women?!?

I don't know, they might have one, to prove some kind of point. And of course no other men would think that there was an obvious flaw in the curfew concept that they could exploit, just like in real life. It would never happen!

I suspect the idea of a curfew for men to allow women to lead violent free lives go back centuries, but this often quoted quote was the first I heard of it as an idea.

In 1959, during a wave of violent rapes in Israel, cabinet members suggested a curfew for women. Golda Meir’s response? “Men are attacking women, not the other way around. If there is going to be a curfew, let the men stay home.”
https://x.com/jdforward/status/971839420449132545?lang=en

Dystopia? It sounds like anything but.

Have downloaded the book - 99p on amazon/kindle at the moment!

Sorry another derail, but mention of books reminded me that R4 Extra recently re-broadcast the 3 part drama called Dykes.

Follows three radical lesbian feminists from 1970s to present day.

Written by a member of Clean Break.

Free to listen to for the next 3 months!
BBC Radio 4 - Riot Girls, Dykes, Episode 1

Not really a derail, IwantToRetire, it's interesting to know that ideas that crop up on MN were already part of Radical Feminist thought in the 70s and 80s.
That's a long time ago!

I always think this is such an interesting thought experiment:

Suggest a male curfew for one night a week, or even one night a month. Of course, practically it couldn’t happen, but the initial response from most women (in my experience) is glee. The idea of having one night when they could go out after dark without taking steps to make sure they are safe….. Most men obviously don’t get it - even if they’re the ‘cross the street so they aren’t walking behind a lone woman’ kind of guy :(

Interested to see this, thanks Arabella

I only just saw this thread today and it intrigued me enough to start watching. Some observations after the first episode, without giving away any of the plot -

In the very first scene there's a group of women coming home from a night out, one of them flashes at a man she doesn't know, watching from his window.

There's a young male police officer who is treated like a young female police officer would have been 60+ years ago - constantly belittled and called by the wrong name.

A woman uses the men's bathroom to change clothes (in the open) making the male officer uncomfortable when he walks in on her.

There's a trans woman who is treated like all the other women. I'm not sure yet if the character is trans or just the actor.

I'm going to keep watching but I don't have high hopes for this to show feminism in a positive light.

There's a trans woman who is treated like all the other women. I'm not sure yet if the character is trans or just the actor.

Of course there is 🙄

I forgot to mention the woman with a violent fetish 🙄

It sounds dire.
What a missed opportunity.

In practice sex-based curfew would just be like when violent men are put on electronic tag and their poor partners take the brunt of being trapped in with them at home climbing the walls. Ideally a women-only village or island would be better. Like a lesbian separatist and respite zone.