The "so what can we actually do" thread...

[ImSoNotTelling]

Hello

Following on from the thread about changing the law on rape to grant anonimity to the accused, a few people have started to think about what we can do to get involved, to actually try and change stuff.

So I guess this thread is for suggestions, ideas, and for people to link up to actually try to change things.

So far we have someone possibly standing for pariament!

So come on everyone.

What's the plan....

And my bra is really uncomfortable

I honestly can't see WHAT can be done from a campaigning point of view. Don't the statistics say that most rapes are by partners or men already known to the victim?

Presumably the low conviction rates are down to the erronous beliefs that THESE are not rape, in the way that being attacked in the street is, or the difficulty of ascertaining what actually happened?

Education would seem to be key. But education of whom?

oh god I was speaking to a friend today about this issue and she immediately launched into the "but the problem is that so many women lie about it that they've spoilt it for everyone else".

She is an otherwise eminently sensible, educated, intelligent woman. But the rape myths are so strong and I think we need a massive re-education campaign, starting in the courtroom and prioritising schools so that the next generation are at least in possession of some basic facts.

I think there are probably massive problems with the way police deal with victims, and gather (or don't gather) evidence. These only come to light with something like John Worboys or Ian Huntley, that people have been disbelieved, forensics not gathered, statements not taken for ages etc. Just imagine how often it must happen though. Maybe the police need a target .

Look at this shocking example. "Rape Champions" is about right. FGS.

Education is actually quite an interesting one. Because there's an opportunity to get the 'it's men that do the raping - men, please stop raping' angle out there.

Education of men, from early on then. How?

LOVE IT Lenin.

Let's do it.

Subtitle: either debunking rape myths e.g. "At least 98% of rape allegations are found to be genuine"

or just:

2000 women are raped every week in the UK.

How is a very interesting question. I would normally say that "proper" sex education with all the moral stuff included should come from parents. School should cover the biology aspect in more detail. But there are so many parents that don't give a stuff.

I have a daughter, not a son. If I had one, I would want to include the messages about the proper way to behave from early on. With my dd, what do I do? Educate her about what is normal/not normal? Tell her not to put herself in certain situations?

this is the petition page for number 10. Could we start a petition(s) here?

And what about writing proper letters (not emails) to our MPs. With lots of new MPs it should be a good opportunity to get their attention while they are still 'fresh'.

A good way to affect change is to set a good example to others around us by not exploiting/deriding other women (eg not using words like 'slut', 'slag', 'whore', boycotting companies which have sexist policies)and standing up to men who try to belittle us (whether at home or work or elsewhere).

Some of the relationship and employment threads on here show that we still have a long long way to go to get equality, never mind liberation.

stirlingstar - it should be included in PHSE, SEAL stuff etc. - at secondary level.

A massive percentage of young men think that most rape allegations are false. They're getting that idea from the media and their families and the state is the only organisation that can counter-balance those messages.

It would be amazing. Right, we need to:

• write to MNHQ? not that this is a MN campaign, or is it? How does this work?

• post message looking for support on the main site, also contact SGB possibly?

• contact the organisations I've listed above asking for help and advice as to how to carry it out. Possibly also women's aid?

-erm, what else?

I'm too tired to think right now and am off to bed soon but count me in. I haven't been involved in any proper feminist campaigning since I was a student about 20 years ago but I feel really strongly about this and need to start engaging my brain in something I actually care about

Prolesworth, from what I remember the atheist bus campaign had the support of Richard Dawkins, probably he helped fund it and had a lot of influence?

So do you think that if there was a campaign we could contact eminent UK feminists to see if they would get involved? I think that for any campaign to succeed, having "high profile" names attached, whether they are a "known" feminist (published etc) or just a famous person who supports the campaign, is something that would be a huge boost.

ahaha now this is exciting! am bored to tears doing this job application tonight so can't really get stuck in, but tomorrow - yes, tomorrow it'll all be kicking off!

Has anyone started a thread outside of the feminist ghetto yet, or shall I? Thinking for wording? Campaign for justice for rape victims? Something snappier? ;)

I was thinking about that http://theshapeofamother.com/ website which has photos of women's bodies after they've had children to celebrate how we change after pregnancy. What about having something similar for this? Where women could share what happened to them and why they did/didn't press charges. I think that the sheer weight of all those stories would make the statistics real.

Or even this website