Tuesday 18th July, 2023
It finally seems to be happening. After all these long hard years of campaigning, suddenly the world seems to care about women’s safety. It’s an issue that’s finally being discussed and those on the political right seem to be at the forefront of demanding that women and girls have a right to safety!
Okay, they’re not worried about women’s safety when they’re walking home at night
They’re not too worried about the high levels of misogyny and abuse within the police service
They’re not worried about the women who are murdered, one every four days, by their partner or ex partner
Nor are they worried about the safety of women in their own homes, despite the fact that 1 in 4 women experiences domestic abuse.
They’re certainly not worried about coercive control and lots of them have actually been busy defending Jonah Hill the last few weeks
They’re not worried about our ex Prime Ministers mistress being kept barefoot and pregnant
Or about sexual harassment in the workplace
They aren’t worried about the one in five women who is raped or sexually assaulted, nor about the fact that the majority of women have experienced sexual harassment in public
And they’re not alarmed by the fact that a poll carried out in the U.K. last year found that 50% of women of childbearing age had experienced reproductive coercion
BUT they care about women’s safety when we use public toilets!
It’s a start….. Right?
They’re finally talking about protecting our daughters in school.
Not by educating our boys though.
They’re not worried by the fact that teenage girls are even more likely to experience abuse in their dating relationships than adult women
Nor that almost 50% of teenagers are confused about what consent actually means.
They’re not worried about ofsted saying that sexual harassment is becoming normalised in schools
Or about school uniform policies sexualising schoolgirls and making them responsible for the sexual proclivities of men and boys.
They’re not worried about the various studies that show teenage girls being pressurised into having anal sex because of it’s prevalence in porn
Which most children have been exposed to by age 12, that’s not a worry.
And forced marriage and FGM aren’t even on their radar.
BUT they do care that our girls can go to the toilets in school safely.
I mean, they don’t care enough to address the male culture that makes us unsafe.
Not enough to address the “jokes” and the “bantar” that create a culture where abuse thrives
Or to challenge the powerful men who continually treat women as disposable objects for their sexual pleasure, as we see in scandal after scandal in the news.
They don’t care enough not to tell rape jokes
And they don’t care enough to fund women’s refuges, or rape crisis centres
They don’t care enough to do something about the fact that 99% of reported rapes go unprosecuted.
BUT they WILL shout about transgender people in our toilets!
Make no mistake all you feminists out there. These men are not on your side. They do not give a shit about your safety, they are not protecting you, fighting for your rights or finally listening to you.
They are deflecting.
Because as long as you are joining them to focus your outrage on trans women, you are not focusing it on them, where it belongs.
