Arguing with inanimate objects is not my thing. It tends to be pretty one sided. Such was the ire invoked by listening to Radio Four yesterday that I found myself yelling “yes we bloody well can” at the car radio. Futile perhaps, but therapeutic nonetheless.
The subject of my wrath was the editor of You magazine, which is part of The Mail on Sunday’s (MoS) “package”. She was a guest on Woman’s Hour discussing the future (or not) of glossy women’s magazines. When asked whether she felt compromised by being part of the MoS news package, she lamented that there are a lot of terrible things happening in the world but alas there’s nothing we (women) can do about them. The good news is that we (women) can at least cook a nice meal for our loved ones (husband & children) & sit back with a nice cuppa afterwards to escape in an orgy of airbrushed surgically enhanced bodies & “aspirational” lifestyle envy (my words not hers).
The message is, don’t worry your little heads ladies. Let men get on with the business of ruling/making a complete hash of the world. I have nothing against hot pots & bake offs (I’m just rubbish at both) & I’m not averse to making do & mending but the fact is, the world needs more women to get involved in news & politics. Women’s magazines that still peddle 1950’s stereotypes have no place in the present, let alone the future.
Yes we bloody well can is my response to the defeatist acceptance of impotence. There’s plenty we can do about the horrible things happening in the world & burying our heads in the sand is not one of them. Our engagement now will determine the legacy we leave our children. Be it climate change, social inequality & oppression (which threatens democracy & acts as a recruiting sergeant for terrorism), it’s all happening on our watch.
What can I, just one individual, do? I hear you ask. Plenty. Take the debacle over convicted rapist Ched Evans, for example. When Sheffield United announced their intention to sign him last year it provoked public outrage. One of those angry individuals set up a petition, then 170,000 other angry individuals signed it. Collectively those simple individual actions resulted in Sheffield United backing down. This powerful democratic tool was employed to achieve the same outcome when Oldham United announced their intention to sign the convicted rapist this week. Again the petition was set up & within days 70,000 individuals, including myself, signed it. One by one the sponsors threatened to pull out of the club if Evans was signed. Oldham United announced today that they would not be signing the convicted rapist after all. Every single individual act accumulates to effect societal change.
For overseas readers who aren’t familiar with the Ched Evans case, it’s worth noting that, having served 2.5 years in prison for raping a 19 year old girl, he emerged, not contrite but inciting revenge against his victim. A website has been set up in his name which discloses the victim’s identity & address. She had to change her name & has moved 5 times because of threats made to her by Evans’ supporters. She continues to be persecuted, vilified & threatened & lives in constant fear of reprisals.
In the UK over 85,000 women are raped and 400,000 sexually assaulted every year. Three months ago the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reported that rape had increased 29% in the UK & that rape at knife point had increased by 48%. The rape crisis centre warned that these stats, though damning, were “just the tip of the iceberg”. It’s thought that 80% of rapes never get reported. Not surprising when judges make sympathetic overtures to the perpetrators, such as when female judge, Ms Mowat, told a teacher convicted of child pornography offences that she would not criticise him for being attracted to children. David Armstrong, 63, a supply teacher, escaped with a suspended sentence after admitting possessing 4,500 indecent images of children.
Ms Mowat is the same judge who last year indicated that women who drank too much & were then raped had no-one but themselves to blame if they don't get a conviction, on the grounds that they can’t recall exact details in court. As a judge she should know that the legal responsibility is on the defendant to explain how they sought and received consent, not on the survivor to recall every detail.
The objectification of women in the media & advertising contributes to the rape culture. Among comedian Jimmy Carr’s rape jokes repertoire is this side splitter, “What’s the difference between football and rape? Women don’t like football”. Nuff said.
Thanks to the lose the Lads’ mags campaign, several lads’ rags have folded in the last year & those remaining have cleaned up their act. They’re starting to get that their in your face porno representation of women was frankly, uncool. That happened because thousands of individuals signed petitions, wrote letters, or in my case, serially put copies of The Lady or Good Housekeeping (the lesser of evils) in front of all the Lads’ mags wherever I saw them on display.
My rancour at the paralysing creep of apathy is exacerbated by discovering today that my local A&E is on the verge of closure. No consultation, no concerted local political opposition & negligible local media coverage (despite buying the local newspaper I knew nothing of this). It took one hour for an ambulance to take my 6 year old to the nearest A&E after he has injured in a car crash in November (all the while in agony strapped into a hard plastic stretcher & head blocks). That was bad enough, but closing our A&E could mean up to twice that length of time to get to another one. If this closure happens, people in this rural, often isolated community, will needlessly die on route to A&E. Not something that will keep our lacklustre Tory MP awake at night. Fortunately, some angry people have mobilised and formed a campaign group to block the move. Now that I know about it, I'll be supporting their noble efforts. If we don't join forces against expunging critical services on which our families & communities depend, they'll be gone forever & we'll only have ourselves to blame.
If I’ve incited just one reader to get into the bloody well can mindset, I’ll take solace from that. Following the gender based theme, if anyone is bloody well fed up with The Sun’s sexist Page 3, there is something you can bloody well do about it. Join the 216,700 other individuals who’ve signed the No More Page 3 petition at https://www.change.org/p/david-dinsmore-take-the-bare-boobs-out-of-the-sun-nomorepage3
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