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This is not a piece I was expecting to write but I feel its best to address what happened on the IWD march in Manchester this weekend.

Now I am no stranger to marches and protests for women’s rights and Manchester itself has a proud history of women coming together to peacefully protest for our rights. I know the chants about consent, about victim blaming, excusing male violence and power to the women passed on through many generations of women from the movement. I have never felt afraid to march.

Feminists have always been labelled man haters and been accused of going too far… although to my knowledge none has wanted to give back the rights feminists have given them. I’m used to people not agreeing with me but I’m ok with that! Talk, share ideas, maybe we will both change our minds on stuff after learning from each other – disagreement is not disrespect.

We were invited to this traditional march the closest weekend to International Women’s Day and this year the organisers were kindly collecting for YES Matters UK. Specifically for our free services to children who experience sexual abuse and exploitation that need mental health support and rehabilitation services. We are proud of the services we offer and appreciated the invitation and offer to collect for us.

This is my account from my perspective. The chants we’re not new but the reaction was. Before we started marching a woman was targeted and had milkshake thrown at her to try and degrade her. Later this happened again, the same male had followed the march, looked for us and did it again. This time it was a milkshake to the face for me.

Now I have never met or spoken to this person before. I was there to collect for child victim support services. I could not understand why they felt entitled to target me like that. So, believing communication is the key to conflict resolution, I went to ask.

When I approached a girl there told me that it was justified because we had shouted male violence at her friend who apparently identified as a trans woman. I explained that while we did do chants about violent men, her friend and group had followed us and not the other way around. That these were historical chants. That I had done nothing to her friend.

I was then told that she knew our group and that we were marching for hate. I explained that there were several groups and individuals. That based on assumptions she and her group had: decided who we were, what we thought and that they had the authority to punish us for that.

Then the same person who had thrown the milkshakes onto myself and others got into an altercation with a woman in front of me. I had never met the woman before.

I put myself between them. I did not do this with force or aggression. I shouted to them both to let go of each other. I told them they didn’t want to do this. I do not condone either of them. Then I was punched and kicked in the cross fire by my attacker. I shouted to please stop.

At this point others from both sides tried to pull their person away from the other. This resulted in us all falling to the ground. I tried to get up quickly and put my hand on my attackers leg and they hit out at me again. I thought maybe they thought they were still fighting so I put my hand out and said I’m not attacking you, I’m just trying to get up. I then, despite the fact that I had been punched by them seconds earlier, put my hand out to help them up.

At this point I walked away. It was a distressing experience. I was shaken up by it all and I couldn’t understand it. When I came back, I saw my colleague who was upset about the milkshake thrown on me had ruined the bags we had brought to sell, to make funds. At this point my attacker was shouting that the woman had started it. I chimed in that actually you started it by following us and throwing stuff at us, including me who has done nothing to you but help you and have done nothing wrong. “That’s fair” was the response I got.

Now I do not accept narrative that marching about male violence impacts trans rights, none of the chants we’re about any individual including my attacker who sought us out – not the other way around.

I do not accept that I did anything to that person or the others in the group that justified what happened to me. I have tried to understand why my attacker justified targeting me with the milkshake to the face or punching me but I can tell you that there’s no remorse for it…

Since the attack there has been what I can only describe as a celebration by the whole group that was there. Changing profile pictures and names to milkshake related names and some saying we deserved worse than we got. Again these people don’t know me, haven’t spoken to me and I have done nothing to them. But they feel entitled to incite and encourage violence towards me.

When at the police station, giving my statement I would like to acknowledge that the police were supportive, professional and kind. I would like to thank Greater Manchester Police for this as hearing the words victim impact statement was very triggering for me. Many of you know the last time I was asked to make one was regarding my sister’s murder and we don’t remember trauma – we relive it.

Today I am a bit sore and hyper vigilant. I think that marches about women’s safety and rights to justice are important. And although I will find the next one I attend scarey and difficult….there will be a next one. Violence will not silence!

I have been informed that my perpetrator will be given a caution and write me an apology letter… A hollow apology given the online celebration. I can’t say that I’m happy with this but it is a CPS decision.

I don’t regret going to the march because I did nothing wrong. I wanted to collect for the children we help and that’s important to me. I went to join the chorus of women’s voices who want and deserve to be safe, to be heard and to be believed.

I would ask anyone out there not to label others, decide who they are, what they think and believe – talk to them. You don’t have the right to judge them. You certainly don’t have the right to punish them for not believing what you do. You don’t have the right or the authority. Infadel, Terf and other words used to justify violence against someone who does not think what you want them to think is extremism and its wrong. Especially when you’ve not even had any interaction with them and don’t know what they think in the first place.

We are all growing and learning, everyday being influenced by our experiences and we need to remember that. Not everyone goes at the same pace, on the same path and has the same experiences as I do. Just because I think this way doesn’t mean that it’s the only right way to think. Communicate, share, grow and respect each other!! No one knows it all. One thing I do know is that violence and fear are tools of oppression and not progress. So I won’t let them win.

Maxwell who was recently found guilty if sex trafficking, is trying to get a retrail on the basis that one of the members of the jury has been a victim of child sexual abuse. That because they have been a victim means they are bias and unreliable on a jury.

We see victims deemed as unreliable consistently. Usually as a victim of the crime they are reporting, the CPS deeming them unreliable witnesses to their own experiences and that a jury wouldn’t believe. Both on and off the jury that label sticks.

So why does this matter? Well with the Victim Focus research finding that 99% of women experienced sexual offences against them, it begs the question if a jury of peers is then possible. With over half the population used to sexual offences against them meaning they are deemed unfit to be on a jury, does that leave a jury of perpetrators and enablers?

How fair is it for victims of sexual offences to be excluded from being part of the justice process?

Are we also asking have you ever been accused and so you have to be removed? Do you watch underage and violent pornography? Have you seen but not reported revenge porn? No. We’re not asking those questions…

Is it that all victims will automatically hate anyone accused?

Are we pretending someone previously accused wouldn’t sympathise with the accused in the dock?

It seems, as ever, victims are the ones on trial.

A jury of peers….but what kind of peers? Ones that laugh at rape jokes? That think upskirting is no big deal? Who grew up in a home where there was domestic abuse? Whose football coach abused them?

Victim’s have not had a lack of moral judgement. I find it odd that we seem to judge those who had no choice more than ones that made choices knowing it would harm others. Perhaps it’s time to balance to scales on who judges us and why.

Recently we have seen here in the UK the scandal of politicians, including the Prime Minister, breaking rules and laws they made by having parties during the Covid pandemic.

For us here at YES Matters UK, what has been interesting has been the narc perpetrator tactics being used by those in charge of the country as a result.

From the Prime Minister himself we have seen gaslighting, minimising, DARVO to name a few. It is never a narcs fault is it.

We have seen pointing to this report as waiting to see evidence before condemning the poor PM. Despite the videos, photographs, emails and witness statements we’ve already seen as well as a very carefully worded testimonial from the PM himself. Why is it, that putting accountability and responsibility for actions at the feet of those who have done wrong, is so difficult to do? We have no problem blaming women for everything including the actions of others. What women wear, where they go, what they drink, they are too nice, not nice enough but men break the law and were hesitant to say so.

It was law breaking, at number 10 who has police outside. Even the police are condoning and enabling.

For me I see the lad culture support your bro club all too familiar. The tactics used to dismiss, minimise and ignore I know too well. When we see sexual offences we play the same game.

A famous study by an American University showed that many male students were happy with the actions of rape such as having sex with someone asleep, getting someone drunk to have sex with them, making them feel guilty and coersing someone into sex and ticked yes to many of those actions. But when asked if you have ever raped someone they said no.

What we seem to have a problem with is accountability.

Here’s why that’s a problem. Without the acceptance and acknowledgement of a mistake, there is no changed behaviour. There is no development, growth for the better or learning not to do that in future.

Zero accountability or consequence, inevitably leads to escalation in these classically abusive behaviours & actions, and we all know where that ends.

And so we have this culture from the top to the bottom of blaming everyone else, putting your fingers in your ears and remaining a manipulative, stunted child.

To see these tactics used by the (mostly) men in charge of the country, it gives a message to survivors – I act like your perpetrator does. How can you have trust or confidence in those condoning and enabling bad behaviour or using abusive manipulation tactics?

We want to see MPs that stand for what’s right, that condemn bad behaviour and show they want a fair society. Not a bro code.

Watching Corrie last night and we were thrilled to see character Amy Barlow demanding education being a safe space for girls, free from sexual harassment and upskirting.

In Corrie upskirting images were shared and the school’s response to the sexual objectification of girls and what goes with that was inadequate.

As usual soaps reflect life in this case Ofsteds findings of the huge issue of rape culture in schools. We live in a society where teen girls are the most sexually objectified people on the planet. Even street harassment figures jump at school opening and closing times.

To highlight this issue we do the sexual objectification test first done by our founder in 2016. Google image search “school boy” and then “school girl”. This is the context of our girls lives.

To help address this, like Amy, we took action. We created the YES Matters Commitment for schools who want to address rape culture and make their schools a safe learning environment.

This includes being trauma informed and disclosure management skills for contextual safeguarding including the roots of where these issues come from.

Staff training, classroom resources in line with the new compulsory PSHE and how to support both victim and perpetrator rehabilitation in your school.

So will you take rape culture in schools as seriously as YES Matters UK and Amy Barlow? If so please see our website for further information on how to sign up: http://www.yes-matters.co.uk

YES Matters UK provides free rehabilitation and support services for children and young people who are victims of sexual abuse and exploitation. To do so we fundraise, apply for grants and now we have merch. We figured in winter 2021 that whilst our fundraising events kept being squashed due to Covid 19, merch would be online and safe from that issue.

Well..

We made some adverts for our merch. One particularly active ad showed items that caused quite the response!

This was the anti victim blaming bag:

The responses we got… (in the hundreds) ….were amusing.

Why amusing? Because they were absolutely full of angry (mostly men) crying about our man hating merch. About how it tars all men with the same brush. Demanding to know how can we support boys when we clearly despise all the male sex! How feminists are anti male extremists. Us feminazi’s needed stopping.

Why is that funny? Because the words “man”, “men”, “male” or “boy”….are not on the bag.

Anywhere.

So in fact by them assuming it was about men… It is them who were actually making the generalisations they were accusing us of.

Were our responses to these delightful and at times abusive comments always mature?….absolutely not. And while we take the point of one man that not having strictly professional responses could be frowned upon, the fact he had nothing to say about the men claiming that our volenteer staff weren’t attractive enough to be r*ped kind of undermines his high ground.

Here are some of my personal favourites:

The cherry on the cake was returning from the Christmas break to an email from advertising standards about a complaint on the ad of our bag. Must have been an interesting meeting..

So now we know what impact our merch can have, particularly on men who are particularly defensive, we’ve done the right thing.

We have taken responsibility for the reaction…..

You can now buy this reusable coffee cup at the YES Matters Facebook shop or here on Spotify now 😁:

At this rate, the tears will be included 😂

Joking aside, if you or anyone you know needs our help, our services are free. Just message us on our Tiktok, Twitter, Facebook or email us at yesmattersuk@gmail.com

So the 25th November starts of the 16 days of activism against gender violence. The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25th as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. And in a year of a historical low in rape conviction rates and historical high in domestic homicide it is clear that this issue is still a big one.

And yet…

Local authorities and institutions across the UK have decided that it’s appropriate to call it White Ribbon Day. White Ribbon being the only male run charity involved in eliminating male violence against women and girls.

Now to be clear, I am glad there is a male organisation that takes accountability for male violence against women and girls as male accountability instead of victim blaming is the only way to solve the issue. However, calling it White Ribbon Day, making it about a male run organisation rather than the dead women and girls and raising the profile of the only male run charity and donations to it, ignoring the thousands of female run ones – is an example of the problem.

It is not white ribbon day. But it is typical that men talking about this get listened to instead of silenced, gas lit and ignored.

Violence against women and girls is a direct result of the sexual objectification of women and girls. That we are seen as objects not subjects and therefore less important than men. Less important in our experiences, what we have to say and everything else.

So renaming a day about the violence against women and girls after a male run organisation that our local authorities are more willing to listen to – is part of the problem.

These women and girls lives mattered, the experiences of our girls matter, the Ofsted findings on sexual harassment in schools matter, that rape isn’t convicted matters, that we can’t walk home safely matters, that we can’t trust police or family courts matters, that FGM goes unconvinced matters, that we have honour based violence matters, that Irish women have to leave the country for safe abortion matters, that Afgan girls can no longer get an education matters, that Britain is the third largest consumer of child abuse pornography matters, that cats get more funding than female victim services matters but only once men say it does…apparently.

In October 2021 I spoke on the panel of the Sexualisation of Girls at the FiLiA conference 2021. During this panel I answered questions put to me by the Radical Girlss group who made up the rest of the panel.

Many of you will know my story as to why I became a radical feminist. It was after the rape and murder of my sister Sasha when she was 16…The thing that I want to make super clear about that is the reason that she died and the reason that girls experience harm and injustices is for one reason and one reason only. Its because they are girls. Its not because of their identity or feelings, it’s not because of what they’re wearing, its not because of where they walk and it not because a bus driver hasn’t saved them. It’s because they’re girls and violence against women and girls is dismissed purely because it is violence against women and girls. That’s why its not taken seriously. With all the media awareness around Sarah Everard I’m sure many of you have seen recently in similar circumstances the man who murdered my sister had previous sexual offences against women and girls. And so what I really feel strongly about as a feminist is that if as a society we listen to girls instead of dismissing them as objects and not subjects, we listen to what they have to say and acknowledge them as credible witnesses to their own experiences when the men flash them and follow them and touch them and make them uncomfortable – if we listen to them then we can prevent this stuff before there’s a dead body at the end.

I think the term “not all men” summarises it perfectly – it says that our society prioritises men’s feelings over women’s lives. That comes from gender stereotypes, without a doubt. We have the sexual objectification of girls. This entitlement attitude comes from the subject being entitled to the object. The object adheres to the product specification of the subject and this is heavily influenced by pornography. We are supposed to be young and thing and white and hairless. As Dworkin said how can you expect one half of the population to be safe, when the other half films their abuse and puts it into entertainment categories for their pleasure – if our abuse is their goal for their sexual gratification then of course girls are not safe. And I do think its especially prevalent in pornography, it reinforces those gender stereotypes as well as racism and it also paints a target on our girl’s backs. They tell the “actors” to be thin and hairless like little girls and it promotes paedophilia. This is something school need to acknowledge about the life and danger of our girls.

I think social media and pornography have huge impact on our children’s mental health and safety. Just because it’s not some dodgy guy in a trench coat hanging out round a park doesn’t mean that its not child grooming what is being done. Only fans is a child pimp. Porn hub is a child groomer. They are grooming our children in these completely dick centred and unattainable ways and our society allows it. A famous phrase comes to mind that: if tomorrow or women and girl woke up tomorrow and liked themselves as they were and valued themselves and had self-worth, how many multibillion industries would collapse? We profit on the backs of our women and girl, we profit from creating mental health problems and body issues of our children. We do this to such an extend prioritising and normalising capitalism and patriarchal culture that when you point out that something isn’t ok like pornography or pole dancing kids’ parties, it’s you who are then named as the problem. We have this phrase “vanilla sex” now which is a term that means sexual intercourse without physical or verbal abuse or degrading acts – its being used as a term to shame someone who doesn’t want abuse and violence as part of sex.

This means that the pornography narrative and men who make and watch this pornography then sit in our just systems. If you told a police officer 30 years ago that a man strangled, beat, urinated on, bruised you and you cried throughout he may have taken the rape allegation seriously. Now the man can claim that he didn’t know that meant she didn’t consent because that’s what is shown in pornography. We have all heard of the rough sex defence…pornography cannot be both a harmless fantasy and a murder defence. And so, when it comes to how this impacts our children, and I will say children because boys too -because currently the average age of exposure to pornography I’m the UK is 11 years old, and if our boys are watching pornography they are being sold that this is what your sexuality should be, this is what you should find attractive and want. We talk about positive reinforcement when it comes to getting children to behave in certain ways and I ask you what is more positive reinforcement for behaviour is there than an orgasm? And so pornography is teaching our children what to want from others and what to expect of themselves.

The thing is, and men don’t like hearing this, but men either have self-control or they don’t. they cannot have the self-control to be in charge of our institutions, our governments, our religions and our corporations but then they see a woman alone in a short skirt…well I cannot control myself. The “boys will eb boys/she’s asking for it” narrative directly contradicts the “not all men” narrative so which is it lads? You can’t have both. They get furious when you point this out to them on the internet by the way, its quite fun. This isn’t about women or girls being too sexy, it’s about avoiding responsibility for behaviour for men. It’s like they’re allergic to accountability. If you have so little self-control then we have to take away your strip clubs and pornography and daily star and not let you be in charge of anything. It’s never their fault. It’s always our skirts, us not leaving, us pushing their buttons…without acknowledgement of behaviour there will be no change in behaviour.

Essentially, we need to get over this “not all men” barrier. Because it’s a lie, as men all admit as soon as they have a teenage daughter when they suddenly agree it is all men and he knows what they’re like. Because its irrelevant, it shouldn’t take every single man before we do something about it. But also, because until we acknowledge there is a problem with men and their behaviour, we cannot ask why and we cannot prevent. To continue to ignore this fails our boys and our girls alike. Our children deserve a safe future in which they are respected, they deserve happy and healthy relationships with themselves and each other…..if only men’s feelings weren’t the priority perhaps we could do that.

Gemma Aitchison is a FiLiA volunteer. She runs YES Matters UK that go into schools and also provides free services to young people who are victims of sexual violence and exploitation. She is a working-class radical feminist activist and is particularly enthusiastic about cake which you will know if you have heard her podcasts for FiLiA. If you need help or support from YES Matters UK, please contact them http://www.yes-matters.co.uk

The police response is an absolute disgrace.

Insisting that officers like Wayne Couzens are “not one of you”, “not regarded as a police officer” is no different to the #NotAllMen response.

You cannot change what you refuse to acknowledge first. If you deny that he is a police officer, that he used police powers to falsely arrest, trap and murder Sarah then you are refusing to change the behaviour and environment that enabled him to do that.

The fact that, to quote the Judge, “some of his colleagues have spoken supportively of him” will rightly fill women with dread.

You are confirming that you will not acknowledge or change and that women cannot trust you.

The has been a consistent issue with police officers who commit sexual offences yet go undisaplined.

The most likely profession for a domestic abusers is a police officer.

Rape is at a historical low conviction rate thanks to the CPS victim blaming merits system.

Men use the rough sex defense for murder and the judges let them.

We have a historical high in domestic homicide as domestic abuse continues to be dismissed by the criminal and family courts.

Police admissions of too many pedophiles to arrest.

Why should women and girls trust the justice system exactly?

On page 4 of the the sentencing remarks in the Wayne Couzens case it says that in mitigation “some of his colleagues have spoken supportively of him”.

More than 750 Met police staff have faced sexual misconduct allegations since 2010. Just 83 have been sacked.

When are we going to address the problem so that we can change and prevent it? The answer….when women and girls matter as much as men’s feelings do. Apparently for the police, now is not that time….

Men as a class contradict themselves when it comes to responsibility.

They claim to be more logical and stable and responsible than emotional women. When it comes to leadership, it’s what are deemed as masculine features that are seen as posative.

Men are responsible and accountable enough to consistently running our institutions, our governments, our religions and our corporatations in the majority. However…

When it comes to responsibility for their actions, men (as a class) seem to suddenly deny their previous claims. When it comes to parental responsibility, to sexual offenses and domestic abuse and when it comes to shootings all committed in the majority by men, suddenly they have no responsibility or accountability at all

It’s her skirt, or her looking older than 13 or why should I pay when I don’t see them. It’s she didn’t say no clearly enough or she could have rejected me nicer instead of being a bitch. It’s well why doesn’t she just leave if it’s that bad and yes, despite mental health issues impacting men and women and children, it’s their mental health’s fault.

Boys will be boys and not all men directly contract each other.

Now given the recent shooting, we see the same patterns over and over again. The impact of gender stereotypes.

We see the “Man up” rubbish feeding into the lack of emotional regulation skills for boys and men and also the lack of addressing mental health services because its seen as weak or unmanly. This is shown in both the high suicide rates in men and also the high perpetrator rates in men.

We see the sexual objectification of women and girls. The subjects (males) feeling entitled to the objects (females) and when an object isn’t to the product specification of the subjects choosing or it isn’t serving the needs of the subject…well objects are replaceable and disposable aren’t they

Objectification is the first step in any violent crime, because its the first step in justification. We see this same attitude of objectification towards women and girls by the men in the male dominated justice system. This latest shooter, the man who killed Sarah Everard, the man in the majority of of cases of murder, shooting, terrorism all have multiple violence against women and girls offenses in their history. They are always serial and esculation offences. Which means they are condoned and enabled until they get to the most serious crimes because the multiple opportunities to prevent, we’re ignored because it was just to women and girls.

This is why the lack of conviction of rape in the UK is so serious. Not only to the victim reporting but because of the inevitable future victims and the esculation of those crimes. Men who murder women and girls rape first.

And so we have another violent man who saw women as objects he was entitled to, who had multiple offenses ignored, who has killed. Laura Richards plea for a perpetrator database to prevent this is still ignored by ministers. And the seriousness of the lives taken and futures stolen being drowned out by men crying not all men and by looking for other things to blame rather than addressing the misogyny.

Well as long as we cannot get over the not all men barrier…

As long as we blame women for the actions of men…

As long as we silence those talking about this because men’s feelings matter more than women’s safety…

We fail our boys and girls alike.

Because you can’t solve and prevent a problem, that you refuse to acknowledge is there.

First a little parable for you: Two fish were swimming along, going about their business, enjoying their day when another fish swam by and said, ‘the water’s lovely today, isn’t it?’ The other two fish looked at each other, ‘Water? What’s water?’

So, to Professor Chris Whitty, The UK’s Chief Medical Officer, who in February had been jostled and shouted at by anti lockdown, anti vaxxers. A teenager was the main culprit and his mum apologised for him and by all accounts Prof Whitty was unharmed and just wanted the fuss to die down.

And then, June 27th, I saw a similar story; once again Prof Whitty had been accosted by the general public whilst he was simply going about his daily life. ‘How horrible,’ I thought but didn’t even bother to read the article because let’s face there’s far worse in the news isn’t there?

But, as usual with news pieces, little bits began to seep into my brain by osmosis, sub-headlines giving a clearer picture of what had actually happened. Prof Whitty had been grabbed by two young men and held against his will for a few moments as they demanded he take some selfies with him. ‘Huh,’ I thought, what’s the big deal here?’

I truly didn’t see an issue. So, a couple of over exuberant guys had wanted to stop Prof Whitty as he was going about his business, demand he take photos with them and actually held him in place until it had happened. So what?

And yet, the establishment were up in arms over it all. MPs, leaders of opposition parties, the Prime Minister himself, all were outraged on Prof Whitty’s behalf. All wanted to see something being done because for Prof Whitty to be so accosted in daylight in a London park just wasn’t good enough. What was the world coming to?

I thought this an hysterical over reaction. I literally couldn’t see what the problem was. I was one of the two fish saying, ‘Water, what’s water?’

I am a 54 years old woman. I grew up in a society that has never felt safe. Where, if I meet two young men who held me in place while they took a photo, like all the other women I know, we would smile tightly, assure them its fine, absolutely okay, just so we are let go of and able to go on our way again in relative safety.

Being ‘assaulted’ is a daily occurrence for women on the UK’s streets and there is no mobilisation of forces to hunt down our transgressors and hold them accountable. Promising young men don’t lose their jobs over assaulting a woman, there is no immediate manhunt launched to track down the perpetrators. To suggest such would be another hysterical overreaction.

It was this blog post by Gemma Atkinson of Yes Matters, a UK charity that educates on gendered violence that opened my eyes to the dirty sea I was swimming in. https://yesmattersukreact.home.blog/2021/07/01/yes-matters-response-to-the-cosby-release/?fbclid=IwAR1MXjaZE574fjXniqgLMQBlJyu3-rnfXs3k81P2GJbdG8becMeDTgbWahU

A younger woman was showing me why what happened to Prof Whitty was wrong. I had accepted casual assault as a normal part of everyday life as a woman because for me, as a woman, it is a normal part of everyday life. It shouldn’t be. It absolutely should not be and we all need to step up and say this behaviour is unacceptable, no matter whom is targeted.

I am deeply sorry that Prof Whitty had that experience but I am glad in one way for it, because it showed just how deeply biased against women our current systems of policing, justice and society in general are.

I had my eyes opened to the fact that women are habitually assaulted and we put up with it because the patriarchal misogyny our society is steeped in allows it. Enables it to such an extent that we see it as normal.

There is so much I could write about the recent ONS report into levels of sexual harassment against women. It sometimes feels like its too much to bear.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/18/ons-survey-finds-one-in-14-women-have-been-victim-of

Maybe, after the immediate outcry and galvinising of the forces of justice to hunt down Prof Whitty’s attackers, the police and other members of the establishment will notice the difference in how they treated the crime against his person as they would against a woman?

And we have to keep reminding everyone that its not okay for half the population of the country to always feel threatened by the other half. Its time for men to start calling out other men, for people to open their eyes to the murk we have been living in and seeing it for what it truly is.

Love,

Cynthia xx