Women's Views on News |
- Calling time on excuses for sexually aggressive behaviour
- Women adopting “head in sand” approach to STDs
- Third of US women believe reproductive rights are under threat, poll says
- Cambodia jails women protesting against forced evictions
- Three Polish women admit charges over Belfast brothel
- Have women got Twitter clout?
- Sex worker villified by Australian politician mired in union fund scandal
- Exhibition of still lifes by British artist opens at London gallery
| Calling time on excuses for sexually aggressive behaviour Posted: 01 Jun 2012 11:30 AM PDT
Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) has this week published research which highlights the role of culture in the consumption of alcohol. Across European countries there are notable differences in the behaviour of individuals who consume equal amounts of alcohol. The common assumption is that it will increase sexual arousal and desire; decrease sexual inhibition; increase sexual aggressiveness in men and make women more easily coerced into sex. However, studies have shown that how an individual responds to alcohol depends on what effects they expect to experience. Called “alcohol expectancies', individuals will consume alcohol in order to experience what they believe are the desirable effects as understood within their culture. Evidence from Rape and Justice in Ireland (RAJI) suggests that there is a strong connection between alcohol consumption and sexual violence.This finding is in line with research from outside of Ireland which indicates an association between alcohol consumption and sexually aggressive behaviour in men. RCNI director Fiona Neary said: 'Culture plays a role in how we behave when we consume alcohol – different cultures have different expectations of how people might behave when they consume alcohol. “Irish expectations of alcohol-influenced behaviour provide both opportunity for sexual violence and cover for sexual predators. It is time we recognised this aspect of our culture and called a halt to it. Messages on alcohol expectancies must convey the fact that intoxication is never a justification for sexually aggressive behaviour.” Evidence shows that the strength of sex-related alcohol expectancies and the likelihood of acting on these depend on an individual's personality traits and characteristics. In relation to men and sexual violence, traits that indicate increased risk include aggression, hostility towards women, impulsivity, rape-myth acceptance and attitudes of sexual dominance. Fiona Neary, RCNI Director, added that: 'Alcohol expectancies in combination with the drug's effects on the body play a particularly significant role in acquaintance rape scenarios where both perpetrator and victim are drinking. In these incidents, the RAJI study found that the male defendant is most likely to offer the defence that she consented to the activity”. Read more on the RCNI blog and the fact sheet.  |
| Women adopting “head in sand” approach to STDs Posted: 01 Jun 2012 10:00 AM PDT Rachel Ogbu Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are on the rise especially among young women, according to a new report. The study by online doctor and pharmacy site, DrFox, found that women aged between 30 to 40 were the most likely to have contracted a sexually transmitted infection, followed by those in the 18 to 29 age group. Involving over 2,000 women between the ages of 18 and 40, the study found a large percentage adopted a 'head in the sand' approach to the transmission of STDs. It also found that the average single woman had had unprotected sex 11 times with a total of four different men and one in ten of all women polled said they were likely to have unprotected sex when they were on holiday. Dr Tony Steele, co-founder of DrFox, said: "Unsafe sex on holiday is a major concern, particularly where women plan ahead to have sex with new partners without using condoms … having sex without contraception is a sure-fire way to increase the chances of contracting a sexually transmitted infection''. The poll also found that:
Steele added that: ''The issue of contraception should be dealt with by both parties, but women need to protect themselves, even when men are not playing their part. “The consequences of not using contraception for both unwanted pregnancy and for STIs can be huge. One of the reasons we set up DrFox.co.uk is to allow women to get contraceptive pills, the morning-after-pill and chlamydia treatment online in a safe and informed way,'' Steele said. The Health Protection Agency also published a report this week that showed diagnoses of gonorrhoea in England had risen 25 per cent, followed by diagnoses of syphilis, which rose by 10 per cent and genital herpes rose which rose by five per cent.  |
| Third of US women believe reproductive rights are under threat, poll says Posted: 01 Jun 2012 08:30 AM PDT
Almost one third (31 per cent) of US women believe that there is a wide scale effort to limit women’s reproductive health choices services, including contraception, family planning and abortion, according to a poll released today. The study, conducted by the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, published its findings after months of hot debate over the future of Planned Parenthood, abortion and President Barack Obama’s policy on contraceptives in the run up to the US presidential elections. The poll, which was conducted with 1,218 adults, found that 42 per cent of women took some action in the past six months in reaction to something they’d seen, heard or read about these issues. This included attempting to influence a friend or family member’s opinion (23 per cent), donating money to a non-profit working on reproductive health issues (15 per cent), or contacting an elected official (14 per cent). However, the survey also found that reproductive rights have not yet become the hot-button presidential campaign issue for women, who see the economy and jobs as far more important topics for President Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney. About 60 per cent of those who participated in the poll want to hear the candidates talk about the economy and jobs, 23 per cent view healthcare as a top issue and five per cent who want to hear from Obama or Romney about abortion, women’s health or other women’s issues. You can read the findings from the Kaiser Family Foundation here.  |
| Cambodia jails women protesting against forced evictions Posted: 01 Jun 2012 07:00 AM PDT
Thirteen female protesters arrested last week at a peaceful demonstration in Boeung Kak Lake, Cambodia, were sentenced to jail on Thursday. The women, members of the League of Boeung Kak Women Struggling for Housing Rights, were protesting against the forced eviction of their community from land being cleared to make way for private developments. Twelve of the women were sentenced to between two and two and a half years in jail. One woman was sentenced to a year's imprisonment. The proposed development, to build shopping centres and high rises, is one of the most contentious in Cambodia. Attempts to evict the families on land surrounding the lake in Phnom Penh have been on-going since 2007 when private development firm Shukaku bought Boeung Kak lake. Shukaku is headed by Cambodian People's Party Senator Lao Meng Khin, one of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful men. Protests against the evictions have become increasingly violent, with a 14-year-old girl being shot dead at another protest the week before the arrests. The protest last week included 18 families who had been evicted from Boeung Kak in 2010, and who had vowed to rebuild their homes. As a result, around 200 police were deployed at the protest. The women were arrested on May 22 and charged with illegally obtaining land and inciting others to illegally obtain land. Their trial took place just two days later and lasted a mere three hours. The women had no legal representation during the trial. According to the husband of one of the women,Tep Vanny: ‘The judgment on my wife and other women in Boeung Kak was not legal. ‘Correct procedures were not followed. The judge refused to bring important witnesses to the hearing, which is a right protected under the constitution.’ The husband of another of the jailed women, Heng Mom, said they intend to appeal their convictions.  |
| Three Polish women admit charges over Belfast brothel Posted: 01 Jun 2012 05:30 AM PDT Jale Arif Three Polish women have been convicted of brothel keeping and providing property for criminal purposes in Belfast. The women – 23-year-old Milena Halina Tarnowska, Sandra Polewska, 24, and 27-year-old Marta Kozakowska – all pleaded guilty to the charges and were given suspended prison sentences at Belfast Magistrates Court. Kozakowska was also charged with obstructing police by swallowing a mobile phone SIM card when police entered the women’s flat to search it. The women were arrested at a brothel in Belfast’s Alfred Street on Tuesday, as part of the biggest ever cross-border operation against organised prostitution in Ireland, in which five people were arrested in Northern Ireland and three in the Republic of Ireland. Three suspected victims of human trafficking were rescued. A prosecution lawyer said there was no allegation of human trafficking and no other people were involved in running the brothel apart from the accused. Two other women arrested in Northern Ireland during the searches – Operation Quest – have been released on bail pending further enquiries. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) believe 10 out of 20 addresses searched across Northern Ireland were being used as brothels. PSNI Detective Superintendent Philip Marshall said this was only the start of the operation. “The operation is continuing and there is the potential for more searches and more arrests in the days ahead,” he said. “There is a demand for those sexual services and organised criminals are feeding that demand. “They are bringing vulnerable men and women into both parts of Ireland for the purposes of sexual exploitation. “It is large-scale, it is organised and there are multi-million pound criminal profits being made.  |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2012 04:00 AM PDT
The Independent recently released a list of ‘The Twitter 100: Britain’s titans of the Twittersphere’. Of these top 100 Twitter influencers, only 18 are women. This is, in a strange way, both surprising and unsurprising. On the one hand, social media is considered to be more open and democratic and therefore, more ‘women-friendly’. To then have only 18 women among the Twitter top 100 is disappointing. On the other hand, such ‘power lists’ are not new. We are used to seeing men-only or men-dominated lists of top sportspersons, top political journalists, top academics and so on. So, the lack of women on the Twitter top 100 list may not be that surprising. Whatever your take on this, it was the topic of discussion last night at the Free Word Centre in London, hosted by Words of Colour and supported by English PEN. The panel debate was be facilitated by Julie Tomlin, Words of Colour's creative programmes manager and WVoN co-editor, and chaired by Words of Colour's executive director Joy Francis. The panelists – Sanam Dolatshahi (BBC Persian Television presenter), Lis Howell (head of Broadcast and TV Journalism at City University), Hana Riaz (black Muslim feminist blogger and writer) and Minna Salami (founder/editor of MsAfropolitan.com) – discussed the topic ‘Have women got Twitter clout?’ Riaz began by querying who the gatekeepers of these lists might be. Other panelists agreed, pointing out that as they are compiled according to very patriarchal definitions of authority and influence, it’s hardly surprising that they end up being male dominated. Even power lists for traditionally ‘female’ fields such as cooking and fashion tend to be dominated by men. Howell pointed out that the same situation prevails in mainstream media. More often than not, when women do appear on television participating in discussions/debates, they are assigned the role of the ‘victim’. And those few times that women are invited as experts, they are expected to discuss ‘niche topics’. Media campaigners are currently trying to get broadcasters to sign a pledge to ensure that at least 30 per cent of guest pundits are women. So who, if anyone, should be blamed? No one, said Salami. Instead we need to think of how to move forward. Blame, she said, is often heaped on women themselves on the (spurious) ground that we indulge in rivalry and don’t promote each other on Twitter. Or that women don’t want to participate in confrontational debates/discussions. While Twitter and other social media platforms, to a certain extent, democratise the process of information sharing, they should not be seen as a utopian space, warned Dolatshahi. Harassment, bullying, violence and hierarchical power relations are still played out in the virtual world. Recent reports on misogynistic abuse against Louise Mensch on Twitter and naming and blaming of the nineteen year old raped by Ched Evans (again on Twitter) and the long-standing debate on misogyny on the Guardian’s Comment is Free are a few examples of violence against women in the so-called safe space of social media. But Twitter does provide a way to develop global networks, get yourself heard and make a change – and as long as women can do that, they have Twitter clout, concluded the panelists.  |
| Sex worker villified by Australian politician mired in union fund scandal Posted: 01 Jun 2012 02:30 AM PDT
The Australian media has been flooded with stories about federal MP (and erstwhile general secretary of the Health Services Union) Craig Thomson and his alleged misuse of union funds, said to involve payments to companies linked to prostitution and the provision of escort services in Sydney. The question of whether or not he actually did this has been lost in the scandal that arose as a woman who was previously in the sex industry dared not only to come forward publicly saying she could identify him from a photo, but accepted money to do so. It seems that what she has to say is irrelevant – we have already scrutinized, judged, degraded and discredited her in a public trial by media. Potentially identifying details of this woman's life that are completely unrelated to the story have been published. Ratings may have boomed – but at what cost, to this woman, and other women in the sex industry? The reporting of this issue has further marginalized and stigmatized an already isolated and often vulnerable group, as one woman continues to be brutally attacked from all sides. Owners of escort businesses and brothels in Sydney (whom you would be forgiven for thinking would be on this woman's side, and not that of a union official) have been quick to discredit her (and ultimately, other women in the sex industry). Instead, they have gone to the lengths of depicting women in the industry as stupid 'some girls can't remember what happened last week, let alone last year or before that', to manipulative 'it could be a con job', to citing that a 'typical escort' would have sex with so many people there is simply no way she would remember each one. Mr Thomson himself, of course does not support her story being aired. Does that give him an excuse to vilify all women in the sex industry – legal in many states of Australia now? Mr Thomson is quoted as saying: 'To buy a story from a prostitute is cheque book journalism at its worst'. Why is that? Is a woman who has been in the sex industry some form of second rate citizen? Is he suggesting that because she has been in the sex industry, we must assume she has no morals, is a liar and will do anything for money? One particularly derogatory opinion piece published recently went so far as to describe this women as potentially a 'reasonably busy tart'. The writer then says that were he the 'sort of girl involved in that trade [he does not elaborate on what sort of girl that is] ….might be prepared to have an exact recollection of the event if $60,000 was waved in my face' – further compounding the image of those in the sex industry as manipulative liars who will do anything for money. He goes on to suggest it is this one woman (not the media, not Mr Thomson and definitely not the writer himself) who is destroying the reputation of those in the sex industry. Apparently, by saying she will corroborate a story, and accepting financial compensation for this – this woman is single handedly destroying the reputations of all women in the sex industry. The effects of this media storm will surely devastate current police efforts to encourage women in the sex industry to come forward and report crimes within the sector, which include trafficking, assault and rape. As we watch this woman being treated with clear contempt and disbelief, throughout mainstream media all the way up to Federal Parliament, can we truly question why crimes against women in the sex industry continue unreported? Project Respect has worked with women in the sex industry since 1998. In our experience, women enter the sector for a variety of reasons, including inability to gain flexible or adequately paid employment, being a single mother, to escape a violent relationship, to pay off debts, or to secure a future they may not otherwise be able to access, including establishing their own businesses or studying. Let us consider, for a moment, this woman, not as a hooker/prostitute/various other dehumanizing titles, but as a woman. This woman is someone's daughter, may well be a mother, a sister, a friend, a colleague. She may volunteer for a local charity. She may be the woman behind you in the supermarket buying milk. She may have accepted the money for the story knowing the public trial that would ensue, but wanting Australians to hear another side to the story. This woman is not known to Project Respect – however her public persecution is all too familiar. The only way this woman can defend herself is to publicly out herself, and as is often the case, she may well consider that too high a cost. At this stage, her anonymity is the only thing protecting her. Yet again, the voices of women from the sex industry are silenced. The sex industry in Australia is complex, controversial and women involved in it have enough to deal with. The portrayal of this issue is perpetrating the stigma, public misconception and social isolation that these women face on a daily basis. Call it cheque book journalism, call it a political conspiracy, but don't judge and degrade women based on what they have done, in a system we have developed, in order to survive. *This opinion piece was a collaborative effort between Project Respect's Executive Director Kelly Hinton, and a woman who has recently exited the sex industry, and wishes to remain anonymous.  |
| Exhibition of still lifes by British artist opens at London gallery Posted: 01 Jun 2012 01:00 AM PDT
The Russell Gallery in London is preparing to hold an exhibition by the British artist Vanessa Maisey. The new collection of still lifes by the Hertfordshire artist will be open for public viewing at the Putney gallery from the middle of next month. Maisey has held exhibitions at the Russell Gallery in the past, most recently in last year's Mixed Summer Exhibition and 2010's Mixed Christmas Exhibition. Her new solo exhibition, entitled Textures and Textiles, highlights her interest in the movement of everyday objects including vases, ribbon drawers and bowls of fruit. It will display a collection of abstract still lifes, with the use of colour being a clear priority. The still lifes focus on domestic interiors and personal spaces: kitchens, haberdasheries and bedrooms, set off with perfume bottles, tea cups and wilting vases of flowers. Maisey says of her work: "The space between the objects is as important as the object itself. These areas have an activity of their own, often showing dabs of light and shade in quiet conversation. "The still lifes and interiors of the 19th and 20th Century French and British artists are a continual inspiration and my love of colour has been influenced by the Scottish Colourists." Textures and Textiles will open on 14 June and run until the end of the month. There will also be a private view held on Thursday 14 June, between 10am and 8.30pm, with drinks between 6pm and 8.30pm. The Russell Gallery, on Lower Richmond Road, is open between 10am and 5.30pm Tuesday to Saturday. For more information or to download the Textures and Textiles catalogue visit the gallery's website or phone 02087805228.  |
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