Women's Views on News |
- Spelling things out clearly for Tory MPs
- Talk about poverty in the UK
- Report reveals Asian girls exploited too
| Spelling things out clearly for Tory MPs Posted: 10 Oct 2013 08:07 AM PDT
From the No More Page 3 campaign. Have you written to your Conservative MP and received the standard response about the importance of press freedom and the work Ministers are doing around the issue of body confidence? If so, you might like to cut and paste this template letter below which explains why body confidence is not the only problem with Page 3 and that this particular press freedom equals discrimination, and email them again – and do let us know of any responses you receive. Template letter: Thank you for your reply to my letter asking if you would add your name to the petition to David Dinsmore, Editor of the Sun newspaper, asking him to stop showing topless Page 3 images of young women in his newspaper. I appreciate your considered response, and recognise the work you refer to by Ministers in relation to low body confidence issues. However, although a part of the problem with Page 3, this is not the main reason that women object to the daily portrayal of a topless young woman in a 'family' newspaper. The bigger concern is the safety of women and girls in our society, and the fact that Page 3 daily conditions men to see women and girls first and foremost as commodities to use for sexual gratification and then discard. Page 3 gives permission for a mindset which is harmful to women and compromises our safety. These are sexualised, post-watershed, top-shelf images, available in an unrestricted daily newspaper. They encourage, promote and reinforce a 'lad' culture which is sexist and misogynistic. There are no comparable 'adult' images of men in the public space, and this is clearly sex discrimination. Existing legislation prohibits topless calendars from the workplace as they are recognised to be humiliating and degrading to women, and therefore constitute a form of sexual harassment. And yet topless Page 3 images are permitted at work, as they are permitted on student campuses, trains, buses, tubes, pubs, cafes, takeaways, parks, streets, waiting rooms – in fact everywhere in the public space, including the homes of young girls where it is especially damaging. Seeing men in public looking at Page 3 and hearing the inevitable lewd, obscene and objectifying comments humiliates me as a woman and makes me feel less safe, and has done throughout my whole life. The Sun takes the shame out of leering at women publicly, normalises it and teaches young men that this is an acceptable way to treat women and girls. Research has shown that after looking at sexualised images of women, men are significantly more likely to answer 'yes' to the questions 'would you ever consider having sex with an underage girl?' and 'would you ever consider forcing a woman to have sex?' Research has also shown that sexualised images of women are seen as 'objects' by both men and women, and that this view then extends to women in general. I feel angry that if a young girl walks past a group of men, she is more likely to be sexually harassed if they are looking at Page 3 at the time, and I think that the physical and psychological safety of girls and women should be prioritised over 'a bit of fun for the lads'. Page 3 overwhelmingly exploits one group: young, white British women, and presents them as sexually available commodities. These women are sold the lie that this is 'glamour' modelling by middle-aged male newspaper editors. 'Glamour' elicits admiration, whereas Page 3 is demeaning, and therefore elicits a mixture of lust and contempt. Young women's susceptibility to the flattery, sexual attention and approval of men should not be exploited in a way which effectively bars them from every other worthwhile career (including lingerie and fashion modelling). The only career that Page 3 modelling provides a real gateway to is the sex industry. Women in their teens and early twenties are too young to fully appreciate the impact modelling for Page 3 will have on their future lives. And yet, the percentage of teenage girls whose ambition it is to become 'glamour models' gets bigger every day, as they see that their society approves most of those women who are willing to take their clothes off. This is a huge waste of the potential of our young women, and I feel that a national newspaper should not be presenting such a role model to them every day. Page 3 is sanctioned public bullying of women, as is made apparent by the Sun's response to any woman who objects to it. Women are effectively silenced by the fear that we will be seen as jealous, ugly and prudish, as the Sun tells us. The Sun also campaigns against domestic violence, and yet provides, in Page 3, an effective daily weapon for abusers to use against their wives and partners. As we know, dehumanising people makes it easier to abuse them. These are my reasons for signing this petition, which is simply asking David Dinsmore to voluntarily remove Page 3, it is not asking for a ban. I believe in freedom of the press, but I oppose discrimination against one group of human beings. How is the Sun still getting away with this in 2013? I know you are extremely busy, so thank you for taking the time to read this, and I appreciate you considering the points I have raised. Your support would be very welcome. I look forward to hearing from you again. Yours sincerely.  |
| Posted: 10 Oct 2013 04:23 AM PDT
According to a report from Oxfam, the UK’s coalition government's tax and benefit changes will increase both absolute and relative poverty. Oxfam has produced a series of country case studies on the damaging effects of austerity. These cover France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK. And as far as Oxfam is concerned, the UK's current austerity programme threatens to solidify the UK's position as a country of growing inequality and poverty. The UK, says the report, is the sixth richest country on earth, but one in five of its people lives in poverty it is one of the most unequal rich countries in the world. The emphasis on cutting public spending as opposed to increasing taxes has already begun to increase the hardship faced by people on low incomes, while allowing the richest bear a comparatively small burden of the pain. Millions more are expected to be living in poverty and at risk of poverty by the end of the decade, and the richest look set to get richer. Women, says their UK report, have arguably been worst affected by the crisis: of the £8.1bn in net personal tax increases and benefit cuts, an estimated £5.8bn (72 per cent) will impact upon women. Women will also suffer to a greater degree from cuts to public services, due to their comparatively higher representation in the public sector. Since the 2008 financial crisis, female unemployment has risen from 678,000 to 1.08 million in 2013 – a level last seen in 1988. This, Oxfam says, is expected to further rise to 1.5 million by 2018, as the remainder of public sector cuts take effect. Women typically use public services more than men for a variety of reasons and will therefore be more significantly impacted by their closure, both in their own right and, usually, as principal carers. The combination of these impacts from austerity measures will have long-term consequences for both gender equality and, most likely, child poverty in the UK. As it is, the Huffington Post reported recently, two-thirds of the 3.5 million children who currently live in poverty live in families where at least one person works but the income is not enough to support their needs. A collaborative project called Heartsease is working to raise awareness of the issue of child poverty in the UK, and has come up with one way of giving individuals a chance to raise awareness and to do something simple – and hopefully effective – for young children in need. Heartsease is asking us to knit, sew or crochet one small heart or heart bag as part of a two-part action. Well, three if you count ‘us’. The bags will be delivered to Parliament on Valentine’s Day 2014. Prime Minister David Cameron challenged child poverty statistics, claiming in 2011 that benefit cuts will not impact child poverty figures. He had earlier made the – slightly bizarre – argument that poverty is overstated because it is relative. The other part of the idea is that the London based charity Kids Company's team will then be given the hearts to use in therapy sessions with the young people they are working with. For more information or to get involved, or to join in, go to the event page on Facebook, where you will find simple knitting patterns for heart donations, and the address to send the finished products to. As a result of the tax and welfare changes to be implemented between 2010 and 2014, the poorest two-tenths of the population will have seen greater cuts to their net income, in percentage terms, than every other group, except the very richest tenth. Although new polling by Inequality Briefing suggests that most people perceive the distribution of wealth in the UK to be far more equal than it actually is. They have put together an animated video about both perception and reality; click here to watch it. The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that the net direct effect of the coalition government's tax and benefit changes will be to increase both absolute and relative poverty. Over the decade to 2020, an additional 800,000 children are expected to be living in poverty – almost one in four British children – and over the same period, an extra 1.5 million working-age adults are expected to fall into poverty, bringing the total to 17.5 per cent of this group. As the UK returns to growth, Oxfam warns, this will not be cause for celebration for the bulk of the population, as it is accompanied by rising levels of insecure work, high unemployment and the destruction of mechanisms to reduce poverty and lower inequality. Far from a shift towards more inclusive growth, Oxfam continues, austerity will increase inequality in what is already one of the most unequal developed countries, in which the richest continue to gain disproportionately from new growth. Austerity programmes have dismantled the mechanisms that reduce inequality and enable equitable growth. With inequality and poverty on the rise, Europe is facing a lost decade. An additional 15 to 25 million people across Europe could face the prospect of living in poverty by 2025 if austerity measures continue. Europe's austerity programmes bear a striking resemblance to the ruinous structural adjustment policies imposed on Latin America, South-East Asia, and sub-Sahara Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. These policies were a failure: a medicine that sought to cure the disease by killing the patient, says Oxfam: they cannot be allowed to happen again. In 'A Cautionary Tale: The true cost of austerity and inequality in Europe' which was published last month, Oxfam calls on the governments of Europe to turn away from austerity measures and instead choose a path of inclusive growth that delivers better outcomes for people, communities and the environment.  |
| Report reveals Asian girls exploited too Posted: 10 Oct 2013 01:09 AM PDT
Last month the Muslim Women's Network UK (MWNUK) published a report highlighting the stark failure of United Kingdom (UK) authorities to recognise and support young victims of sexual exploitation from Muslim and Asian backgrounds. In the foreword to the report, 'Unheard Voices: the sexual exploitation of Asian Girls and Young Women', Baroness Haleh Afshar has written: ‘…there has been a deafening silence concerning this group in the existing body of work on sexual abuse and young persons’. In response to the urgent need to ask why this silence, a question that provoked and shaped research for the report, several theories have been put forward. Obstacles to reportage, such as the shame and sense of dishonour felt by victims; 'cultural sensitivity' e.g. the fear of asking questions concerning the disappearance of individuals from Asian backgrounds; and the 'myth' that Muslim men only groom exclusively non-Muslim girls and young women all exacerbated the lack of research into these communities and therefore the support provided for victims. Responding to the report, Sue Berelowitz, the Deputy Children's Commissioner, said: 'The stories of some of the victims are amongst the most shocking I have encountered'. And she added: 'never again should anybody doubt that Asian and Muslim children are not as at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation as other children'. The report, based on research compiled from case studies and provided by frontline workers, found that the majority of the victims were of Muslim faith, most of the victims were aged under 16, that two thirds were of British Pakistani heritage, and that 'most victims had not received or been supported by long term after care'. Some of the girls were plied with drugs or alcohol before being passed around gangs of men, in cases similar to those involving white girls that have hit British headlines in recent months. Importantly the case studies profiled revealed that abusers in the main targeted and groomed victims from the same ethnic and/or faith background. It was thought these victims were pursued because they were in the same geographical locality as the abusers and because they were perceived to be less likely to report the exploitation or to seek help. Underlying reasons for male sexual violence against women in these instances, it was suggested, included in part the reliance of abusers on cultural beliefs that promoted the authority of the male. Baroness Haleh Afshar explained it thus: 'Perpetrators rely on customs and traditions of male superiority to justify and/or hide these abuses'. The unheard voices of victims were particularly acute the report establishes because of the lack of understanding among the communities and the family unit. In some instances the girls were deemed the party at fault, were seen to be complicit in abuse as ‘temptresses'. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi said that the problem must be tackled at its heart, in communities and by communities themselves. In respect to wider society, those interviewed for the report observed that front line professionals were not identifying cases of sexual abuse involving Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) victims, widening the long term purpose of the publication in highlighting the deficit of response to and interest in the sexual exploitation of women and girls from minority backgrounds within the United Kingdom. Additionally the police were seen to withhold from intervening in suspected cases of abuse, exploitation and grooming because they feared being accused of ‘cultural insensitivity’. The report pushes for a cohesive, comprehensive response to BME victims of sexual exploitation, with clear nationwide plans issued by the government that improve prevention, identification, intervention and support for the individuals affected. Likewise it urges relevant government departments to allocate funds specifically for BME victims in anticipation of including some resources for third sector BME groups who could work directly with victims and communities. It also calls for education of communities regarding the causes of sexual violence, the community’s role in prevention and the reprehensibility of victim blaming. Early work with young men and women about sexually predatory behaviour and support networks for abuse, or for those who suspected they or others were being groomed, would play a key part in changing attitudes and eradicating this violence. Nazir Afzal, the Chief Crown Prosecutor (CCP) for the North West Area, cautioned that: 'it needs to be clear [...] that white British men constitute the vast majority of offenders in the UK', insisting however that vulnerability was universal and adding his voice to others who say this behaviour is not confined to particular races. Not identifying victims of sexual exploitation and abuse or not providing them with sufficient support and care has devastating effects. The long term effects include self-harming; post traumatic stress syndrome, suicidal feelings, gynaecological problems and unwanted pregnancies. And inevitably several of these effects result in the victims becoming more vulnerable to further sexual exploitation or re-victimisation. The report has been hailed as 'courageous' and a significant sign of the will to progress in 'the long road towards the eradication of violence against women and children'. Shaista Gohir, author of the report and chair of MWNUK, insists on the need for further research of child sex abuse in Asian and Muslim communities. It is, she said, imperative so that this issue can finally start to be challenged.  |
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