Women's Views on News |
| Sports round-up: 9 – 15 December Posted: 16 Dec 2013 05:06 AM PST
Swimming: Siobhan-Marie O'Connor won two medals this week at the European Short-Course Championships in Denmark. She took silver in the 200m individual medley with Sophie Allen taking bronze. She then took second bronze in the 100m individual medley. There was also success for Jemma Lowe who took bronze in the 200m butterfly. Skeleton: Lizzy Yarnold won a bronze medal in the skeleton at the World Cup event in Lake Placid. She was only seventh after the first run and so recovered well to take a medal. Shelley Rudman finished sixth. Yarnold has now taken a medal in each of the first three World Cup events of the season. Football: Scotland lost 2-0 to Canada in their opening game of the Brazil Women's International tournament in Brasilia. Canada took the lead in the sixth minute through Adriana Leon with Christine Sinclair making it two in the second half. It would have been three had Scotland captain and goalkeeper, Gemma Fay, not saved a penalty from Sinclair eight minutes before the end. Manchester City showed their intentions again this week as they pulled off another signing coup, this time Steph Houghton from Arsenal. She will join them on a three-year contract in January.This signing of the Arsenal captain is, arguably, their most ambitious signing yet. Taekwondo: Jade Jones had to settle for silver at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Manchester on 15 December. She lost the final bout to Eva Calvo Gomez in the -57kg category. Sportswoman of the Year Awards: Christine Ohuruogu was named Sunday Times and Sky Sportswoman of the year 2013 last week. She took gold at the athletics World Championships in Moscow in August, becoming the first British woman to take two World Championships titles. Cyclist Becky James won the Young Sportswoman of the Year award. The Welsh cyclist won four medals in five days at the UCI Track World Championships in Minsk in February. The England Netball team won Team of the Year after losing just one test match in 2013. Amy Marren was named Disability Sportswoman of the Year after winning six medals at the IPC World Swimming Championship in August.  |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2013 04:12 AM PST
Coventry: 19 December: Carolling for CRASAC! around the Christmas tree in The Bull Yard, Coventry city centre, from 6pm-8pm. Please come along and have a sing for as long or as short a stint as you can. Last year it was not only incredibly enjoyable, but we raised £150 for Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (CRASAC) which really needs the funds. Calls to CRASAC have increased dramatically over the last year so it would be great if we can beat that total to help them out. Leeds: 18 December: Bag-Packing Fundraiser at Sainsbury's Moortown, Leeds from 7am-11pm. Support After Rape & Sexual Violence Leeds (SARSVL) will be at Moortown Sainsbury’s for a bag-packing fundraiser day, raising funds for the centre. The store is open 7am till 11pm, and they’d love to have a presence all day, so that means lots of volunteers. If you have two or more hours to spare at any time through the day and would like to help then they'd love to hear from you. Volunteers of all genders are welcome, and you don’t need any specialist knowledge, just to support our values, which can be found at on the SARSVL site. SARSVL women will be on hand throughout the day to answer any questions from customers. Even if you can’t come on the day, please share the event with your friends and family, and encourage them to do the same – the more people we can reach the better! Liverpool: 16 December: Feminism, Materialism, Critical Theory: A Symposium to Celebrate and Engage with the Work of Gillian Howie (1965-2013) at the School of the Arts Library, 19 Abercromby Square, University of Liverpool, Liverpool. A University of Liverpool and Society of Women in Philosophy (SWIP UK) one-day symposium. Speakers will include: Christine Battersby, Stella Sandford, Margrit Shildrick and Alison Stone. Professor Howie was a long-standing member of SWIP, and taught philosophy at the University of Liverpool from 1995-2013. Her research interests were extremely wide-ranging, including: Feminist materialisms, Feminist theologies and spiritualities, especially the thought of Luce Irigaray, Critical theory, especially the thought of Theodor Adorno, Existentialism, especially the thought of Jean Paul Sartre, Pedagogy and Higher Education. Her most recent monograph, ‘Between Feminism and Materialism: a Question of Method’ (Palgrave 2010), covers a huge amount of philosophical ground, with chapters on 'Production', 'Objectivity', 'Reason', Essentialism', 'Identity', 'Non-Identity', 'Sex and Gender' and 'Patriarchy'. The workshop is free (not including dinner). To register, please send an email to Victoria Browne, stating any dietary and access requirements and whether you would like a place at the dinner after the event. London: 16 December: Join Action Aid in memory of Nirbhaya at the Nehru Statue, India Place, Aldwych, London, WC2B from 8.20-9.20am. Join Action Aid to mark the anniversary of the rape and murder on a Delhi bus of 23 year-old Jyoti Singh, known as Nirbhaya, 'Fearless One'. We’ll be joined by actor and writer Meera Syal, journalist and campaigner Sunny Hundal, Asian Woman of the Year Kalpna Woolf, and Japit Kaur from the cast of the acclaimed Edinburgh fringe play ‘Nirbhaya’. At the same time in India, thousands will gather to mark the brutal death of this brave young woman and ensure that her memory will live on in the actions of all those who speak out against violence and rape. Please wear black and, bring a white flower to show solidarity with the millions of women worldwide who suffer violence and rape. 16 December: Fundraiser for Rape Crisis South London (RASASC) at The Old Blue Last, 38 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A from 8pm Rape Crisis South London (RASASC) has been the Rape Crisis Centre for South London since 1985. They are an independent organisation based in Croydon providing a high standard of professional, specialist support to female survivors of sexual violence. RASASC also provides the national Rape Crisis helpline on 0808 802 9999 for female survivors of sexual violence, calling from anywhere in England and Wales. This fundraising event will feature music from Bat and Ball, Oh Boy, Katie Malco and the Girls Get Busy DJs. Tickets £4/£5. All proceeds go to RASASC. 16 December: She Grrrowls: Birth at The Gallery Café, 21 Old Ford Road, London, E2 from 7.30pm. SHE GRRROWLS showcases a range of talent women and includes poetry, comedy and a musical finale. Come along and take part in the all-inclusive OPEN MIC section, with this month’s theme: BIRTH. Hosted by Sophia Blackwell, poetry from Sophie Fenella Robins and Amy Acre, with comedy from Bisha Ali and music from Tonia Thorne. All ticket sales go towards the payment of artists and producers with an even door split. 16-18 December: the Women in the Arts festival at the Tristan Bates Theatre, at 1A Tower St, Covent Garden WC2H 9NP. Bringing together women producers, writers, actors, poets, musicians, comedians, artists and directors to foster collaboration, build mutual support and to examine how we can help ourselves and each other to develop our work. The festival will showcase 40 projects including staged readings, performances, showreels and arts installations. For details, keep an eye on their website. To purchase tickets, or reserve tickets for free but 'ticketed' events, click here. 16 – 20 December and 18 – 20 December: ‘Man Named My Vagina‘ (or Did He?) at The Etcetera Theatre, Oxford Arms, 265 Camden High Street, London, NW1 7BU A very unique Christmas party or a Girls night out who can sing along. Written and directed by Fleur Howle. A highly original sequential play performed by an international cast of three women who are all contemporary dancers, singers and comedians. It is bookended with two legal cases about rape and sex trafficking. It is very topical as the cases are understood via facebook, blogs, YouTube, websites etc. and is informative but delivered with humour. For tickets (£8) click here. Until 4 January: In The Next Room or the vibrator play. By Sarah Ruhl. At St James’ Theatre, 12 Palace Street, London, SW1E 5JA. A provocative, touching and entertaining story about sex and intimacy. Winner – Best New Play – TMA Awards; Nominated for three Tony Awards; Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2013 01:09 AM PST
Trigger warning: This article contains details relating to the physical abuse of children and babies. Hanna Williams, Lydia Schatz, and Sean Paddock are three American children killed by their parents, beaten, starved and neglected; apparently the parents were following the methods advocated by Michael and Debi Pearl in their ‘parenting’ book, To Train Up A Child. In their self-published book, pastor Michael Pearl and his wife, of No Greater Joy Minstries, advocate ‘switching’ children with plastic plumbing pipe as a means of disciplining children and ‘training them to behave’. Hanna Williams was found dead, face down, naked and emaciated in her backyard after her parents, Larry and Carri Williams followed the Pearl's parenting manual. Hanna’s mother had praised the book and given copies to her friends. Lydia Schatz, who had been adopted from Liberia, died in 2010 aged 7 years old after receiving numerous forceful whippings with quarter-inch plastic tubing. She was held down for hours by her mother, Elizabeth Schatz, while her father, Kevin Schatz, beat her on the back of her body, causing massive tissue damage. The Pearls’ book was found in the Schatz home. Lying next to a children's book was a quarter-inch diameter piece of plastic plumbing pipe. Sean Paddock died in 2006, aged 4, from suffocation after being tightly wrapped in a blanket by his mother, Lynn Paddock. Sean's siblings testified that they were beaten daily with a plastic plumbing pipe. Hundreds of thousands of copies of this book have been sold to evangelical Christians, and even though the parents of the children killed appear to have been influenced by the authors’ teachings the book is still available for sale. It can be bought right here in the UK on sites such as Amazon. On their on-line shelves it ironically sits right next to books aimed at small children. The authors believe in ‘training up’ children, in conditioning them before the crisis arises. One of the first passages from the book reads: ‘Training is the conditioning of the child’s mind before the crisis arises; it is preparation for future, instant, unquestioning obedience.’ The ‘training’ is meant to start early in order to pre-empt the behaviour. For example, the Pearl’s recommend pulling the hair of a nursing baby who bites the mother’s nipple during feeding. For babies and children who cannot sleep and are crying they recommend whipping: '…never allow them to get up.' They also recommend whipping a 12 month-old girl for crying and a 7 month-old for screaming. The Pearls say that parents who don't whip their babies into complete submission are indifferent, lazy, careless and neglectful and as a result of not chastising their children in this way are ‘creating a Nazi’. The book, which can be read online, outlines how Debi Pearl whipped the bare leg of a 15 month-old she was babysitting, 10 separate times, for not playing with something she told him to play with. She hit a 2 year-old so hard ‘a karate chop like wheeze' comes from 'somewhere deep inside.' While the training is meant to start when children are babies, if the parent is starting later and the child is already rebellious, the authors tell parents to ‘use whatever force is necessary to bring him to bay’. ‘If you have to sit on him to spank him then do not hesitate. And hold him there until he is surrendered… Defeat him totally.’ Despite recommending these violent methods of chastising a child, and despite the fact the book was found in the possession of parents who have killed their children, Michael Pearl remains dismissive of the influences the book is having,saying: “There’s no way that a person who reads the book could be led to violence.” On their website No Greater Joy Minstries, Michael Pearl says: "The book repeatedly warns parents against abuse, and emphasises the parents' responsibility to love and properly care for their children." But by following any of the recommendations in this book, a person is led to violence. And Amazon appears willing to condone and profit from such a book. I have become involved in a campaign asking Amazon to remove this book from sale. In a previous life I worked with men and women who had become embroiled in the criminal justice system and many of them reported childhoods involving abuse. I believe we all have a responsibility to try and break the cycle, and that is why I personally have become involved. Amazon, I hope you are listening, because I believe big corporations like yourself also have a responsibility to do just that, and to protect children from child abuse and to protect future generations too. Preventing child abuse is possible and we all have a moral duty to contribute to doing just that. A roundtable debate sponsored by the NSPCC was held in September 2013. The debate focused on the fact that children who are abused are much more likely to become adults who abuse – between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of people who are abused as children go on to become abusers themselves. Michael and Debi Pearl have said that their children use the ‘switching’ methods on their children and so the cycle will continue. Delegates at the debate told the Guardian: ‘Child abuse – which has dominated the headlines over the past year as a result of the Savile inquiry and other high-profile child-cruelty cases, and which is often presented as one of the country’s most intractable problems – could be reduced by 70 per cent by the year 2030.’ Parenting bloggers passionate about removing this book from sale are joining forces and the NSPCC has requested Amazon withdraw this publication from sale. Peter Wanless, CEO of the NSPCC, said: “There is no place for Dickensian workhouse punishments in modern families. “Hitting a child with an implement – aside from being cruel and unjustifiable – is illegal in the UK. So if parents followed the so-called parenting guidance in this book to the letter they would be committing an act of child abuse. “We urge Amazon to consider whether it’s acceptable to profit from books, or any material, that supports child cruelty.” Conservative MP Nadine Dorries is also supporting the campaign and calling on Amazon to ban the book. Amazon has so far responded with the following statement: “Amazon does not endorse the content of any book that it offers. This book has been widely debated in the media, and on Amazon, for many years and anyone who wishes to express their views about this title is free to do so on its product page on our website.” Amazon may not endorse the content but it appears perfectly willing to profit from it. You can find out more on how to support the campaign here.  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Women's Views on News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |