Women's Views on News |
- A win for Brazil in Rio
- Sex and violence on TV now more acceptable?
- Internet porn: an urgent public health issue
| Posted: 10 Jul 2014 07:50 AM PDT
Nine teams of street-connected girls from around the world, aged 14 – 17, competed in the Street Child World Cup (SCWC) this year in the first girls-only tournament held in Rio de Janeiro alongside one for the boys. Brazil beat the Philippines 1 – 0. To see the other results, click here. To vote for the best of 10 favourtie goals, click here. The girls' tournament is considered an important statement of solidarity with street girls who are so often unseen and denied the opportunities to play sport. It also provides these girls with an even greater opportunity to change people's perceptions and for their stories to be heard. Girls are more often abused, denied opportunities and basic rights. Gender stereotypes are being lived out because girls are not properly supported or represented – they are neglected and marginalised and vulnerable to gender-based violence and abuse, both on the streets and in the situations leading up to their arrival there. But there are not enough specific services for street connected girls, and many projects find it difficult to engage them. SCWC didn't want the girls' tournament to be seen as separate from the SCWC as a whole – it is crucial to engage boys with the issues for girls on the streets, since they have often (but not always) been the perpetrators of abuse. Street connected girls often lack visible role models and sport can offer these – as well as a chance to change perceptions, challenge stereotypes and inspire dreams. England was represented at the SCWC by a team made up of young people who have experienced homelessness in London, and they played Nicaragua and Mozambique. The SCWC's partner here was New Horizon Youth Centre and Islington Council's Independent Futures service. New Horizon, a centre for homeless young people based near to Kings Cross railway station, has been working for 42 years offering a daily service to young people who find themselves homeless in the city. New Horizon offers advice and support back into education or employment, counselling, housing advice, health and medical support and sports, arts and drama activities. It offer its services at their day centre and conduct street outreach. Casa Alianza Nicaragua began a programme in 1998 to work with children at risk, in response to thousands of vulnerable children living on the streets in Nicaragua. Their first crisis centre and an additional transition centre were opened later that year. They expanded again in 2001 to open a "Mothers and Babies" centre to look after young mothers who were looking after their babies on the street and for pregnant teenage girls. Today, Casa Alianza Nicaragua works with an average of 5,000 street children a year. Many of these are the victims of sexual exploitation or were trafficked for sexual purposes. The vast majority have problems with addiction, have broken family ties and all are considered to be at high risk. A girls' team from Maputo represented Mozambique. SCWC's partner in Maputo, Meninos Da Mocambique (MDM), is a Mozambican NGO providing social assistance and medical care to children on the streets of Mozambique's cities. Originating as a medical team, MDM has expanded its services to also provide education, vocational training, psychosocial support, prevention in communities and reintegration work with children and families. Football forms an important part of MDM's preventative work with girls who may be at risk of life on the streets. As part of an extensive range of activities they have 3 (or more) girls' football teams who are involved in their prevention programmes. They use football to challenge traditional roles which girls become trapped in, as domestic assistants in the home with very little freedom, and to give them the opportunity to play. The teams have been successful and last year's team were taken on by a local club once they had outgrown the project. MDM is supported in the UK by Street Child Africa, an NGO which works with street child projects across Africa. The girls team that won is part of the IBISS project in Rio de Janeiro. IBISS has introduced projects to tackle social exclusion, discrimination and violence in more than 60 communities in Rio de Janeiro, where it is based. The organisation runs a wide range of programmes that include outreach work with young people on the streets and a scheme to help orphans find a home with families living locally. IBISS works in many of Rio's most deprived communities, where violence and the drugs trade are rife but where basic infrastructure, and education and work opportunities are in short supply. Soccer and sports are a key part of the holistic approach; IBISS runs soccer schools to help keep children out of the drugs trade and in education, as well as to monitor their overall health and any social problems. Former child soldiers often work as young leaders in the soccer schools and in social programmes. Where appropriate, IBISS engages in mediation to help young people leave the streets and return to their communities. Soccer schools are key part of programmes; teaching discipline and also mentoring kids; trainers also use soccer sessions to identify illness or other problems and to 'blackmail' children to attend regular school. Issues for street children in Rio have changed over the past two decades, with more children becoming involved in organised crime and addicted to crack. Today, children often end up on the streets; forced out because they are addicted to crack or because they upset traffickers and their names end up on death lists. Team Rio was chosen from among 20 girls who are currently coached by Jessica, a former street child. Jessica is now 18 and spent 18 months on the streets shoe-shining in Lapa but has been reintegrated into her family. IBISS's founder, Nanko van Burren, said: "What is exciting about the SCWC tournament is the opportunity to make the world aware of street children – it's a chance to show people that, when you really want to, there are many ways that you can involve them in projects that help them. "Of course, football is just a game – the exciting part is the political statement."  |
| Sex and violence on TV now more acceptable? Posted: 10 Jul 2014 04:15 AM PDT
Complaints about excessive violence and sex on TV have fallen sharply in the last five years. Annual research by the regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, Ofcom, into attitudes towards the media has found that complaints about ‘too much’ violence on TV fell from 55 per cent of adult viewers in 2008 to 35 per cent in 2013. The number of viewers saying there is ‘too much’ sex on TV is down from 26 per cent in 2013 versus 35 per cent in 2008, and too much swearing down 35 per cent in 2013 versus 53 per cent in 2008. The research suggests that much of this change is due to the older generation having changed their attitude significantly towards violence, sex and expletives. However, with so many popular shows depicting scenes of sex and violence, these statistics may also be displaying general desensitisation. Programmes that would formerly be seen as extreme – such as Game of Thrones – are now, Ofcom says, barely tutted at. To take Game of Thrones as an example, a large proportion of the sex shown is nonconsensual (and this departs from the book), seemingly for no reason other than to titillate the viewer. Yet often when such disturbing trends are pointed out, concerns are dismissed or seen as prudish. This is seen as an effect of the “new” sexism, where legitimate concerns are dismissed because women now have equality in the law. Whether we have equality in reality is a question that is still being discussed. The thinking appears to go like this: because large things like the vote have been achieved, smaller things like non-exploitative representation in media are deemed unnecessary. To assume that all the battles for equality have been won is to deliberately ignore all of the very real hurdles women still have to face, from benevolent sexism to victim blaming. There is still a long way to go, on and off the television; and as long as many people insist on ignoring it, we will remain – stuck.  |
| Internet porn: an urgent public health issue Posted: 10 Jul 2014 01:09 AM PDT
The UK’s public health professionals must fight the harm being done by internet pornography and the media's sexualisation of youngsters, a US expert has warned. Pamela Luna, a governing councillor of the American Public Health Association (APHA), appealed for urgent action by counterparts at the UK Faculty of Public Health's annual conference. She said, "I feel we have left our kids vulnerable; as adults we've missed something, which is what is happening in the media. "Public health doctors needed to tackle the problem as a top priority." Dr Luna was speaking in a debate in Manchester on 2 July that followed a screening of five films by the faculty's public health film specialist interest group. These films focussed on objectification, and the event featured clips from the films Sexy Baby, Miss Representation and Girl Rising, and looked at issues such as young people's experiences and attitudes toward sexuality and masculinity, exposure to extreme imagery, the role of digital media, and "sexualised" advertising. Luna, who co-chairs the American Public Health Association's film festival, said that girls who were being systematically recruited by the hard core pornography industry all over the world were discarded and left "mentally and emotionally wrecked," as highlighted in one of the films, Hot Girls Wanted. She said that public health professionals should do more to prevent this happening, by using the media to exert a positive influence on young people's behaviour, strengthen resilience, and deter young people from risky behaviours. "We have to look at the media, we have to understand it, we have to use it in a way that's powerful, we have to have our voices heard, we need to be advising on films, we need to be there – we can't sit back," she said. Peter Donnelly, professor of public health medicine at St Andrew's University, Scotland, said that the "very violent and denigrating" nature of much internet pornography was a deep concern. He said, "All males need to think very carefully about their use of pornography, because if there's no market, you begin to change this. "What you hear in the films and from other young men you speak to is they're not sure what it is to be a young man these days, and they need help in expressing their masculinity in a way that feels constructive and comfortable." The conference heard that "pervasive" media pressure was making life more difficult for young people and contributing to worsening mental health and that it was a challenge for public health professionals to keep up with the digital technologies being used. Calls were made for public health professionals to work closely with schools to get better sex and relationships education on to the curriculum. Jacqueline Smith, a film maker who works with the charity Best Beginnings, said that girls and boys were being exposed to a "colossal" amount of digital media on smartphones and that there were limits on what could be done to restrict that access. But she said, "We can perhaps create a different set of imagery, to change the context in which these images exist and perhaps to connect with audiences in ways that show them that this is one world you could inhabit, but there are others, and use digital media to equip them to be informed about the world they live in and the rights and responsibilities they have and the choices they can make." Helena Jopling, East of England public health registrar, said that public health teams faced difficulties, including a shortage of funds and "being accused of nannying if we teach, or educate, or restrict."  |
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