Women's Views on News |
- Being drunk is no excuse for harrassment
- Climate change: good books we read
- Imagine a feminist internet
| Being drunk is no excuse for harrassment Posted: 19 Sep 2014 07:30 AM PDT
New research from the alcohol education charity Drinkaware has revealed the extent of sexual harassment experienced by young adults when they're out, and how it has unhappily become expected. The research comes as almost half a million new students look forward to Freshers' Week. This time in 2013 we saw numerous stories hit the headlines about freshers’ week and the sexual offences against young women during nights out. Stories such as that of a Student’s Union event at Cardiff Metropolitan University being advertised using a poster picturing a T-shirt with the words: ‘I raped a girl last night and she cried’. We are only a few days into the new term now and there are already reports of female students having been raped, sexually assaulted and sexually harassed while trying to enjoy a night out with friends. Drinkaware’s research took a close look at binge drinking among young people and highlights the extent of unwanted sexual attention on drunken nights out and tolerance of this criminal behaviour. In a survey of 80 participants aged 18-29 years old, 31 per cent of the young women interviewed said they had received inappropriate physical attention or touching on a night out. Only 19 per cent said they were surprised this had happened to them. But 67 per cent of the young adults surveyed said that persistent unwanted sexual attention ruins a night out. Social time after dark is perceived as bringing with it unwanted sexual attention which, while not liked, must be tolerated. While feeling they must simply ‘tolerate’ unwanted attention, a significant number of women reported feeling angry and disgusted by it. As Drinkaware launches its research ‘Drunken nights out: motivations, norms and rituals in the night time economy, an independent review of binge drinking’, it warns that being drunk is not an excuse for sexually harassing or assaulting other people. It is criminal behaviour. It should not be tolerated. The message is clear: ‘if it's not acceptable sober, it's not acceptable drunk’. Elaine Hindal, chief executive at Drinkaware, says: ‘Young people should be able to enjoy a night out without fear of intimidating behaviour, whether physical or verbal. ‘Being drunk isn’t an excuse for sexually harassing or assaulting other people. ‘The vast majority of young adults we spoke to agree that if a behaviour is unacceptable when you are sober, it's unacceptable when you are drunk. ‘Now is the time for everyone to take a stand to stop this.’ Many of the women involved in the Drinkaware survey reported feeling unable to stand up to the perpetrator for fear of being further targeted and felt the only answer was to ignore it. And Mark Castle, chief executive of the charity Victim Support said: ‘People should be able go out and enjoy themselves without fear of becoming a target for a sexual predator. ‘Being drunk is no excuse for someone behaving in a criminal way. Making a complaint of any kind of sexual assault can be daunting for a victim, which is why so many sexual assaults go unreported. Castle added: ‘We are committed to helping victims find the strength to cope and have the confidence to report these crimes. ‘Our specialist team of staff and volunteers support victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse, and there is no pressure to go to the police.’ If you have been affected by sexual harassment and would like to speak to someone, you can contact Victim Support by calling their Supportline on 0845 30 30 900 or via their website.  |
| Climate change: good books we read Posted: 19 Sep 2014 03:45 AM PDT
Around this time each September, thousands of students will go off to study climate change at university. But sometimes climate and environmental issues can be pretty dry. So The Carbon Brief asked 25 thinkers, writers and journalists a simple question: What books or readings inspired you to get involved in climate change-related work? They were expecting to get back a list of books – and they did. But they also got some interesting insights into why people work on this issue, why they started, and why they carry on. Maureen Raymo, professor of palaeoceanography at Columbia University and author of Written in Stone, said: "I’ve been around a long time and the books that inspired me as a grad student were written in the 80s and are now fairly obsolete. "However, my greatest inspiration was a person, Jacques Cousteau (and his books and TV shows). From the age of eight I wanted to explore the ocean." Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales said: "I’d recommend, for readers well into their science studies, or readers prepared to stick with some fairly technical stuff, Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History by Donald E Canfield. "It explains both the incredible recent progress of the science (lots of what I was taught in school is now clearly wrong), and also still how little we know about the massive past changes in our world that could help inform us about the risks of the Anthropocene. "I’ve written more here." Ruth Davis, political director of Greenpeace UK, said: "I am not a Utopian. I think the best that I can do is battle dystopia – and leave the door open for human potential. "And so the book I would recommend is a story about ‘little’ people toiling against the tyranny of big lies – against those sweeping ideological certainties that disconnect us from reality and enable war, cruelty and poverty to ride triumphant. "Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada tells the story of an elderly German couple whose son is killed in the Second World War. "Their hearts are broken, and they set out on a brave, funny and finally doomed mission to tell the truth to their fellow citizens. "The example of remaining consistently faithful to a politics that protects the intimate and domestic is one I find inspiring and in this case awe-inspiring. "I would like it to inform all my work, not just my work on climate change." Ro Randall, psychotherapist researching climate change, said: "My choice isn’t an old favourite but a new one, Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate [published tomorrow, 16 September]. "Klein covers all bases with a clear systematic understanding of the issues. "She’s clear-headed about the need for state intervention. She’s encouraging about the possibilities of building solidarity. "She’s empathic with and angry about the suffering of ordinary people. "And she weaves it all together in clear, compelling prose. Everything you need in one book. "She’s curious about the everyday denial which allows us to simultaneously know but ignore the significance of climate change. She’s courageous in investigating our abuse of nature. "She’s savvy about politics and the deadly influence of free-market fundamentalism. She takes on the arguments about growth. "She’s clear-headed about the need for state intervention. She’s encouraging about the possibilities of building solidarity. She’s empathic with and angry about the suffering of ordinary people. "And she weaves it all together in clear, compelling prose. Everything you need in one book." Brigitte Nerlich, professor of science, language and society at Nottingham University said: "If I had to choose a text, but only if I had to, because it would be a lie to say that a particular text ‘inspired’ me to think about climate change, I would point Jules Verne’s The Purchase of the North Pole. [Originally titled Sans Dessus Dessous, the book takes readers on a flight of imagination in which a group of entrepreneurs plan to use a giant cannon to alter the earth's tilt, so ending seasons, melting the North Pole and making accessible vast coal reserves under the Arctic.] "To be brutally honest, my recent involvement with climate change was almost as mercenary has the characters in this book – namely I thought the ESRC [Economic and Social Research Council] might fund something on the topic, and so it did! "This is not to say that I am not concerned about the future of our planet though, but again, my concerns can’t quite be pinned down to a single text." Alice Bell, writer, teacher, researcher and editor of the Road to Paris blog said: "The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer Weart doesn’t offer a eureka moment. "As the author stresses, our knowledge of climate change has been an elongated process of multiple discoveries, scientific and political. "Such granular development might seem a bit depressing and/or boring. "But this book is both engrossing and liberating. It’s a useful explainer of how we got to here with respect to climate change, but it’s also a book of hope. "Above all, it’s a story of social awareness and change, with a real sense that more change is possible." Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Centre at Texas Tech University and science advisor to climate change documentary series ‘Years of Living Dangerously‘ said hers: "Red Sky Warning by Gus Speth places climate change within the larger context of human society and development on this planet and what it will take to ensure a truly sustainable life for ourselves and our kids." Bryony Worthington, Labour life peer and founder of carbon trading campaign group Sandbag, said: "The book that inspired me when I was starting to get interested in climate change was Natural Capitalism, in particular Chapters 12 and 13. "It’s a fascinating and stimulating read that influenced me when I was thinking of starting Sandbag. "Even today we often quote the great line: ‘In God we trust: all others bring data’. "It was in this book I first came across the idea of Negawatts and the idea of creating markets in increased resource efficiency. "There is still a long way to go to bring many of these ideas to life but the overwhelming logic of them is compellingly presented in this book." To see the others on the list click here.  |
| Posted: 19 Sep 2014 01:09 AM PDT
Earlier this year the Association for Progressive Communications, APC, organised a Global Meeting on Gender, Sexuality and the Internet in Port Dickson, Malaysia, It brought together 50 participants from six continents comprising gender and women's rights activists, LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and intersex) movements, internet and technology rights organizations, and human rights advocates. The goal of that meeting was to bridge the gap between feminist movements and internet rights movements and look at intersections and strategic opportunities to work together as allies and partners. The existing discourse around gender and the internet tends to focus on gender components lacking in policies that govern the internet, violations that take place as a result, and the need for increased women's participation in decision-making forums. In a bid to reframe the conversation, the Global Meeting used a collaborative process to ask the question: 'As feminists, what kind of internet do we want, and what will it take for us to achieve it?' #ImagineaFeministInternet Over three days, the participants discussed and debated intersections of gender, sexuality, and the internet – not only as a tool – but as a new public space. In thinking through these issues, the participants at the meeting developed a set of 15 feminist principles of the internet. These are designed to be an evolving document that informs our work on gender and technology, as well as influences our policy-making discussions when it comes to internet governance. 1. A feminist internet starts with and works towards empowering more women and queer persons – in all our diversities – to dismantle patriarchy. This includes universal, affordable, unfettered, unconditional and equal access to the internet. 2. A feminist internet is an extension, reflection and continuum of our movements and resistance in other spaces, public and private. Our agency lies in us deciding as individuals and collectives what aspects of our lives to politicize and/or publicize on the internet. 3. The internet is a transformative public and political space. It facilitates new forms of citizenship that enable individuals to claim, construct, and express our selves, genders, sexualities. This includes connecting across territories, demanding accountability and transparency, and significant opportunities for feminist movement-building. 4. Violence online and tech-related violence are part of the continuum of gender-based violence. The misogynistic attacks, threats, intimidation, and policing experienced by women and queers LGBTQI people is are real, harmful, and alarming. It is our collective responsibility as different internet stakeholders to prevent, respond to, and resist this violence. 5. There is a need to resist the religious right, along with other extremist forces, and the state, in monopolizing their claim over morality in silencing feminist voices at national and international levels. We must claim the power of the internet to amplify alternative and diverse narratives of women's lived realities. 6. As feminist activists, we believe in challenging the patriarchal spaces that currently control the internet and putting more feminists and queers LGBTQI people at the decision-making tables. We believe in democratizing the legislation and regulation of the internet as well as diffusing ownership and power of global and local networks. 7. Feminist interrogation of the neoliberal capitalist logic that drives the internet is critical to destabilize, dismantle, and create alternative forms of economic power that are grounded on principles of the collective, solidarity, and openness. 8. As feminist activists, we are politically committed to creating and experimenting with technology utilizing open source tools and platforms. Promoting, disseminating, and sharing knowledge about the use of such tools is central to our praxis. 9. The internet's role in enabling access to critical information – including on health, pleasure, and risks – to communities, cultural expression, and conversation is essential, and must be supported and protected. 10. Surveillance by default is the tool of patriarchy to control and restrict rights both online and offline. The right to privacy and to exercise full control over our own data is a critical principle for a safer, open internet for all. Equal attention needs to be paid to surveillance practices by individuals against each other, as well as the private sector and non-state actors, in addition to the state. 11. Everyone has the right to be forgotten on the internet. This includes being able to access all our personal data and information online, and to be able to exercise control over, including knowing who has access to them and under what conditions, and being able to delete them forever. However, this right needs to be balanced against the right to access public information, transparency and accountability. 12. It is our inalienable right to choose, express, and experiment with our diverse sexualities on the internet. Anonymity enables this. 13. We strongly object to the efforts of state and non-state actors to control, regulate and restrict the sexual lives of consenting people and how this is expressed and practiced on the internet. We recognize this as part of the larger political project of moral policing, censorship and hierarchization of citizenship and rights. 14. We recognize our role as feminists and internet rights advocates in securing a safe, healthy, and informative internet for children and young people. This includes promoting digital and social safety practices. At the same time, we acknowledge children's rights to healthy development, which includes access to positive information about sexuality at critical times in their development. We believe in including the voices and experiences of young people in the decisions made about harmful content. 15. We recognize that the issue of pornography online is a human rights and labor issue, and has to do with agency, consent, autonomy and choice. We reject simple causal linkages made between consumption of pornographic content and violence against women. We also reject the umbrella term of pornographic content labeled to any sexuality content such as educational material, SOGIE (sexual orientation, gender identity and expression) content, and expression related to women's sexuality. You can join the discussion and debate on this evolving set of feminist principles of the internet. Get in touch via email or visit the website.  |
| 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 | |