Posts from the “the Internet” Category

Justice for Survivors

Cath Elliott

Posted on April 22nd, 2012

Last Friday Wales and Sheffield United striker Ched Evans was convicted of rape and given a five year sentence. By Sunday lunchtime the hashtag #justiceforched had started trending on Twitter, and not only had the victim in the case been subjected to some of the most heinous misogynist abuse imaginable, she’d also, in complete contempt of UK law which grants lifetime anonymity for rape survivors, been publicly named. A quick glance through the hashtag feed (if you can stomach it) shows how rape culture is alive and well in this country. It also shows how completely ignorant so many people are of the laws on rape, specifically the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and the statutory definition of consent that’s contained within it: “Section 74…

Categories: angry? what me?, campaigning, crime, cynical? what me?, feminism, FFS!, I read crap so you don't have to, misogyny, rape, sexism, the big P, the Internet, the meeja, the police, violence against women, what?, you really couldn't make this shit up

#webelieveyou #ididnotreport

Cath Elliott

Posted on March 13th, 2012

As you’re no doubt aware, Mumsnet launched their rape awareness campaign yesterday – We Believe You I’ll be blogging more on the campaign later, but I just wanted to highlight one of the Twitter hashtags that has already come out as a result of the Mumsnet launch -#ididnotreport. This hashtag came about because so many of those who responded to the Mumsnet survey on rape and sexual assault revealed that they did not report the crimes perpetrated against them. In fact I think the percentage of those who didn’t report pretty much tallies with what we already know about the reporting of rape and sexual violence – something like 40% of adult women who are raped never tell anyone about it, and 31% of…

Categories: blogging, campaigning, crime, fear, rape, stuff everyone should read, the Internet, violence against women

Media sexism

Cath Elliott

Posted on January 25th, 2012

Not all media sexism is as overt and in your face as the examples given by women’s groups during their awesome testimony to the Leveson Inquiry yesterday. Media sexism, (or #mediasexism if you want to do a Twitter search for coverage of Tuesday’s morning’s hearing) isn’t always about Page 3 ‘girls’, victim blaming, sexual objectification or downright misogyny: often it’s a lot more subtle than that. Take the erasure of women from the MSM for example. The way women are ignored or marginalised, treated as though we don’t exist or as though our issues are unimportant in the grand scale of things, that’s also media sexism.

Categories: blogging, campaigning, churnalism, cynical? what me?, Daily Mail shite, feminism, FFS!, gender, misogyny, sexism, the Internet, the meeja

Women’s organisations get their say at Leveson

Cath Elliott

Posted on January 24th, 2012

For those of you who missed it here’s the link to this morning’s Leveson Inquiry hearing where representatives from women’s organisations finally got their say on sexism in the media. The relevant bit starts at around 105:00, and it’s well worth watching: Leveson Inquiry Tuesday am And here’s my Storify of some of the tweeting that went on during it: Women at Leveson In other news, I did the interview about lap dancing clubs on BBC Radio Norfolk’s breakfast show that I mentioned in my previous post – you can listen to the full thing here. And yes I know, I said Camden when I should have said Hackney, but never mind. Anyway, here’s the money quote from that interview: I’m still ridiculously chuffed…

Categories: blogging, campaigning, churnalism, Daily Mail shite, feminism, local politics, me, misogyny, sex industry, sexism, the Internet, the meeja, violence against women

It’s all just ‘stuff’ on the Internet

Cath Elliott

Posted on January 17th, 2012

I know I know: no sooner did I announce I was going to be blogging more this year than I all but disappeared off the Internet. Rest assured though, I haven’t been idle in my absence. Last week for instance I was on BBC Radio Suffolk’s Breakfast Show talking about Suffolk Police’s ‘no means no‘ campaign (where I reminded listeners of the Rape Crisis England and Wales Christmas campaign – Drinking is not a crime. Rape is – and suggested that “Don’t Rape” might be an effective campaign message to target at young men), and I also wrote this piece for Comment is Free about Lord Astor’s contribution to the HS2 debate. And by the way, if anyone’s around tomorrow morning and fancies being…

Categories: blogging, campaigning, churnalism, me, the blogosphere, the Internet