Women’s Lives Count

John Mortimer, a famous barrister and playwright, once said, “if you want justice, never go to the law.” He had seen the injustice of the courts and judges  so he knew what he was talking about although many people thought he was joking, he was deadly serious.

This is particularly true in the case of women. The courts are very prejudiced against women. A very recent example is the Garrick Club. A huge number of its members are judges and only this year they were forced to allow women in and the vote was 60% for and 40% against.

That is a large number who still to this day voted against women in the club which means that a great many judges hate women and this comes out when their personal beliefs come into court with them. There are so many instances when men have assaulted women and judges have let them off because they have careers which need to be protected. Forget the victim. Men’s careers versus women as victims.

In courts, if women are sexually assaulted and they are drunk, everything is their fault. If a man is drunk and sexually assaults a woman, it’s OK because it is normal for men to be drunk. Deviancy in women is always viewed badly by judges and they are punished more harshly for it.

A footballer is cleared of raping a sleeping woman. Young men take drugs to put in women’s drinks in order to rape when the women are incapacitated.

The court did not believe a woman when she talked about the constant physical and sexual abuse by her father.

Prostitution is another area where women’s lives are at risk. There are all sorts of reasons why women become prostitutes and the men who pay for sex are inherently dangerous.

A prime example of this is Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper. When he was only killing prostitutes the police were not too concerned as, of course, they deserved to die, didn’t they? They were only prostitutes.

So even though the police had already questioned Sutcliffe they did nothing until the first good girl was killed and after a few more murders they caught him. Men who pay for sex are more likely to commit violent crimes. Prostitutes are less deserving than other victims of male violence. The happy hooker is a myth. Police turn a blind eye on men who solicit sex even though it is illegal. In America they started to arrest the men instead and this solicitation dropped like a stone. However now it is legal on the internet to harass women.

Male violence against women is still rife today.

Killed women count. On average, every 3 days a woman is killed in the UK by their partners, husbands, flatmates, sons, male friends.

Femicide is “ a term that specifically points to and politicises the sexist, patriarchal, misogynistic killing of women and girls by men”.  So in the past year, women have died by:

• Stabbing (one of these women was pregnant)
• Killed and body cut up
• Blunt force trauma
• Strangled
• Drowned
• Burned alive and so on.

Often these women had been to the police and reported their husbands, partners or stalkers. Although this needed action, nothing happened as they were either not properly logged or ignored.

Sexual harassment is rife in UK schools. I have to say here, as a personal thing, I was very happy to have gone to all girl schools. Schools are becoming toxic  environments for teachers and students.

“Survivors of male violence often find their reports of abuse are dismissed or minimised.”

Child sex abuse is all around us and online it can start with legal porn. Certain celebrities like being sent pictures of little girls in sexual roles.

This behaviour can happen in any family. Evil individuals are found everywhere. Things actually said to women before they are killed.

“If you leave, I’ll throw acid in your face.” If coercive and controlling behaviour is illegal, why are convictions so low?

Another example is where these violent men blame the victim. As she is lying on the floor badly beaten, some of them say,

“Look what you made me do.”

Social media platforms are full of anti-women material. Algorithms are used to amplify extreme misogynistic content.

Most women who go out running to keep fit experience harassment but they don’t report these insults because the police do not take this seriously.

Then we look at how much we respect our veterans. Those are the male veterans. Female veterans have another story to tell. They have been abused, raped and ignored. There is a high level of sexual violence in the military. We all go on, praising our male veterans and then discover they are not as pure as they are thought to be. Women veterans have felt invisible for a long time. One woman veteran was even asked if she was wearing her husband’s medals. Meanwhile perpetrators are promoted.

We need men who do not behave like that but know it is happening amongst their friends to stand up and face these guys. We cannot turn our backs on cruelty and murder. These men are bullies and we have to stand up to them.

Who do our women veterans turn to within the military situation? They are now getting together and standing up for themselves because no-one else will do it for them.

The government needs to give women’s refuges more funding. This has to be a priority as we can see how violence against women continues to rise and women’s invisibility continues.