Tag Archives: feminism

Rape: The No Crime Crime?

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There are not many subjects that people want to talk about less than rape. It’s never a nice subject and also evokes controversy. But, in my opinion, what is really controversial is how easy it is to get away with. In fact In 1977, according to one report, 30% of rape cases ended in conviction in the UK. Today it is 6%. The plan to grant anonymity to rape suspects was a surprise inclusion in the government’s coalition agreement in May. It seems to have been dropped by the Ministry of Justice, but the fact that such a law was thought up says little about our government’s respect for women who have to endure such an ordeal. The ministry said it had not ruled out anonymity between arrest and charge, something that is more understandable.

It was not in the Conservative or Liberal Democrat election manifestos, although it had been Lib Dem policy since 2006.

The coalition agreement pledged to “extend anonymity in rape cases to defendants”, with ministers stressing the need to “protect anyone who may be wrongly accused from harmful stigma”.

Prime Minister David Cameron appeared to bow to pressure from campaigners when he said he favoured a “limited extension” to the law to cover the period between arrest and charge.

Campaign group Women Against Rape said they were “glad the government has been forced to back down”.

A spokeswoman said: “Why should men accused of rape have special protection not offered to those facing charges of murder, terrorism or child abuse?

“People are no more likely to be falsely accused of rape than of other crimes. Why this attempt to further discredit and discriminate against rape survivors?”

Conservative MP Louise Bagshawe told The Observer that by “singling out rape in this way, ministers are sending a negative signal about women and those who accuse men of rape”.

The Truth is that 1 in 4 women have experienced rape or attempted rape, 95% of cases are never reported, 23% of reported cases are ‘no crime,’ or thrown out, by the police. Over 66% of reported cases never make it to court and the conviction rate is a depressing 6.5% for reported cases. It seems rape is the easiest crime to get away with. Then there is the fact that marital rape in the United Kingdom was only made illegal in 1994. By Michael Howard.

In a recent article in the London’s Evening Standard Met officers repeatedly breached official rules by writing off rape allegations as “no crime” incidents, a Scotland Yard confidential report revealed.

There was also delays in giving victims early specialist assistance, inadequate record-keeping and failure to arrange medical examinations.

The Met said the Sapphire units had now been reorganised and are run by the Yard’s Violent Crime Directorate.

In fact, it was announced in late 2010 that Scotland Yard boosting a specialist sex offences squad in response to a shock rise in rapes reported in London. Rape was up 37 percent in just 12 months.

Police believe much of the increase is due to women becoming more confident in reporting attacks because of a change in tactics in dealing with rapes, rather than a rise in offences.

There has also been a significant increase in “relationship rapes” involving couples. Which are hard to prove. All of this may have something good coming out of it.

There is a newly launched £21.5 million Sapphire unit, with a central command and new intelligence cell, that tackles sex offences across London.

A spokesman said: “The new Sapphire unit is completely victim-based. First of all when victims come forward we believe them and take their allegations seriously. That is our mantra. Secondly we will turn over every stone to get to the bottom of what happened. We have anecdotal evidence from rape crisis centres and havens to say word is getting round that [victims] will be treated with respect and dignity.”

Let’s all wish them good luck and hope for the best.

 

U.S. STATISTICS From Feminist.com

Fact: 17.6 % of women in the United States have survived a completed or attempted rape. Of these, 21.6% were younger than age 12 when they were first raped, and 32.4% were between the ages of 12 and 17. (Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November, 2000)

Fact: The FBI estimates that only 37% of all rapes are reported to the police. U.S. Justice Department statistics are even lower, with only 26% of all rapes or attempted rapes being reported to law enforcement officials.

Fact: The National College Women Sexual Victimization Study estimated that between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 college women experience completed or attempted rape during their college years (Fisher 2000).

Fact: Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) calculation based on 2000 National Crime Victimization Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice)

Fact: One out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. (Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Survey, National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1998)

Fact: Factoring in unreported rapes, about 5% – one out of twenty – of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. 19 out of 20 will walk free. (Probability statistics based on US Department of Justice Statistics)

Fact: Fewer than half (48%) of all rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police (DOJ 2001).

Fact: Sexual violence is associated with a host of short- and long-term problems, including physical injury and illness, psychological symptoms, economic costs, and death (National Research Council 1996).

Fact: Rape victims often experience anxiety, guilt, nervousness, phobias, substance abuse, sleep disturbances, depression, alienation, sexual dysfunction, and aggression. They often distrust others and replay the assault in their minds, and they are at increased risk of future victimization (DeLahunta 1997).

Fact: Sexual violence victims exhibit a variety of psychological symptoms that are similar to those of victims of other types of trauma, such as war and natural disaster (National Research Council 1996). A number of long-lasting symptoms and illnesses have been associated with sexual victimization including chronic pelvic pain; premenstrual syndrome; gastrointestinal disorders; and a variety of chronic pain disorders, including headache, back pain, and facial pain (Koss 1992).Between 4% and 30% of rape victims contract sexually transmitted diseases as a result of the victimization (Resnick 1997).

Where goes the Sisterhood?

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Every Wednesday, for a few weeks now, I have been in pain. Not through an exercise class, but through watching those awful, bitchyl ‘women’ on the Apprentice. It’s excruciating TV at it’s most excruciating. The embarrassment, the disappointment I have in them; it’s actually almost too much to bear. The women I know do not act like this. The vast majority of them anyway.

Which leads me into the million dollar question: Where goes the sisterhood? I am an actor (They don’t like it when you use actress, I really don’t care), I am also a business women, a writer, a daughter, a friend. I do not have an actual sister. I am over expecting women to give me a hand up in my acting career. In business, maybe. In writing, very probably. I have had advice from other female writers. But the acting? No, there is far too few roles. They put so much pressure on us to be young and thin that it feels like we end up hating each other. The patriarchal society wins again – but only because we let it.

Which is a shame, as I think one of the reasons that I have the luck to be a working actor is because of how I relate to other people. I have given advice to a lot of women wanting to be actors. Both younger and older. Some of them do not even know what Spotlight is. For the non theatrical amongst you, Spotlight is an online directory of actors. Most castings come through it. If you are an actor who is not on Spotlight, success is about nil.

I can’t say I have felt the same back. I mostly feel that the more successful I become, the more other women hate me. Not just jealousy, I hate jealousy but it’s forgivable- No, actual hate. They hate me for being younger than them, thinner or for having a better agent. I did a bit part in a very popular show recently and one of the main actors, a female, incredibly famous, some might say an institution, was so horrendous to me I questioned my life choices. Why spend your life on a film set with assholes? I could be travelling around America, doing aid work, writing a book. But, no, I am having lunch when a millionaire, far more powerful than me, who is trying to get me to move from the seat I am on because she wants to sit there, and then huffs off with her cronies when I refuse. It’s Mean Girls – with middle aged women.

Then there is the younger women, or the ones my age. I went an audition only to see a (now ex) friend. It was the third or fourth time I had seen her at an audition in a few months. She looked horrified as I walked in the door. Loudly exclaimed: ‘Oh, YOU’RE here. You’re at EVERYTHING. ‘ and then stalked off. She then preceded to bitch about me to every other women there. I had no idea what she was saying, but none of them would talk to me. There is a bitter sweet end: I got the part.

All of this reminded of me of a quote that I recently read: ‘With men it’s their enemies that tear them apart, with women it’s their friends.’ It’s depressing because it is largely true. I have a young playing age. I still get cast as teenagers. And nothing is more cruel than a teenage girl. Except maybe an ageing actress.

I was recently told on a film set that: ‘You will not be beautiful forever, you will lose your beauty, everything will leave you, you will have nothing left. You will become just like me.’ by a mad foreign actor. I doubt I will end up like you love, as I am not bitter and full of hate. Thanks anyway.

This is not to bring all women down. I got my start in writing through females. I have had advice and friendship. I have an amazing circle of female friends. But it took until my 20’s for that to happen. And sometimes I learn the worst of them. I grow up amongst men. The women I tend to not get along with are sensitive. The male ego is more fragile, but sometimes it seems that you can’t say anything to a women without her taking it the wrong way. All my female friends are laid back, down to earth, genuine people. I love them dearly. My life would be grey without them. I am aware of my luck.

So what do the women of The Apprentice have to learn? That they are holding themselves back. Melissa Cohen blamed the two men on the boardroom who were ‘picking on her’ for her swift exit. Her lack of self awareness was astounding. She was fired because she deserved to be. Unless women stop fighting with each other, stop being competitive and bringing each other down, this will always be a man’s world. Because, after all, should we really be fighting against sexism and each other?

Catherine Balavage

What Price Feminism?

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Is feminism a dirty word? You would think so by how some people respond to the word.

Feminism is not an easy subject to write about. It has so many connotations. So many people have an opinion on it. It brings up images of women burning bras and hating men. Losing the entire point of it: equality.

What I started writing this article I put out a twitter and Facebook plea for comments about feminism. Tamsin Omond came up with a fabulous quote from J.Winterstone on lesbians: ‘they have a confidence about them that doesn’t depend on the male view. that is sexy and it is new.’

Then came the obvious,

Forbes KB: ‘Right after you finished the washing up and the ironing I hope!’ Luckily, I know he is joking.

Darren Errol Clarke did much better: ‘I dislike the word “Feminism”! It conjures up so many wrong images. Everything should be about sharing and equality, but the name doesn’t depict that!

A warrior from the Amazon once said that she was shocked that Western women were so …weak and that they were referred to as “Flowers”! She was upset that she couldn’t “See” the flowers that they were talking about. She said, “Flowers are strong, adapting, versatile and beyond the visual. A flower can be destroyed, yet come back as beautiful as before and more than before. The humans I see before more me represent nothing more than a shadow of their true potential.”

Whilst man has a lot to answer for in history, women have come through and stamped their individuality through out. I think that when women were striving to be better than the men that suppressed them they were irrepressible, but now they have joined in the drunken madness that is today’s civilization. I hope that the mantle isn’t totally buried, as it would be nice to see more women bring true equality to the world and not the fallacy that is the modern world.’ Good points there.

Lynn Burgess: ‘It’s not about pushing a female agenda. It’s about equality.’

Caroline Gold: ‘Look to the working class women and you will see there is still disparity and it’s about more than legislature. We are not a minority. Feminism is just humanism for all. Go girl!

One of the best came from film director Richard Wright: ‘Ultimately its not about pushing a female agenda or pushing a male agenda its about pushing an agenda of tolerance and understanding no matter who it is. It’s about equality across the board not the positive discrimination of one over another, that doesn’t work because it’s still discrimination. The argument should be about how we, together as a society, create a better tomorrow and where we all fit in no matter who we are.’

Amen to that.

The London Underground is never a nice place at rush hour. A few million Londoners trying to get home means stress is high and manners non- existent. Spending a 20 minute journey with your face in some strangers armpit is common. This did not prepare me for being shoved out of the way by a man so he could sit in the last seat however. That’s right: actually pushed out out the way. Not only are manners dead, but so is chivalry.

This got me thinking about equality. I always offer to pay on dates. While discussing this with a male friend he mentioned that he thought women should always pay for themselves, after all, wasn’t that what feminism was all about? What we were fighting for all these years? Well, no. It’s not. We seem to have got the worst of both worlds. No chivalry and no equality either.

I recently read an article by James Delingpole in which he claimed, because times are tough, that only boys should be sent to public school, because his daughter could just marry a rich man. Which was more funny than offensive until I read Mary Dudley’s response that she would be sending her daughter to public school instead…so she could marry a rich man. Apparently Kate Middleton wouldn’t have had a look in if she had not been to Marlborough. Doors to manual indeed. What century is this? How Jane Austen.

We were fighting for equal pay: which we haven’t got. To have any career we want without hitting a glass ceiling. To not be though of as the weaker sex. Not better than men, just equal. With different strengths. This is all low rumbling compared to some countries. Although there is a female Prime Minister in Australia and female president in Finland, in Britain we have 126 female MPs, out of 646 members of British Parliament. Where have all the women gone?

Then there is the other thing that is holding us back: other women. I have lost count of how many times I have had another actress try and sabotage me or overheard a women bitching about me. On a set recently an older actress came up to me and said; ‘You will be just like me one day. You will lose your beauty, you will have nothing left. It all goes.’

Can we really reach our true potential if we are wasting energy stabbing each other in the back? I have an amazing group of female friends now, but it took years to find them.

Then comes all of the depressing statistics. 1 in 4 women have experienced rape or attempted rape, 95% of cases are never reported, 23% of reported cases are ‘no crimed, ‘ or thrown out, by the police. Over 66% of reported cases never make it to court and the conviction rate is a depressing 6.5% for reported cases. It seems rape is the easiest crime to get away with.

In Afghanistan the female soldiers were more afraid of their colleagues than the front line. 30 percent of female US soldiers have been raped, 71% sexually assaulted and 90% sexually harassed. Four out of five cases go unreported. Helen Benedict, author of ‘The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of women serving in Iraq’, believe rapes occur not because the soldiers are sex starved, but because they enjoy humiliating female colleagues. ‘A lot of men think women shouldn’t be in the military and feel threatened. I think a lot of sexual predators sign up because of the power they’ll wield.’ Helen goes on to say that, ‘There is a culture of sexism on the military and women are seen as sex objects.’

Then there is gendercide. 100 Million girls have disappeared. In China and Northern India 120 being born for every 100 girls. Most girls are aborted. In Iraq they stone women to death and have to be covered from head to toe. They cannot even leave the house without their male relatives. Even if they are younger than them.

So am I a feminist? I don’t care about what people think of the word, or of me for using it, as long as women are stoned to death, sold into slavery or aborted just because of their gender, the answer is yes. My name is Catherine Balavage and I am a feminist.

Facts and Figures.

3 Million women and girls are slaves in the sex trade.

An estimates 18,000 women (some as young as 14) are working as sex slaves in the UK.

Women aged 15-44 are more likely to be killed by men than cancer, malaria, car crashes and war combined.

130 million women worldwide have had their genitals mutilated.

In the past 50 years, more women have been killed because of their gender than all the men in all the wars of the 20th century.

And a beautiful quote.

Mao Zedong said “women hold up half the sky.” So don’t let it come crashing down.

http://www.unwomen.org/