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So today Mumsnet launched their We Believe You campaign, designed to get rid of the myths around rape and sexual violence, and to tell women that they can be believed when they report attacks.
A very necessary campaign, because one of the ongoing problems with reports in the criminal justice system is that they are not believed.
Last week, Bryony Beynon published a CIF article about street harassment. The overwhelming response in the comments was pure disbelief (with “I’d love it if it happened to me!” a close second.)
Dawn Foster put together a great blog and Storify which illustrates the problem perfectly. We are so used to low-level harassment that we never bother to report it, and if we do, it’s not believed. The same applies to more serious assaults: what was the instant reaction to Nafissatou Diallo’s report, or those of women A and B who accused Assange of rape? Immediate disbelief.
I hope Mumsnet make a difference with this campaign. The only way to change the reporting / conviction rape in sexual assault cases is to change societal attitudes, and I hope this is a step on the right road.
Thanks for linking up.
I agree that the low level harassment is a huge issue. When I first read the initial survey on Mumsnet, I would have said that I had never been assaulted. Then I thought about the time that a guy grabbed my breasts in a pub – that was sexual assault, but I put it down to just a stupid guy who had too much to drink. I did slap his face, but it didn’t even occur to me to report it.
How many women are grabbed and fondled and are trained into thinking that it is not a big deal. It is. And it should not be tolerated and shrugged off.
This harassment, and the jokes about rape create a culture in which rape claims are doubted, women are doubted and ridiculed.
Exactly that. I tend to cycle places and I’ve taken to wearing headphones so that I don’t notice the “nice arse!” / “fat arse!” comments. It shouldn’t be up to me to drown out the noise!
This is certainly food for thought . I’ve experience low level harrasment and accepted it with a grimmace as though it is just part of being a woman when in fact I should be reacting and dealing with it straight away thank you for making me think .
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