Saturday, November 28, 2009

Reclaim the Night

Yesterday Sporty, Pipi and I were part of the Reclaim the Night march; we really only reclaimed the early evening but still, it felt good to be part of something important. We chanted and carried placards and banners and we took up a lot of space on the streets.

The speakers were great – my favourite line was from a member of the Women’s Refuge Collective. She said:
Rape is not an act of lust in the same way that family violence is not an act of love.
Right on! A woman is not raped because she is just so Hot! Hot! Hot! that the rapist can’t resist her…
















1 comment:

pipi said...

Hard!
Nice post H2TB.

Rant and mumble:

Too often women are made to feel we should change and adapt our behaviours/dress codes to accommodate sexual predators. I will not, not got out at night for the fear of being raped AND if I so feel- I will wear that hot red low cut top (that’s gathering dust in my wardrobe).

Also
I can’t stand being told ‘this happens to men too ya know’ course I fucking know and no I don’t think you’re any cooler for pointing that out. STOP de-railing our movements GRRR!

Here are some facts as is in Aotearoa:

-1 in 3 women will experience physical or sexual violence from a partner in their life
-99% of sexual violence incidents reported to the Police are perpetrated by men
-95% of them on women
-A woman is killed in a domestic violence incident every 3 ½weeks
-92% of protection orders are taken out by women
-1 in 3 women report sexual harassment in the workplace

The statistics speak for themselves and i‘m not even gonna get into the over representation of maori and the effects of violence and colonisation of my people…

sigh.rant.mumble