Enough with the pendulum! Catherine Redfern heckles the cliche that "feminism has gone too far". Not entirely unrelated to my rant yesterday, as she also bites into into another cliche: "Well blokes - by all means, protest at discrimination against men. By all means, set up a refuge shelter. But if this is just an academic argument for you to put down feminism, then don't waste my time." But she also points out how feminists and men want many of the same things, and ought to be allies. It's a terrific article.
Australians will probably be well aware of the recent civil case in Sydney where a student allegedly gang-raped on a trip sued her school, who did everything they could to cover it up. The school's lawyer, used the strategy traditional in rape cases, ie, he
smeared the student as a short-skirt-wearing slut. Hearteningly, this tactic massively backfired, in court and in the public eye; everyone is sick to death of hearing about those bloody short skirts. The school settled out of court, and I like to think it was out of shame at their lawyers' clumsiness. Feminist messages about rape are sinking in to the public consciousness.
Another message that needs to be heard is that rapists are seldom caught, tried, and punished, so harsher penalties (including the perennial suggestion of castration, which comes not from feminists but from conservative politicians) are no use. A criminal psychologist
points out: "For most of these offences, when they're doing the offence they're not thinking about getting caught. Therefore, the severity of the sentence doesn't necessarily deter them."
A new report states that
violence continues to be a major problem for Australia women, with inadequate services compounding the problem, and disabled and Indigenous women particularly vulnerable. The
full report is available from NCOSS' Web site. Facing a rise in sexual assaults, NSW is
training nurses as Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, specialising in forensic examinations and giving evidence in court. There'll also be a trial of
alarm and satellite system to protect those who've fled domestic violence. Frustrated police are asking to be able to issue
on-the-spot AVOs. In short, the fight goes on.
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