Round Table on Violence Against Women

~ Cheryl

This evening I took myself into Bristol to the offices of The Bristol Cable, where I participated in a round table on the subject of violence again women. Assuming all went well, this will be podcast sometime soon. My fellow panelists were as follows:

My thanks also to Yaz, our facilitator, and to Drew and Arvind from the Cable for making it happen.

I’m not sure how much useful I had to contribute beyond assuring listeners that the local police do take hate crimes seriously, and talking a bit about why transphobic hate crimes happen. However, I was happy to reinforce the general feminist message. We did also briefly discuss the Reclaim the Night marches, and I was pleased to note that the Bristol march was free of TERF harassment.

Probably the thing that stuck in my mind most from the discussion was Emma’s figures on who is responsible for sexual abuse. Your chances of being raped by a stranger are only around 5%. In contrast, 29% of rapes are committed by family members, and a further 29% by a current or former partner.

I should also note that Folami is absolutely awesome and is doing a very brave thing in fighting back against revenge porn. Laurie, Stavvers, Bri — if any of you happen to be reading this, check out her website and get in touch because she needs help & support.