CW: Talk of SA

This weekend I'm running my first ever Half Marathon and I thought this would be a good opportunity to draw attention to an important issue; consent.

Last August I saw a screening of Prima Facia, Jodie Comer’s Olivier award winning one-woman play about sexual assault and the law. As well as being an incredible, powerful and deeply moving performance, it drove an impactful message and catalysed me into thinking I could be doing far more in this area. It’s a horrible truth that 97% of UK women aged 18-24 have been sexually harassed (UN Women). If you know two women, there’s a 99.91% chance at least one of them has been harassed. This statistic will be obvious to any women reading this, but I hope to shock anyone who isn’t otherwise aware into action. We've all heard too many stories from close friends and loved ones of the sexual harassment and abuse they’ve endured.
The system needs to change.

Prima Facie is partnered with the Schools Consent Project, a charity that aims to normalise conversations about consent in order to  safeguard young people and drive down sexual offending rates. They send lawyers into schools to deliver workshops on "consent, including the legal definition and how to identify consent, the ages of consent, bystander intervention, the offences of rape, sexual assault and ‘sexting’, as well as how to respond to disclosures and ways to obtain help". In challenging toxic attitudes as early as possible they are trying to prevent sexual offending at its source. If you can, please donate to this fundraiser to help SCP continue making a difference where impact is highest.

If you're unable to donate to this fundraiser I would love it if you could take the time to watch this play online and read some of the resources below. To highlight #7 from “10 Things Men Can Do To End Men’s Violence Against Women”;

“Accept and own our responsibility that violence against women will not end until men become part of the solution to end it. We must take an active role in creating a cultural and social shift that no longer tolerates violence against women.”

Violence against women isn’t purely a women’s issue. Men must be part of the solution. Thank you once again for taking the time to read
this and for helping to tackle gendered violence.

Resources:

https://that-guy.co.uk/

https://vawnet.org/material/10-things-men-can-do-end-mens-violence-against-women

https://www.bristolnights.co.uk/its-not-ok

https://enough.campaign.gov.uk/
https://youtu.be/yVQ78xZSCG8 

Citations: UN Women 2021 -
https://www.unwomenuk.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/APPG-UN-Women-Sexual-Harassment-Report_Updated.pdf