Posts Tagged with ‘sexual abuse’
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On the EUSA Scandal
02 Mar 2013
Now Athens is a long way from Edinburgh, and I am a long way from being a student, but I inadventantly stumbled across a scandal going down at Edinburgh University Students Association. What got me interested initially was a valiant attempt by the Equal Rights and Liberation Officer trying to point out to misogynistic …
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Disability and the Sex Industry
02 Feb 2013
The recent changes to the benefits system in the UK have seen masses of disabled people thrown off disability benefit. In some cases leaving them to cope with the demands of jumping through the hoops of job seekers allowance and others seeing them cut off benefits entirely. In such a …
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Rape and Community Response
25 Jan 2013
The recent scandal in the Socialist Workers Party has reignited a lot of issues around rape within radical communities, and more generally. One of the themes raised by this issue has been the establishment of a kangaroo court which exonerated the accused. Commentators have questioned both why the police were …
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Are you a potential prostitute?
09 Jan 2013
Well, are you? Not sure? Well - now you can check. Some nice kind people have set up a website where people can report "potential prostitutes". No I'm not linking, but it ain't hard to find. The premise of the site is that people feel "threatened" by online prostitutes. …
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Why don’t we just ban sexual abuse?
07 Dec 2012
The BBC ran a story today that 200 Women's Rights Groups are calling for an all out ban on the "right" to sexually abuse people in exchange for payment across the EU. Sweden led the way in this in 1999, and since then fewer men are coercing women into sex from …
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Sluts, Shame and Social Media
26 Sep 2012
Online misogyny is nothing new. When I first ventured onto the internet in the mid-90s I learnt very, very quickly to always use a male name in IRC, and never identify as female unless I wanted a whole load of creeps hitting on me. Girl gamers report the same thing …
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Feminism, Women and the Sex Industry
30 May 2012
The third wave has thrown up many challenges to the prevailing ideas within feminism. One of the most debated topics is relationship between feminism, sex workers and the sex industry. The sex industry is wide and sprawling, encompassing not only prostitution, but also lap dancing, topless waitressing and everything in …
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Male “feminists”: Creepy Sexual Predators?
22 Apr 2012
In an earlier post on pro-feminism, I made a slightly offhand allusion, picked up on by some careful readers, to something which does the rounds among feminist groups but is rarely spoken of openly, when I suggested that men who identified as "feminists" were often perceived as creepy sexual predators. Now, …
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Pornography: Ethics and the Industry – Part 1
29 Dec 2011
The Free Hetherington was a wonderful place. Over the seven month occupation as it emerged as a hub for activists of all stripes to congregate and share ideas. In amongst the activism, probably due to the student influence, there was a very good if a little impromptu programme of political …
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The Honeytrap of the Worker Bees
22 Dec 2011
This week, the Guardian broke the news that eight women are planning to sue the Met over relationships that they had with undercover police officers. Over a course of 23 years from 1987 to 2010, men sent by the police to infiltrate protest groups have initiated sexual relationships with female …
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Lapdancing, Exploitation and Employment Law
18 Nov 2011
Earlier this week, the Guardian interviewed a former lapdancer who recently published a book of tales from the stripping world. What she found was alarming, with a culture of women masturbating customers and ignoring no-touch policies to pay house fees, while managers and security turned a blind eye to gropes, …