Time to end this sick rape culture
SEXUAL assault, unwanted receipt of pictures of the male anatomy, threatening demands for “nudes”, cat-calling, being publicly ranked according to how **** able you are, even though you’re just 11 – it’s just another day in the classroom for generations of schoolgirls. Testimonies from more than 6,000 girls and women on the Everyone’s Invited website reveal a horrifying litany of abuse, harassment, misogyny and rape experienced at an age most parents expect their daughters’ chief concerns to be make-up, Justin Bieber and marks they’ve been awarded in history tests.
Teachers appear to have turned a blind eye. Heads are accused of ignoring complaints. The police chief constable Simon Bailey calls it “The education sector’s Me Too moment”. So deeply engrained and socially acceptable has what is described as “rape culture” become that girls are powerless to fight or stop it.
The dam has broken. No one in authority can pretend to be unaware of this torrent of bullying and criminal activity. Obviously the wealthy and book-smart don’t have a premium on righteousness. You don’t have to be rich or academic to behave decently.
THE country’s most privileged boys attending selective and eye-wateringly expensive private schools have been meting out classroom torture on their female peers.Aren’t these the boys most likely to have dynamic working mothers? Have they not been raised by female doctors, teachers, lawyers and psychotherapists? Are their sisters not poised to become the CEOs, barristers and astrophysicists of the future?
Have these young men not been raised in houses filled with books, by parents capable of immersing them in poetry and classical music, and rewarded them with holidays on the ski slopes? How is it possible that these teenagers, frequently referred to as “woke” and “snowflakes” are actually so devoid of empathy they behave like mini-HarveyWeinsteins?
Education, experts suggest, is key to change. The lesson, I suppose, is empathy. How would you feel if such things were done to you? How would you feel if they were done to your mother? How do you think your sister would feel if she had to run the gauntlet of such behaviour? OK, then rein in your inclinations, claw back the desire to dominate and overpower your peers, and break contact with those who embrace “rape culture”. Treat girls with humanity. Lord, this is basic stuff. Isn’t it?