Comments for Belfast Feminist Network

Comment on About Us by callumgg

callumgg — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:34:11 +0000

Hi there, I’m organising an event in Belfast with a candidate for the Iranian presidential elections. The candidate has a longstanding interest in women’s rights and issues, I was wondering if some people from the feminist network would like to come along – it’s next Tuesday at QUB. Here’s the flyer – http://i.imgur.com/NhmTdZI.jpg

Comment on Event this Thursday – Feminism and the LGB&T movement by soisaystoher

soisaystoher — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:48:07 +0000

Hi Gwefr! It’s an amazing pic – I’m really sorry for not getting proper permission to use it. Google images makes us lazy – but it’s fanastic and it was perfect for this event. thank you

Comment on Event this Thursday – Feminism and the LGB&T movement by Gwefr

Gwefr — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:09:49 +0000

That’s my picture!! I drew that!

Comment on Vision and Aims by Mary O'Rawe

Mary O'Rawe — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:42:46 +0000

Just wanted to let you know of an event you might be interested in – a talk by Susie Orbach. If you get back to me I can email you the details. Wd be great if you could spread the word. Thanks.

Comment on Launch of “The way I see it” by Squish

Squish — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 16:22:13 +0000

Hey, I’m having trouble viewing this, the vimeo wont play smoothly. I’ve tried searching for it elsewhere but can’t find it, is there a youtube or similar link?

Comment on Launch of “The way I see it” by soisaystoher

soisaystoher — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 23:41:04 +0000

I also just remembered you raised the issue of why we didn’t talk about the fact that men are victims of rape too. it is important and it’s probably just as under-reported as assault against women, if not moreso. we also discussed this. i think we went with the female character because we are looking at this issue as part of the wider problem of violence against women – we’re aware of the fact that the vast majority of people raped or sexually assaulted every year are women, it is clearly a crime that has a gender dynamic to it. 1 in 4 women have experienced it. in the northern ireland stats women are 5 times more likely than men to be sexually assaulted. so we’re looking at this as something that is connected to wider issues of sexism and the fact that there are clearly still a lot of men out there who don’t see women as fully equal human beings if so many are willing to abuse their physical power and treat women as objects. but i totally take your point about men also being affected.

Comment on Launch of “The way I see it” by soisaystoher

soisaystoher — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 23:33:54 +0000

Hi Lauren, thanks for your response. The kind of approach you described (focusing more on the viewpoint of a perpetrator and what might be making them abusive) was one of the options we discussed in the planning stages so i totally take your point that it would be a very direct message to perpetrators. In the end, we really wanted to tell an empowering story from a survivors perspective that explores how the victim blaming messages made her feel but also shows how she overcame that and she basically challenges or calls bullshit on the idea that she in some way caused what happened to her. Why did we choose this? for one thing, it’s a true experience that women in our group had soit meant we had a chance to tell an honest story put together by people that had lived through it. if we’d tried t tell it from a perpetrator’s perspective we would be kind of guessing a little. But mostly we decided not to make something as focused on perpetrators as campaigns like “Don’t be that guy” or “Men can stop rape” as we’ve never had anything like that in northern ireland and we thought a good first step was to let women whove experienced this tell it from their perspective and say “we won’t put up with a culture that tries to silence us by making us ashamed”. It is certainly my hope that the authorities would take this issue on in the future, maybe take a lead from the work we’ve done and produce a more perpatrator focused campaign. i hope this answers the questions. thanks for getting in touch. Kellie

Comment on Launch of “The way I see it” by corkfeminista

corkfeminista — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:08:46 +0000

Reblogged this on Cork Feminista and commented: Everyone - WATCH THIS!

Comment on Launch of “The way I see it” by Lauren Arthur

Lauren Arthur — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:55:49 +0000

Hey,

I was wondering why you say that Rape prevention needs to focus on perpetrators but then you describe a film that is about the victim not the perpetrator?

Also, why you only refer to women as victims of rape and only to men as perpetrators?

Surely this is just creating more stigma for different groups by making it a crime only experienced by women and only perpetrated by men?

Finally, why victims at all, why not targets?

A film designed to prevent rape that used the perpetrator as its focus would surely tell the perpetrators story. Because of this it would resonate with people who were beginning to cultivate abusive relationships with people within their families/friendship circles/workplaces. It would look at the types of grooming behaviour that lead to these crimes and also the aftermath. It would look at the power struggles and terminology of justification that the perpetrators might use and would recognise if seen in a film such as the one proposed.

It would look at consent and responsibility, violence, respect and self-respect.

Thanks,

Lauren

Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2012 18:18:34 +0000 To: laurenarthur@hotmail.co.uk

Comment on Belfast Feminist Network commission anti-rape film by corkfeminista

corkfeminista — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:01:24 +0000

Reblogged this on Cork Feminista.