How bloody DARE he?
Sometimes, just sometimes, I would dearly love to be left alone with some people and a big stick. Generally I save this reaction for the sorts of callous hearted scum that leave kittens in the middle of the road, and I laugh off stupid celebrity comments.
This time however....I was horrified to read about a particular television presenter, one Eamonn Holmes. While interviewing a rape victim on a morning television show, he came out with the classic introduction lines "She was on her way home from a night out with her friends and walking home - didn't take a taxi. It's that old thing, I always say. Why were you tempted to walk home?" And then he finished with "I hope you take taxis now".
Full article here.
ITV's apology line? “Eamonn was in no way suggesting the victim was in any way to blame. He intended to highlight safety advice.”
WTF?! Well, aside from the initial victim blaming of a young girl, who kept her head and made sure evidence was planted at the scene, and then raised rape awareness by being open about her experience, I have two major issues with this. Firstly, there is NO WAY that women should feel we HAVE to take taxis everywhere at night, there's something inherently wrong with that concept in the first place.
Secondly, this implies that taxis are a foolproof way of ensuring your safety. This is complete bullshit. You don't need to search hard to find news articles about convicted taxi driver rapists. There was one notorious one in 2009 who was convicted of 19 cases of rape. One of my friends has lived in two different areas where there were predatory taxi drivers. And from my own experience, while I was walking home late at night from work a good few years ago - and it was REALLY late at night/early morning - I was kerb crawled by a youngish taxi driver, who was quite persistant that he takes me home. So persistant that he made me feel very uncomfortable, to the extent that I crossed the road so he'd be in the furthest lane from me. He eventually got the idea, but it shook me.
Yes, he might have been a "nice guy", but there was something about him that made me feel very wary indeed. I trust my sixth sense in that respect. And that's the thing. I'm happy to ring up for a taxi, if anything happened, there would be call logs, people would know. But flagging down a taxi when you're by yourself? How many of us take taxi numbers in case? And how much harder would it be to escape from a car, than from someone in the street, where at least someone might hear you scream, or you can run if you get a chance?
Oh, and yes, let us not forget that we women can all afford taxis all the time....
Grrrr.
This time however....I was horrified to read about a particular television presenter, one Eamonn Holmes. While interviewing a rape victim on a morning television show, he came out with the classic introduction lines "She was on her way home from a night out with her friends and walking home - didn't take a taxi. It's that old thing, I always say. Why were you tempted to walk home?" And then he finished with "I hope you take taxis now".
Full article here.
ITV's apology line? “Eamonn was in no way suggesting the victim was in any way to blame. He intended to highlight safety advice.”
WTF?! Well, aside from the initial victim blaming of a young girl, who kept her head and made sure evidence was planted at the scene, and then raised rape awareness by being open about her experience, I have two major issues with this. Firstly, there is NO WAY that women should feel we HAVE to take taxis everywhere at night, there's something inherently wrong with that concept in the first place.
Secondly, this implies that taxis are a foolproof way of ensuring your safety. This is complete bullshit. You don't need to search hard to find news articles about convicted taxi driver rapists. There was one notorious one in 2009 who was convicted of 19 cases of rape. One of my friends has lived in two different areas where there were predatory taxi drivers. And from my own experience, while I was walking home late at night from work a good few years ago - and it was REALLY late at night/early morning - I was kerb crawled by a youngish taxi driver, who was quite persistant that he takes me home. So persistant that he made me feel very uncomfortable, to the extent that I crossed the road so he'd be in the furthest lane from me. He eventually got the idea, but it shook me.
Yes, he might have been a "nice guy", but there was something about him that made me feel very wary indeed. I trust my sixth sense in that respect. And that's the thing. I'm happy to ring up for a taxi, if anything happened, there would be call logs, people would know. But flagging down a taxi when you're by yourself? How many of us take taxi numbers in case? And how much harder would it be to escape from a car, than from someone in the street, where at least someone might hear you scream, or you can run if you get a chance?
Oh, and yes, let us not forget that we women can all afford taxis all the time....
Grrrr.