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Home / Northern Advocate

Nickie Muir: Rape is a human rights issue

By Nickie Muir
Northern Advocate·
15 Mar, 2017 02:16 AM3 mins to read

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Nickie Muir.

Nickie Muir.

The placards read: Boys will be boys. The last "boys" was crossed out and scrawled across it were the words: "held accountable". It was clever, but not entirely accurate.

The assembled crowd which was fairly impressive on a Monday afternoon outside Parliament was calling "basta" to what they labelled "rape culture", which again I am not sure is an accurate label.

In the same way that rape is not a women's issue - it's not only the boys who should be held accountable when unconscionable and entirely preventable things happen to young girls.

It's not about "a rape culture" as much as it's about a general undervaluing of the worth of girls in our culture.

This doesn't mean the specific boys who commit crimes against young women/any woman shouldn't be held to account.

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What it does require, if we're genuinely interested in a culture shift is to look at what underpins a culture that is constantly undermining the value of girls and fostering the belief that it's permissible or inevitable that they can be collateral damage in the "real" lives of young men.

We are all a part of this subtle and corrosive erosion of what it means to have rights as a human for half the population.

When young men get off serious assault charges or sexual violation charges because of, seemingly at least, who their family is, or because a conviction might "unduly affect" the young man's future we buy in.

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When we see this and we find ourselves too busy to write to our local MP or minister we sign up to this girl-immolating culture.

When girls refuse to lay charges because they have no faith in the local police station - because there are no men there who don't seem to be connected to the perpetrator and no women to tell their story to - and other adults refuse to take it higher, we buy into this paradigm.

When girls are not included in discussions about money in family businesses or women aren't allowed bank accounts or allowed to work, this tells everyone what they are worth in that family.

Girls, and I've learnt this the hard way, learn far more about what we don't say but they do see than anything we can talk to them about.

When young women in work situations or unmarried women with no children are just expected to pick up the organisation of the fundraising initiative or the community event because "you've got plenty of time" but mysteriously the young men don't get asked to volunteer, we let everyone know whose time is of value.

When we see or hear anyone speaking to young women in any way that is derogatory, sexually predatory or generally demeaning and we let it go because "it's none of our business" or we're afraid of the perpetrators, we all contribute to what has been labelled "rape culture".

Rape culture is not about sex or alcohol - it's a human rights issue, and we're all responsible.

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