Why are all women controlled by the threat of male violence, and even if it’s #NotAllMen it’s enough to make all women act differently? A thread 🧵 👇

My 17 yr old niece gets the bus to work, college & the gym. She is young, blonde, pretty & kind. She has become a target…
…for predatory men. From comments, staring, ‘jokes’ & now the inevitable & classic ‘creepy man on bus’. It started as soon as she hit puberty & it’s only getting worse.

The other day a man sat next to her on an otherwise empty bus. This is not a neutral act. It is an act of…
…dominance & aggression. It is a man trapping a young woman for his own gratification. He demanded her attention. The bus driver did nothing. She was too scared to say anything & the bus driver didn’t seem to notice/care.

She stopped going to the gym & has quit her job…
She is now trying to find work that she doesn’t have to take a bus to. She won’t go to the gym unless someone drives her there. Her life has become smaller & she’s only 17.

The men who first started making ‘jokes’ when she hit puberty, who slowed down their cars to stare…
…probably think they are the ‘good guys’ - they aren’t creepily trapping her on a bus. But they have created a foundation of anxiety around men & her body. Others may say ‘why didn’t she say anything/get up and move’ etc - she’s 17, scared & knows how angry men can get…
She’s seen it first hand in her past. And we all saw that bus video doing the rounds the other day where a man screamed at a grown woman who did exactly that.

The decisions she makes now in relation to her work & social life will be coloured by this & precious interactions…
This is why the threat of male violence is enough to keep all women ‘down’ - to limit their choices, to know their bodies are a battleground & somehow not their own. For years I thought ‘what is it about me that makes this happen’ - I will not let my niece blame herself
FYI - she was flashed by a man on the way to school at 12. This is when the message started for her - that she wasn’t safe because she was female & that men can’t be trusted as you never know who is the flasher and who is the ‘good guy’

#MVAWG #Feminism
*previous interactions, not precious

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More from @FreyaVanadiss

Oct 31, 2021
Happy Halloween! Normally every year I use this day to remind you all that this is Samhain - A night to remember the dead. But this year, let me take you on a little history lesson about witches.

The majority of women targeted & murdered were not witches 🧵👇
Witchcraft absolutely was a form of paganism & practiced well before Christianity came to our shores. But mostly this was using herbal medicines alongside the odd bit of praying/worshipping the goddess.

Women were the healers & historians & if they were good at their job…
…they earned respect and power.

Take one guess who hated that?

The Witch trials followed years of unrest - political, economic, and moral. Society was looking for someone to blame & rather than look at those ruling them, who they felt unable to hold accountable…
Read 12 tweets
Oct 18, 2021
What was discussed at #FiLiA2021 🧵👇

How important music is to women in Iran (a place where women can be arrested for dancing)

How to bridge the divide between younger & older feminists

How to help in the fight to get prostitution charges expunged from women’s…
… criminal records

What we can do to help women fleeing the #TigrayGenocide

How women from all political parties can support each other to make sure women are included in policy & law

The onslaught of abuse women politicians face & how we can fight back & demand better…
…from tech companies that allow abuse to flourish on social media

Femicide in Russia, India & Zimbabwe - & how we can help each other across the globe to fight the murder of women and girls from cradle to grave

What is happening to lesbian woman in Block 13 …
Read 9 tweets
Aug 10, 2021
The silence from mainstream women’s orgs about this is deafening. Are they all going to sit there and pretend that ‘challenging’ women on their ‘bigotry’ when accessing a rape crisis centre & requesting a woman is ok? That asking a rape victim to ‘reframe their trauma’ is ok?
The more I think about this the more angry I get. I was made to 're-frame my trauma' as somehow being my fault because, in the words of the policeman we called, 'victims and abusers chose each other from across a crowded room'. I was made to feel that I was responsible..
...and was somehow inevitably going to end up at that point because of MY OWN PERSONALITY. To suggest women asking for women when in active trauma should be 'educated' and made to 'check their privilege' is abhorrent. Therapy is NEVER political - as suggested in the exchange.
Read 5 tweets

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