So it's exactly 15 days until the kick-off of the 'NUS LGBT Conference 2012'.
This is the largest democratic gathering of LGBT students in Europe, where students in colleges, universities, mature students, post-grad etc all come together to elect national representatives, discuss and vote on policy and make some good connections.
This is the largest democratic gathering of LGBT students in Europe, where students in colleges, universities, mature students, post-grad etc all come together to elect national representatives, discuss and vote on policy and make some good connections.
Now I’m um, ‘going through the motions’ this week online, so I know what I want when it comes to policy making and voting. The first one we’ll look at is ‘Consent is Sexy!’
First, I want it known I am deeply wary of the title ‘Consent is Sexy!’ (This gives me a “hey kids, let’s make this light, quick and easy!” shivers, where nothing is looked at in great detail and we all have to use ‘non-aggressive’ rhetoric when discussing it so as not to offend anyone, sexual consent and rape is something I feel is greatly ignored as a whole –more so in the LGBT community) I am really glad that unwanted sexual contact is being looked at more. 79% (S4SRE) of all abuse reported from trans persons ‘has a sexual element’ -which would be shocking if I hadn’t already seen it first hand on far too many an occasions while out with friends.
I think the majority of the LGBTQ community has been verbally abused and a lot of that is sexual ('chauvinist dialectic') some offers I particularlly remember were in response to me dating a rather butch woman all I needed was “a real man” and to her: “cock to cure you” etc. Massively offensive and sickening, but ‘banter’ (that awful word used to cover up all manner of verbal sins) to those offering their ‘cure’ for me and friends. Something to think about if you’re ever making a “I want to convert this lesbian” joke.
It’s not pretty, and a lot of people I know are just ‘used to it now’. I think that if we can pass this motion and focus our energies to lobbying the government, promoting and assisting S4SRE and doing campaigns like the ‘Don’t be that guy’ ad campaign in Vancouver (to a lot of hertronormative men it was received as offensive –not that I’m too concerned about that, especially after the add was aired there was a 10% fall in sexual assault in the area –next to a 22% rise in near-by areas where the add was not shown… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DchyUYRYVlI).
It’s not pretty, and a lot of people I know are just ‘used to it now’. I think that if we can pass this motion and focus our energies to lobbying the government, promoting and assisting S4SRE and doing campaigns like the ‘Don’t be that guy’ ad campaign in Vancouver (to a lot of hertronormative men it was received as offensive –not that I’m too concerned about that, especially after the add was aired there was a 10% fall in sexual assault in the area –next to a 22% rise in near-by areas where the add was not shown… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DchyUYRYVlI).
It still kills me that I’m devoting my time and energy into not getting sexually assaulted. Like the responsibility is with the people who are abused or likely to be at some point during their lives (was it 2/3 women in Sweden have experiences some sort of sexual abuse in their lifetime?)
It’s certainly something I’d like to focus on with my stall at the next Freshers Fair in September, something for me to chew on. More soon, this was a bit of a rushed first entry -apologies.
It’s certainly something I’d like to focus on with my stall at the next Freshers Fair in September, something for me to chew on. More soon, this was a bit of a rushed first entry -apologies.
No comments:
Post a Comment