At a North West FE college last week running 6 workshops with 320 people studying Construction , Engineering and Painting and Decorating .
We introduced a discussion about Choking – reminding them that it takes just a quarter of the power needed to open a can of coke to block off someone’s air supply completely , and that in the UK there were 8,400 cases of non fatal strangulation reported to the police in just 6 months . The victim blaming response was “What if my girlfriend asks me to do it?”
It doesn’t take a genius to say “If that happens say No – unless you want to go to prison charged with assault or murder” –
His response was echoed by support from other young men in the audience who were attentive when we talked about Terrorism and about Pornography .
I didn’t challenge the young man to say the reason he was into strangulation was about his own needs to show Power and Control –
A report from more than 2000 cases from the St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre found that
15.7% of women were strangled until they had lost consciousness
36.6% thought that they were going to die
Less than half had any external injuries to their neck or head as a result of the strangulation
It was important to be there , and we were approached afterwards by survivors who said “Thankyou” I’m under no illusion that this small intervention makes any long term difference , given the amount of time they are listening to other influences e.g the Incels but we still need to be saying and showing that there is an opposition to it.
I was also invited to attend the Blackpool Reclaim the Night March , and was impressed to see the local MP walking along pushing his baby in the buggy and later in the week the Fylde Coast Womens Aid Biannual conference where I briefly talked about the work of Male Allies Challenging Sexism
Chris Green on Sexism 