Women's rights

Yes, alright I'm on a bit of a roll on this subject at the moment but regular readers will know this is something I feel very strongly about (see here!) I saw an article in the Guardian last week (Wednesday 8th March 2006) entitled "Government plans anti-rape campaign" - a £500,000 advertising campaign to educate young men on the need for consent before sex.

I feel quite sickened at the state our society has got itself in that a generation of young men need posters in club toilets to understand that having sex should be a mutual act - how utterly degrading to humanity. So far have we come that love doesn't come into it, commitment is replaced by consent.

I suppose that the government has done its homework and research has shown that this is what people need in order to change their behaviour, but how completely depressing. Don't get me wrong, if its whats needed then I'd rather men got the message anyway possible, but I think it should prompt some serious soul-searching about how we portray sex in the media, how we educate children about it, and how our legal system deals with abuses of it. If only 5.6% of reported rape cases end in convictions there's a lot to be done...