Beautiful piece. Thank you for holding the Guardian to account, always a pleasure! Horribly deceptive term, that nobody is proud of, and would they ever be? If desperation wasn't in play. Disgusted to see Sky News using it today, as they delivered the case update and police apology! Thank you, Julie. Rest in peace, Emma.
Just as a matter of interest, the description of "sex work" was not coined by the newspaper. The United Nations agencies have been describing prostitution as "sex work" for several decades, probably with the aim of elevating the status of sex workers.
I watched the BBC programme last night abt that poor woman's rape/ murder . It's an absolute disgrace that guy was let go free all these yrs . But it's much more common than ppl realize that police perpetrate such criminal negligence re rape/ murders of women & girls . The police treated me the same way long ago when I reported rape - battery . Even tho acc the detectives who took me back to the crime scene said a woman had been raped & murdered in the exact same spot & it was v serious , on finding him few days later ..no charges were brought against him. They said to me those awful words "it was your own fault for being in that area. ". I hadn't it was red light at all. I was young & had met a lesbian from lesbian line who took me there to a back room lesbian bar. I didn't know that city at all. The rapist probably murderer had been around & when she went off in her direction & I went toward bus stop back to where I was staying..he grabbed me , pushed me into an alley where he picked up a half brick. Whacked my head with it saying " I'm going to rape you , you fucking lesbian. & Flung me against a stack of new bricks & twice taped me. I can't go into more of what he did & said. It was so terrifying tho. & I hope the police officers who let that monster go free to no doubt repeat his crimes against more women...saw that excellent BBC programme last night & that they think abt the poor woman he'd murdered after raping & what he did to me & God knows how many other women...& That they feel shame & rot in hell with him for eternity, where they'll surely end up , him , them.. As a Dr said to me the police doing nothing abt it compounded the trauma. And that's the truth of it. No matter how much strength & courage to report it I mustered...the police let me down. So v few have ever known abt it . That's y I can take a good guess that this unfortunately is not an uncommon thing to happen women on the margins esp. The police told me the raped murdered woman from the previous week who'd been found in that alley..had been a prostitute. She got no justice neither did I. It's upsetting to write this but I'm doing it. I'm not seeking sympathy. I've learned long since not to expect a sympathetic response. But I did relate it on FB during the MeToo brief period few yrs ago . & There were many sympathetic respectful responses. I just mean u learn to say nothing. I think other lesbians used find it v difficult to hear back in the past like it was too difficult to register how dangerous it can be to be out. I suspect many lesbians have died at the hands of men like him ..h/ phobic rapists/ murderers...but they were without family support is their victims... So all the best to you. Pat.
Julie Bindel is a fucking legend. I read the Guardian for 30 years; I don't even recognise them now.
Beautiful piece. Thank you for holding the Guardian to account, always a pleasure! Horribly deceptive term, that nobody is proud of, and would they ever be? If desperation wasn't in play. Disgusted to see Sky News using it today, as they delivered the case update and police apology! Thank you, Julie. Rest in peace, Emma.
Just as a matter of interest, the description of "sex work" was not coined by the newspaper. The United Nations agencies have been describing prostitution as "sex work" for several decades, probably with the aim of elevating the status of sex workers.
I watched the BBC programme last night abt that poor woman's rape/ murder . It's an absolute disgrace that guy was let go free all these yrs . But it's much more common than ppl realize that police perpetrate such criminal negligence re rape/ murders of women & girls . The police treated me the same way long ago when I reported rape - battery . Even tho acc the detectives who took me back to the crime scene said a woman had been raped & murdered in the exact same spot & it was v serious , on finding him few days later ..no charges were brought against him. They said to me those awful words "it was your own fault for being in that area. ". I hadn't it was red light at all. I was young & had met a lesbian from lesbian line who took me there to a back room lesbian bar. I didn't know that city at all. The rapist probably murderer had been around & when she went off in her direction & I went toward bus stop back to where I was staying..he grabbed me , pushed me into an alley where he picked up a half brick. Whacked my head with it saying " I'm going to rape you , you fucking lesbian. & Flung me against a stack of new bricks & twice taped me. I can't go into more of what he did & said. It was so terrifying tho. & I hope the police officers who let that monster go free to no doubt repeat his crimes against more women...saw that excellent BBC programme last night & that they think abt the poor woman he'd murdered after raping & what he did to me & God knows how many other women...& That they feel shame & rot in hell with him for eternity, where they'll surely end up , him , them.. As a Dr said to me the police doing nothing abt it compounded the trauma. And that's the truth of it. No matter how much strength & courage to report it I mustered...the police let me down. So v few have ever known abt it . That's y I can take a good guess that this unfortunately is not an uncommon thing to happen women on the margins esp. The police told me the raped murdered woman from the previous week who'd been found in that alley..had been a prostitute. She got no justice neither did I. It's upsetting to write this but I'm doing it. I'm not seeking sympathy. I've learned long since not to expect a sympathetic response. But I did relate it on FB during the MeToo brief period few yrs ago . & There were many sympathetic respectful responses. I just mean u learn to say nothing. I think other lesbians used find it v difficult to hear back in the past like it was too difficult to register how dangerous it can be to be out. I suspect many lesbians have died at the hands of men like him ..h/ phobic rapists/ murderers...but they were without family support is their victims... So all the best to you. Pat.
They say time is a healer, until you live long enough to know better. Or so it seems, at least. All the best, Pat - thank you for sharing!
Thank you
Did they agree Julie?
Infuriating