A women-only service
Susan Dalgety at The Scotsman on the opening of Beira’s Place:
Beira’s Place, named after the Scottish goddess of winter, will offer support and advocacy to women in the Lothian region, aged 16 and over, who have experienced sexual violence or abuse at any time in their lives.
The service has been launched to follow the global 16 Days Campaign for the elimination of violence against women. It is free and has been set up in response to demand from female survivors for a women-only service.
J.K. Rowling, who will fully fund Beira’s Place, said that she had founded the project to provide what she believes is an unmet need for women in Edinburgh and the Lothians said: “As a survivor of sexual assault myself, I know how important it is that survivors have the option of women-centred and women-delivered care at such a vulnerable time.
Which Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre used to provide but no longer does: it’s run by a man who calls himself a woman.
[Chief executive Isabelle] Kerr emphasised that the Beira’s Place will provide women-centred services. She said: “Violence against women and girls is an issue that crosses all cultures, classes, and religions. These are gendered crimes that are overwhelmingly perpetrated by men and disproportionately experienced by women.
“Beira’s Place recognises that effective sexual violence services must be independent, needs-led, and provide responsive, women-centred services so that they are free from the pressure of current political agendas. We are committed to ensuring that our service is free, confidential, and accessible to women survivors who may need it.”
They won’t be putting men who call themselves women in charge.
J.K. Rowling will be joined on the board of Beira’s Place by several of Scotland’s most prominent women’s rights campaigners. They are, Rhona Hotchkiss, a former governor of Cornton Vale women’s prison; Johann Lamont, who was Scottish Labour leader from 2011 to 2014; Dr Margaret McCartney, a leading GP, academic and broadcaster and Susan Smith, a director of For Women Scotland, the country’s largest grassroots women’s organisation.
The backlash will be swift.
Suzanne Moore accompanied Rowling to the opening, with a stop for cofffee and interview along the way. It’s a free article on Letters from Suzanne;.
A similar thing happened about a decade ago when they were going to stop illegal whaling by making whaling legal.
I make a lot of choices in my life. Some of them are feminist, like not allowing men to walk all over me. Others are neither feminist nor anti-feminist, like whether I’m going to have broccoli or Brussels sprouts for dinner. Then there are some that go against feminist arguments, but are my choices. I can make those choices, such as changing my name when I got married, but to call it feminist would be wrong. We can allow that women make a lot of choices and have those rights without branding them as feminism.
There are other choices I do not make because I don’t have the option. I don’t have the option of taking a job I am not offered because I am female. I do not have the option of not going through menopause (some women have complete hysterectomies, but that is often not a ‘choice’ other than the choice to be healthy).
I am fortunate that I am able to choose what I wear each day. So many women don’t have that; they might be able to choose between a blue burka, a red burka, or a paisley burka, but they must go out covered in a bag with only their eyes showing.
I can choose whether to drive to the grocery store, to walk, or to stay home and go without the thing I forgot. In some countries, women can’t make that choice because they are not allowed to drive, and they are not allowed to forgo a food their husband desires.
I am about as sick of third wave “feminism” as anyone is. I never liked it; now I hate it.
There goes J.K., sucking again. All the cool kids in Morris are snickering.
iknklast, I think you meant “by making whaling legal”?
Thanks, Screechy. You’re right. It’s grading day, and my eyes blur over!
Now fixed.
And it is that common experience of being female that has led to women’s oppression and suppression in almost every human society and almost every religion.
Sorry for stating the bleeding obvious, but too much time on Twitter has that effect.