Misogyny? More like misogy-no

The government is trying to gaslight women by pretending that misogyny in the police force doesn’t exist. If you aren’t familiar with gaslighting, it is when someone tries to manipulate a person into thinking that they are wrong about something. In this case, it’s the existence of misogyny in the police force, which is a serious problem

The Women’s Equality Party have made requests for the police to stop managing male violence, however they been ignored. Rather than deal with sexual assault, male police officers often contribute to it, making decisions that could cost women their lives. It is no surprise that so many women don’t trust the police to do what they were hired to do. They end up protecting the men that committed the crime rather than the victims.

The year ending March 2020 Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated that 1.6 million adults aged 16 to 74 years had experienced sexual assault by rape or penetration (including attempts) since the age of 16 years.

• 49% had been a victim more than once.

• 16% reported the assault to the police and of those that told someone but not the police, 40% stated embarrassment as a reason, 38% did not think the police could help, and 34% thought it would be humiliating.

• 44% were victimised by their partner or ex-partner.

• 9% were victimised on the street, in a car park, park, or another open public space compared with the 37% who were victimised in their own home.

• 54% said the perpetrator used physical force, such as holding them down, to make them have sex with them, and 6% said the perpetrator had threatened to kill them.

Misogyny within the police force is a problem that will spiral out of control unless something is done about it. Misogyny is very much normalised within our society that sometimes women don’t always recognise when men are being misogynistic towards them. Even so, teaching women how not to be raped should not be a thing. Instead, men should be taught not to sexualise and objectify women. Praise should also not be given to men who are doing the bare minimum when they treat women like actual, living human beings.