Men must call out all toxic masculinity if violence against women is to be curbed – Eleanor Bird

A petition has been set up by a young woman from Glasgow calling for the night-time economy to take threats against women more seriously.

Two school children stop to look at floral tributes left at Clapham Common bandstand in memory of Sarah Everard, who was murdered by a serving police officer (Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

This has come as a response to the spate of spikings by injection in nightclubs reported across the UK. The petition makes a strong case for enhanced staff training and entry security, better CCTV coverage and easily accessible guidance in clubs outlining where people should go if they’ve been targeted.

The petitioner has also demanded harsher consequences for those found guilty of spiking and increased treatment and prevention policies from the Scottish government.

The Girls Night In campaign is similarly pressing for improved safety measures to prevent abusive men from being able to perpetrate harm, by simply boycotting clubs.

Women’s safety has always been a live issue for my generation – as it has for every one that’s come before – but, arguably, never more so than now.

Deeply distressing events of the last year, including the killings of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa and sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, and reports that rape prosecutions in England and Wales are at their lowest level since records began, have served only to further erode public confidence on this issue.

A colleague who once referred to me as “quite an angry young woman” – to whom I can confirm I didn’t respond in age-appropriate kind (of course I didn’t, that would have been rude) – could never have appreciated the pride with which I wore her sentiment. These days there’s more than ever to be angry about, especially for young women. Frankly, if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.

My sister, recently having returned to studying, shared with me her disbelief that despite beginning her first degree 12 years ago, in advance of starting her second earlier this year at a different university, she received entirely the same advice on how to “stay safe”. Guidance included the recommendations that women shouldn’t drink too much or walk home alone, and information was disseminated on how to ask for Angela at the bar if you feel unsafe. The list went on.

We’ve had enough of performative acts of interest in women’s safety. As an intersectional feminist, I recognise and celebrate the diversity within our movement and the leadership of men in combating gender-based violence.

We are not expecting men to go above and beyond or to go out of their way. We simply expect men to do their bit, to do the bare minimum and challenge both their own and others’ behaviours and language of sexual entitlement.

Be in no doubt that until men call out all forms of toxic masculinity consistently and take responsibility for women’s safety as the men’s issue it is, nothing will ever change.

When we accommodate and normalise destructive attitudes towards women day to day, we enable the aggression that leads to the devastating headlines we keep seeing and the prospect of women’s worst fears coming true.

So, do you still think it’s enough just to say those men aren’t you? #DontBeThatGuy

Eleanor Bird is an SNP councillor for Forth Ward

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