On Savile And Victim Blaming

Things have been bothering me ever since the Savile story broke.

It would seem that everything about it, the coverage and the commentariat, has been specifically designed to piss me the fuck off.

So I'm gonna list what has me so wound up that I can't sleep despite the industrial strength Horlicks and why below.

JUST THE WOMEN

Apparently that's *all* the BBC had to go on. *Just* the women. This boils my piss like you wouldn't believe. 'The women' would have been the correct answer to the question 'what evidence do you have?' It would have been an answer that was accurate, honest and didn't have a dismissive, apologetic tone to it. The women was answer enough. To put *just* in front of it is an insult. To all of us.

SOMEONE'S DAUGHTER

Biologically I am someone's daughter. My mum and dad's actually. But is that how I am named? 'daughter of Pat and Lloyd'? Fuck no. I am someone in my own right. I have my own worth, my own name and my own identity beyond being the product of my dad's loins. It is the same for the women. When we amplify this wrong by reducing her to being someone's daughter rather than a person in her own right we do a disservice to us all.

BUT HE'S DEAD, THERE CAN BE NO JUSTICE NOW

Yes, Savile is dead. He died at 84 having abused what is now thought to be upward of 300 children. Yes he is dead. But two things here. One, HE SHOULD HAVE DIED IN FUCKING PRISON, and two, justice comes in many forms. It isn't always about prosecuting the offender. Oft times it is about people just knowing what scum they were. Sometimes the justice comes from being believed. So if you can't see what good it does anyone to talk about it now he's dead, do me a favour and fuck off.
WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?

Ah the plaintive cry of the celebrity who was either witness, victim or had suspicions at the time. You were supposed to report it to the police you scum fucks.

NOBODY ASKED FOR BIRTH CERTIFICATES BACK THEN

Hey, guess what? We don't ask for them now. A simple 'how old are you?' suffices now, and would have back then too.

THINGS WERE DIFFERENT BACK THEN

Fuck off were they. A nonce was still a nonce. They still got the shit kicked out of them if they were caught.

All of this shows an attitude of 'yes, we're dreadfully sorry about what the girls went through, but this is getting massive now, fuck, we thought it was just some dead guy and Glitter. Fuck, there's gonna be some big names coming up aren't there? Shit, maybe we should just start posting articles saying, leave it now he's dead, it was a different time, these poor men weren't to know they were fucking CHILDREN as they didn't have birth certificates with them.'

No.

Not on my watch. To my mind this is victim blaming. I won't have it.

We need to make sure that how ever big this shit hill of abusers is that we track them all down. And that all of them are held to account, living or dead.

To *just* the women, #webelieveyou