A groundbreaking new scheme is helping women who’ve experienced sexual violence by pairing them up with a volunteer with similar experiences. Rachel Bell finds out how the Amina scheme isn’t just giving women a chance to get their power back, it’s turning their perceived ‘victim’ status on its head.
Tag: rape
What models never talk about
While the media focuses on the size zero debate, Rachel Bell talks to a former model and finds that rape and sexual harassment are as real a threat to models as death by eating disorder
Sexualisation damages boys as well as girls
It's official: sexualisation harms girls. Of course it does. It harms all of us. It doesn't just make girls ill, it harms boys too, teaching them to be sexually violent.
Objecting to lads’ mags
The so-called lads' mags that have sprung up over the past few years aren't only sexually explicit, they are contemptuous of women and therefore harmful argues Rachel Bell. But reactions to MP Claire Curtis Thomas' bill to have them classed as pornography and put on the top shelf have been frustratingly predicatable. She calls for more understanding of the movement and women's voices behind the MP.
Action Man
One man taking violence against women out of the realm of 'women's issues' and giving young boys and men a positive role model is Damian Carnell, from Nottinghamshire Domestic Violence Forum (NDVF). Rachel Bell meets him and gets a male perspective on male violence.
Challenging the ‘Sex Sells’ Cliché
Everywhere you turn these days there are sexualised images of women's bodies as porn becomes more and more mainstream. Rachel Bell investigates the growing protest movement against the normalisation of porn in everyday life.
Women Unite, Reclaim the Night!
Rachel Bell reports on November's hugely successful Reclaim the Night March in London, and some of the marchers explain their reasons for taking part.
Two men on Page 3
Here's the right answer if you're a man faced with the Page 3 debate at a dinner party. Thank you Damian Carnell. Oh and to have a clue about what your girlfriend thinks, read Clare Short's book, Dear Clare..this is what women feel about Page 3, documenting 1000's of letters Clare recieved from girls and women.
Hidden horrors
Following the New Orleans disaster, reports of widespread rape emerged from the city. They have since been denied by police but confirmed by crisis centres. Is this an attempt to save New Orleans' image or the establishment covering its tracks? Rachel Bell reports.
Run, rabbit, run
Some of the many letters, printed in The Guardian, responsding to my article, It's porn innit?
Betty Bandit 