A campaign leader of a group against the sexual objectification of women has revealed she gets TEN rape threats every week ahead of a protest march in Bolton tomorrow.
Yes Matters take to Bolton’s streets tomorrow in onesies and drag outfits, in a rally to tackle street harassment, sexual assault, child sexualisation and consent.
Gemma Aitchison set-up the group after the murder of her sister almost two years ago, in the hope of educating people on objectification and gender stereotyping.
The group, with the support of the Everyday Sexism and No More Page 3 projects, will be marching through Bolton town centre as part of Bolton Council’s 16 days of activism.
Chair and founder Gemma said: “Whenever it comes to rape, it’s always somehow the woman’s fault, and somehow we always tell our teenage daughters not to wear this and not to go here and not to do that.
“But we don’t tell our teenage sons not to rape.”
Gemma’s sister Sasha was just 16 when she was stabbed to death by David Minto, who defiled her body as she lay dead or dying.
The horrific murder of her sister compelled Gemma to form the campaign group in a bid to prevent similar attacks, that she believes the objectification of women can cause.
Marchers are encouraged to wear different outfits for each cause – fitness clothes for street harassment, onesies for child sexualisation, drag for sexual assault and ‘sexy’ outfits for consent.
The rally comes after the revelation that five University of Bolton students have been raped in the past three months, and Gemma hopes to change how people think.
“We believe education is key to prevention,” she said.
“Most of it is classed as ‘banter’ – for boys it’s normal, and that’s the dangerous thing about it.”
The Yes Matters team have worked with OBJECT!, Paws for Kids and Fortalice, but have been met with resistance in other areas.
“We do get a lot of rape and murder threats over Facebook and Twitter,” revealed Gemma. “From men who don’t really like us talking about these things.
“I get about ten a week, it’s pretty common. But then it kind of proves our point, on why we need to be doing this.”
The group will be meeting at the University of Bolton Eagle Tower entrance at 7pm on Saturday December 6. For more information, visit www.yes-matters.co.uk, or visit the group’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1462912300589220/
https://twitter.com/YesMattersUK
