Damn! It’s my responsibility not to get raped.

Once again I find myself astounded at the attitude to women over personal safety. The police are urging a self-imposed curfew following the murder of Jo Yeates. The Bishop of Bristol went as far as saying: "I think if I were a young woman, I would have a real anxiety about those moments between your car and your front door." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-12125832 . The same article reports that “A University of Bristol spokesman urged students returning for the start of term next week to collect the free personal safety alarms that are offered by the institution”.

Of course, it sounds sensible; make sure you take all reasonable precautions to prevent yourself being attacked.

But lets think a little bit deeper. Why are we being told to protect ourselves?
We need to protect ourselves from being attacked. Surely the focus should be on the attacker and not on every woman? Surely the focus should be on persuading potential attackers not to attack rather than on potential victims to curtail their enjoyment of life?

Something has gone seriously wrong in this world.

Take recent taxi adverts, accusing women of inviting themselves to be raped by not ensuring they are using a licenced cab. Why is it acceptable to have sounds of a distraught woman being attacked in an advert? What is the real purpose of these adverts? To accuse women of making themselves victims?

But back to the self-imposed curfews: so women should confine themselves indoors during hours of darkness – they should become prisoners in their own homes. Well I had an idea. Instead of calling on women to become prisoners in their own homes, lets go back to stopping the attackers. Now we do not know whether Jo Yeates murderer was male or female, but based on statistical likelihood, it is most likely going to be a man. Immediately then we have a simple solution: impose a curfew on all men.

Take the recent convictions for gang grooming for sexual abuse. A former minister Jack Straw, actually tries to excuse these monsters: "Mr Straw added: "These young men are in a western society, in any event, they act like any other young men, they're fizzing and popping with testosterone, they want some outlet for that, but Pakistani heritage girls are off-limits and they are expected to marry a Pakistani girl from Pakistan, typically," he said." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-12141603

“Fizzing and popping with testosterone”, but “Pakistani heritage girls are off-limits”? So not only blatant sexism, but also racism. So men can’t help it because of the testosterone? Simple solution then – remove the testosterone. If the truth is that they cannot help it because of the testosterone, then there are simple 3 monthly injections that will eliminate the testosterone.
Of course, that is not the solution. The solution is very simple: teach children the truth about gender; teach them the truth about sex and teach them the truth about respect for every single person.