all 12 comments

[–]MarkTwainiac 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

One in 10 globally? That seems like a major undercount.

The report starts off defining "sexual abuse" very narrowly, saying

120m girls - one in 10 - are raped or sexually attacked by age of 20

Which leaves out a whole lot of forms of sexual abuse that girls are subjected to, such as boys and men catcalling, leering, voyeurism, placing spy cams, stalking, pestering, exposing their dicks, masturbating at girls in public, sending dick pics, verbally harassing, body and menstrual shaming... Does the UN count groping and humping as "attacks"? It's not clear.

Then in practically the next breath the story says

The most common form of sexual violence for both genders is cyber-victimisation

Huh? Talk about making presumptions from a position of "first world" privilege. Hundreds of millions of girls around the world are sexually abused before they're old enough to get online; many can't read. One out of nine girls in India today is killed by various means before age five just for being born female. Hundreds of millions of poor women and girls around the world old enough to use the internet have no access to it. Males in the poor parts of the world are far more likely than female people to have smartphones, access to places where there's internet service, and the freedom and leisure time to make use of them.

The UN and BBC aren't fit for purpose.

[–]Layla-2000[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

They included groping but not sexual harassment where no physical contact was done iirc

[–]MarkTwainiac 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, I know. But "sexual abuse" is a very broad category that includes both physical attacks where there is contact and abuse that occurs without touching.

IMO, the headline should read "sexually assaulted" not "sexually abused." There are lots of ways to sexually abuse that don't involve assaulting or touching - or even being in the same room, country or continent.

[–]Layla-2000[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Everything else (guilt tripping, body and menstrual shaming) was counted as emotional violence

[–]MarkTwainiac 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

They used the term "emotional violence" rather than "emotional abuse" or "sexual abuse"?

[–]fuckupaddams 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

BULLSHIT

That number is way too low. Myself and every woman I've ever gotten close enough to to have a frank conversation with has been sexually abused.

1 in 10 almost sounds like a utopia.

[–]MarkTwainiac 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, fuckupaddams, I agree. The number of female people who have been sexually abused in some way is closer to 100%.

Mind you, this report is about girls rather than girls and women. But still the vast majority of girls by the time they/we reach 18 have experienced some form of sexual abuse.

[–]Layla-2000[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Well every social circle is different and statistical variation is a thing. Sorry that happened to you and your close friends, I wish our police and other social systems were better at preventing crime against women and girls.

[–]MarkTwainiac 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I wish our police and other social systems were better at preventing crime against women and girls.

Layla, depending on the country, lots of forms of sexual abuse that girls and women routinely suffer are not crimes.

Forced veiling, FGM, child marriage, aborting fetuses for being female, not letting girls attend school, forced domestic servitude of females, making pariahs of menstruating girls and women, no access to birth control or abortion to protect girls and women's autonomy, bans on females attending sporting events, females not being allowed out of the house without a male guardian's permission, girls and women forced to undergo "virginity testing," women being spat on, slapped, choked, verbally abused in pornography and IRL sexual encounters with males ... and so on are all legal in much of the world in 2020.

In supposedly "enlightened" nations like the UK and the US today, rape has been effectively decriminalized - and all sorts of abuse of girls and women - from catcalling to online dick pics and rape & death threats to slurring us as TERFs and "Karens" - are normalized and considered acceptable.

In the UK, arguably one of the countries in the world with one of the most advanced & sophisticated legal systems and certainly one of the best places to be a girls or woman nowadays, a man who claims he's a woman has been able to take women to court and to get another woman arrested and thrown in jail for saying he's a man and for calling him "a pig in a wig." But in the UK that same man and other men can call women whores, cunts, bitches, sluts and say we should all die in a grease fire and be denied basic civil rights with total impunity. Meanwhile, 2-3 women in the UK are killed each week by male partners or former partners, and males convicted of heinous crimes of sex abuse against women and children routinely get off without serving any time behind bars.

Well every social circle is different and statistical variation is a thing.Sorry that happened to you and your close friends

What planet do you live on that you think sexual abuse of girls and women is something that only happens in niche social circles?

[–]Layla-2000[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don’t think it only happens in some circles, I was referring to the 100% prevalence not that it happened.

[–]fuckupaddams 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I know it's only anecdotal and that's not good science. But 10% of all girls/women? I simply don't buy it.

[–]Layla-2000[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The original title was “1 in 10 girls affected by sexual abuse” and it was good they changed it because almost 100% are affected. The other 90% who weren’t assaulted probably had to miss out on social and economic activities like walking out late, taking a job in a dangerous area etc because they were preventing assault.