White Ribbon Day

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:13 pm on 20 November 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Angela Burns Angela Burns Conservative 2:13, 20 November 2018

First Minister, there's always more that can be done and I recognise totally the commitment of the Welsh Government to this issue, and indeed the commitment of most of the parties in this Chamber to the fact that too many women, too many young girls, too many teenagers are being beaten up. I have two particular bugbears and I would like to know what you think you as a Government, and we as an Assembly, could do to try to alleviate this. 

The first is the endlessly grim storylines of dramas, thrillers, soaps and films, where almost all of the victims are women, all young girls, all teenagers, who are constantly the ones being beaten up, being threatened, being violated, being raped and being killed in horrific ways. And it sends out a pernicious message that actually that's what happens to women, and it isn't acceptable.

And my other big bugbear is with the, at times, asinine judiciary system that says because a 17-year-old is wearing a pair of lacy knickers, 'Hey, it's okay to go and rape her.' These are terrible and until we stop this, this story of victimhood and fear will transmit all around our young girls.

And I have two teenage daughters and I resent them growing up in this culture that they have to take changes, they have to wear the dark clothes, they have to not be bright and sparkly in case some guy comes along and says, 'Oh, I'll 'ave a bit of that.' And, of course, it sends out the wrong message to our boys, because they're not bad, but there's a casualness, there's that, sort of, 'Hey, it's okay, everybody does it, let's do it.' So, the media, and I don't mean newspapers per se—I'm talking about the entertainment industry; what a great word, 'entertainment'—and the judiciary have got to get real, and they are a real part of the jigsaw puzzle to stop us having to constantly campaign to protect our women, our teenagers and our girls, and it's disgraceful.