This debate on the sexual exploitation of young women grew so depressing I had to switch it off
• Woman's Hour
• Private Lives
"I thought Asian men targeted white girls because they found girls from their own communities had lives too closely controlled by their families." As myth-busting goes, the *Woman's Hour *segment this week on grooming gangs was patchy stuff. For one, as the panellists – a human rights campaigner, outreach worker and senior police officer – made clear, it isn't an issue that benefits from being complicated by race. Mostly because the evidence shows that the sexual exploitation of young girls by older men is indiscriminate. It's never been black and white or, even, just black on white.
"Racialising the issue has polarised the debate; perpetrators are opportunistic. It's about vulnerability," said Ratna Lachman, director of Just West Yorkshire. Young people with no real sexual history are having their experiences normalised by pornogaphy, she said. It's a familiar line but the next one, explaining that predatory men are manipulating young women into believing that group and anal sex is regular activity at a party by showing them porn, simply made me feel depressed.
It got worse. British Asian girls are especially vulnerable, according to the study (Sexual Exploitation of Asian Girls and Young Women) under debate. Their cases are being ignored. The charities and youth services designed to help young women have been cut under austerity measures. Where on earth was the light at the end of this dark, dark tunnel? "It's easy to blame culture and religion [for British Asian women not speaking out] but there is no infrastructure in existence or available to help these women." And so it continued until, finally, I had to switch off and miss the Eartha Kitt feature I'd tuned in for.
Noël Coward plays are the consummate ready-for-radio dramas. Posh people delivering really witty lines in cut-glass accents – your ultimate comedy of manners with none this week better cast than Helena Bonham Carter and Bill Nighy in* Private Lives*. It's a vintage production, revived by *Radio 4 Extra*, and designed, I think, to be the sort of thing the imagined audience would get a blanket and cup of cocoa out for. I was doing the washing up; perhaps the first time Coward can be considered kitchen sink drama. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.
• Woman's Hour
• Private Lives
"I thought Asian men targeted white girls because they found girls from their own communities had lives too closely controlled by their families." As myth-busting goes, the *Woman's Hour *segment this week on grooming gangs was patchy stuff. For one, as the panellists – a human rights campaigner, outreach worker and senior police officer – made clear, it isn't an issue that benefits from being complicated by race. Mostly because the evidence shows that the sexual exploitation of young girls by older men is indiscriminate. It's never been black and white or, even, just black on white.
"Racialising the issue has polarised the debate; perpetrators are opportunistic. It's about vulnerability," said Ratna Lachman, director of Just West Yorkshire. Young people with no real sexual history are having their experiences normalised by pornogaphy, she said. It's a familiar line but the next one, explaining that predatory men are manipulating young women into believing that group and anal sex is regular activity at a party by showing them porn, simply made me feel depressed.
It got worse. British Asian girls are especially vulnerable, according to the study (Sexual Exploitation of Asian Girls and Young Women) under debate. Their cases are being ignored. The charities and youth services designed to help young women have been cut under austerity measures. Where on earth was the light at the end of this dark, dark tunnel? "It's easy to blame culture and religion [for British Asian women not speaking out] but there is no infrastructure in existence or available to help these women." And so it continued until, finally, I had to switch off and miss the Eartha Kitt feature I'd tuned in for.
Noël Coward plays are the consummate ready-for-radio dramas. Posh people delivering really witty lines in cut-glass accents – your ultimate comedy of manners with none this week better cast than Helena Bonham Carter and Bill Nighy in* Private Lives*. It's a vintage production, revived by *Radio 4 Extra*, and designed, I think, to be the sort of thing the imagined audience would get a blanket and cup of cocoa out for. I was doing the washing up; perhaps the first time Coward can be considered kitchen sink drama. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.