Laura Bates

Fix the System, Not the Women

Karolina

It is too much to demand that those bearing witness to their oWn trauma and abuse also present trite, simplistic fixes on a gold platter.

Now, tell me again that women are not being systemically, outrageously failed by a criminal justice system that treats their lives as worthless and their deaths as minor infractions, depending on the likelihood of a misogynistic, victim-blaming jury to convict their rapists and murderers.

It's like we just can't help ourselves. We cannot stop finding excuses for male violence. It starts with 'boys will be boys', it morphs into 'just a compliment', 'he couldn't help himself and 'she was asking for it', and it ends up here.

It is incredibly difficult to grow up in a world in which this individualised focus and blame on victims of abuse exists without internalising it. 

Bates definitely has a formula down, but each of her books manages to makes me more angry.

Fix the System, Not the Women

Reviews

Highlights