Women Will Always Be Society's Biggest Losers

I am at a loss. The Evans court case has filled me with such unease. Mostly, I am worried that this will put other women off from reporting their rape cases. Who on earth would want to put their past sex life up to such intense scrutiny? It just feels so wrong, on so many levels that I can't get my head round it all.
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History hasn't been kind to women. Let's be honest, until we had Emmeline Pankhurst and co, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was just men roaming the earth. According to the history books, we are just not equal to man. Ok, I will concede that on the whole women aren't as strong as men physically. However, we are no longer in those cave days, so I would like to think that my inability to go outside and wrestle a woolly mammoth wouldn't be held against me. We are now all equal, right?

Equality for all?

It appears not. The Ched Evans rape case has raised many worrying questions. It has made me feel physically sick to the stomach. I have ranted about it so much that I am surprised Mr C hasn't packed up and left. I can't comment on the legalities of the case as it appears to be highly complex. However, as we all know, Evans is now an innocent man in the eyes of the law. Morally though, it is a whole different matter.

The legal system

It appears that in the Evans case we have returned to those cave days; the days where women couldn't make their voice heard. Our legal system meant that the woman in question had her values and morals questioned, her sex life pulled apart in court, in front of strangers. Imagine that, the most intimate details of your life being analysed in front of a room of people, a room full of people judging you.

Judged

It seems that this court case has dragged us back to the pre-historic ideals of a woman. The idea that a woman isn't allowed to have a sexual history. Yet, what I find most disturbing is the behaviour of the men in question. Men that treated the 19 year-old as an object, passing her around like meat. They showed her no respect.

No-one really knows what happened in that hotel room apart from the men. The girl in question has no recollection of the event as she was so intoxicated. Evans might now be innocent in the eyes of the law but morally? Morally, it's a whole other matter. Evans admitted that he didn't ask if he could sleep with the girl. The reason for this is because his mate who had already had sex with her, asked on his behalf. Nice. Reminds me of the playground days - "my mate wants to know if you will go out with him?" Only these aren't the innocent actions of a couple of kids.

What happened?

Evans has stated that he didn't speak at all. They might as well have been having a wank-off together. I'm not naive, I appreciate that a one-night stand isn't going to be about sharing grand declarations of love. But to not even speak, that's really sickening. They simply did not care about her, to them she was just an object.

What now?

Women might be able to vote, thanks to the suffragettes, but sadly, at the moment it feels like life hasn't really changed since the Victorian times. Cases like this prove that we are still unequal. I guess that we can be grateful for the fact that we aren't going to banished to the attic as mad women. Nowadays, that isn't the done thing, that is one improvement.

Male and white

However, male superiority is still very much there, especially if you are white, rich and male. We can look to America and Trump for another example of sexism at its finest. There are still those shocking double-standards. Men are allowed to have an active sex-life, women must remain virgins, even when that is physically impossible because you have popped two babies out of your vagina. We are in a no-win situation here. If a woman is single and having sex then she will be judged by society. A man on the other hand will be congratulated.

What next?

I am at a loss. The Evans court case has filled me with such unease. Mostly, I am worried that this will put other women off from reporting their rape cases. Who on earth would want to put their past sex life up to such intense scrutiny? It just feels so wrong, on so many levels that I can't get my head round it all. I've tweaked it to this It feels intrusive and violating for me on the outside, I can't imagine how the woman involved feels.

Civilised society?

For me, that is the most disturbing thing in the Evans case, the treatment of the 19 year-old girl. It might not have been rape but it was still wrong. Decency didn't occur to them. This girl's feelings didn't mean anything to them. We are supposed to be living in a civilised society, yet the description of that evening makes them sound far from civil, they sound like animals. It's sad because the more I look at the world, the more I think about my daughters in this world, the more I realise that women lose. We are society's biggest losers.

What do you think? Will women always be society's biggest losers?

This post first appeared on Island Living 365