Quote:
Councillors Rhiannon Spear and Alexander Belic supported Mr Wilson, as well as Labour’s Hanif Rajah.
If a councillor has made well-publicised allegations regarding sexual misconduct a few weeks previously, does that affect their impartiality as regards deciding such matters?
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home ... _revealed/
Quote:
RHIANNON SPEAR was a Creative and Cultural Studies student at the University of Glasgow from 2008 until 2012. The 27-year-old, who is now an SNP councillor in Glasgow and a law student, has spoken for the first time about her experiences.
"My experience of university was that rape culture was commonplace and male sexual aggression was normalised. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it since, trying to come to terms with that environment, and it has been a long process. I was sexually assaulted. I had naked pictures taken of me while I slept which were shared in group chats. That was common for girls, and people don't realise how common it is.
"Hyper heteronormative shows of masculinity by young men in their late teens and early 20s fuelled by lots of alcohol and a need to perform in front of friends. Groping hands, pulling off clothes and men exposing themselves to you on the dance floor in the union were all part of a night out.
"Then there were the darker things that happened behind closed doors which were definitely not consensual that I am only now coming to terms with. At one event a guy dragged me into a cupboard, exposed himself to me and demanded I had sex with him. I remember saying that I didn’t want to touch him, and I wanted to get out. I did get out and I wanted to report it at the time, but I knew there was no point. Then there was waking up to a guy having sex with me, I was sick as soon as I realised what was happening. I am only now able to call that what it really was.
"The most shocking thing for me is not my experience but that I believed this to be normal. Although coming to terms with my experience has been long, the Me Too and Time's Up campaigns have made it easier to talk about. It's confronting women and allowing them to talk about things that they have been taught by society for decades to suppress. It's slowly creating a redistribution of power and a national debate about consent. I think this conversation needs to be a part of education that allow for a better understanding of consent and sexual relations at a young age. Universities and colleges are a perfect place to start."
"My experience of university was that rape culture was commonplace and male sexual aggression was normalised. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it since, trying to come to terms with that environment, and it has been a long process. I was sexually assaulted. I had naked pictures taken of me while I slept which were shared in group chats. That was common for girls, and people don't realise how common it is.
"Hyper heteronormative shows of masculinity by young men in their late teens and early 20s fuelled by lots of alcohol and a need to perform in front of friends. Groping hands, pulling off clothes and men exposing themselves to you on the dance floor in the union were all part of a night out.
"Then there were the darker things that happened behind closed doors which were definitely not consensual that I am only now coming to terms with. At one event a guy dragged me into a cupboard, exposed himself to me and demanded I had sex with him. I remember saying that I didn’t want to touch him, and I wanted to get out. I did get out and I wanted to report it at the time, but I knew there was no point. Then there was waking up to a guy having sex with me, I was sick as soon as I realised what was happening. I am only now able to call that what it really was.
"The most shocking thing for me is not my experience but that I believed this to be normal. Although coming to terms with my experience has been long, the Me Too and Time's Up campaigns have made it easier to talk about. It's confronting women and allowing them to talk about things that they have been taught by society for decades to suppress. It's slowly creating a redistribution of power and a national debate about consent. I think this conversation needs to be a part of education that allow for a better understanding of consent and sexual relations at a young age. Universities and colleges are a perfect place to start."
