In previous work I spent time researching global sex trafficking and exploitation, and eventually that led to a conclusion that the prevalence of porn was helping to drive the issue. Research showed that many female victims were being made to replicate what men were... (1/4)

habitually watching and believing to be normal and desirable. The trends have been towards increasing aggression and violence... to the point where it’s wrongly assumed by perpetrators that everyone must be into it. It’s also changing broader societal norms around sex.(2/4)

In researching the global sex trafficking problem I could also see that a tactic used to keep girls and women enslaved, is to maintain their sense of guilt and shame, like it’s all their fault in some way. (3/4)

That mental tactic to allow abusive men to maintain power over victimised women works because it is ingrained in many areas of society. We too readily leap to looking for how ‘she’ might have contributed to her abuse, her rape, or her sexualised murder. (4/4)

Because of life experiences as a child, and probably tiredness due to time spent working on the sex trafficking issue, I steer clear of sexual abuse stories now, but in the headlines of the Grace Millane story I see elements relating to everything mentioned above.