Senseless and responsible

In 2015, a police force in southern England came under fire from feminists and anti-violence activists for a supposedly well-meaning ‘summer safety’ campaign. The campaign featured a poster of two white women in their early twenties, dressed up and taking a selfie, smiling. Underneath the caption read: ‘Which of your mates is most vulnerable on a night out? … The one you leave behind.’ The moral of the story was clear: ‘Many sexual assaults could be prevented. Stick together and don’t let your friend leave with a stranger or go off on their own.’

The campaign was widely criticised as insensitive and victim-blaming, sparking a response from the police force responsible. Their intention, they said, was to highlight how everyone in the community should do what they can to prevent sexual assault, arguing that ‘door supervisors, taxi drivers, bar staff and groups of friends or the wider public need to take responsibility to protect others from those who may cause them harm’.And yet the campaign wasn’t targeted at door supervisors, taxi drivers, bar staff or the wider public. It wasn’t even really targeted at groups of friends. It was targeted at women. Specifically, at women having fun together. The underlying message is that our safety is more important than our freedom, and that though the police are there in the aftermath of sexual violence, we are responsible for its prevention.

The same poster, with the same well-meaning advice to men, is almost inconceivable. After all, men don’t need to stay in groups to be safe, and if a male friend ends the night leaving with a stranger that’s often met with reward not reprimand. Yet women are continually targeted for apparently well-intentioned advice about how to keep ourselves safe. Don’t leave by yourself. Don’t leave with a stranger. Be careful at night. Be careful alone. Be careful in parks, on buses, in cabs. Watch your drinks. Watch your friends. Watch out.

Similar campaigns showing women in their early to mid-twenties on a night out – again frequently smiling, laughing, caught in that liberatory moment of women having fun with women – have been launched in the UK in the past five years by other forces including Essex, West Mercia and West Yorkshire police.