Asking for it...

One thing that strikes me about the women only Reclaim the Night demonstration that i went on last night was the issue of how and where women face violence.

At the after party I met Alex Brew, a photographer, who has recently published a collection of her photographs questioning this very point. Alex told me how she had submitted her photos to a number of top male magazines but to no avail. Is this only a woman's issue then?

Here is the write up of the exhibition from her website, this is the link to see the photos:

DIVA magazine named the preview of "Asking for it" at Ladyfest London in the Islington Arts Factory as its hot pick. DIVA said: "The artist approaches men in public places – outside offices, pubs, cafes and gentlemen's venues often in London's square mile. She confronts them with her camera and sometimes asks them to fully or partially undress in a more private space – in an alleyway, a car park, or back at their place or hers.

The images illuminate the risks women take everyday in a culture that believes that the stranger is more dangerous than the man by your side in spite of the statistics that show the opposite."

This is about why women don't tend to objectify men and the massive obstacles in a woman's way if she goes after a positive, active sexuality: not least fear - of alienation, disapproval or violence. Not only by individual men but by the legal system.