A number of British politicians have jumped on the idea of banning men from the streets during the evening – a proposal that grew popular following the disappearance of Sarah Everard, who vanished while on her way home late in the evening in south London.
A Green Party peer, Baroness Jones, suggested this week that a curfew for men would make women feel safe at night but admitted it was not an “entirely serious” proposal. The First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, went on to make an official clarification on the idea, as he tweeted:
Baroness Jones first voiced the idea in the House of Lords on Wednesday, following the case and suspected murder of Everard and reports of the Metropolitan Police advising women in Clapham to stay safe, which many took as advice to stay home after dark.
“In the week that Sarah Everard was abducted and, we suppose, killed—because remains have been found in a woodland in Kent — I argue that, at the next opportunity for any Bill that is appropriate, I might put in an amendment to create a curfew for men on the streets after 6 pm. I feel this would make women a lot safer, and discrimination of all kinds would be lessened,” Baroness Jones said earlier this week, only to clarify later that she was just “trying to highlight that when police victim-blame by telling women to stay home, we don't react, we just think it's normal”.
The proposal for men to be banned from the streets in the evening prompted a buzzing discussion on social media, where some mocked the idea, while others debunked its premise.
“The bad guys wouldn't obey any curfew. The good guys wouldn't be able to enforce it. It's possibly the worst idea I've heard this century,” a former MEP, Martin Daubney, argued.
The UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) has reported that in the year ending March 2020, there were 241 female victims of murder, manslaughter and infanticide, up 10% from 2019.
The Sarah Everard case has brought the issue of public safety for women in Britain to light, as the investigation into her disappearance is still ongoing.
The latest update by the Metropolitan Police said a man, who is a serving police officer, has been arrested in Kent, as well as a woman at the same location on suspicion of assisting the offender.
of a curfew for men, which grew
The bad guys wouldn't obey any curfew. The good guys wouldn't be able to enforce it. It's possibly the worst idea I've heard this century
https://twitter.com/MartinDaubney/status/1370298430812196865?s=20
memes:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Going down the shops at 6:02pm<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CurfewForMen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CurfewForMen</a> <a href="https://t.co/jjNrC5NPhU">pic.twitter.com/jjNrC5NPhU</a></p>— Carl Serjeant (@CarlSerjeant) <a href="https://twitter.com/CarlSerjeant/status/1370301526791446529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">when pubs open and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CurfewForMen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CurfewForMen</a> comes into force <a href="https://t.co/ApougvBfaO">pic.twitter.com/ApougvBfaO</a></p>— James (@Kn0wlesFPL) <a href="https://twitter.com/Kn0wlesFPL/status/1370313319165403140?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Need to get myself on <a href="https://twitter.com/dragraceukbbc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dragraceukbbc</a> before the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CurfewForMen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CurfewForMen</a> kicks in... <a href="https://t.co/rbL8FliZTA">pic.twitter.com/rbL8FliZTA</a></p>— SmokeySalmon (@Smokeysalmon_T) <a href="https://twitter.com/Smokeysalmon_T/status/1370317990743400450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>