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'In this po-faced tinkering with the legacy of dead heroines, the endemic male violence women face today is so easily forgotten'
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...heap-patronising-cover-up-male-violence-womenTo wipe away these convictions is to wipe clean any sign of what was done to these women and how disproportionately and violently they were punished for disorderly conduct, setting small fires and breaking some windows – after many years of patiently, reasonably, nicely arguing for women’s inclusion in the political system, and being ignored.
It would be one thing if over the past 100 years the women who fought for the vote had been stigmatised, ridiculed and belittled as a result of their criminalisation. But the narrative went the other way, the correct way: the women were, and are, seen as freedom fighters who were made the victims of an aggressive and perversely violent “justice” system in which male police officers, detectives and judges cared less about considering the principles at stake than preserving male power, punishing female unruliness (often with outright violence and revolting, rape-symbolic violations such as force-feeding) and demolishing female solidarity.
The women’s convictions stand as clear signs of what they were up against; the women themselves aren’t somehow shamed or degraded by the charges, which reflect the authorities’ attitudes at the time. The women were rebels, knew what they were risking and didn’t care about their reputation. Being pardoned would be a patronising pat on the head, a perverse “forgiveness” by a conformist society that has always punished women who speak out and act out.