Violence against women and girls is a terribly tragic symptom of a sick and damaged society.
Here in Northern Ireland we have one of Europe’s highest femicide rates.
Heartbreakingly, since 2020, 25 women have been violently killed here, all but one by a man.
There have been calls for the establishment of a domestic abuse commissioner to tackle the serious problem we have here.
Many have blamed our ‘stop-start’ politics as to why we were last to bring in laws on domestic abuse, stalking and coercive control as well as legislation on non-fatal strangulation.
But laws aren’t the only thing that will change matters. Mindsets and attitudes towards women have not been helped at all by the emergence of platforms that promote women as objects and nothing more.
In 2024 several women have risen to notoriety for their sexual exploits on those platforms, pushing the boundaries further and further by trying to break records for the number of men they sleep with in a day.
One young woman was in every newspaper and outlet, and even on TV show This Morning, talking about how she films herself sleeping with hundreds of teenagers.
She tours university cities and advertises her ‘events’ which are then broadcast on one of these platforms. She has been dubbed a predator.
Nevertheless her ‘fans’ are mostly teenage boys, absorbing her content, which is normalising the viewing of women as sexual objects.
She is said to make over half a million pounds a month and is already a multi-millionaire at 25, again promoting the notion that women can make a good living selling their bodies.
Another young woman was in the news this week for making a documentary revolving around her sleeping with 100 men in one day.
She is rumoured to be planning her next stunt, sleeping with 1,000 men in a day. She is also rumoured to be worth £2m.
The platforms they populate normalise the objectification and dehumanisation of women and are only getting more popular and more mainstream by the day.
The women using them are constantly pushing themselves to make more controversial and newsworthy content, all the while flouting the wealth they have made with their activities.
That content is being absorbed not only by subscribers, but increasingly people on social media, particularly X, a platform that seems to have pulled down any protection filters that would stop porn appearing on people’s timelines.
These women, and their activities, have themselves become mainstream, being on podcasts, radio and TV shows, newspapers and social media platforms that our young people are looking at.
They and their lives are fascinating to our young people and with that, broader societal degradation of women is being normalised.
And in turn this mainstream exposure influences how women are treated in everyday contexts.
There might be some who brand this content and these platforms liberating for women – women are in control, they can make millions from their body, why not? – but in reality their actions only serve to perpetuate harmful stereotypes that a women’s value is tied to her sexuality, which leads to misogyny and dehumanisation.
All of the above can lead to erosion of societal respect for women’s boundaries, contributing to harassment and potentially escalating to violence.
Studies have shown that exposure to hyper-sexualised content can contribute to attitudes that trivialise or normalise violence against women and girls, potentially fuelling abusive behaviours.
Those facts cannot be ignored in the cheerleading for these women who are making millions from selling their content.
It’s a vicious circle that has an impact on our young women, as well as our young men.
The glamorisation of monetised sexual content risks sending harmful messages to younger girls about their self-worth and the role of their appearance in achieving success.
Some global content creators on social media count their cash in videos, sitting in their expensive homes or cars, dripping in designer jewellery. A lot of top creators showcase their wealth and fame on social media.
Young people naturally crave fame and wealth and are now seeing sex work as a way to financial stability.
The effect the content of these platforms have on young men is certainly not healthy or conducive to establishing and maintaining meaningful relationships.
We have created a society where young women are engaging in dangerous and degrading activities to please men, make money, fund elaborate lifestyles and inspire others to do the same.
A society where women are treated like objects, not to be cared for. Where men feel they can use and discard them.
A society where exploitation thrives and where violence against women remains woefully and dangerously unaddressed.