This is a short email exchange about this issue:
Dear Liz
Thanks for this. I would say that the things she is
concerned about are directly related to the consumerist culture created by the
growth paradigm - which is espoused by all 3 of the grey parties.
‘Growth’ (measured only in terms of traditional GDP) is simply an endless
race between nation states , which sets up the culture which turns everything
into a commodity, including human beings. Hence the term – ‘he would sell
his own grannie’. The rise in exploitation of humans (along with
everything else) is astronomical at the moment – and trafficking, particularly
of young women for sex slavery is on the increase all over the world.
See the 2010 film ‘The Whistleblower’ which is the
story of a young woman working for the UN (as part of a UK-based security firm)
in post-war Bosnia who discovers that most of her colleagues
are actually encouraging sex slavery !
Of course, advertising is an obvious and inextricable part
of the growth paradigm, and it too uses sex as much as it is allowed, and of
course children see a lot of this. Computer games also express the
dominant paradigm and, again, they use sex and violence as much as they
can. Young people now are far more likely to spend time watching TV or
playing computer games than, say, playing in the woods or helping on the farm
as they used to do just a couple of generations ago.
We are all (depending on how much we engage with television etc)
immersed in consumerist values at the moment. The opposite of the
growth paradigm is a value system based on respect for people and
planet. This is what the Greens promote.
The young woman's very understandable concerns are about a
particularly serious manifestation of the consumerist paradigm…and this is
where the Greens and the LDs are completely different as we challenge that paradigm
fundamentally - through all our policies - and they don’t.
Hope this is helpful.
Best
Shan Oakes
Equalities and Diversity Coordinator
Green Party of England and Wales
01482 862085 07769 607710
Hi
There
I've
just received the following enquiry from a very engaged young woman who I met
while taking part in a Question Time event at a local grammar school on
Friday. As you can see she's pitting me directly against our local (high
profile and elected councillor) Lib Dem so I'd like to give her a solid response.
best Liz
Hello
I
am a year 12 at ...Grammar School 6th form. I
am interested in both of your parties, however I am curious as to whether you
have any policies or ideas on the sexualisation of children and the increase or
increase in awareness of sexual violence, particularly against girls and women?
Because these are important issues for me and seem to be prominent in
the community at the moment.
