A vile attack on young women

By Lisa Hamilton / @lefty_lisa

Nadine Dorries is a serious politician. We know this because where else do serious politicians tout their latest policies than the Vanessa Show. Other hard hitting topics covered on the Vanessa show have included “invite your fiance to your stag do” (apparently called a ‘Hag do’) and “intolerant of food intolerance”. Yet amongst this background of ridiculousness Dorries has still managed to shine.

She began by trotting out the usual sex education myths: 7 year old girls are taught how to put condoms on bananas, pupils are not told that not having sex is also an option and, rather bizarrely that pupils are taught the ‘mechanics of sex’. So far, so Monty Python.

Then the conversation took a rather more sinister turn. Julie Bentley the Chief Executive of the Family Planning Agency ruined Dorries argument with facts. The ‘Just Say No’ campaign spent billions on the abstinence message, had celebrity endorsements from the likes of the Jonas brothers and the result was an increase in teenage pregnancies and STIs. Clearly losing the ‘abstinence equals fewer teenage pregnancies’ argument Dorries plumped for the utterly absurd and offensive:

“some of the evidence I have heard is that if a stronger ‘Just Say No’ message was given…there might be an impact on sex abuse”.

She went on to say that “when sex abuse takes place [the girls] don’t realise that that was a wrong thing to do”.

If Dorries argument wasn’t credible before, it certainly isn’t now. The idea that a child could be held responsible for sexual abuse is vile and only someone as narrow minded and hateful as Dorries could ever think otherwise. Its clear that this Dorries’ bill is not, as she claims, an attack on the ‘sexualisation of society’ but instead an attack on young women.

Before the show aired Dorries described her time on Vanessa as “one of the more pleasurable media experiences I’ve ever had.” At least someone enjoyed it.