You probably know Bella Poarch as a girl who created the most liked video on TikTok lip-syncing to Millie B’s ‘Soph Aspin Send’. But recently a 24-year-old Filipino-American influencer proved that she is more than a social media personality. Three months ago Bella Poarch released a debut song ‘Build a b*tch’ that gained a huge success. Now Bella is back with another brilliant single expressing very painful life events of her own. 

Last week, the young singer released a new song and a music video ‘Inferno’ featuring American musician Sub Urban. The music video has gone viral on TikTok with a trend of running and switching your looks while singing the lyrics of the song. The single gained huge popularity and already has over 28 million views on YouTube. 

While the music video is brilliantly made to illustrate the lyrics ‘Baby, I’m the reason why Hell’s so hot’ turning Bella herself into a powerful devil-looking creature, it has a deeper meaning. The young woman explains that she has experienced sexual assault in the past and the video represents the fantasy of how she wished it ended. Bella warns her fans in the comment section of the famous video:

‘Trigger warning: As a victim of sexual assault, this song and video mean a lot to me. This is something I haven’t been ready to share with you just yet. It’s very hard for me to talk about. But I’m ready now. I decided to express myself by creating a song and video with Sub Urban based on how I wished my experience went. It’s a fantasy I wish was true. I’m looking forward to sharing this with you all.’

Words by Ugne Giraityte

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The country’s devastated by the disappearance of 33-year-old Sarah Everard over the last week, and it’s certainly struck a chord with so many women. The hashtag #SarahEverard has trended overnight, as women take to the internet to show their thoughts and share their own stories. If there’s one thing we can take away from this devastating story, it’s that it’s only one of too many to count.

When the thing we’ve feared since becoming teenagers can happen despite taking every precaution, it becomes clear that provision isn’t enough.

When Sarah walked back from a friend’s house at 9 pm last Wednesday, she took the precautions we’ve always been told to when we feel threatened walking at night: she stuck to main roads, wore bright colours, called her boyfriend, but that wasn’t enough. We could make a list of all the measures you could take to protect yourself, but that wouldn’t help as much as stopping these men’s mindsets would.

In fact, sometimes the pressing of these precautions and their reinforcement can begin to feel like a tool for victim-blame: any woman who forgets to do these things, or doesn’t do enough of them to ward off an attacker, might be seen as the reason it happened, not because a man made the active choice to threaten her.

Just a simple scroll through socials will tell you how hauntingly common these things are and how every walk down an alley, bus ride in the dark, or taxi ride at night can be such a stressful thing for any and every woman. What’s more, the discussion proves the conversation needs to be redirected, it’s no longer about making women less vulnerable – it’s about making these men less barbaric.

The Guardian recently shared the statistic that 97% of young women in the UK have been sexually assaulted, an unbelievable percentage that’s actually pretty believable. Deniers will say “not all men”, an unnecessary phrase that acts as an excuse for individuals or a means to end or antagonize discussions about rape, violence, and systemic oppression against women. But this phrase in itself is stopping men from being educated, stopping people from learning the harsh truth that so many women have to deal with when going anywhere alone.

We need to change our attitude to this problem because something that is proven time and time again is that blocking the shot doesn’t stop the gun from firing. 

Until we can feel as safe alone at night as men can, there is no equality, and we’ll remember Sarah Everard as a catalyst of this realisation.

These are links to petitions, activists, and sites for any information or help that might warrant change:

Safe Spaces Now: Reimagining Public Spaces To Keep All Women Safe 

The Damaging Impacts Of Street Harassment 

Make Public Sexual Harassment Illegal In The UK 

By-Stander Intervention: Stand Up Against Street Harassment 

Words By Daisy Greetham

The post Sarah Everard: We’re Tired Of It Being A Woman’s Problem appeared first on Voir Fashion.

The height of the sexual harassment conversation was seen at the beginning of 2018 when one of the biggest names in Hollywood was exposed as a sexual predator. This sparked a discussion into the topic of sexual harassment and pioneered the movement that fights to protect women. Since then, many TV shows have come out, highlighting the instances of sexual harassment and the reality of injustice that has been present when it comes to sexual harassment cases. Voir has curated a list of five TV shows that has sparked a conversation and present a realistic depiction of sexual harassment.

Liar

2 seasons

Sundance Tv

Liar is a psychological thriller that tells the story of Laura Nielson, a dedicated teacher who accuses Andrew Earlham, a renowned surgeon of rape after a seemingly innocent date. The series is a volatile story of how these accusations capsize their lives after making the accusations. Laura, as the accuser’s life, is put under a microscope and all her actions up until then are criticised while the accused as he is a renowned surgeon, doesn’t face the same criticism.

I May Destroy You

June 7th HBO Max

Michaela Coel first came into the mainstream with her hit comedy series Chewing Gum; now she is telling a fearless, frank and provocative story of sexual consent in the series I May Destroy You. This series tells the story of Arabella (played by Coel) a carefree, self-assured Londoner who has lost her memory after a night of heavy drinking, where her drink is spiked with a date-rape drug. While waking up the next day with no memory and a head scar, Arabella must rebuild what happened to her, forcing her to question everything.

13 Reasons Why

4 Seasons

Netflix

’13 Reasons Why’ is a series that took the world by storm as it told the story of depression and suicide among youth through the main character Hannah Baker. In the first season, the topic of sexual harassment is spoken about briefly as one of the reasons that contributed to the suicide of the main character, but the topic is explored further in the second season where the series approaches this topic highlighting gender inequality in school policy and the toxic masculinity present in the high school environment.

Unbelievable

Limited series (8 episodes)

Netflix

Based on The Marshall Project and ProPublica Pulitzer Prize-winning article, “An Unbelievable Story of Rape,” written by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, and the This American Life radio episode, “Anatomy of Doubt”. Unbelievable tells the story of women who face sexual violence from a serial predator who preys upon women across the country. The series highlights injustice the unspeakable trauma and astounding resilience of the victims when it comes to sexual harassment.

Sex Education

2 seasons

Netflix

Sex education tells the story of Socially awkward high school student Otis who becomes the student’s sex therapist having little sexual experience of his own. As the show tackles the topics around sex, they were bound to tackle the story of sexual harassment eventually. The series depicts acts of sexual harassment in public spaces that may be seen as small acts but leave lasting trauma to the victims.

Sexual harassment is a topic that we should all be talking about and educating ourselves on and thanks to these shows storylines which are shining light on different scenarios of sexual harassment. If you are a victim of sexual violence, Call the Rape Crisis national freephone helpline on 0808 802 9999 (12-2.30pm and 7-9.30pm every day of the year) or find the nearest Rape and sexual assault referral centres services near you here. You can also visit this website here to find out the steps to take.

Words by Precious Njoki

Graphics by Katie Janes

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