In the 19th century Josephine Butler opened a refuge for prostitutes, in the face of much criticism and opposition.
She was a figurehead in the campaign to have the Contagious Diseases Acts (which criminalized the prostitutes instead of their clients) abolished, and she campaigned against the white slave trade.
She was also influential in campaigns for equality for women, and helped to found the all-female Newnham College at Cambridge University.
As she is remembered today, she reminds me of those who are ignored, denied a voice, and deliberately silenced in our society.
This has particularly struck me this week because of something I saw online - the story of why a black man wouldn't carry a 'woman's bag'.
I have a pink bag, partly because it's a way of teaching my children that there's no such thing as 'girls colours' and 'boys colours' (or jobs, subjects, toys, etc..).
(That and I like pink)
The man in the story wouldn't carry a 'feminine' bag not because it wasn't 'macho' enough, but because many who saw him with it would assume the only reason he, a black man, would have it was because he must have stolen it; it would almost inevitably end up with him being stopped by the police.
Realising that me being able to subvert gender stereotypes is something white privilege allows me to do, if I'm honest, shocked me.
Josephine Butler changed so much for the better. But we still have a long way to go.
Inequality, discrimination and oppression are still far too common all over the country, and the world.
Today's Bible verses:
“How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked?
3 Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
Psalm 82. 2-4
♫ Amy Beach - Peace I leave with you
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