Do you know that you shouldn't walk home alone at night, or on unlit streets? That when walking home, you should have your house key between your fingers to poke a potential attacker in the eyes or throat? How about that if you don't want to be raped, you need to be sure your skirt is somebody's idea of the right length, that you don’t sway your hips when you walk, you shouldn't be alone with new dates, alone in large groups of men, say you enjoy sex out loud where men can hear you, shouldn't drink -- not because you'll get liver damage or become an alcoholic, but because it'll result in you being raped? Did you know that if someone tries to force you to have sex, that you shouldn’t fight back, but should probably just try to be nice to them? How about that if you say yes to one kind of sex, you’d best be prepared to have every other kind of sex your partner wants, and that if you want to avoid being raped, you’d best say no to ANY kind of sex, even the sex you DO want?

If these things aren’t as familiar to you as the nose on your face, I can guarantee you that they are for nearly every woman you know. Women have this stuff drilled into our heads endlessly, from nearly everywhere we look, all with the aim of helping us prevent something from happening we aren’t even doing. Almost every article we see when it comes to rape prevention is aimed at women – the ones most often getting raped -- not at men, who most often are the ones doing the raping.

Read on here. I highly suggest it, whether you're male or female.

Especially when you consider that forty percent of people believe a woman can be blamed for her rape based on her clothing, what she's had to drink and/or her sexual history. And the fact that most of the police believe it too.

Sickening.

I'm done with this journal.

New one soon, maybe.

Okay, so the thing is, I've been looking around on the internet for some non-sweatshop tshirts (and also trousers) that aren't designed for out-and-out hippies and covered in rainbows and tie-dye. (No offence meant; if that's what you like, then so be it.)

On most of the sites (howies being the exception; I love howies), if there are decent tshirts, they're only in men's sizes. This is frustrating, because buying men's (if you're female, obviously) means that you either have to re-sew the hems of the tshirt, or tie it in a knot at the back, which usually pulls it all out of shape.

So. I've had an idea. Possibly a silly idea, given that there's probably a lot knocking about that are exactly the same, but here we go... I thought that maybe it might be an idea to set up a non-sweatshop clothing business. Not on my own, obviously, although more on that in a bit...

I've had a look at ethicalthreads.co.uk (set up by Billy Bragg, y'know!), and out of curiosity emailed them for a quote to see how much it would be for 10 men's shirts and 10's womens. Depending on how much it's going to cost, it could seriously be out of the question, given how poor we all are & that.

But, basically... if this is going to happen, I need serious help with it. First off, I'd need someone to help me with the design part of the tshirts, because to put it simply, I'm crap at it. Then I guess I'd need someone with a bit of a business-head to help work things out. And someone maybe to design a website, or could we just use myspace for a bit? I dunno yet. It's still just an idea, but I'm hopeful...

[x-posted to myspace blog.]