The 888 Side Show: A gimmicky distraction from an awkward truth about gender and violence
This week has seen the announcement of the 888 service. Yet another government gimmick that makes it look like they’re doing something about violence against women. It’s the theatre of anti-violence policy, or more accurately, a side show that distracts us from the real problem: that women continue to be held responsible for violent men’s behaviour.
The BT 888 service, which will launch later this year, enables GPS tracking on women’s phones when they dial or text the number. The aim is to make women feel safer by generating an expected journey time, and automatically alerting friends or family if they don’t arrive at their destination.
I have two problems with this.
Firstly, this service already exists in multiple guises – and they’re actually better than the 888 service. The Hollie Gazzard Trust have an app called Hollie Guard. It’s activated by shaking or tapping your phone. This is easier to do in the presence of someone who poses a threat to you than taking out your device and dialing a number. The app then immediately notifies your contacts, pins your location and sends video and audio directly to their devices.
So, let’s not kid ourselves, BT did not ‘pioneer’ the idea. It’s been around for years. The voluntary sector organizations who work directly with women affected by violence know their stuff, and they have been developing their own tech solutions for a long time. Often with no help from the government. Often out of their own pockets. If the big tech and comms companies bothered to consult with these organizations to the extent that they should, they’d know this.
Secondly, the 888 service is just another example of holding women solely responsible for protecting themselves from harm, rather than focusing on the perpetrator’s decision to do them harm.
For years, we’ve been bombarding women with messages about safety. They shouldn’t walk home alone in the dark. They shouldn’t dress ‘provocatively’. They should call a friend when they get in. They should always plan their journeys ahead of time. They shouldn’t take short cuts across parks. They should hold their keys between their knuckles. They should take self-defence classes.
All these things are built on an assumption. That some men just can’t help themselves. They’re at the mercy of their biology. They’re compelled by irresistible urges. Bless them, poor little automaton lambs.
Of course, that’s absolute nonsense. In criminology, we largely did away with biological determinism last century. In the late 1800s, criminologist Cesare Lombroso claimed that people who had certain physiological features were more likely to engage in criminal acts. Those with large earlobes, sloping foreheads and a whole host of other ‘abnormalities’ were to be approached with particular caution.
That was clearly a load of old rubbish and didn’t stand up to scrutiny, so eventually, into the bin it went. Yet in the year 2021 we’re treating men in the same way. We’re claiming that some penis-owners are incapable of controlling themselves, and consequently, women need to completely alter their behaviour in order to avoid their violence. And if they do become victims, well, they only have themselves to blame.
Odd isn’t it, that in a neoliberal society preaching personal responsibility, one group of people are entirely exempt: men who choose to be violent towards women. Patriarchy has thrived under neoliberalism, and this is yet another clear example of it at work.
By announcing the launch of 888, the government are doing a really good job of appearing to do something about violence against women. However, this is simply serving to distract us from continued gendered inequalities, where women are fully accountable, rational actors, whilst the men who choose to harm them are helpless victims of their biological drives. Until we start holding perpetrators responsible for the harms they inflict, and demanding that they change their behaviour, nothing will change, and the sideshows will continue.
