FixedIt is a project I started in 2015. It was born of frustration with the then constant victim-blaming and erasure of perpetrators from media headlines about men’s violence against women.
At the time media headlines were full of “scorned lovers” who raped women they claimed to love, “good fathers” who killed their children, and adults who had “sexual relationships” with children they were abusing.
Nearly ten years later, after hundreds of fixed headlines, a book, a Ted Talk, dozens of speaking engagements and several training sessions, those headlines have not gone away.
Habits die hard and victim-blaming attitudes are stubbornly persistent. Change is slow, but it is happening. I don’t see nearly as many “scorned lovers” or “good blokes” kill their partners and children. They’ve (mostly) stopped describing men who sexually abuse children has having “sexual relationships” with their victims.
That doesn’t mean Fixed It is over. I wish it was. But as you can see from the posts below, there is more to do.
Meta has decided my Insta and FB accounts are news sites, so you may not see many of my social media posts in your feed even if you are following me.
If you want to get notifications of Fixed It posts you can sign up for a free (or $5 a month) membership on Patreon.
I also have a Substack if you’re interested in the other work I do. And don’t forget to have a look at the books I’ve written (another one coming soon).
Thanks for the support and remember to tag the publications if you’re sharing a post – they need their audiences far more than their audiences need them. This is how we get them to change.
Here you go @9NewsAUS I fixed it for you because allegations of child rape and exploitation are not the same as “swinging”
Here you go @dailytelegraph I fixed it for you because she wasn’t assaulted by her job or a town. And seriously, “probe”? Really?
Hey @newscomauHQ when even a judge describes a murder as “grotesquely violent” it’s probably ok to include a mention of the murderer in your headline.
Here you go @newcastleherald I fixed it for you because it’s a shame to diminish all the incredibly important work you’ve done on this issue with one bad headline.
Here you go @BrimbankWeekly and @bayfm939 I fixed it for you. Might be worth having a look at how @theheraldsun and @newcastleherald reported this without making perpetrators invisible. Turns out it’s not that difficult after all.