When it comes to old blokes we might look up to, considering them national treasures and so on, we’ve always had Stephen Fry pegged as one. Maybe Ian McKellen, or Bruce Forsythe. But what about Patrick Stewart, too? Despite his success Stateside as an actor in Star Trek, he is actually British, and he’s got some amazing things to say about women.
For example, Patrick, who works with domestic violence charity Refuge, has just written a piece for the New Statesman about domestic abuse.
Attacking the way the government and its agencies handles victims of domestic abuse – two women die each week at the hands of a partner or ex-partner - he explains: ‘In too many of these cases, the police – and other state agencies – have failed to protect women and children at their moment of greatest need,’
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He recalls in the piece his own experience of domestic abuse: ‘As a child, I heard police officers standing in our small living room saying things like, “She must have provoked him,” or, “Well, Mrs Stewart, it takes two to make a fight.”’
While admitting ‘much has changed since my childhood’, he explains ‘the negative attitudes that I encountered as a small boy are still embedded in our culture and in our institutions’.
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He also insists that women who go to the police to complain about abuse must be treated seriously: ‘It takes extraordinary courage for a frightened, abused woman to report her abuser to the police. When women make that brave step, it is vital that they be believed, supported and protected. They must have the full force of the law behind them.’
Patrick, who once gave an impromptu anti-domestic violence speech at a university Q+A that was so rousing that it went viral (watch it above) then asked Home Secretary Theresa May to open a public enquiry into where the police ‘and other state agencies’ have gone wrong in their reponse to incidences of domestic abuse and violence. ‘We need a bold shift in the way we, as a society, view domestic violence – and in the way our public services and state institutions respond to victims,’ he explained.
READ MORE: The Comments On This Domestic Violence Video Show Why We Need To Keep Talking About It
Wow. Powerful stuff. Now we know he’s busy being brilliant like this, and the assumption goes that we’ve already got a full roster of national treasures with Claire Balding and Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch, but can we have a bit more of Patrick Stewart our life, please? We don’t even like Star Trek but he’s got us to thinking…
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.