‘Mayweather cancellation a victory for women’

This week I have been amazed and impressed by the power of social media and of some of Bristol’s fantastic women coming together. On discovering that the Bristol Colston Hall would be hosting an as event part of a “victory tour” from Floyd Mayweather, a serial domestic violence perpetrator and multiple boxing world champion, we came together to take a stand against domestic violence.

This resulted in a very successful campaign that achieved the cancellation of the Bristol event at the Colston Hall, the cancellation of another event in Cardiff at St David’s Hall and the withdrawal of Jonathan Ross’s involvement in Mayweather’s black tie event in London.

The campaign against Mayweather’s visit to Bristol started with a petition by Julie Zerlang. It read:

In England and Wales, two women are killed every week at the hands of their partner, and on a worldwide scale one in three women will suffer domestic or sexual violence from their partner. In Bristol, that works out as 71,000 women.

Someone you know is experiencing this right now.

At a time when services in Bristol and in the UK that support these women are being stripped of funding and forced to close down, it is an outrage that a publicly funded institution such as Colston Hall is choosing to host a violent serial criminal like Floyd Mayweather. 

Shortly after this, I contacted all the other members of the Bristol Women’s Voice management team. As members of an organisation whose purpose is to represent the best interests of women in Bristol and make women’s voices heard, they were as appalled as I was to see Colston Hall allow Mayweather to use its publicly funded venue to promote himself and make money.

We drafted a letter from SARASAS, Zero Tolerance, UWE End It Now and BWV, asking Colson Hall to cancel their event.

I made the protest event via Facebook shortly after. As a result of the event a group of women came together and decided to work on getting through to and pressuring the Colston Hall.

It’s been fantastic to see what the determination and will of a group can do. We tweeted, lobbied the Colston Hall via Facebook and set up a meeting with the venues management. It was a fantastic feeling to work with a group of passionate women using their voices to make change in our city.

The Bristol Post and Western Gazette picked up the story; and the national press, via the Daily Mirror, then did too. Shortly after this, the Mayweather event in Bristol was cancelled. The reason given: “unforeseen circumstances.”

Maybe the event’s promoters and Mr Mayweather didn’t see us coming together to stand up against domestic violence? Maybe they didn’t think that Bristol would reject the idea that a man with serial counts of domestic abuse should be held up as a hero because of his boxing talent and money? They were wrong, and I am immensely proud of our collective determination, ability and defiance.

After noticing that Jonathan Ross was hosting the London black tie event, which claimed to be “in front of a celebrity packed audience”, we decided to lobby Ross via Twitter to withdraw his involvement in the campaign.

He first said he would look into things. Yesterday he announced that he would no longer be taking part in the event via a tweet thanking us for the information we provided him with.

This cancellation is more than just a victory for a group of women over a few events. In challenging the idea that men like Mayweather can be displayed as a heroes without being in the slightest bit repentant about their actions, we send a message to victims of domestic violence that we are with them – that their suffering should not go unaddressed. Bristol Women coming together has really made a difference.

Ellie Vowles is an Art and Visual Culture graduate, Bristol Women’s Voice management member and a Green Party activist.

Bristol24/7 is always looking for new opinion writers. Want to get something off your chest? Email editor@bristol247.com

Read more opinion pieces here.