On Tuesday night Melbourne comedian Eurydice Dixon was murdered on her way home from a gig that had finished at 10:30pm.
Dixon's death has left many Australians reeling, and a subsequent police warning for people walking alone at night to "take responsibility for their safety" has caused an outcry.
Been thinking about this headline all day. Anytime I am walking/in a cab alone, ESPECIALLY at night, all I literally think about is if I'm about to get hurt. We DO have our phones charged and ready. We DO have our fists clenched. We DO anticipate the worst and it is TIRING. https://t.co/lwBNq2lAza
People pushed back against what they felt was victim-blaming.
When young men are tragically killed in one punch attacks an entire city has it's nightlife shut down indefinitely. When a young woman is brutally raped and murdered women are told to 'take responsibility for their own safety'.
Frankly I think @VictoriaPolice should apologise for their victim-blaming and completely useless "advice" following the murder of #eurydicedixon . Don't tell us to be more careful. Tell men they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law if they choose to commit a crime!
It’s victim blaming and rape culture to tell women to be careful in parks.
1. Some thoughts. It was not a lack of ‘situational awareness’ that ended the life of Eurydice Dixon - it was a person who made a conscious choice to exercise extreme violence against her. #eurydicedixon
Imagine if every time there was a school shooting police urged parents to home school their kids instead? Or if after Martin place cops urged ppl 2 work from home and avoid cafes? Yet every time a woman is raped or murdered cops tell women, not perps, to modify behaviour.
I can only imagine the rage and fear women feel to see women die doing everyday mundane things like walking home, like they do to, only to then be told it’s their fault and that they need to be more careful. Stop Blaming Women Make Men The Issue
And they also highlighted that the warning wasn't necessary, because so many women already do take precautions, and still aren't safe.
Every time you say 'be safe. Be aware. Do this.' it's not just the victim blaming that makes us so mad. It's that we already fucking do that and men still murder us. This is not our fault. We are not to blame for the violence of men.
Especially after The Age reported that Dixon had actually texted a friend that she was "almost home" shortly before her death.
Wow. Just a few hundred metres from home, Eurydice Dixon sent a text to a friend: "I’m almost home safe, HBU" Despite knowing this, police had the gall to tell women to have "situational awareness", carry a phone and let people know where we are? https://t.co/aJo78Con95
People pointed out the mixed messages women constantly receive about their safety.
The brilliant @JaneTribune wrote this on women and #situationalawareness in 2015 after another woman was killed jogging in a park (in the middle of the day). Still so infuriatingly relevant. https://t.co/AnMxdDqmVN
Eurydice Dixon texted her friend that she was almost home safe because that's what women do - women are instructed to own their personal safety, while society ignores the actual problem: that women are constantly attacked by people they know or strangers.
4. The language used towards women when we exercise caution is contradictory at best and disdainful and mocking at worst. Exercise caution, but don’t overreact. Be prepared for danger, but don’t treat individual men like they might be a threat to you.
The story has hit close to home for many women.
A lot of women will feel the death of Eurydice Dixon personally, not because we know her but because her murder is the summation of fears we govern our own lives by every single day.
Everytime I leave seeing a friend, one of us is guaranteed to say “text me when you get home safe” and one of us will reply “nearly home Love you”. Eurydice Dixon sent that text. But she wasn’t safe. And she never got home. I cant stop thinking about her #RIPEurydice
When I worked in the city I befriended the guy who worked night shift at the servo bw the train station and my apartment & told all my friends/family so if I ever disappeared they’d know to ask him if he saw me walking home. Every woman has a story like this. RIP Eurydice Dixon.
I am deeply disturbed by the death of Eurydice Dixon. I walk home alone at night too. Keys through my hands, headphones off, glancing over my shoulder is how I walked home from the station around 9pm on Tuesday. It's a 7 min walk. https://t.co/Ygfuut6bPT
When we hear that young women are raped and murdered while walking home at night, it shakes the rest of us to our core. Not because it’s unthinkable but because it reaffirms what we’re scared of *all the time*. This is heartbreaking. I love this photo. https://t.co/J408Mh3nzO
What happened to Eurydice Dixon is every woman's fear. It's the reason we walk with our keys in our hands in the dark. It's the reason our heart sits in our throat until we're 'safely' in our cars when we're alone. It shouldn't be this way. How many of us have to die?