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The powerful segment on The Project that brought Lisa Wilkinson to tears.

 

Lisa Wilkinson was brought to tears on The Project last night when she delivered a powerful monologue in response to the tragic death of Eurydice Dixon.

22-year-old Eurydice Dixon was found dead in a Melbourne soccer field on Wednesday. The aspiring comedian was allegedly raped and murdered by a 19-year-old man while walking home from a stand-up gig.

In the emotional segment, Wilkinson called for a change of attitude towards women’s safety and victim-blaming.

“Every day, women are told how to behave, what to wear, where to go and where to avoid for their safety and I’m not sure whether we should be listening to every word of advice,” she said.

Wilkinson also slammed the police’s response to the tragic death.

In a series of official statements this week, police urged women to stay alert at night and carry a mobile phone at all times.

“Just make sure you have situational awareness, that you’re aware of your surroundings,” Local Superintendent David Clayton said in a statement.

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“If you’re a woman in 2018, you’ll be familiar with this advice,” Wilkinson said.

“There’s so much advice and so many rules about what we should do and what we shouldn’t, it’s hard to keep track of just how we should keep ourselves safe.”

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“If one woman doesn’t walk at night, that one woman won’t be attacked. But the problem with giving this advice is that it keeps that one woman safe at the expense of all women’s right to move freely,” she said.

Wilkinson suggested that instead of telling women to take responsibility for their safety, we should be talking to men and boys instead.

“The best way to prevent this crime and keep all women safe isn’t by changing the behaviour of women but by changing the behaviour of men,” she said.

“Instead of telling girls not to walk through parks, maybe we should tell our boys not to rape them.”

Comedian Meshel Laurie also weighed in on victim-blaming in the segment, pointing out that when a man is murdered, the blame is always put on the attacker – but things are different when the victim is a woman.

“When women are attacked, it’s all about the victim – why was she there? Who does that? Who walks alone in a park?” Laurie said.

Wilkinson also opened up about her fears for her 20-year-old university student daughter.

“Every time she has to walk across campus, if it’s later at night, she calls me, and I’ve always said to her, ‘Call me at any time so that you can feel safe’ because we’ve had the discussion,” Wilkinson said.

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Twitter users commended Wilkinson for her powerful message.

As Wilkinson’s powerful monologue came to an end, she was brought to tears by a famous Margaret Atwood quote: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them, women are afraid that men will kill them.”