We woke this morning to hear of a bright, young, innocent woman dead.
Her name was Vanessa Marcotte. She was 27, and an employee at Google. In her spare time, she volunteered at a local community garden. She loved surfing. And family. And running.
On Sunday, Vanessa never came home from her routine morning run. Within hours her body was found in shrubbery without clothes; her hands, feet, and head burnt. Reports say she was raped.
This shouldn’t feel like groundhog day, but it does.
Because last week we woke to the same news, of another bright, young, innocent woman dead.
Her name was Karina Vetrano. She was 30, and an employee at the local restaurant. In her spare time, she travelled the globe with friends. She loved social media. And family. And running.
Last Tuesday, Karina never came home from her routine 5pm run. Within hours her body was found near a park. She had lost a tooth, and there were signs of strangulation. Reports say she was raped.
These stories are unthinkable - they are sickening and terrifying in equal parts - yet they were lived by Vanessa and Karina.
Women who were just going on their daily run. In daylight. On familiar, well-beaten tracks.
While these women lived in the US, our distance from their tragedy provides no comfort. This fear of being snatched off the streets is felt by women everywhere.
I'll be the first to admit it: I'm scared to go running now.
I'm really scared.
When I go for a walk, I feel the need to constantly check over my shoulder, and I instinctively tense up when strange cars drive past. I walk a little faster in the quiet streets, and I take a deep, full breath when I reach the busy ones.
But you know what terrifies me more than all of that?
I'm terrified that women - you, reading this right now - will stop going for their daily run. I'm terrified that the depraved acts of monsters will define how we live, how we engage and how we participate in our communities.
Because it's our fucking right to go for a run.
The more we retreat into our homes and the more we 'sit this one out', the more we let the monsters control us, own us and define us.
It's certainly not easy, but it's important we don't hang up our shoes. We need to keep walking, running, skipping and climbing.
We need to show Vanessa and Karina's monsters that yes, we see you, but you will not stop us.
And yes, we're terrified. But we won't stop running.
Top Comments
Do we need to consider the proposition put forward by male cabinet ministers during Golda Meir's time in Israel? They suggested a curfew on women at night, to keep them safe due to the high incidence of rape.
My suggestion would be a curfew on men, so that women can access the night freely and in safety, for the first time ever. Men commit 90% of the violent crime in our society. There is a problem with our men.
Obviously Golda Meir put a swift end to the idea that women should be punished by a curfew. As it would be a punishment to non-violent men to put a curfew on them. Women are less safe in their own homes than they are jogging at night anyway so what would be achieved?
But isn't the idea of a night curfew on men a tantalising one, for women to dream about for just a little while...
Not for me, I wouldn't want any innocent people put out by the crimes of the minority - because it is a minority that commit crimes - on average around 3-4% of people commit violent crimes per year (that can obviously differ from place to place etc)
so why would we want punish over 95% of people for the minority?
I don't know what the answer is but we obviously haven't found it yet & to be honest I'm not sure that there is one
Thanks for raising this as an issue. I, too, love running, and I also worry about my safety when I do. For that reason, I don't go running in the evenings when it's dark - but I do run at 5.30am in the dark with a headlamp because I (perhaps foolishly) figure that rapists are less likely to be wandering around that early in the day. I don't run on bush tracks by myself because it's too lonely. I don't run through big parks or ovals by myself - I stay close to houses. I always have 'Find my friends' activated on my iPhone (which I take with me anyway to track my run).
All these things may or may not keep me safe, but it's better than not running at all. I remind myself of how rare it would be for something to happen, so I'm certainly not paralysed by fear, but I'm also very aware that there's still a risk that men don't have to worry about when they go out for a run in the dark at 9pm.
Actually the rates of random acts of violence against men are significantly higher than the rates of stranger rape against women - I'm not saying that it's not a problem, of course it is but the risk of something happening to us is actually alarmingly small compared to how often these things are reported on
I do agree with you though, yes we SHOULD be able to run freely but the fact is that we just can't - there are bad people in the world & it's always better to take measures to try to ensure your safety rather than stop all together