Trigger Warning: This post deals with issues of sexual assault and domestic violence and may be triggering for survivors of abuse.
Update 17/5:
Another woman has been sexually assaulted in the Brunswick area at around 8pm last night. The woman was grabbed from behind by an unknown attacker, who fled after being disturbed by a passing cyclist.
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Two women were attacked in Melbourne last weekend.
And I’m scared.
They were both attacked, only a few streets away from each other, by a man who is still on the run.
And I’m scared.
One woman was grabbed from behind and dragged into a lane way. She was indecently assaulted before she somehow managed to escape. The other was grasped around the shoulders and then brought to the ground before she also fled.
The media are describing the attacks as “Jill Meagher-style” events.
Because just like Jill Meagher, these women were alone in the dark early hours of the morning. Just like Jill Meagher, these women were walking in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick. And just like the deadly attack on Jill Meagher in 2012, the news has left women in Melbourne – and around Australia – feeling scared to walk alone at night.
I’m a 27-year-old female and I live in Melbourne but until about two years ago, walking alone in the dark really didn’t bother me.
Top Comments
Australia's one if the safer places to live but the media does tend to play up violent crime because (I guess) it sells papers. It gives us a false impression as to how common these types of crime are.
They do happen, though, and it's a fine line between trying to ensure your personal safety and feeling paranoid. What's your safety worth? What about your freedom to do what you need or want to do? You have the right to go wherever you want and being there doesn't give other people the right to assault you. Often though, no matter how hard you work to keep yourself safe or how paranoid you get, if someone does rape you, you will be held at least partially responsible. Many of us have experienced that and had our families and closest friends tell us we were "asking for trouble", or "what did you expect dolled up like that?"or "what were you doing there anyway?"
So what do we do? Live our lives as we want to and take that risk or allow our lives to be circumscribed in an effort to avoid both the crime and the blame?
I just don't think you can walk through life acting like a would be victim. I'm not saying that you should intentionally walk around looking for trouble. But I do think we should all get on with our lives and assume the best in people - you know being that most people don't even think of assaulting someone. And if you really are that worried about it, then do something and enrol yourself into a self defence class.