It’s been nearly six years since the death of Jill Meagher. Six years since tens of thousands of people marched along Melbourne’s Sydney Road in her memory, and thousands more raged publicly about the constant state of vigilance women are forced to maintain merely in order to get home at night.
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And now it’s happening again, another young woman killed on her way home at night, at the hands of a man. And people are still angry. On Monday night, thousands of people were planning once again to take the streets, to metaphorically reclaim them from the netherworld of male violence.
There are differences in the story, of course, but none of them all that relevant. Eurydice Dixon, a promising young comedian, was walking home after a performing a show in Melbourne’s CBD. She sent a message to a friend, shortly before arriving home, letting them know she had arrived safely, shortly before she died. She was left in a public place, to be discovered only a few hours later. And, women were once again left to absorb the message that somehow, Eurydice shouldn’t have been out alone, in the dark. That being attacked was ultimately her own fault.
Much of the anger that has risen since her death has been directed at the police officer who, following the discovery of Eurydice’s body in a soccer field off a public park, wearily warned people, once again, to take care when walking home alone. He didn’t direct his warning to women per se, and as he made the comments, Eurydice’s alleged killer was still at large. But the subtext was clear: women, take responsibility of your safety, lest you be injured or killed at the hands of a man.
Not, in other words, how can we address the behaviour of perpetrators in these situations? Jill Meagher and Eurydice Dixon didn’t die because they were out alone, failing to take care. They died because someone else decided to exercise extreme violence against them.
Meanwhile, another vigil for Eurydice will be held this week in Canberra’s Haig Park, one of the city’s notorious hotspots for violence and muggings. Incidentally, the ACT government has recently, quietly and without fanfare, made some improvements to the park’s safety, installing lights, laying down walking paths, removing some trees and low-hanging branches. Of course, this could be seen as just another way of avoiding the real problem - that there are people out there taking advantage of the deep shadows cast by mature trees to commit assault. Can’t an inner-city park be just that - a tranquil place for people to enjoy?
No, not just yet. And there’s another subtext here: changing the culture of men perpetrating violence against women will take time. It’s already starting to happen; #metoo is now a swelling and unstoppable tide, and the sickening number of women killed at the hands of partners or family members is now firmly in the public consciousness. But this is recent. The patriarchy is yet to be dismantled. Until then, the Melbourne police officer seemed to be saying, let’s stay safe.
