In memory of Sarah Everard

TW: sexual assault/harassment.

Today’s post is dedicated to Sarah Everard, who should never have been condemned to history so early. Sarah was kidnapped and murdered by a serving Metropolitan Police Officer. She was 33 years old. She was just walking home from seeing her friend. She did everything she was supposed to do to keep herself safe and it wasn’t enough. I can’t imagine the grief felt by those who loved her, and I can’t help but wonder what she still had left to achieve and experience if she had just been allowed to live.

Sarah’s death has prompted an outpouring of grief, anger, and solidarity from women across the country who are sharing their experiences of sexual violence and harassment. Just a few days before Sarah’s murder, it was announced that 97% of UK women have experienced sexual harassment. No woman is surprised by this. In fact, I wonder who these lucky 3% are. I could share my own experiences, because there are a lot, but I’d rather share my despair, my frustration, and my bloody exhaustion that women are still having to fight for the right to walk safely down the street. 

Yesterday, a vigil was held for Sarah, and the photos of women being manhandled from the scene by police (especially given the circumstances of Sarah’s death) made me sick to my stomach.

Firstly, it was so reminiscent of the suffragettes - showing that nothing has been learned in 100 years. On 18 November 1910, 300 women marched to the Houses of Parliament as part of their campaign to secure voting rights for women. The day became known as "Black Friday" owing to the violence inflicted on protesters, some of it sexual, by the Metropolitan Police and male bystanders. Police arrested 4 men and 115 women, although the following day all charges were dropped. If you google Black Friday, you can find many photos like this one below of the police using heavy handed tactics to "apprehend" suffragettes. If you google Sarah Everard Vigil on 14th March 2021, you'll find pretty much the same. 

While I understand that this vigil was technically illegal given covid restrictions, to see police physically manhandling peaceful protestors when just last week hundreds of (majority male) football fans were allowed to gather, destroy public property and generally wreak havoc with police PROTECTION actually makes me want to cry. If that does scream police bias and male privilege I don’t know what does. If you, like me, have seen the selfies of officers smiling alongside male Rangers fans, I'm sure you share my indignation at the dual standards held to the male and female crowds. Both groups were breaching covid regulations but one was causing considerable more public mayhem and the difference in police approaches (albeit by different forces) were striking.

My page is a testament to the millennia of women who have changed the world in remarkable ways, and who have won us the rights we often take for granted. But today’s post is dedicated to ALL women today (including trans women who face a whole other level of discrimination) who have to silently fight every day just to feel safe, to automatically adjust their behaviour in an attempt to protect themselves from men knowing that it still might not be enough.

To all those who have shared their experiences of sexual harassment, I applaud and admire you. And to those who continue to suffer in silence. To those who fought with police, the suffragettes would be so proud of you and so am I.

To any men reading this, do better. Not all men are murderers and rapists, but not all men are doing enough to protect us from them either.

I hope that Sarah’s death helps to change the world for the better, but it should not have taken the loss of a beautiful life filled with possibility for men to accept that women are worthy of respect and protection.

RIP Sarah, you deserved so much better.