A message to LJMU students on women’s safety
The last few weeks have been overwhelming for so many of us, having lived our lives following the ‘right’ way to avoid something terrible happening, and to suddenly see the dreadful news of Sarah Everard has sparked a nationwide conversation about the daily fear that is engrained.
Firstly, this post is to show you that you aren’t alone in this. Since we were old enough to go to and from school by ourselves, we’ve held our keys in our pockets ready for self-defence. We’ve looked at the ground whilst walking past building sites and crossed the road when going past a white van. We’ve even had to wear shorts under our school skirts since primary just so we could still cartwheel at playtime without our knickers being seen, only for high school to actually worsen this by teachers saying our rolled-up skirts were distracting male staff.
It’s horrible, it’s sickening and it’s unnatural that this is how we have to live. Living with so much fear and feeling so unsafe even in our home towns. I won’t even take the bins out if it’s dark.
As women, in fact as humans, we deserve to feel safe. We deserve to not be cat-called on a jog, and we deserve to not be worried that this taxi ride is the last thing we might ever do.
What ever happens, it is never okay and it is never EVER your fault. We are in solidarity with you. None of this is okay and it won’t be okay until violence and harassment against women stops. None of this ‘she is someone’s daughter, sister or mother’, we are us and we deserve so much better. We will speak up and we will not accept that this is just how things are.
Ambar,
your Women’s Officer x
