Ashling Murphy
Ashling, a woman in her early twenties goes for a run along a well-known canal at 4pm on a Wednesday. She is attacked and strangled to death. The devastation to her family and community is unimaginable. In Ireland, a nation stands still, horrified.
Somehow, the fear of the male gaze (as opposed to the genderless, object-less idea of the unknown) is cultivated in a young girl’s psyche, instilled there by her family, her environment, and some archaic form of collective consciousness. That is to say: the unknown MAY harbour a potential danger – and that danger probably has a Y chromosome. I am by no means suggesting that all men are predators. But a woman grows up knowing that she might be prey.
I notice that in Irish media there has been a lot of talk of misogyny, of silence when it comes to gender-based violence and of countless stories that don’t appear in mainstream media. But is the death of Ashling one that comes from a place of societally-induced misogyny?
The horrid truth is that in Ireland, a country known for promoting togetherness and equality, the brutality towards women is faint inducing. According to Women’s Aid, 244 women have been violently murdered in Ireland since 1996. That is femicide. A 2014 EU survey found that 50% of women have been sexually harassed. One in three has experienced physical and/or sexual violence.
Hold on. Let me try presenting that differently.
Half of half of the EU has been sexually harassed.
I know a lot of women with these kind of stories – and I’ve never met a man who admits to being the harasser.
Read full article here.