The author has chosen to keep their identity anonymous.
As I walked through campus last week, I read the horrifying accounts of sexual assault victims etched in chalk into the ground and ironically, a day after International Women’s Day, the snow and rain has washed their stories away. This may be a slight reach, however, the washing away of their voices signifies the washing away of their experiences and the silencing of women’s voices and experiences evident in society. The UK prides themselves on having good gender equality standards relative to other countries; however, it’s just that - relative to other countries. Just because the UK has better gender equality regulations than another, does not make life for a woman just as good for a life of a man and it’s time we stop pretending it is.
With the emergence of Andrew Tate on social media, radicalising young boys into misogynistic ideologies, what’s even more worrying is the institutional misogyny in UK society, particularly within Parliament, the police, the Fire Brigade Service, and the military. When Sarah Everard was murdered at the hands of a senior Met police officer, Wayne Couzens, its widely suggested that a lot could have been done to due to his long list of previous issues. In a WhatsApp group chat, Couzens alongside other senior officers would repeatedly joke about sexually assaulting women and even include victims of domestic violence…. And they wonder why reporting crimes are so low, as these are the people that are meant to be protecting women. Additionally, he was even nicknamed ‘the rapist’ and openly prided himself on his obsession over violent pornography and even had been investigated for previous crimes against women. However, of course, when your race and gender provide you with the utmost privilege, you’re absolved of any crimes and are in fact rewarded with senior positions and given the tools and power to inflict even more hurt on marginalised individuals in society.
Unfortunately, Sarah Everard’s case of femicide was not unique, as in the similar timeframe of her murder, 81 women were killed in the span of 28 weeks at the hands of men. If you had a penny for every-time a police officer had been arrested on the basis of violence against women, well you would afford to own your own private island in the French Polynesia.
The most striking issue, however, is the normalisation of this, as it feels more stories come out of police officers abusing their powers every week, and from this we become desensitised to the plight of these women.
I love International Women’s Day as it’s a day to celebrate women all around the world. However, we need to look past this window dressing, as it is time we start addressing the patriarchy that rots the institutional infrastructure of this country. It’s time that the system does what it’s intended to do and protect women.
More information on police violence against women in the UK: