Influencer Abbie Chatfield was seen wiping tears from her face on the weekend during a national rally against violence towards women.
Chatfield, 28, looked emotional, exhausted, and fed up as she stood alongside her rumoured new boyfriend, Adam Hyde, who is in the band Peking Duk.
Her demeanour appeared to reflect how tens of thousands of Aussie women feel right now — tired, sad, angry, distraught, helpless and enraged.
Is it any surprise recent events have left so many women in tears?
This year alone, 26 women have died allegedly at the hands of male violence, according to the Counting Dead Women Project.
Of these, 11 were killed in the last 24 days.
“This violence doesn’t start from nowhere,” Chatfield said on TikTok. “This starts from people speaking about women as though they’re objects continuously.
“The objectification of women allows the dehumanisation of women, and that allows men to easily go down a slippery slope towards violence.”
And Chatfield is far from the only high-profile woman who is speaking out. Sky News host Erin Molan last week called on Australian men to speak up about domestic violence.
Regular co-host on 10’s The Project Jessie Stephens said there needs to be a “zero-tolerance” policy when it comes to domestic violence.
And it isn’t just famous women speaking out. Aussie TikTok creator Ellie posted a video that amassed over 12,000 likes and hundreds of comments along the lines of: “If you’re not angry. You aren’t paying attention.”
Rallies were held in cities across Australia at the weekend, with the majority of marchers being women.
Of course – women are the ones who are terrified. Yes, there were good men there, but were there enough men? No.
Anthony Albanese gave a speech at one of the rallies held in Canberra and called for our society to change.
“We need to change the culture, we need to change attitudes, we need to change the legal system,” the Prime Minister said.
Aussies listened to his speech as they held signs with slogans like “not all men but always a man” and “call out your mates”.
Mr Albanese wasn’t saying anything women didn’t already know.
Of course the culture needs to change; women walk to their cars with their keys in their hands to fend off a potential attacker and get in quickly.
Of course the culture needs to change; every woman I know sends a “did you get home safe?” text to friends at night, terrified someone has followed them.
Of course the culture needs to change; women pay $12 for an Uber for a ridiculously short trip just because it feels safer than walking.
Aussie women are scared and rightfully so.
Women are dying because of men at an alarming rate. It is enough to make anyone sad and fearful.
What is most scary, to me, about the deaths of these women is how relatable I find them.
Any type of woman, from any background, can have their lives taken from them by men.
But usually, we can shield ourselves from the horror of someone’s murder by telling ourselves it wouldn’t happen to us.
We comfort ourselves with the knowledge that our lives are so different from theirs that it could just never happen.
But, my life isn’t that vastly different to the women’s lives that men have so cruelly taken.
I’ve been in relationships with men who have scared me, and I’ve had friends show me messages from their boyfriends that worried me.
I’ve spoken to women and told them I think their partner’s behaviour is scary and that they should leave.
I’ve sat at a police station and been told I need an AVO for my own safety.
I’ve been at lunches while women have recounted tales of domestic abuse that they tried to chalk up as just “shitty experiences”.
I have had to inform a friend that a boyfriend pushing her into sex she didn’t want is rape. I have been groped, leered at and shouted at by men who scared me.
I have grown up in a culture that tells me I am not safe.
The 26 women who died this year, their stories don’t shock me because I hear similar stories all the time.
At this point, the culture is so messed up that it feels lucky that more women haven’t been murdered, and that is something we should all cry about.