One in five women have been raped. One in three women have experienced physical violence. Semantic saturation. It’s difficult to put names and faces and lives to all those numbers we hear so often. Eurydice Dixon’s life is no more or less valuable than any of the 30 women killed so far this year but sometimes one particular case sweeps in and reminds us that all those women were real and valued and should never have had to suffer as they did. Eurydice has become that person and, in her loss, we mourn all the losses we know about but can’t find the capacity to grieve over every week. Grief and anger are always present but too overwhelming to renew each day. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Eurydice was not the only woman killed this week. 28 year old Qi Yu went missing and her housemate has been charged with murder. On Sunday a 47 year old man was charged with raping an 11 year old girl in Newcastle.

Last week a man pleaded guilty to hitting his girlfriend over the head with a beer bottle, leaving her with permanent injuries. An ex policeman pleaded guilty to more than 40 offences relating to the rape, intimidation, stalking and harassment of a dozen women. A 60 year old man pleaded guilty to raping a guest in his hotel as she slept. A father of five children was jailed for continuing to breach domestic violence orders against his ex-partner. More women are joining the nearly 20 victims of a doctor accused of sexual assault and taking “inappropriate” photos of his female patients. And these are just a some of the media reports about men’s violence against women over the last few days. We know many hundreds more occurred that will never be reported. Women are more than just grief-stricken and angry. Once again we are raging over another life taken by male violence and another week of exhausting, senseless arguments over how women should “keep themselves safe” by restricting their lives and freedom. A female police officer lays flowers at the scene where Eurydice Dixon\'s body was found. 15 June 2018. The Age News. Photo: Eddie Jim. Credit:Eddie Jim

What are we doing with all this grief and rage? We’re writing and speaking and gathering and organising. We’re holding vigils and sharing our visceral rejection of a world where 22-year-old women can’t get home safely even when they take precautions and use their phones and tell people where they are. What we are not doing is murdering men in parks. Police Superintendent David Clayton’s warning to “all members of the community" to "take responsibility for your safety” and “make sure that you have situational awarenes” sparked overpowering backlash. It was not a refusal to recognise that women are in danger. Women are all too aware of the dangers they face on the streets, in parks, at parties, in taxis, on public transport and more than anywhere else, in our own homes. We are never allowed to forget that danger. The backlash was in response to the idea that there is anything we can do to keep ourselves safe because we are not the cause or the source of the violence. If one woman manages to avoid a violent man in a park she might be safe but women are not. It’s the violent man in the park that puts us in danger, not our presence in the park.