NOT since Jill Meagher was tragically murdered has another young Victorian woman’s death been talked about at such great length.

Eurydice Dixon, 22, united a city — and not just 15,000 people who attended a vigil to offer their condolences.

It’s been more than a week since the aspiring Melbourne comic was raped and killed on her walk home from work.

In that time, the dialogue rightfully changed from the unfortunate first response by police to how men must change, not women.

Our Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: “What we must do as we grieve is ensure that we change the hearts of men to respect women” and that conversations have to start “with the youngest men, the little boys, our sons and grandsons”.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said women should not change their behaviour. Men should.

“Stay home. Or don’t. Go out with friends at night. Or don’t. Go about your day exactly as you intend, on your terms. Because women don’t need to change their behaviour. Men do,” he said.

Male campaigners for equality for women have begun holding signs on social media that read “I will help my friends feel heard” and “I will step in if I see a man making a woman uncomfortable.”

But talk is one thing. Actions are something else altogether.

As fear naturally followed Eurydice’s death and women expressed how they are afraid “all the time”, men say they’re taking small steps to make sure women know they’re not a threat.

Konrad Marshall, a columnist for Good Weekend, articulated what a lot of men feel. He wrote that when he sees a woman alone at night he creates a “comfortable buffer”.

“She moves quickly, but in the same direction I’m headed. In the hurry to get home and see my wife and little boy, I could breeze by her, quickly closing the gap between us until my long strides overtake her short ones. I could fall into lock-step with her brisk pace, following from a short distance away. I could bolt past, if I wanted.

“But I don’t. I haven’t done any of those things in a long time. These days I stand and wait a few moments, to create a comfortable buffer. Or I choose an alternate path home. Or I call someone on the phone, hoping my voice engaged in light conversation might dispel any sense of troublesome disquiet that my silence might otherwise stir.

“Tonight I use another trick, crossing the street then walking in parallel until I’m well in front, but clearly in sight, where this girl can assess the threat from afar — regarding me like one might regard an animal through a long lens scope.”

It’s a small thing but it has a profound effect. Other men told stories about what they do, and what others can do.

“I’ve been offering to overtake, walk past, stay down wind of women walking at night for several years now. It’s important for us to be empathetic and aware,” Mark Dickinson wrote.

Justin Law commented: “Had the same experience the other evening. Wondered whether I should offer to walk ahead. It makes me very anxious thinking that I’m scaring someone.”

One woman wrote to Marshall after his story, encouraging men to become “allies” for women, too, not simply walk around them.

“Thanks for spreading the word. But having crossed the road and moving ahead, instead of striding off please don’t go too far away. If I’ve assessed you as ‘safe’, I might need to call on you for help if I’m being harassed by someone else. We need allies too.”

Ms Dixon was farewelled at a private funeral on Thursday. As her friends and family are coming to grips with her death, her alleged killer is behind bars.

Jaymes Todd, 19, handed himself into police a day after Ms Dixon’s body was found at Princes Park in Carlton North last Wednesday morning.

He will appear before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court charged with one count of rape and one count of murder in October.