One in five Australian women will suffer sexual violence in their life. Statistically, among your mother, sister, wife, grandmother and daughter, at least one of them is likely to be, or has been, raped.
It's a confronting thought. Rape is a confronting topic, one that we'd rather not talk about. But speaking about it is a lot less traumatic than suffering it, which 30,000 Australian women do every year. And those are just the reported cases.
Maybe more conversations about this abhorrent issue will help to bring about the end of Australia's endemic prevalence of sexual violence. Men have a lot of interest in ending this violence, too. Not just for the sake of the women in their lives, although that alone should be enough motivation, but because about 6000 Australian men are also sexually assaulted each year.
Not letting the issue slip from our awareness is the noisy Reclaim the Night team. Each year, Reclaim the Night protests proceed all over the world in October with a singular mission: end all forms of sexual violence.
On this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Critty, Stacy and Wendy, the organisers of the Cairns Reclaim the Night protest.
