I’ve been
following the case of Grace Millane’s murder with great sadness and increasing
anger – yet another woman whose life has been cut short when she was just starting
out. It’s not only her murder that’s making me angry and sad, however,
but also the way it’s being portrayed in the media – the constant emphasis on
the fact that Grace was travelling in a group initially and then started
travelling alone, as though choosing
to travel alone was the real issue and Grace herself was somehow at fault for
being such a terrible dare-devil.
It seems to me that the, not so subtle,
message here is, a woman together with other people is safe and a woman alone
is not. The implication is that if women would only toe the line and not try doing
risky things, such as travelling independently, we would be safe as houses.
This is total
and utter rubbish. Have you ever heard of someone who was going about their
business, completely alone, and then got murdered? Of course not. No one gets
murdered on their own, we get murdered by other people!
Women alone
are often much safer than in company. And before you argue that we put
ourselves at risk by being open to meeting new people, may I remind you that
the majority of women murdered, are killed by people they already know, often
by their “nearest and dearest”, for want of a better expression.
It’s not by doing
things alone that we put ourselves at risk, the risks are all around us,
whether from people we’ve recently met or someone we’ve known all our lives. Often
being alone can be deemed the safest option of all.
I’ve
travelled all over the world, very often on my own and I love it. It hasn’t
always been plain sailing, smooth and hassle-free, but the experiences – good,
bad and ugly – have, on the whole, made me a little savvier. In my opinion, one
of the best ways to become savvier, as women travellers, is by going it alone,
learning, exploring, thriving, stretching our comfort zones. For this, and many
other reasons, no young woman's first solo adventure should ever be her last.
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