Horrendous murder of young woman

[NoLoveofMine]

Sorry for the topic of this thread, also it's an ongoing and recent incident so if it's not appropriate please report for removal. I also appreciate there's possibly not a lot anyone can say, I've just found it very upsetting and wanted to express that. A young woman was murdered on her way home from college on Friday most probably by two men completely unknown to her (not that it'd be anything but horrendous whatever): www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/18/teenager-dreamed-becoming-doctor-died-multiple-neck-wounds-brutal/

Whilst I also know coverage doesn't make it better I'm finding it also upsetting it's receiving comparatively very little news coverage (in part due to other incidents I suppose). Most of all though, I find it chilling and extremely saddening. Another life taken just like that, for no reason other than her sex, a misogynist hate crime yet never named as such.

Yet it happens so often to women and girls and many/most of us are permanently aware of the risks.

Yes, it's 'normalised' in our society.

I have quite a hard time knowing what to do with the terrorist threat as we're told not to change our behaviour or the terrorists have won. Yet as a girl and now a woman, I've had it drummed into me that I need to adjust my behaviour to the ever-present threat of men. And if I don't do that, I'm asking for it

But I digress. I saw this murder mentioned briefly in the news the other day. And was shocked.

Ellen sounds like a lovely woman who was only just getting started on life. Clearly the apple of her parents' eye. And their only child. I can't imagine their pain.

Oh that's awful. Her poor family.

Karen Ingala Smith regularly has problems identifying murdered women - sometimes they aren't named. Sometimes they just aren't reported.

Men know how much violence against women doesn't get reported. These men view women as disposable in part because of that.

And yy Saucery. Violence of this nature doesn't happen in a vacuum.

Thanks for posting that article Collidascope.

Very much so chumpchange and scallops yet there's very little said on that, on the specific threat women and girls face due to our sex and which it's drummed into us from such a young age it's our responsibility to avoid (which is impossible anyway and even if it wasn't would only say "make sure another woman/girl is a victim not you), the violent misogyny inherent in those who are willing to assault people without any thought or concern for anything to do with their lives purely due to their being female.

She was clearly such a lovely woman and all that promise, talent and love has been taken.

Another horrendous attack which as usual is receiving little media coverage (content warning for serious male violence against women): www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-40502599

I saw this and knew it would also be a sex attack after the initial description. It is frightening and even more so because it happens so bloody often.

I have friends who live next to the park where it happened, and I've been out in the evening with them and walked home through that park. It somehow gives it a bigger impact when you know the area, and it could have been my friend, or me who was the victim.

This is horrific. I'm local to that park and use it most days (but not late at night because it isn't well lit).

Plenty of local coverage but no national to date. Awful, just awful. Poor girl. We should be able to walk about our own towns and cities without risk of violence.

Absolutely Assassinated.

It's so common, women and girls attacked purely for our sex, violent misogyny yet the connection is never made and it scarcely makes any news - it occurs and most people are none the wiser. It's an epidemic and the contempt for women and girls inherent in these attacks is unspoken.

It is an extraordinary disconnect, isn't it?

There are women. There are men. Then there is this entire 'other species' - Violent Men.

There is a real failure to recognise that women cannot make a distinction between men and violent men.

And there is a further blindness that many Men and Violent Men often share 19 out of 20 characteristics and it's only that one extra that makes them manifest as violent.

This 'othering' of Violent Men keeps the discourse separate.

We should be othering men who are not violent (NAMALT).

And not because I think most men are violent, I don't. But this mental distancing continually fails to address the things that lead to violence. Sexism, misogyny, controlling behaviour, entitlement, etc.

All those are perfectly acceptable until they go the extra half inch. Only then, do they get treated as a different species entirely. Shock, horror, aren't they awful.

abc7ny.com/news/exclusive-woman-describes-being-beaten-slashed-by-two-men-outside-bar/2165608/

Another one. Seemed like the right thread to post it on.

Perfectly put Datun. As you say, women can't make the distinction yet are still supposed to quality that "not all men" do this and emphasise most wouldn't. The othering is so dangerous and serves only to ensure the problem isn't named and the connection isn't made between all these incidents. That combined with the lack of reporting the vast majority of them gather means many don't realise the scale and regularity of these - women and girls being attacked having been picked out for their sex, no other reason. To me these are attacks on every woman and girl as the motive for the attacks are violent misogyny. It is chilling. I also find it enraging these attacks aren't treated as hate crimes or linked in any way which helps ensure they continue - no news coverage of them as a whole (or even individually most of the time), no state action to combat them. I'm rambling but it upsets and enrages me that so many women and girls are attacked with the motive nothing but misogyny and it goes largely unspoken and unnoticed.

That is so horrible. Poor woman. All those hopes and dreams just gone. A young life cut short.

It is misogyny. These are definitely hate crimes against women and girls because of our sex. It is astonishing to me that violence and murder of women and girls have still not been classified as hate crimes. Call a woman degrading and demeaning names and that is not hate speech. Yet "misgendering" a transgender person is hate speech and can land you with a fine, prison. Women talking about our own bodies, indeed women calling ourselves women is hate and "literal violence". It's insulting and disgusting.

I completely agree Laura - my sentiments exactly. There are so many crimes against women and girls where the only motive is misogyny and we're targeted for no reason other than our sex yet the link is never made and they're not even regarded as hate crimes (possibly because if they were then some authority would have to take notice of just how common hate crimes against women and girls are).

Has anyone seen this double murder? www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-40511194. They weren't stranger attacks but there was massive wilful disconnect on the part of the police. He had a history of violence towards both women (and other women) but somehow both women ended up accidentally dead??? One because he rolled on top of her whilst asleep??? On the sofa??? I mean, how fucking blind and many fucking excuses would you have to make to square that bloody circle.

That's outrageous, scallops.

I agree that the motivation is misogyny and it would be more than useful to have it classed as a hate crime.

I'm just not sure how that would work. If you called a man a fucking tosser/cock, would that be a hate crime?

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/ellen-higginbottom-murder-sentence-live-13618167

The abhorrent attacker was sentenced earlier. What a wonderful woman Ellen clearly was. I'm enraged at another life taken because the target was female, the attacker having such contempt for women and girls that he murdered someone unknown to him for being female. Such horrendous, violent misogyny.

The wonderful Jean Hatchet has been riding all year in memory of murdered woman:
twitter.com/hashtag/RideForMurderedWomen?src=hash

Her dedication and respectful memories of these women is very moving.

This is a report of the sentencing from The Guardian. It's makes me sick to my stomach. Somehow the focus is on her thoughts and actions.

She walked alone through the park.

'She would have had no idea it was coming. She would have been caught entirely off her guard. You were armed with a knife. She simply did not stand a chance.'

The murderer was probably aware of her movements previous to the attack, hence the bag full of stuff including sexual stuff.

But I also feel that quote above minimises domestic murder where a woman does know the person who kills them. I can't bear it when a distinction like this is made.

This was violence against a woman because she was a woman. Not lone, (vulnerable?), not a 'stranger' (she's a nag and a drag and deserves it). Hope I'm making sense!

Thankfully this violent man will never see the light of day again. What's the betting he becomes a woman?

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/14/man-jailed-murdering-student-wigan-mark-buckley-ellen-higginbottom

Thanks for posting about that enoughisenough12. That's a lovely thing for her to be doing and it's heartening to know of. I often feel additionally angry that it seems the women and girls murdered by misogynist male violence are forgotten, life goes on as if nothing happened; known only fleetingly as victims so her doing that in memory of them is a lovely tribute.

Just read this. Thankfully it's a long sentence.
I know why the papers do it, but I find it sad that when a woman or girl is murdered, all the articles bind the victim and the murderer by having their two pictures together. I know I'm over analysing, but it just seems like it's emphasising this bond between them that the murderer decided upon and the killed woman never agreed to, and even after her death, she can't escape it. You don't get Sarah Payne without Roy Whiting's ugly mug, Joanna Yeates without Vincent Tabak and so on. It feels crass to put them together.

I agree Collidascope - the sentence in my opinion should be a whole life order but given it unfortunately would never have been for this it's a "better" sentence under the circumstances than many (such as in the Joanna Yeates case you mention).

I understand where you're coming from regarding the pictures as well. I do see why it's done; they're both relevant to the case but as you say it's the constant binding of them together. I suppose it'd be better if there were also pieces done on those murdered, about them, all their talents, thoughts, hopes, who they were, who they helped and loved and so on, without showing the abhorrent individuals who murder them.

Elendon I understand your points but I think what I find so chilling in cases like these are that the women and girls attacked are selected by men for no other reason than they're female, in public, at all hours of the day. I would never minimise domestic abuse murder but I can see why it's pointed out, in a sense I feel it should hammer home the violent misogyny which is out there, that there are men and boys with such contempt for women and girls they're happy to go out looking to abuse, rape and murder them because of their sex. They need know nothing else about them, their lives matter not.

Single attacks on a woman by a stranger is chilling and equally so is the person who kills a woman and sometimes the children as well that they have had a long term relationship with.

It's male violence and hatred against women that drives this.

In the 80s a young woman called Diane sindall was sexually assaulted and murdered in Birkenhead where I was a school girl at the time. Her memorial stone says "murdered because she was a woman". But then we Merseysiders are pretty good at telling it how it is. I wish the rest of the country could bring itself to do the same.

Single attacks on a woman by a stranger is chilling and equally so is the person who kills a woman and sometimes the children as well that they have had a long term relationship with.

I didn't say it wasn't. I've contributed to many threads about all kinds of cases of male violence and think of many women and girls murdered and assaulted by men and boys regularly.