Vogue Australia

“For Young Australian Women, Sexual Assault is Unremarkable”

I live in a small town and recently word got out that a four-year-old girl had been repeatedly sexually assaulted at her day care centre, by a male member of staff. 

The beautiful face of a friend-of-a-friend’s daughter popped into my mind. I knew the child. My immediate bodily response was deep guttural grief, and repulsion. This was swiftly followed by my own informed voice of reason reminding me that this is not surprising.

This is normal. Four out of the six closest women to me in my life were sexually assaulted as children. And as a researcher and expert in young women’s sexualities, I have interviewed numerous young Australian women and almost every one of them has at least one story of sexual assault.