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Vancouver women share stories of sexual assault, harassment in response to "not all men"

"It's happened too many times."
woman-crying-sexual-assualt-vancouver
Vancouver women are showing support for a movement trending on Twitter against the #notallmen sentiment that surfaced on the platform earlier this week. 

Vancouver women are showing support for a movement trending on Twitter against the #notallmen sentiment that surfaced on the platform earlier this week. 

People around the world celebrated International Women's Day on Monday (March 8), with individuals, companies and governments showing their support for women. However, the "not all men" hashtag began picking up stream shortly after. 

The "not all men" phrase was created as a response to the "me too" movement. Many men felt personally attacked by it, rather than focusing on the actual issue: violence against women. 

While the "not all men" hashtag was popular on Twitter this week, a new phrase is trending: #notallmenbutallwomen. 

The "not all men but all women" phrase acknowledges that not all men sexually assault women, but that every woman has personal experiences with misogyny. Women from around the world are sharing intimate stories of sexual assault and harassment, with many of them expressing that they have lost count of the times they've experienced uncomfortable or traumatic experiences. 

Body of Sarah Everard discovered 

The latest response also comes after the body of 33-year-old Sarah Everard was discovered in woodland in Kent. She disappeared on March 3 when she was walking home in south London.

Women are now sharing the precautions they take when they walk alone. Additionally, they express shared anger that these practices need to be employed. 

Here are some of the posts made by Vancouver women on the social media platform.

Here are some posts from women around the world. 

‘Me too’: Only one out of every 20 women report non-spousal sex assault to police

“Behind every woman who reports a non-spousal sexual assault are nineteen women who don’t.”

A powerful image depicting a woman who has experienced non-spousal sexual assault has been put up around Vancouver to show the need for survivor support.

In the 2019 run-up to the 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the Battered Women’s Support Services spread the posters across the city in order to spark a conversation about how only one woman out of 20 reports her non-spousal sexual assault to police.

The first poster shows a woman who has reported an assault, followed by 19 additional posters featuring silhouetted women. According to Statistics Canada, of all sexual assault incidents perpetrated by someone other than a spouse, one in 20 was reported to the police. In contrast, one in three incidents of other types of crime measured by the General Social Survey on Victimization is reported to police.