Female stand-up comedians say they are ‘terrified’ to leave work following the rape and murders of Aya Masarwe and Eurydice Dixon on their way home from gigs
- Female comics felt helpless when men intimidated them walking home from gigs
- Women more than double men in feeling unsafe when walking alone at night
- Aya Masarwe and Eurydice Dixon were murdered returning from comedy shows
Female stand-up comedians are scared to walk home late at night after gigs – as a shocking report reveals half of young women feel unsafe.
Young women more than doubled men reporting to feel unsafe walking alone after dark, according to a survey of 30,000 people by Mission Australia.
The report comes after Aya Masarwe was killed returning from a comedy show in January and comedian Eurydice Dixon was murdered in similar circumstances last year.
Aya Masarwe is murdered in northern Melbourne after watching a comedy show in the city. Young women more than doubled men in feeling unsafe walking alone after dark
Sydney comedian Kathryn Thomas said she was cornered by a drunk man after a comedy gig at the Cafe Lounge in Surry Hills.
‘I was being followed by a man in a hooded jacket, I had earphones in and picked up pace as soon as I realised there was someone else on the quiet street,’ she said.
‘The man gained pace on me and managed to corner me next to a skip bin on the footpath.
‘Luckily, as this happened a taxi came down the street and I screamed for it to stop.
‘I pushed past the man and got in the taxi.’
She called for comics to leave gigs together and look out for each other in the Sydney Comedy Scene Facebook page after the incident.
Kathryn Thomas (pictured) was cornered by a drunk man in Sydney’s Surry Hills after a comedy gig. She managed to push past him and escaped in a taxi
Sydney comedian Stephanie Broadbridge, 36, ‘hates the idea of being a victim’ and tries not to think about safety when walking at night from gigs.
‘There have been a couple of times where I was genuinely terrified,’ she said.
‘The scariest part for me was that I felt inadequately equipped to protect myself.
‘I wasn’t sure how I could stop it if the guy did turn on me and try anything.
‘They were physically stronger than me and there is nothing I could have done about that.’
Stephanie Broadbridge ‘hates the idea of being a victim’ but said there have been times when she was ‘genuinely terrified’. She is pictured performing musical comedy with a ukelele
The Mission Australia survey found that 47 per cent of women feel unsafe walking home, as opposed to 18 per cent of men.
Mission Australia CEO James Toomey said ‘we need to put a spotlight on what young women are telling us’.
‘This is not OK, young females should not have to tolerate feeling unsafe as they go about their day to day lives.’
Women returning home at night from comedy shows have been a consistent target of men in the last year.
International student Aya Maasarwe, 21, was killed while she was returning home from a comedy night in Northern Melbourne on January 16.
Comedian Eurydice Dixon, 22, was raped and murdered in a Melbourne Park as she walked home from a comedy show on June 14, 2018.
Comedian Eurydice Dixon (pictured), 22, was raped and murdered in a Melbourne Park as she walked home from a comedy show on June 14, 2018