The death of Mollie Tibbetts was incredibly tragic and sad. But politicizing it makes it so much worse. It’s not about the citizenship status of her murderer, it’s about women not being able to run, walk or do much of anything alone without facing some kind of risk. Last year, three women were murdered while running within a nine-day period, all in different parts of the country. These deaths were not widely publicized outside of the running community, and I doubt there were any headlines that read, “Runner murdered by American Citizen.” This article from Runner’s World came out after those events a year ago. If the anecdotes from women runners aren’t enough, the stats at the bottom, which show responses to survey questions about safety and harassment while running, and compares answers from men and women runners, speaks volumes.
There’s also a lot of discussion about this topic right now in the running groups I’m in. One thread started with a female runner asking others what they do to ensure safety while running. All 35 (so far) responses are from women, and one woman posted the nine things she does on every single run to ensure safety, avoid harassment, be easily identified if something happens to her, etc. How many male runners do NINE things before every run just to ensure they can either defend themselves or get help in the best case scenario or have their body easily identified in the worst case scenario?
Immigrants are not the problem here. Toxic masculinity is the problem.
PS – Yep, it’s been 2+ years since I’ve posted. This is that important.
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