The Eliza Fletcher death stirs up victim blaming. But it's also bad not to talk about safety.
Another woman killed running, Eliza Fletcher of Memphis, Tennessee, revives victim blaming. We need to stop shaming women joggers even as we talk about safety.
Another woman didn’t make it home from a run. The reality of being a runner and a woman can be disheartening and frightening, and that’s before the victim blaming starts. The brutal Tennessee murder of Eliza Fletcher has revived that odious practice, with the standard criticism flowing like predictive text on a phone. Why was she out at 4:30 a.m.? Not carrying mace? Running alone? Wearing just a sports bra?
I myself am a daytime runner, unless my friends drag me out before 5 a.m. But that hasn’t spared me from sketchy situations.
Female runners need to be safe; they don’t need more shame. Especially when joggers running in daylight — male and female — are also subject to assault. According to data from the FBI, violent crime is often committed during the day and, in fact, tapers off in the early morning.
Not far from me in Philadelphia, runner Bennett Brookstein was stabbed at 8 a.m. this past Christmas while other runners were within eyeshot on a trail I’ve run on many times. Two years ago, Ahmaud Arbery, was murdered in Georgia while running through a neighborhood in broad daylight. In 2018, University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts left for her final run around 7:30 p.m., which still allowed for plenty of light in July.
I myself am a daytime runner, unless my friends drag me out before 5 a.m. But that hasn’t spared me from sketchy situations. Most alarmingly, a stranger once tracked me down on my town’s Nextdoor app to tell me how gorgeous I look on runs and how he’d like to join me. I have no idea how he was able to find my profile, since I’m always in a hat and sunglasses while exercising, but Fletcher’s death reminded me that people are watching us even when we don’t realize it.
Rating: 5