EXCLUSIVE
A Sydney woman has “beautifully” summed up how Australian women are feeling with her moving poem, Fed Up, in the wake of the Westfield murder.
Eating disorder treatment coach Mia Findlay told Daily Mail Australia she spent just an hour writing the monologue that resonated with women around the world.
In a two-and-a-half minute video, Ms. Findlay managed to encapsulate decades of pent-up rage that women have felt at the injustice of male violence.
She said Saturday’s attack, in which five women and a man were stabbed to death by deranged knifeman Joel Cauchi, 40, at Westfield Bondi Junction, was the final straw the vase.
Sydney-based eating disorder treatment coach Mia Findlay (pictured) has touched women around the world with her poem Fed Up.
Ms Findlay said she began writing Fed Up after hearing Joel Cauchi (pictured) may have had a misogynistic motive for stabbing Westfield Bondi Junction.
Ms Findlay said she wrote the article after the cutler’s father admitted his son “had a problem with women” as a possible reason for his frenzied rampage.
“I just burst into tears and usually when I read stories like that, which are constant, I respond with anger but I just feel defeated. Exhausted, defeated,” she told the Daily Mail Australia
In her poem, Ms. Findlay compares the government’s response to attacks on women and attacks on men.
In particular, she highlights how, when punch victims Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie were killed at Kings Cross in Sydney, the New South Wales government introduced tough lockout laws in the whole state.
“I was thinking about something that has always seemed disproportionate to me, which was the government’s response to the major attacks all those years ago, which literally shut down our hospitality industry in Sydney,” Ms Findlay said.
“They demonstrated that they could make changes.
“We were outraged when two young men were out living their lives and were brutally murdered by men, as we should have been.
“But since then, and certainly before, many, many women have been killed for doing just that.
“So what’s the difference?” What is the difference?’
Ms Findlay described the government’s response to the country’s “great shame”, namely violence against women, as “poor”.
“They showed what they could do, they were willing to sacrifice the economy, an industry that supports our tourism,” she said of the attacks on the king.
— But for us, nothing, the crickets. Platitudes when something this huge happens. And then still nothing.
Ms Findlay (pictured) questioned why the Australian government had done more to prevent violence against women.
The poem mentions 17-year-old Masa Vukotic (photo), who was murdered by a man she did not know in March 2015.
One case Ms Findlay cited was that of Masa Vukotic, 17, who was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant in March 2015 while walking in a Melbourne park.
Ms Findlay’s poem prompted Masa’s sister Nadja to share her own video on Thursday calling for better protection of women.
“My sister went for a walk about 500 meters from our house. She was killed, it wasn’t even dark, it was 6:50 p.m.,” Nadja said.
“It’s been too long now, even before my sister passed away. something really needs to be done.
“I really don’t understand the hatred towards women. We are all descended from a woman.
“Please just be better, be better.”
Nadja also spoke about her sister, describing her as “the best person I have ever known and ever had the privilege of knowing.”
“She was 17 years old. She wanted to become a lawyer, she wanted to get married, she wanted to have a big family,” Nadja said.
“She is more than just a victim of a man. She is much more than just a victim of knife violence.
“And she could have been so much more than she was, she was 17.
“She was just a fucking kid.”
Ms Findlay said she received dozens of messages from her friends after a possible misogynistic motive for Saturday’s stabbing was revealed (pictured, woman at memorial).
Ms Findlay said the outpouring of grief from women in response to her video had been so overwhelming she had to take a break from her phone.
“The stories that are being shared are just heartbreaking,” she said.
“I’ve been talking about eating disorders on the internet for 10 years and when I talk about eating disorders, there’s usually a percentage of women who think it’s our job to keep ourselves safe.”
“There’s none of that. There is not a single comment from a woman who is not exhausted, angry, tired.
“Australian women are done with this.”
Ms Findlay then highlighted several cases of men with long histories of violence against women who killed women in preventable attacks.
She mentioned Jill Meagher, a Melbourne woman whose killer had already violently raped several women.
“Because the sanctions are not punitive or prohibitive enough, he clearly felt entitled to continue this type of behavior,” Ms Findlay said.
“They (the government) don’t care about us.”
“My feeling at this point is that they either hate us or they don’t care enough about us to hate us.
“We just don’t take notice, we’re invisible.”
Ms Findlay highlighted several cases of men with a history of violence against women committing horrific crimes – including the man behind the Lindt Café siege (pictured), Man Haron Monis.
Ms Findlay had originally written her poem to vent her feelings after receiving so many crying messages from friends after the possibly misogynistic motive for Bondi’s stabbing was revealed.
‘I just wanted to put it into words. I received Instagram messages from girlfriends in tears,” she said.
“Just, ‘What are we doing? Where can we go? Where are we safe?”
“Just to get that off my chest and hopefully express in words to other women how they might be feeling.
“That constant buzz of exhaustion and defeat that we all feel, feeling and anxiety that we feel everywhere we look over our shoulders.
“I want to tell them: I believe you, I’m exhausted and I hope it gets better.”
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