“Women should feel safe everywhere…”
Davina McCall has said she is not “victim shaming” after her comments on the Sarah Everard case were widely criticised.
The former Big Brother presenter said last week that “calling all men out as dangerous is bad for our sons, brothers, partners,” and claimed that female abduction and murder is “extremely rare”.
Her comments were met with much anger by people who pointed out that female murder in the UK isn’t rare at all, and that while not all men attack women, women do not have the luxury of knowing which men are violent and which aren’t purely from a glance.
Davina has since taken to Twitter to clarify her comments, saying that her words had been misinterpreted and that “women should feel safe everywhere”.
She said: “To clarify, any man that’s violent/coercive towards a woman is abhorrent. As for victim shaming, I am not.
“The misinterpretation of my post, by some, has been terrifying. Women should feel safe everywhere, all the time. Men should, and many do, help make this idea possible.”
To clarify.Any man that’s violent/coercive towards a woman is https://t.co/feKxTgfd22 for victim shaming.I am not.The misinterpretation of my post, by some,has been terrifying.Women should feel safe everywhere,all the time. Men should, and many do, help make this idea possible
— Davina McCall (@ThisisDavina) March 14, 2021
The former Million Pound Drop presenter’s comments came following the disappearance of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old woman whose remains were found in woodland in Kent last week.
Sarah was reported missing earlier this month when she didn’t return home from a friend’s house in Clapham, London. Less than a week later, a serving Met police officer was arrested on suspicion of murder. He has been charged with her murder and kidnap and is currently being held in police custody.
The remains discovered in Kent were confirmed to be Sarah’s on Friday. A vigil organised in Clapham for Saturday night saw multiple women arrested, leading to calls for Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick to resign.
Prime minister Boris Johnson has since said he was “deeply concerned” by the footage of the events at the vigil.
“Like everyone who saw it I was deeply concerned about the footage from Clapham Common on Saturday night,” he said.
