Dear Brittany,
You don’t know me, and you probably won’t ever read this. But I want it to sit in the public record; something emotive and kind and human.
You are a hero. You are my Australian of the Year. You have stood strong where many would have crumbled. You have crumbled, and yet you have endured. You have shown us what strength looks like. It is a young girl in a white dress. That dress. The dress they shamed you with for wearing again. That somehow if a rape was committed in that dress you would never be able to wear it again? If that was the case how would anyone continue to go to work in their paramedic, or nurses, or defence force, or police uniform?
The white dress wasn’t just ‘evidence’ in an alleged crime. It was evidence of a patriarchal society’s inability to provide safe spaces for women. It was evidence that the fairytales of the virgin in a white dress are still pervasive and emblematic purity is as dangerous to our safety as dark streets. Dark streets that belong to us as much as any man. But patriarchy does not permit it. Your story was evidence that the white dress narrative is toxic. You broke the code of secrecy. These things happen and they go unreported. They are stains on the hem of our white dress. The dress we wash ,naked at midnight, with our own tears.
You didn’t do that. You broke the code. You wore the dress again.
So many of us never took our perpetrators to court. We have minimised the many rapes in our lives. We tell ourselves, I was drunk so who will believe me? I might have given mixed signals’… We tell ourselves that if we don’t speak about it then it will fade. It’s not true. It festers in us all, as this deeply etched pain. This betrayal of our intimacy. Of our agency. Of our selves. But most of us never step forward. We stay mute.
Because we know the lies of this system enshrine and protect the power of men. We know that only one in ten reported cases of sexual assault results in a conviction. We know that when there are no witnesses you are victim to bias. You are victim to misinformation. You are victim to ideas about what passes as consent. You are victim to being a woman. The system is barbaric, and it re-traumatises women. Sometimes that rape is more brutal than the first.
It has been hard watching you. Seeing the justice you deserve slip away. It has been hard observing the public narrative. The lack of care for your wellbeing. You are the same age as my daughters. I watched you in awe. The tenacity. The strength. The aching vulnerability. The refusal to accept the cloak of shame so many tried to hang on your shoulders. I felt proud of you.
As you fly from Australia to take up your life in France, somewhere you may have some anonymity, I just want to say that there are women and people like me who see you. Who saw what actually happened.
The system may not have delivered what I believe you deserve. But you have delivered much more. You stood in the maelstrom of male power and you showed us what strength looks like. Your vulnerability has changed me. I believe it has changed many.
Have a beautiful life.
Thank you.
When I wear a white dress I will think of you. It will remind me of your courage.
– Mandy Nolan
Farewell Brit/Sharaz.
Leaving legal, moral, political messes behind them – but 1.45M of taxpayers’ money with them.
Don’t forget about all the other Morrison Govt LNP female abuse victims? Don’t just drown yourself in a sea of contrived LNP/Media BS about Higgins, like the massed corrupted LNP/Media spend 24/7 convincing you to do, as you have just done.
The LNP Minister Tudge abuse victim, Racheal Miller, $650,000. Like Higgins abused by multiple LNP Ministers after the abuse by minister Tudge and payed out from the failed Morrison LNP Govt with your taxpayers money. All contributing to that Trillion dollar debt?
Remember Morrison actually apologised for the treatment Higgins and Miller received from his Govt.
Then there are others, like Barnaby Joyce, if Joyce had not deserted his wife and three daughters for his pregnant media staffer?
Just imagine if Joyces impregnated staffer Vicky Campion had instead taken legal action against Joyce?
Forget about the Turnbull LNP Bonking Ban imposed because of the out of these control LNP Ministers and staffers.
The payout would have been far higher than all the other abused LNP staffers put together, it would have been astronomical!
Julia Banks wrote a book about female abuse in the LNP Govt, but all the others like Bridget Archer, Julia Bishop and so many others have all remained silent like women are expected to do, as Mandy has pointed out in this article.
I think it was over $2million.
Thankyou Mandy for your letter of encouragement and gratitude to Brittany Higgins.
You say so well what many women felt….gobsmacked that still in the 21st Century women are subjected to the laws of patriarchy, undisguised and ugly.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure South Africa now offers a closed court to women who have been raped, and disabused of their dignity as Brittany was.
I am ashamed that our system is still so biased.
Is this a legal area that the Greens Party could get involved in?
I certainly hope so, for all of our young women’s sake.
One hour of meditation.. ex government ministers were told not to turnup or end up in Jail ..2.4 million handed out to a individual who allegedly
Had been raped.. not one single person has ever
Been charged…informed the media before
The Police…value for money Taxpayer’s !
I think not ..
Yes Barrow, this is a very manipulated “MeToo” political/media-driven scandal.
It needs a full investigation by an impartial official body.
Royal Commission anyone?
Barrow, if it was good enough for then PM Morrison to make an apology to Brittany Higgins on the floor of Parliament, then what is there to keep on complaining about.
Precedent.
Joachim just excatly was the ex Prime Minister apologising for ? This woman was paid by Taxpayer’s for her evidence only .. part of her payment was for future
Earnings that she may otherwise had previous to the allegations.. now it’s
Been confirmed by media outlet’s
That she has a role with the United
Nations.. one unhappy Taxpayer !
Barrow, you can’t be serious in asking “just excatly was the ex Prime Minister apologising for ?
Incidentally Joachim..going off the Article Subject..your Guru the leader of the Greens
Mr Stamp .. certainly leaves a poor impression of himself where ever he gos …
Bandt charged Taxpayer’s 15.000 dollars
Joachim for ONE flight from Brisbane to Canberra…as previously suggested here is a hypocrite in the first order ..pontificating
His way around the country flying in the pointy end of the plane Lecturing all on the
Climate change emergency …i bet you
Whatever amounts you like Joachim that
Bandt is not driving a electric car ..nor dos he live off grid..! What a complete wanker …
Barrow, whoa there my man. RUOK?
I can see you wetting your good self with excitement about the Adam’s flight arrangements.
Details do matter, the Adam’s flight spend of $15,309.00 was from Canberra to Brisbane NOT your “Brisbane to Canberra.”
I can only refer you to The Guardian; ‘Albanese and Marles defend MPs’ parliamentary expenses after release of long-delayed reports Coalition MP Colin Boyce claimed highest travel allowance of $29,623 for third quarter in 2022, while Adam Bandt claimed $15,309 for plane charter’, Josh Butler Fri 22 Dec 2023 18.29 AEDT’.
I have lifted the following extract from that Gaurdian article to assist you –
“Asked on Sunrise about parliamentary expenses, Albanese said “politicians need to make sure that they value taxpayer dollars”.
“But politicians do need to get around when they’re travelling and I don’t think you would want members of parliament or ministers not travelling, not representing,” he said.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, also defended his chartering of a plane to travel to the party’s election campaign launch in 2022, while first-term Coalition MP Colin Boyce said his large electorate of Flynn required him to be away from home constantly and claim 96 nights of travel allowance payments in a 112-day period.
Bandt, the member for Melbourne, claimed $15,309 for one “unscheduled commercial transport” fee, from Canberra to Brisbane, on 16 May 2022. It was the day of the Greens’ election campaign launch in Brisbane, just a week out from the 22 May voting day.
Bandt had also spoken that day at the National Press Club, appearing with other cross-bench members in a discussion. It is understood there were no commercial flight options that would have gotten Bandt to Brisbane in time for the campaign launch after the press club appearance, and that his office chartered a plane.
“As the leader of the third largest political party in Australia you would expect Mr Bandt would engage in extensive travel and unlike the Prime Minister and many Ministers he doesn’t have access to government VIP flights,” a Greens spokesperson said.
“All Mr Bandt’s travel is within entitlements.”
The prime minister and opposition leader travel on defence force planes during the election period to their campaign stops.
That’s the end of my extract, I hope it helps.
I can’t pretend to know anything, unlike yourself pretending, about the Adam’s personal circumstances of car, home and his pointy end of flying business but if it destroys you so much then just go and ask the Adam for the answers to your questions.
You might just save yourself $’sbetting in the process.
Beautifully written Mandy. I truly wish Brittany could read this. I hope she finds her peace.
Thanks Mandy. I agree. Your writing
made me cry.
I don’t know why questioning the aptness of the accompanying idealised figure is offensive. Not all women resemble an hourglass and I find perpetuating/idealising this fiction rather ironic, even offensive in the context of this discussion.
Was it interpreted as a criticism of Brittany Higgins or is the person who chose it a little oversensitive to some constructive feedback?
Not all women could walk up-right, but the guys found it sexy. Now all women can walk up-right. Are you an evolution denier?
🤯
I do not understand the relevance of this.
Hour-glass shape makes birthing easier, and usually includes bigger breast to provide more nutrients for progeny. These traits were too costly in a low calorie environment, and thus unsexy, but now we have farming tech, curvy is better. When the Rift Valley formed, those girls that could walk more upright, could travel the longer distances for water and food caused by the permanent drought, and thus became suddenly, and ‘inexplicably’, sexier to men. We call their off-spring ‘Australopithecus’. It’s why you can walk and comment on the Echo at the same time. People forget that sex is about reproduction, and thus, evolving to suit an ever-changing environment.
I was addressing my comment to the moderators and, since you don’t have the complete picture, it might have been better to, just for once, assume that we are all in need of a dose of your enlightening theories Christian.
From an evolutionary point of view, variety within a population is extremely useful and that’s what we have in the human population. There are distinctly different body types, all healthy, all attractive and differently suited to different physical feats and circumstances.
It’s amazing how most women, whether ectomorph, endomorph, mesomorph or a combination, manage to give birth to healthy babies and survive the experience.
What’s more interesting is that the human race, in our teeming millions, are no longer solely preoccupied with mass reproducing and find meaning in a wide range of pursuits.
Idealising one body shape, one usually digitally manipulated, is generally about making lots of money for the fashion, diet, health and fitness industries. It’s largely been women who are the victims of these imposed expectations but increasingly young boys are developing body dysmorphia and eating disorders.
I found a discussion bemoaning patriarchy, and societal strictures about how a woman should be, rather incongruous with this rather stylised image.
Forget the rule of law and the justice system…let’s just decide on our emotions….much more reliable
They consider ‘rule of law’ and ‘due process’ to be part of ‘Whiteness’, and thus supporting it to be ‘White Supremacy’. I wish the ‘Woke’ would read the philosophical writings of their thought leaders so they would understand the terms used and purpose of policies pushed, instead of parroting and mimicking the behaviour modelled for them. They may find they don’t like the goals they are helping push forward, such as having ‘Experts’ decide what is and isn’t allowed.