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It was one of the countless insults directed at school student Mia Murphy — “girls should be seen and not heard” — which prompted the 15-year-old to call out her haters in a very public art display along Melbourne’s Hosier Lane.
On International Women’s Day on March 8, Mia and her friend Eliza Honey-Gutteridge glued a selection of unique posters to the lane’s graffitied walls.
Each poster detailed a different hateful quote that had been directed at her.
Born and raised in Warragul in Victoria’s east, Mia says she never set out to hurt anyone — but that did not stop the boys in her classroom, and even some male teachers, from putting her down.
“At school, a very common thing said to me was ‘no-one takes women seriously in sports because they are weak’ … and that was said by a boy, my age, in my basketball class,” Mia said.
“It knocked my confidence hugely.
“A lot of my friends actually left classes because of the comments that were being made, or stopped playing basketball in general because of everything that was being said.”
Body Safety Australia director of advocacy Jane Gilmore said there had been a concerning increase in hateful speech directed toward women and girls.
“What we’re seeing is genuine movements in some parts of the community, but an equal backlash in other parts,” Ms Gilmore said.
“Boys or young men feel that they are under threat so they react by attacking.
“It can be quite devastating.”
From diary entries to a work of art
Sick and tired of seeing Mia upset, her mother Lauren Murphy decided to buy her daughter a diary.
Ms Murphy hoped the diary would help provide a better insight into Mia’s struggles.
“It took a little while to get it out of her that these things were being said,” Ms Murphy said.
“But when I found out what was being said, and by a mixture of not just young boys, but male teachers as well, I was outraged.
“This shouldn’t be happening today.”
A photographer by trade, Ms Murphy played a vital role in the poster project.
She said she was hurt by the change she could see in Mia’s personality and was motivated to show her daughter that activism can help.
“I’m very driven by having voices heard,” she said.
“People need to have a think about what these words mean, how they impact someone, and what they can turn into.
“I went through a lot of these things myself, and I would have never thought when I was a mother that my daughter would be hearing and experiencing similar things.”
Teachers unable to deal with disrespectful students
Jane Gilmore has called for greater education in classrooms to help combat a growing level of disrespect and bullying among students.
She said a lot of this behaviour could be attributed to a rise in popularity of so-called manfluencers, including Andrew Tate.
“We are hearing this from teachers and students alike,” Ms Gilmore said.
“These responses to women and girls are very, very clearly driven by those manfluencers and the online weaponisation of vulnerable boys and young men.”
Without immediate action, Ms Gilmore feared women, girls, and other marginalised groups would be driven out of the system.
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Ms Gilmore’s organisation, Body Safety Australia, operates respectful relationship seminars in classrooms.
“The programs that we provide absolutely push back on those myths that equality is somehow oppressing men and boys,” Ms Gilmore said.
“It is not about demonising men, it’s about understanding the gendered impacts of violence and the gender drivers of violence.”
Ms Gilmore said it was unfair and unrealistic to expect teachers to conduct these seminars on top of their already packed workloads.
“Teachers absolutely need more support … because the gender dynamics in classrooms are getting more and more complicated,” she stressed.
“Andrew Tate is, unfortunately, just an eradicable part of that.”
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