InStyle Australia announced the release of a digital cover story dedicated to the shocking number of Australian women who have lost their lives due to male violence since the beginning of the year.
This special issue features a cover illustrated by advocate and former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, powerfully depicting a pair of hands holding a human heart. Pinned to the heart is a note reading 49, representing the 49 female lives lost so far in 2024, an average of almost one every four days.
“At InStyle Australia, we reflect the world our audience is living in, and there is nothing impacting the women of Australia more right now than the devastating effects of male violence,” said Justine Cullen, InStyle Australia editor-in-chief. “Our goal with this cover is to do our part to ensure that the impact of gender-based violence remains at the forefront of our national consciousness. It’s our duty to keep this issue in the public eye, to honour the victims and to push for real, lasting change. Each of these 49 women had a life—loved ones, dreams and plans for a future that will never be—and we owe it to them to ensure those lives are remembered”.
As well as the artwork by Tame, the special feature includes contributions from female activists including Chanel Contos, Kirli Saunders and Hannah Ferguson.
“Part of the problem is that unless we have seen it up close, we readily ignore violence because it’s too confronting,” explained Tame. “Even some of us with lived experience unconsciously downplay or deny it. For all its desperate sensationalism, the mainstream media never gets to the heart of it. The darkest, most vital and marginalised stories rarely make it to print. Individuals are dissolved into statistics by the 24-hour news cycle. That the death toll has increased by six since I started this
project on June 13 speaks volumes”.
The digital issue, available to read today InStyle Australia’s website, not only commemorates the victims and brings the dialogue around this important issue back into the public discourse, but also attempts to give the readers of InStyle Australia the tools to continue the fight against gendered violence and to strive for a safer and more equitable society for all women.
