I was gang raped when I was 13, Saoirse Ronan was right to silence men

Saoirse Ronan has been applauded for silencing her fellow male guests on the Graham Norton show with a reminder that many women live in fear of being attacked when they go out in public.

Now, Madeleine Black, a Scottish sexual violence activist has praised the Little Women star for reminding people that fear of physical and sexual violence is 'part of our normal life' for women.

In her memoir Unbroken, Ms Black previously described how she was brutally raped at the age of 13 - while staying with a friend whose mother was away - by two American teenagers in a horrific attack that lasted for or five hours and left her wishing they would kill her to make the violence stop. 

Speaking to MailOnline today, Ms Black said that before he left, one of the attackers threatened her with a knife. 

'They said if I spoke about it or told anyone that they would find me and kill me, and I guess at 13 I'd looked into his eyes, and I believed him.

'I never reported it and they were sons of diplomats. I imagine they went back to America after a couple of years in London.'

Ms Black has now praised Ladybird star Saoirse for her comments, which left the all-male panel - which included actors Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal and Eddie Redmayne - squirming after she called out a joke about self-defense.

'It's just so normal for us to feel fear,' she said. 'How are we going to get home? Are we safe? It's a shame that has to be reminded and she [Ronan] was the only single woman on that panel.'

The moment came as Redmayne, 42, told a story about how during his training for The Day of the Jackal, he was shown how to use a phone to retaliate in the event of an attack.

Erupting into laughter, Mescal, 28, quipped: 'Who is actually going to think about that? If someone actually attacked me, I'm not going to go "phone."'

Sharing the joke, Norton, 61, mimicked holding a phone to fend off an attacker joking, 'Can you hold on a second?' to which Redmayne said, 'That's a very good point.' 

But the laughter was quickly stopped in its tracks when Ronan, 30, reminded the male sofa: 'That's what girls have to think about all the time.'

'The silence suggests that they [the male actors] didn't know what to do,' Ms Black said. 'It made them uncomfortable and I think they should be uncomfortable because it is the truth for many women.'

'I think when men do joke about it, it lessens the impact. It takes away the seriousness of what women have to face on a daily basis. It weakens it.

'I think it's always important to call it out whenever we hear things like that for the women listening as well. It obviously resonated because it's gone so viral with so many women. It's just a normality. It's part of our normal life.'

After the attack, Ms Black lived in fear that the rapists would come back and kill her. 

A few years later she attempted suicide, before finally revealing what happened when she was 16-years-old by writing a letter and leaving it on her pillow for her mother to find. 

'We really do need to speak out about it and we need men to be our allies as well,' she said. 

'I was silent for years and years and years, and I never spoke out, really because of the shame and the victim blaming and the worry that people would believe me.

I think it is really important to speak out, just to raise awareness and to bring it out into our culture to show people what women have to live with on a daily basis and that there shouldn't be any shame as well.

'We shouldn't worry about sharing our stories and going public if we want to go public. Speaking out about the things that worry us, concern us, scare us, it shouldn't be a laughable matter. It's not a joke. Rape isn't a joke or sexual assault.

'My memoir, Unbroken, really shares my own story of being gang raped when I was 13 and it just follows my own journey of surviving it, healing. There's also an element of forgiveness, but I'm hoping it also has some hope in it as well that we can get past anything that happens to us and you actually have a great life. I'm thriving in life now. But I also, through my book, and sharing my story publicly about 10 years ago, became a professional speaker.

'And that's really what I speak about. I share my own story, my lived experience, and really to help other people find their voice, to find their courage and to end the shame, the stigma and the silence that surround sexual violence.'

Women across the globe have hailed actress Saoirse Ronan for 'speaking her mind' with sexual violence activists and social media users backing the actress for confronting the reality of what women 'face on a daily basis'.

The brutally honest comment prompted a moment of silence from the panel.

'Am I right, ladies?' she then asked the crowd, eliciting a huge round of applause from the studio audience.

Ronan - who says she would like to play a Bond villain - has been widely praised for highlighting women's safety by interjecting.

Ronan also garnered further plaudits on social media, as people lauded her for speaking up in the situation.

'Saoirse Ronan has a very strong presence and isn't afraid to speak her mind,' said one user.

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Another female user said: 'I admire Saoirse Ronan so much - when she mentions how women have to think constantly how to defend ourselves from attack and everyone goes quiet and then cheers. She's so right!' 

A third called Ronan 'a queen,' saying that 'men need a reminder what it’s like being a woman so they can appreciate their privilege.

The user noted that 'the silence after she said that speaks volumes,' while another said 'the silence is taking me out.'

A separate user said that the clip 'encapsulates men being ignorant of male privilege in a nutshell.

'The fact that these guys - nice guys, mind - are just so unaware is almost terrifying,' the user added. 'Thank goodness for Saoirse though because we all need a bit more attention drawn to this.'

One user said the moment was a microcosm of how men and women communicate, saying that 'this is what it feels like to have any convo with men ever.'

Another user said that tone deafness in regards to the gender issue was evident in the excerpt from the popular British talk show.

'The thing that angered me the most is that Saoirse Ronan, the only woman on the panel, had to almost fight to make her point amongst a group of laughing men who didn’t consider her input or the experiences of women,' the user said. 'Almost as if that’s the entire f***ing problem isn’t it?' 

Ronan is currently promoting her war drama film Blitz, which is slated to be released in theaters November 1 before streaming on Apple TV+ November 22.

The movie also stars Elliott Heffernan, Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clémentine, Kathy Burke, Paul Weller and Stephen Graham.

Blitz, written and directed by Steven McQueen, 'follow the stories of a group of Londoners during the events of the British capital bombing in World War II,' a logline for the film reads.

Ronan portrays a woman named named Rita who is raising her son George, nine, (Heffernan) amid the tumultuous time.