Bettina Arndt
October 23 2024
In 2020, within days of the government announcement that I
was to be honoured for my work for men, Victoria's Attorney-General Jill
Hennessy called for me to be stripped of my award, arguing my
"dangerous" views are an insult to abuse victims. "Ms Arndt's views and activities diminish the
devastating experiences of victim-survivors of family and sexual violence,
promote division and discourage victim-survivors from taking steps to ensure
their survival and safety," she told the ABC. Any number of government
heavy-weights lined up to agree. They did their best to have me cancelled and succeeded in
shutting me out of most mainstream media. Now imagine what will happen if the government’s
misinformation bill is passed. Labor’s Misinformation Bill - likely to be
presented to parliament next session - puts the onus on social media platforms
like YouTube and Facebook to avoid promoting
“misinformation,” particularly that “result in harm or contribute to it.”
That’s most of my work, according to my critics in the media and in the
government. Faced with the prospect of massive fines, social media
companies are bound to err on the side of caution – by choosing to silence me
totally. That could remove the few remaining opportunities I have to spread the
word about what is happening to men. The Misinformation Bill is an outrageous infringement of our
civil liberties, putting our freedom of speech into the hands of a
government-appointed entity. We all saw how that worked out during the Covid
years. As I have pointed out many times, this concentration of power is bound
to result in even more draconian laws and regulations adversely impacting on
men - with feminists running so many of our institutions. We saw this with the eSafety Commissioner’s claims
that women are “almost always” the major victims of online abuse;
ignoring the risks to men and boys of sexual exploitation – read my blog here. So, please do your best to stop this bill getting through –
by writing letters or, ideally, getting appointments to lobby the vital
crossbenchers in the Senate who will determine the bill’s fate. The Libs have
promised to vote against the bill (although they still say they will cook up
their own version later). Here’s a
petition you can sign – but the personal approach is far more effective. We can’t afford to let this one go through to the keeper. We
have allowed so much to slip by which has created a poisonous culture for men
and boys. We set young men up for rape charges by allowing school sexual
consent courses to teach girls that drunk sex is sexual assault. We
allowed feminists to invent and criminalise coercive control as the latest
weapon to lock up men. We let Labor get away with removing all protection of
children’s rights to contact with their fathers in last year’s Family Law bill.
The list goes on. Day after day our society becomes less tolerable for men and
boys – and male suicide rates continue to climb. Right now, the government is
seeking feedback on the latest National Suicide Prevention Strategy which,
like all previous strategies, strenuously avoids properly addressing the fact
that 6 of the 8 suicides each day are male, downplays the key issue of
relationship breakup as one of the major triggers, and proposes strategies
which will ensure most funding continues to go to women. It’s an utter disgrace.
Please spend the time to examine it properly and send in your scathing
critiques here.
My blog will
give you relevant background. The nonsense taking hold in our airlines might seem trivial
in comparison – just one more insult in the never-ending male bashing. But it
is worth taking a look at what is happening here….. Journalists are claiming a dramatic increase in sexual
assaults on board aircrafts. Evil male hands creeping under blankets of
sleeping women. Arms straying over armrests to nuzzle into a stranger’s
breasts. Vulnerable women at the mercy of threatening predators. Dig down into the alarmist reports and we discover that at
the heart of the most recent news stories was an FBI
report based on 96 cases of in-flight sexual assault
allegations in 2023. That’s from over 800 million passengers
on domestic flights! How’s that for a storm in a teacup? No, no, no, they tell us. This is about keeping
women safe! No matter how tiny the number of actual allegations, this is an
issue of international importance. For years, journalists across the world have
been lining up to make sure we get that message. There are real cases being reported – such
as the 22-year-old woman who
woke up during a flight after a deep sleep taking various medications to
discover a fellow passenger groping her body. His DNA was found by the FBI
inside her underwear, and he was charged with sexual assault. Of course,
it’s essential that measures are in place for reporting such crimes and
protecting women. That makes sense but, as always, there’s no sense of
proportion. Instead, we find the whole issue being blown up into a major
crisis, with women demanding special treatment to protect them while
travelling. Look at this nonsense from New Zealand columnist Kate
Whitehead urging airlines
to introduce women-only rows, after flying ‘cattle class’ and facing the horror
of male elbows protruding into her space: “Unless you are prepared to press your arm against the man’s
— which will allow you to feel the rise and fall of his breath and is, I feel,
too intimate a connection with a stranger — then you have lost two inches of
your seat. “I hope that in the wake of the #MeToo movement, people will
come to realise that the airline armrest is a gender political issue. The first
airline to establish ‘pink rows’ will have my custom.” And the response to this type of hogwash and scaremongering
about sexual assault? The airlines haven’t just set up “pink rows”. They are
offering women the choice of seating – so that they can avoid sitting next to
men. A few months ago, Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo became the first airline
to allow women travellers to choose a seat next to another woman.
Starting from August 2024, a trial has been taking place allowing female
travellers checking in online to be able to see which adjacent seats have been
booked by other female passengers – and make their seat choices accordingly. The low-cost carrier is a codeshare partner of Qantas, and
Australian passengers travel on-board its planes for destinations such as
India, as well as within the country. Singapore Airline’s Indian subsidiary, Vistara, is
similarly allowing women but not men to avoid middle seats. What’s the bet we
will see more airlines following suit with this blatantly anti-male practice? All this follows many years of airlines imposing other
discriminatory policies against men, by prohibiting them from sitting next to
minors on flights. Boris Johnson, back in 2006, wrote a funny piece about
flying in steerage and being approached by a British Airways flight attendant.
“Please come with me, sir,” she commanded. Johnson was delighted, assuming he’d
been upgraded. “In my mind's eye, I saw the first-class cabin, the
spiral staircase to the head massage, the Champagne, the hot towels.” But no. She was proposing to move him back to row 52,
because “We have very strict rules.” He was baffled. She explained: “A man
cannot sit with children.” “But he’s our FATHER,” chimed the children. The matter was
ultimately sorted out when the truth dawned that Johnson was travelling with
his own children. “Very sorry,” said the flight attendant. At that time
this future Prime Minister was happy to rant about the injustice of it all: “In that single lunatic exchange you will see just about
everything you need to know about our dementedly phobic and risk-averse
society…I mean, come off it, folks. How many paedophiles can there be? Are we
really saying that any time an adult male finds himself sitting next to someone
under 16, he must expect to be hustled from his seat before the suspicious eyes
of the entire cabin?” He eagerly listed various villains: “I blame the
media, I blame the judges, I blame the lobby groups, and in particular I blame
the cowardly capitalist airline companies that give in to this sort of loony
hysteria.” Yet here was a man who, when acquiring the reins of power,
did absolutely nothing to protect the rights of men. Speaking at a G7 summit
during the Covid years he proposed countries
must “build back better and fairer,” which he described as “a more gender
neutral and perhaps a more feminine way." He lobbied for
better global education of marginal children – in programs which targeted only
girls. And even after a UK inquiry exposed prosecutors withholding key evidence
in rape trials, Johnson grovelled to the feminist lobby which had created this
mess, promising to push more rape cases into court - as William Collins
explains in his new book, The
Destructionists. Let’s face it, men in power invariably avert their eyes to
the gross distortions occurring in our anti-male society, desperate to avoid
being accused by the feminist mob of having a “women problem.” Here in Australia, we have just seen David Crisafulli, the
Queensland Opposition leader who seems set for a huge win in the upcoming State
election, promising to
step down if he isn’t successful in bringing down crime numbers. Does this dodo
not realise that the Queensland government is about to roll out their absurd
coercive control laws, which will inevitably send domestic violence crime rates
through the roof? Talk about an own goal. There’s no magic wand. The only way we are going to change
this poisonous culture is by all of us who care about men and boys getting
active and fighting against it.. Don’t write to me and say, “You should do this
or that.” You need to take a stand. Women reading this who are offered a choice of seats in
flights must not only refuse this option but write to the airline saying how
offensive it is to treat men in this way. We also need more men running
anti-discrimination cases against the airlines - hedge fund manager Mirko
Fischer sued British
Airlines in 2020 and succeeded in getting them to change their policies.
Unaccompanied children are now seated in a separate section. Media stories exposing how degrading it is to ask men to
move in this circumstance can also put pressure on airlines – as shown in this
story about a firefighter humiliated
on a Virgin flight which apparently caused Virgin to review their policy. And we need to expose the fact that the absurd exaggeration
of the risks of in-flight sexual assault inevitably encourages false
allegations – as shown with the false accusations made
against NFL player Brandon McManus, with two flight attendants seeking $1
million in damages, claiming McManus rubbed himself against them during a
September 2023 flight. The case, which McManus’ lawyer described as an
“extortion attempt”, was dismissed last
month by a Florida court. Yes, it is simply one more battle ground. But if we really
want to address discrimination against men it is a good place to start. It
rests on such flimsy foundations that we’d have a huge cheer squad, of men and
women, if we decided to take it on.
Now that our maddening election contest is done and dusted, it
might cheer Australians up to learn about our fun election stunt drawing attention to
the plight of men. We put together a digital display billboard designed to
highlight some of the key areas where Labor has let down men and boys – I
called it my “Truth Truck”! Their shameful legacy was all there: the shocking
neglect of men’s health and boys’ education; no suicide prevention strategies
targeting men; removal of shared care from the Family Law Act; policies
undermining the presumption of innocence; women’s only jobs and research
funding. On a balmy Sydney evening we started off touring the truck
around Sydney. It was fascinating watching how people reacted. I saw an Uber
delivery guy do a double take as he rode past the truck where we had it parked
near Bondi Beach. He immediately stopped and pulled out his phone to record
this rare message of support for men. There was plenty of interest when we got nearer our ultimate
destination – the Alliance Stadium in Moore Park, where
thousands of footy fans and their families were streaming through the streets
towards the venue for that evening’s match. We were keen to track down a big
audience of ordinary Aussie blokes whom we felt would get a kick out of our
truth truck. Some were obviously on our wavelength. The truck was greeted by
beeping horns, and other gestures of support, and plenty of phones capturing
the moment as the vehicle passed through the neighbouring streets. Here's a short video showing a little of our journey: https://youtu.be/IGCX_ZNky38 The key message was clear: TIME TO PUT LABOR LAST. The
Albanese government has been the most anti-male government our country has ever
seen, and I shudder at the thought of what will happen to men and boys in this
country now that we have given them another three years in office. At least
they won’t have the Greens pressuring them to introduce even more draconian
measures planned to denigrate and demonise men. We also wanted to encourage everyone – men and women - to
have the courage to stand up against this male-bashing culture. I certainly needed this moment of cheer while watching our
cowardly politicians once again pander to the feminists who, as always, did a
great job influencing the election campaign. Many of you will have seen this video
clip featuring a sneering journalist from The Age,
attacking Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Her tirade began with an attack on
Dutton’s attempts to appeal to men: “During your campaign launch your Nationals
leader spoke extensively about how much of a man you were. Your deputy
opposition leader spoke and gave ode to the boys in blue and the tradies. You
talk about mining, construction, agriculture and energy being the four pillars
of the economy.” Her voice oozed with contempt – how dare Dutton reach out to
ordinary men? Then, bizarrely, she used the fact that Dutton was
campaigning in petrol stations to set up her sucker punch: “What are you
offering modern working women?” Duh? So, women don’t use petrol or drive cars? It’s bad enough that these dim-witted ideologues are now so
firmly in charge of much of mainstream media but it was very disappointing
seeing how easily Dutton caved following their utterly predictable attacks. The glaring example was the work-from-home fiasco where
Dutton was labelled misogynistic for asking Canberra public servants to return
to the office - even though key banks and corporations had done so years ago
without any huge outcry. Labor used their media lackies to bleat about the
impact on working mothers of the outrageous suggestion that they have to
actually go in to work. Bingo, the Libs caved. What were the Opposition advisers thinking? Backing away
from this perfectly sensible policy pissed off working men and women across the
country who don’t have the option of taking zoom calls in between whipping up
pesto from home-grown basil. As if this policy reversal would attract a single vote from
the woke critics who wouldn’t ever dream of voting for them. I think of the
lamentable parade of young “political advisors” on parade during the endless
Brittany Higgins court cases and can see why our politics is in such mess. “What Liberal party advisers have got to learn is you cannot
beat cancel culture by caving in to cancel culture. You must stand up and fight
it at every turn. Why? Because the attacks themselves from the woke army are
the way the Left wins the game.” This is Damian Coory on his YouTube
show, The Other Side, who used the WFH attacks to illustrate how
the Left, and particularly the leftist feminists, own the culture in this
country. He showed a Dutton interview from The Today Show with
a “bullying, rude, obnoxious female interviewer” who started off asking him
whether he will ask forgiveness from female voters. Do watch this
extraordinary performance. “Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter,” she says, shaking her
head at him, like a kindergarten teacher reprimanding a toddler. “Who gave Sara the impression that she has the right to
speak to the alternate Prime Minister of our country like that?” queries Coory,
asking what the young woman is doing treating Dutton as if he is in any way her
equal. “He’s the Leader of the Opposition of this country and you are a young
woman who reads a teleprompter for a living. It’s not that hard.” But the feminists see it all very differently. There’s a
very revealing article by
an Adelaide political science emeritus professor Carol Johnson explaining how
Dutton got the WFH issue all wrong. She says the Opposition has been out there
promoting “egalitarianism” - which means “emphasising people as individuals
rather than as members of social groups.” That’s not what women want, Johnson explains. Her argument
is that women don’t want to be treated as equals with men. They need special
treatment, compensation for the “structural disadvantages” that make their
lives such a struggle. The Johnson thesis is that the Opposition didn’t understand
that their WFH policies “would have a particularly detrimental effect on women
because of women’s caring responsibilities.” Yada, yada. We’ve heard it all
before. I doubt if the working mothers elsewhere who have to cope without the
flexibility offered to the Canberra bureaucrats really believe it is fair they
are required to fund femocrat privilege. Now it will be business as usual. The culture, the country
will be firmly in the hands of the Left. Or, frighteningly, an even more rabid
Left, given the size of the swing. Our feeble Opposition only have themselves
to blame for wimping out, not only on the gender issues but on many of the
policies that really matter.