StarCat/CatStar

was heading in a very different direction. I returned two years ago, and
was devastated to discover the hideous morass this country has waded
into. The vile misogynist rantings cited above are not restricted to the
upper echelons of government and the media. They have pervaded
Australian culture, and the most horrifying symptom of this process is an
enormous epidemic of domestic violence against women: gendered violence
committed with impunity behind closed doors. In my state (Western
Australia) alone, there were 10,648 female victims of domestic violence in
2014. I am writing this at 10.43 in the morning, and so far today, it is
estimated that police in Australia will already have been called to respond
to 293 domestic violence incidents. In my small region alone, 16 women
and children were killed by violent men in 2015.
Nor is this a phenomenon restricted to isolated sectors of society. I
live in a comparatively prosperous, “respectable” seaside town, and I know
people whose lives are blighted by domestic violence on a daily basis. The
perpetrators continue to bash, intimidate and terrorise with impunity
because of the toxic cultural conditions which have been incubated by
media and political establishments intent on spreading misogyny. In the
process, newspapers such as The Australian have also employed openly
misogynist female commentators like Bettina Arndt, a “sex-therapist” who
has in the past advised women who do not want sex from their partners to
give in and “take one for the team”, and who now uses her column to
encourage “Men’s Rights Activists” (most of whom are insane wife-bashers
and gaslighters, or apologists for them) to disrupt the activities of antidomestic
violence groups such as the White Ribbon Campaign. This is the
same newspaper whose female fashion columnists contributed to the
Gillard-hating chorus by relentlessly criticising her wardrobe, and whose
extreme right-wing commentator Janet Albrechtsen argued that Gillard
was not qualified to be Prime-Minister because “She has never had to make
room for the frustrating demands and magnificent responsibilities of
caring for little babies, picking up sick children from school, raising
teenagers. Not to mention the needs of a husband or partner.” [sic:
grammar.]
Much of the blame for this utterly toxic cultural climate must fall at
the feet of the Murdoch media empire. How can any journalist dare to
criticise a woman for choosing to not have children in this hideously
overpopulated world, or claim that she is unqualified for political office
because she has exercised that choice which it is the unquestionable right
of every woman to make? How exactly would changing nappies make her a
better politician? How can a newspaper editor seriously contemplate
publishing such unconscionable rubbish, and then go on to publish the
writing of a “sex-therapist” who tacitly condones marital rape?
These things happen because too many Australian people buy the
newspaper, because they vote for a woman-hating Prime-Minister and sit
by whilst he makes himself “Minister for Women”, because when that
Prime-Minister is deposed and another takes his place, and promotes a