Australia – Prawn of the Patriarchy

The ‘Safe and Equal’ organisation

“Safe and Equal is the peak body for specialist family violence services that provide support to victim survivors in Victoria. We are an independent, non-government organisation that leads, organises, advocates for, and acts on behalf of our members – with a focus across the continuum from primary prevention through to response and recovery.” (Source)

Safe and Equal Inc was formerly known as the ‘Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria Inc’ – see their organisational history here.

Safe and Equal Inc. appears to have a pronounced feminist outlook. This means for e.g. that men are viewed (only) as perpetrators of domestic violence and women as their victims. This page in their website lists various submissions and policy papers prepared by them.

Safe and Equal notes that “A newly established partnership with ‘The Men’s Project’ was a positive step in focusing on an emerging need to assess the role of men, boys and masculinities in prevention–developing work that will remain a priority for capability building across the workforce over the next year” (Annual Report, Page 34). The Men’s Project is run by Jesuit Social Services. The Jesuits are known to be generally most supportive of the feminist movement. (See also)

The four priorities of Safe & Equal are listed on page 6 of the latest Annual Report. ‘Building a strong peak organisation‘, is one of these nominated priorities. Reducing the incidence of domestic violence, on the other hand, is not.

Their entry in the charity register is located here.

Their Twitter account is at @safe_and_equal

There are nine directors (none of whom are male), and whilst the organisation has more than 90 staff, they do not appear to employ any male staff (Annual Report, page 38).

Both their Annual Report and their Financial Statement, for the year ending 30 June 2023 are available here. The Financial Statement shows annual receipt of government grants totaling $7,135,582 and ‘total revenue and other income’ of $8,152,510 (page 15). The corresponding figures for the preceding financial year are $3,592,114 and $7,091,095.

The ‘Remuneration paid to key management personnel’ is listed to be $1,053,072 in the last financial year (Financial Statement, page 18). The matter of either who, or how many staff, fill such roles is not stipulated. Indeed several items normally addressed in an Annual Report do not seem to be present here. Examples include the number, seniority and remuneration of staff, contractors and consultants, and the nature of expenditure generally.

Footnote: I’ll expand this post after I’ve had time to digest some/all of the policy papers in their website.

Gamma Bias on steroids: A submission concerning the development of an International Gender Equality Strategy

Here is my submission concerning the development of an International Gender Equality Strategy. Oh, and DFAT = the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This version was completed on 13 September 2023.

Dear Sir/Madam

DFAT advises that it has invited public submissions in order to hear from people and organisations, and to inform the priorities for the proposed Gender Equality Strategy. Thank you for providing this opportunity for me to do just that.

DFAT suggests that four main questions to be considered when preparing a submission are:

What are international gender equality priorities?
What are the most effective approaches for achieving gender equality globally?
How can Australia best support efforts to achieve gender equality internationally?
What should the government/ DFAT consider when developing the new international gender equality strategy?

I think I’ll focus on point 4. I note too your assertion that the Government is committed to being a global leader on gender equality, and that the new International Strategy is intended to recognise gender equality as being central to Australia’s foreign policy, international development, humanitarian action, trade and security efforts.

To support this commitment, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) advises that it intends to develop a new International Gender Equality Strategy, in order to:

guide Australia’s actions to protect and promote the human rights of all women and girls*.
align with the commitments to gender equality made in the region by the Pacific Islands Forum, ASEAN and APEC. It will reflect global commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals, for example, on gender equality, climate change and human rights.
identify the opportunities for Australia, our region and our world for stability, security, prosperity and safety in achieving gender equality and the full and equal participation of all in our societies.

And as for the human rights of ‘all men and boys’*? Are they not human or simply not important? This seems rather reminiscent of another federal agency I wrote to recently. Now who were they? (Reference: https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/inquiry-into-australias-human-rights-framework-2023/)

“The new International Strategy will reflect the Government’s commitment to achieve gender equality in Australia’s forthcoming first National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality, the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children* 2022-2032, and Australia’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2021-31” … “DFAT will also draw on the views and priorities shared in public submissions provided to inform Australia’s International Development Policy and Southeast Asia Economic Strategy.”

(Source: https://www.dfat.gov.au/international-relations/themes/gender-equality/new-international-gender-equality-strategy)

And as for a national plan to end violence against men and boys*? Sound of crickets (Reference: https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/on-the-recent-increase-in-violent-crime-carried-out-by-women-and-girls/)

Just by way of background, the latest DFAT annual report that is available online is 2021-22. This shows that the percentage of ongoing staff in that department who are female is approx. 60%, which is consistent with the Australian federal public service overall. And no need to stress, some agencies have been further out of balance. Take WGEA for example (Reference: https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/weve-set-a-target-of-having-10-of-our-senior-management-team-female-by-2017/)

I shall begin by considering a central facet of this exercise, this being the notion of ‘gender equality’.

“Gender equality is when people of all genders have equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities. Everyone is affected by gender inequality – women, men, trans and gender diverse people, children and families. It impacts people of all ages and backgrounds.” (Source: https://www.vic.gov.au/gender-equality-what-it-and-why-do-we-need-it)

This definition of the term, as with most others, implies that an equivalent amount of attention might be expected to be given to, for example, men and boys in the community. And yet one thing that quickly strikes a reader of related reports and media releases is the almost complete lack of attention given to men and boys and the issues faced by them. DFAT’s reports are no exception.

To consider an example of this, let’s look at one particular item within the DFAT website. It’s entitled ‘Australia’s international support for gender equality’. The term ‘man’ features once in this report, and ‘boy’ not at all. In stark contrast ‘woman’ features 121 times and ‘girl’ 19 times. Thus men and boys, and their myriad issues and perspectives appear to be ‘missing in action’.

(Source: https://www.dfat.gov.au/international-relations/themes/gender-equality/Australias-international-support-for-gender-equality)

It is consequently quite farcical to suggest that this, or the plethora of documents like it, demonstrate genuine commitment to gender equality. What it does do, is to reflect a prevailing reality of a marked gender preference towards women. This preference is actively sought after by followers and devotees of feminist ideology. And they do not tolerate alternative views.

Some source material regarding feminism and its propensity to stifle debate regarding alternative perspectives on gender now follows:

https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/some-indicators-that-feminism-is-no-longer-worthy-of-trust-or-support/

https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/beware-the-ire-of-an-angry-feminist/

https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/on-blocking-out-non-feminist-perspectives-and-opinions/

https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/a-feminist-laments-why-do-so-few-men-turn-up-to-hear-women-speak/

Unfortunately this marked gender imbalance in favour of women/girls is also reflected in the amount of funding support provided for gender-related issues and initiatives in both the Australian domestic and international arenas. This issue is discussed in the following items compiled by me:

https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/australian-taxpayer-funded-organisations-that-do-littlenothing-for-men/

https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/re-instatement-of-the-womens-budget-statement-in-australia-bring-it-on-but-consider-men-too/

#GenderEqualityWhenItSuits: A submission to the Review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012

Is the pronounced influence of feminist doctrine appropriate in Australia’s dealings with other countries?

I would suggest that ‘no’, it is certainly not. Regardless of how one feels about the validity and usefulness of feminist beliefs in Australia, foreign countries are different places. Feminism has never been raised as an issue within the Australian political system – and subsequently adopted as a matter of policy. It is merely something that a small minority of Australians believe to have merit, and who push strongly for greater and greater female privilege to occur.

Other countries have different histories and different cultures and deserve respect, and to be allowed to make their own choices with regard to gender issues in the absence of carrots or sticks applied by the Australian government acting on behalf of the feminist lobby.

https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/i-thought-women-were-meant-to-be-more-empathetic/

Feminists aiming to strengthen their foothold in Thailand

‘Feminists and Yellow Fever’ by Willard Losinger https://sexualobjectification.blogspot.com/2014/09/feminists-versus-yellow-fever.html

And on a closing note:

https://www.fighting4fair.com/uncategorized/discrimination-against-males-in-the-context-of-humanitarian-agenciescauses/

Please do better.

The current situation is, at best, an embarrassment. And yet another printed report from the government, even one laden with woke buzzwords and abundant pictures of assertive women, won’t get us there.

My submission to the Australian government’s 2023 Human Rights Inquiry … wherefore art thou?

Have you ever seen a feminist online advocating that those promoting the welfare of men and boys should spend less time criticizing feminism, and more time doing things to help men & boys? Yes? Well let’s take a look at an example of what happens when you seek to provide a positive input …

In early June 2023 I emailed a submission to the Inquiry into Human Rights now being conducted by the Australian Government. Note that the deadline for submissions was 1 July 2023, so I had gotten in well before time. I then sat back waiting for my submission to be accepted by the Inquiry and published on their website. Once this occurs I’m able to also provide a copy here in my website, this being in accordance with the Inquiry’s guidelines:

“After a submission is received by a committee, you cannot publish or disclose it to any other person unless or until the committee has authorised its publication. You cannot share your document until you hear from the committee that it can be published” (Source)

My submission remained unpublished as of 2 August 2023, and so I sent the following email:

Attn: Chair of Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

“My submission to the current Inquiry has been with the Secretariat for two months now.

I appreciate the earlier advice from them regarding the large number of submissions that had been received, and the time taken to process them.

Indeed I note that 185 submissions are now listed on your website. Most of these submissions were, however, presumably lodged subsequent to my own. I am somewhat puzzled by this as it would seem that processing the submissions in the order in which they were received, would be the fairest and most impartial approach to take.

Would you kindly confirm when I might anticipate my submission appearing online? Would you also please advise when further details regarding the proposed Brisbane forum will be made available?

Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

On 4 August 2023 I was advised as follows:

“Thanks for your email. As my colleague mentioned, the processing of submissions is a manual one and each submission is considered individually. Publication of submission is ongoing, and will continue in the coming weeks.

Arrangements are also underway in relation to the Brisbane hearing, and further details will be published on the committee’s webpage prior to the hearing.”

That’s right, zero mention of the issue of the method of ordering re: the processing of submissions, nor was a date provided as to when my submission would appear online.

Why don’t they remove all doubt and simply state that if people choose to be critical of the current priorities of the Australian Human Rights Commission, then they shouldn’t even hope to have input into future policy formulation.

Hey, maybe I’m wrong. I hope I am. Let’s see shall we?

Update as of 15 August 2023: I attended a portion of today’s meeting in Brisbane during which I spoke to the Secretariat. I was (again) told that they would try to process my submission in the next 2-3 weeks. I have just written to the Chairman of the Inquiry expressing my disappointment.)

And thus the saga continues …

Profound gender bias at the Australian Human Rights Commission (Part 3)

On 6 July 2023 the Government announced the name of the person who will take on Kate Jenkin’s previous role with the AHRC.

Here is the text from an article that appeared in ‘Women’s Agenda’:

“Professor Anna Cody is Australia’s new Sex Discrimination Commissioner

Professor Anna Cody has been appointed as Australia’s new Sex Discrimination Commissioner. The Dean of the School of Law at Western Sydney University has been selected to succeed Kate Jenkins, whose term as Sex Discrimination Commissioner ended in April. Professor Cody will join the Australian Human Rights Commission for a five-year term, beginning in September.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said Professor Cody was appointed as Commissioner following a merit-based selection process, and that she would bring with her a wealth of experience in advocating for women and fighting discrimination.

“Through her work in Community Legal Centres, on the Board of the Legal Aid Commission of NSW and her role now as Dean of the School of Law at Western Sydney University, Dr Cody has a deep understanding of the systemic discrimination Australian women still face,” Dreyfus said in a statement on Thursday.

Dreyfus said Professor Cody will be tasked with promoting and advancing the rights of Australians by tackling discrimination based on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status and other protected attributes in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984.

She will also be integral in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s delivery of the Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report (2020), first handed down by Kate Jenkins in 2020.

President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher, also welcomed Professor Cody to the high-profile role.

“Professor Cody’s extensive experience has brought her into contact with women and girls from diverse backgrounds and perspectives including First Nations women, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, women with disability and LGBTQIA+ women,” Professor Croucher said.

“She will also play a pivotal role in implementing the significant Respect at Work reforms to prevent workplace sexual harassment.

“We are delighted to have someone of her calibre join the Commission to advance the work of gender equality and defend the rights of LGBTQIA+ people under the Sex Discrimination Act.””

Kind of light with regards to mentioning the existence of male humans? Sure was. And the same deficiency was replicated in all of the articles/media releases that I’ve seen thus far.

Fingers crossed that Ms Cody can and will subsequently provide a more open, balanced and insightful contribution to the human rights debate.

(Note: The first blog post in this series of articles can be found here)

New sex discrimination commissioner urges wider lens to tackle inequality (12 September 2023)

Is BHP discriminating against men? by Bettina Arndt (15 August 2023) Note reference to the actions of the AHRC here

Has the accepted role of journalism become that of a woke lullaby?

On the 16 June 2023 Australian media operator, Crikey, issued the following advice in relation to an article written by senior staffer, Guy Rundle:

“Crikey has made the decision to unpublish the article, and apologises to Brittany Higgins and readers”.

Thus Crikey didn’t simply grovel, it took the somewhat unusual step of also deleting the article in question from their website. So if you’d like to read the article and form your own view of the matter, well tough, as you’ll need to search high and low to find yourself a copy. You might also wish to read various papers on the topic that have been prepared by Bettina Arndt (example).

I’ve read the Crikey article and I can’t fathom the amount of venom it’s attracted. The author doesn’t accuse anyone of anything, he simply nominates and briefly discusses a number of possible scenarios. I could point to many pro-feminist/woke-authored papers that should have sparked greater outrage, and were far more worthy of removal. Anyway, I’ll study Guy’s article again in coming days and perhaps my view will alter. But I doubt it.

Considering the following points:

the rather large question marks still posed by the Higgins matter
the corresponding manner in which our feminist-saturated media deals with (or fails to deal with) stories about men and boys, and
that we seemed to be making progress in terms of the media tackling issues with their eyes a little more widely opened.

I’m more inclined to #FacePalm #sigh. Oh, I dunno. Surely I’m not alone in finding this episode to be both very disappointing and worrisome regarding where-ever it is that the media, government and sundry woke cohorts are heading?

And the silence that now surrounds the issue suggests that those who might otherwise demand answers, have gone to ground in the expectation that woke screamers will bay for the blood of anyone who dares lift their heads from the trench.

One point that has been raised, and understandably so, is the figure of AUD$3mill that was earlier suggested as the sum that Brittany received from the government. Brittany has stated that she didn’t receive anything close to this amount. So how much and why?

Surely you would think that someone would lodge an FOI request to clarify at least this point. But nope – silence.

Anyway we’ll see what, if anything, emerges in coming days.

Women in Engineering scholarship query

On Saturday 22 October 2022 I sent two emails to an Australian tertiary educational institution regarding financial assistance and support programs that they provided to female students. Here is the first one that I sent:

“Good morning

I have just come across your scholarship at https://www.qut.edu.au/study/fees-and-scholarships/scholarships/women-in-engineering-scholarship

Would you please confirm that there is no corresponding Men in Engineering scholarship. Assuming that there is not, would you kindly advise why a scholarship is maintained for women as it would seem to be inconsistent with current consensus regarding gender equality. I look forward to hearing back from you in due course.”

On 24 October 2022 they duly replied:

“Dear Mr. X,

QUT strives to create an equal, equitable and diverse teaching and research environment that is fully inclusive for all people. We are not a complete community until all individuals are included and afforded opportunity, regardless of their backgrounds, characteristics, beliefs and circumstances.

The Gender Equity and Diversity in STEMM Action Plan reflects QUT’s long-term commitment to addressing the under-representation of women, trans and gender-diverse people in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) disciplines.

Based on this action plan, women in engineering scholarship are committed to support people who identify as a woman, and increase the number of graduating female engineers, which at the moment is only 15% of all of the engineering students. This scholarship will help build a cohort of female future leaders in engineering professions.

However, there are other ongoing scholarships, that students who are not identifying as women are able to apply:

QUT – Find a scholarship

Kind regards

Engineering engagement team”

The second email I sent was similar, but was sent to the university’s ‘Discrimination, Diversity and Inclusion Manager’ and focused on one particular page in their website.

(Postscript: 6 January 2023, and thankfully a further response has come to hand … )

“QUT does offer a number of scholarship that are not gender specific including academic, equity and industry-funded (currently being updated for 2023) and they can be found here. QUT – Scholarships

Engineering has a long history of being a male-dominated profession. In several disciplines and areas of practice such as biomedical engineering, much progress has been made on this front. However, in other disciplines such as mechanical engineering the number hasn’t moved much in 30 or more years. I graduated in mechanical engineering in 1993 with only a few other females in my cohort of around 120. And the numbers haven’t improved significantly since then and neither has the aggregate proportion of qualified professional engineers who are female, which is still low at 13% (and the proportion of female engineers who are working in an engineering role is at 11%). (cited Jane MacMaster, FIEAust EngExec CPEng MRAeS Chief Engineer, Engineers Australia Women in engineering | Engineers Australia pp4)

With women severely unrepresented in the engineering work force QUT sets out to increase and support the number of females studying engineering by building a strong support program for students including engineering scholarships.

The scholarship program includes mentoring, flagship Engineers Australia events such as the Women in Engineering Annual Dinner, Young Engineers Australia Executive Breakfasts, GEMS student club events, National Association of Women in Construction events and Alumni panel and industry workshops.

The ongoing women in engineering program connects and showcases the opportunities for women in the engineering industry to help solve local and global challenges. It also encourages young people to consider an engineering career, join and invest in engineering and become the future of engineering.

We offer many funding and engagement opportunities to all of our Engineering students at QUT however to address the gender imbalance in the engineering industry we seek to provide a program that not only supports women but also encourages new entrants into the field of engineering.

I hope this responds to your query and if you are seeking additional research on Women in Engineering please let me know and I will send it through.

Kind regards”

Other posts in this blog that are relevant to this subject:

Regarding the granting of gender-specific scholarships in Australia

We’ve all heard of the gender ‘income gap’, but what about the ‘expense gap’? (Scroll down to ‘education’)

Apparently there’s not enough “educated” men nowadays

Four things that happened to some anonymous guy online

Sometime things happen in your life that you remember many years later. And you wonder why. Here are four that happened to me:

The time I shared a meal with an African-American
The time I almost didn’t hire a guy who was different
The time I was a guest in the home of an Aboriginal family
The time I lived in Asia as a member of an Asian family

My African-American dinner guests

American’s might be puzzled by this one, but you don’t see a whole lot of African-Americans in an Australian city. As a consequence most Australians have a picture of African-Americans manufactured by media and the entertainment industry.

The husband worked for the USA consulate, and I think perhaps his wife did too. He had a benign sounding job title but the vibes he gave off had me imagining him chasing Jason Bourne. The two of them were probably the most articulate and polite people I have ever had at my dinner table.

My Iranian right-hand-man

In my first ever job (local government) I was tasked to create a work group of four to be managed by yours truly. I was in my early 20’s. One of the applicants stood out as somewhat unusual. He was Iranian, in his mid-40’s, and had a PhD. I wondered how I would manage and whether he would work in with the others in the team. I talked to my boss, and he encouraged me to give the guy a chance.

Fast forward many years. Farrokh was the best right-hand-man/colleague I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Initiative, creativity, reliability, productivity, patience … measured anyway you like.

Visiting indigenous folks

The first time I visited Cairns (North Queensland) I somehow got myself invited to have a coffee at the home of a local family. Again, and like many Australians, my only experience dealing with Aboriginals was avoiding substance-abusers at railway stations, or watching a succession of grifters on TV bad-mouthing (non-aboriginal) Australians whilst helping themselves to untold millions of taxpayer revenue.

The family I visited were nice. They were friendly and hospitable. Their home was just like most Australian homes I had visited. They were ordinary Australians.

Turning Asian

I lived for a time in an Asian country. Before that I had only had the briefest of visits to that part of the world. I learnt a lot there. About their culture and, subsequently, about ours. For example I learnt that concepts like ‘common sense’ and ‘good manners’ were not universal … they were specific to the country or region. So just because people didn’t act in accordance with the Aussie model of good manners, didn’t mean they were ill-mannered. It just meant that they were following their own version. Or sometimes they were ignoring both versions. Just like we do sometimes.

Conclusion

All four events at least somewhat surprised me at the time they happened. Why? No doubt someone out there will offer a theory.

As a consequence of these experiences, do I feel that:

all members of these various sub-sets of society are wonderful people?
that we should throw open the doors of Australia that everyone might settle here?
that I am guilty for something my ancestors did, or are alleged to have done to the group in question?

Not one bit. In fact, woke begone!

I do however better recognise that in the absence of first-hand experience, we do rely a lot on the media to form our opinions of others for us. And that the media often presents a distorted and incomplete image.

NSW provides a world of opportunity. For women

I received an email on 21 June 2022 advising me of the following. No mention of any opportunities for men – I guess that will follow later …

“The first Women’s Opportunity Statement was published today alongside the NSW Budget 2022-23. The Statement sets out the NSW Government’s plans to make New South Wales the best place in Australia for women to live, work and raise a family, and commits $5.6 billion towards outcomes for women and $10.9 billion towards children’s education and development outcomes over the next 10 years. The Statement draws on the findings of the Women’s Economic Opportunities Review, and the advice of the Expert Reference Panel, chaired by Sam Mostyn. A letter from the Review’s Expert Panel to the NSW Treasurer was also published today.

The Statement sets out the following five strategic priority areas of reform:

Increase women’s workforce participation
Improve the experience of women in the workforce
Support women in small business and entrepreneurs
Support and raise awareness of women’s health needs
Respect for women and women’s financial security

Alongside the Statement, we have also released the NSW Treasury Technical Research Paper Women’s economic opportunities in the NSW labour market and the impact of early childhood education and care, which sets out NSW Treasury research on the key drivers of unequal outcomes between women and men in the labour market, as well as the modelling approach used to assess the package of early childhood education and care reforms announced by the NSW and Commonwealth Governments.

Kind regards,

WEOR Secretariat”

Teaching sexual consent – Responsible men and vulnerable women

by Bettina Arndt (25 March 2022)

Sydney schoolgirl, Chanel Contos

Last month it was announced all Australian high school students are to be taught about sexual consent and coercion. Mandatory education programs are being rolled out across the country teaching boys not to rape.

It’s mainly due to Sydney schoolgirl Chanel Contos (pictured above), who burst into the limelight last year when she announced that a school sex education course had led her to discover she’d been raped two years earlier. As a 13-year-old she’d been “forced” to go down on a boy at a party but it took a Year-10 school sex education course for her to realize what had happened to her. She started a website encouraging other girls to tell stories of similar sexual assaults and nearly 2000 obliged. Ever since she’s been out there calling out male misbehaviour and lobbying for school sexual consent courses.

This is just the latest front in the mighty feminist battle to rein in male sexuality and punish more rapists. I wrote recently about how the NSW parliament was misled by false statistics which were used to assist the smooth passage of enthusiastic consent regulations into law. At much the same time over 1500 school kids were signing a Contos petition calling for enthusiastic consent to be taught in schools.

Our compliant media dutifully pushed the fearmongering as Contos met with members of parliament and other power brokers to make it all happen. We heard shocking stories of drunk girls waking up to discover males taking advantage of them, boys behaving badly, circulating photos of their mates having sex, etc – some truly unacceptable male behaviour.

But gradually questions started appearing in online comments about why so many girls were finding themselves in these risky situations, why were so many vulnerable youngsters attending these alcohol and drug fueled parties? Naturally any suggestion that girls needed to take care of themselves were howled down. A principal of a Sydney girls school dared to suggest that along with more sex education in schools, parents need to be “having conversations regarding consent, the impact of alcohol, risk-taking behaviours and self-respect.” Her sensible suggestion was treated with disdain by journalists who lined up enlightened souls to put her straight. The problem is “not about girls” pronounced an executive from the Alliance of Girls’ Schools, but rather about the “underbelly of disrespect, privilege and callousness displayed by young men towards young women.”

“This is a systemic, centuries-old societal problem,” she explained. “Behaviour that endorses male sexual entitlement, lack of accountability and a power imbalance.”

That’s it, you see. Feminism 101, all designed to tie in nicely with the “respect for women” ideological claptrap already rolled out in the “Respectful Relationships” programs allegedly tackling domestic violence, which are currently indoctrinating children in schools – teaching them about toxic males and helpless females.

Now sexual consent education will reinforce that message. I’ve just been sent snapshots taken from the brand-new curriculum being introduced in one South Australian school. Apparently, there’s flexibility in how the educators choose to address the topic but it seems most schools will take a similar approach.

It’s fascinating seeing how the educators twist themselves into knots to avoid any hint of victim blaming. They’ve come up with a new slogan: “Vulnerability is not the same as responsibility.” Look at this little scenario featuring Kim. Be warned, it’s pretty confusing because we aren’t given the gender of Kim, who uses the pronoun “they.”

Kim is out drinking, and a man “they” knows offers “them” a ride home but instead drives to a secluded spot, parks and wants to have sex. Our educators spell out the message very clearly: it’s the villain, the driver, who is 100% responsible for his actions and whether or not Kim is safe. Kim is simply “vulnerable” as a result of decisions “they” have made to get into this situation.

Neat, eh? In this particular scenario we don’t know the gender of the potential victim, but the bulk of the responsibility/vulnerability examples given in the curriculum involve males taking advantage of girls who arguably signal sexual interest in various ways by wearing low-cut dresses or inviting a boy to “snuggle” with them in a private room at a party. Here’s a classic example, featuring Jen and Luke. Note that it is taken from an American publication called “Men Stopping Rape” – which says it all….

The predominantly female teachers who will be guiding the students’ discussion of these scenes will no doubt work hard to convince the kids that the boy is inevitably 100% responsible while the innocent girl is simply vulnerable.

Very occasionally they do present a girl as the baddie. Like the sexually aggressive Mila who is all over her boyfriend Luke and gets very indignant when he says he wants to take his time. “I said it was time to be a real man and do the deed,” responds Mila. A rare toxic woman but overwhelmed by large numbers of pushy blokes who don’t take no for an answer, have sex with sleeping girls and boast about having sex to their mates.

The curriculum does include one scenario, Ali and Josh, describing the situation of a girl who has sex because she fears her boyfriend might dump her if she doesn’t. That’s true to life… a very good example of a girl giving consent she may later regret. The great pity is there is so little in this curriculum about the many reasons girls might be ambivalent about consent. The central myth of the “enthusiastic consent” dogma is the notion that girls/women know their own minds and clearly indicate their desires. The truth is males are forced to interpret the muddy waters of female sexual ambivalence, obfuscation, and confusion. The apparent “Yeses’’ that are really “Maybes’’ or secret “Nos’’.

This week I had a live chat on thinkspot with a famous YouTuber, Steve Bonnell – also known as “Destiny.” I hope you enjoy our interesting conversation and will “like” the video and share it.

Bonnell has made big bucks as a video game “twitch streamer” but this clever, articulate young man is also a political commentator, debating all manner of issues usually from a leftist perspective. Funnily enough, just after our conversation Bonnell was banned from Twitch for “hateful conduct” which might just have included our chat about sexual consent, which certainly would have got up the nose of the woke folk running social media.

Bonnell regularly challenges the new dogma on this issue, throwing down the gauntlet by declaring that women no longer have bad sexual experiences – if was bad, it was rape and the man’s fault. His argument is that men are being forced into a parental role – treating women like infants with no agency of their own. Bonnell also declares that if you invite someone to your house, you must expect them to see that as a sexual invitation. And that when it comes to stealthing, women shouldn’t have sex with anyone whom they wouldn’t be comfortable telling not to remove a condom.

Naturally I agreed with him on these points, but amusingly Bonnell was very careful not to align too strongly with what he sees as my overly protective pro-male stance. I was intrigued to hear him talk about young women today, whom he claims enter every sexual encounter with some element of fear. As I pointed out, I’ve never felt like that and see this as a total failure of modern feminism. Whatever happened to feminism’s celebration of women’s female strength and independence? Remember Helen Reddy’s triumphant song – I am woman, hear me roar?

Many of you will know Camille Paglia’s famous story about being in college in the 1960s when girls were still chaperoned and locked safely away from boys at night. She describes their fight to rid themselves of this protectionism, the fight for the freedom to risk rape. “I think it is discouraging to see the surrender of young women of their personal autonomy,” she says, amazed that women are welcoming “the intrusion and surveillance of authority figures over their private lives.”

That’s the bottom line here. The sexual consent courses being introduced in our schools are simply the latest effort to convince young women that they are all potential victims, needing protection from dangerous males. Another step to creating a divided society.

Meanwhile another campus fizzer

Five years ago, I wrote about the huge let down for feminists when they persuaded the Australian Human Rights Commission to conduct a million-dollar survey to prove there was a rape crisis on campus. All they found was a lot of unwanted staring and tiny rates of sexual assault. Not that we heard the good news from mainstream media which beat up a new narrative about widespread campus “sexual violence” which activists used to bully universities into setting up the kangaroo courts, implementing sexual consent courses and the like.

Now they’ve tried again, and the results are even worse for them. The latest survey published this week was even more of a dud, with sexual harassment rates less than a third of those reported in 2015-16 (8% compared to 26%), and minimal rates of assault (1.1% for the year surveyed compared to the earlier figure of 0.8 %).

What a joke, given that they’d done everything they could to expand the definitions of sexual misconduct, as I explained in this blog last year. The latest survey included as harassment such items as staring, making comments about your private life or physical appearance, and repeated requests to go on a date.

Enthusiastic consent featured in defining sexual assault, with all sexual acts including kissing deemed assault if your partner “made no effort to check whether you agreed or not” and including all sexual acts as assault if you were “affected by drugs or alcohol.”

The response rate for the survey was just 11.6% – 43,819 self-selected responses from those invited to participate, who were in turn just part of the 1.6 million university students in this country. So the new report is based on a piddling 2.7% of the student population.

Not that the statistics matter two hoots when our blinkered media remains determined to sing from the feminist songbook. They carefully shifted the goal posts, highlighting such critical matters as the newly discovered peak sexual assault rates for pansexual students and claiming one in three students experienced sexual assault over their lifetimes, a figure which no doubt includes all the drunken schoolkid gropes that feature in Contos’s testimonials – nothing to do with the supposed campus rape crisis.

Not a single one of the so-called reporters bothered to look at official sexual assault rates for this age group. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Personal Safety Survey shows sexual harassment rates for 18-24-year-olds of 27.3% and sexual assault at 3.4% – making it very clear that our universities are extremely safe compared to the general community.

For the last two days my loyal followers have been sending in groveling emails graduates are now receiving from Vice Chancellors apologising for the ongoing crisis and promising to do better.

It’s inspired me to put a call out to all you Australian graduates – asking you to spend a few minutes telling these sniveling leaders of your former institute of higher learning that we’ve had enough. Call out their lack of integrity in participating in this farcical misrepresentation of the important issue of the safety of our universities. And urge them to put a stop to this ongoing, contrived campaign to demonise the next generation of vulnerable young men.

Please consider supporting the ongoing excellent work of the author of this paper, Bettina Arndt, by becoming one of her paying subscribers. © 2022 Bettina Arndt

A review of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act – A submission by the One in Three campaign

Queensland’s discrimination law is thirty years old. In May 2021, the Attorney-General asked the Queensland Human Rights Commission to undertake a review of the Anti-Discrimination Act. The review presented a valuable opportunity to make sure the law is keeping up to date with the changing needs of our society.

The Commission was asked to look at whether our anti-discrimination law protects and promotes equality and non-discrimination to the greatest extent possible.

‘One in Three‘ is a diverse group of male and female professionals – academics, researchers, social workers, psychologists, counsellors, lawyers, health promotion workers, trainers and survivor/advocates.

One in Three aims to raise public awareness of the existence and needs of male victims of family violence and abuse; to work with government and non-government services alike to provide assistance to everyone affected by family violence; and to reduce the incidence and impacts of family violence on Australian men, women and children. One in Three believes our society has the capacity to support all victims of family violence, whether male or female, young or old, gay or straight, rich or poor, wherever they live.

In their submission, the One in Three Campaign identifies five different ways in which male victims of family violence are discriminated against in Queensland:

Discrimination in service provision – not available to male victims or female perpetrators
Discrimination in service provision – access allowed, but service provided is harmful or poor
Discrimination in funding
Discrimination within research
Discrimination in public health campaigns.

One in Three’s proposed solution would be to establish a competent triage system based upon severity of violence, risk and need (not sex/gender), that would ensure the limited services available would go to those who need them the most. In order to do this, Section 104 of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (“The Act”) would require amendments to remove the Example, “It is not unlawful to restrict special accommodation to women who have been victims of domestic violence.”

Here is a link to One in Three’s submission to the Queensland Government (March 2022)

Here is a link to One in Three’s website