People Are Not Happy A Mens Rights Activist Was Given An Australia Day Award
"If they set the bar any lower it will be on the ground".
When it comes to gender equity, there is still a long way to go in Australia. On average, women are paid 14% less than men. Women are three times more likely than men to experience domestic violence. Women make up only 17.1% of CEOs. I could go on.
But there’s some good news!
On Sunday, a woman named Bettina Arndt was given an Australia Day honour for working to achieve gender equity, but it wasn’t for working to address any of the above reasons.
Instead, Bettina believes “men aren’t getting fair treatment” and her work focuses on ripping down what she sees as an “anti-male culture” — which apparently means doing what she can to discredit sexual assault survivors.
Bettina has spent the last few years cashing in on mocking sexual assault survivors at unis around the country. She laughed & joked with a convicted paedophile about his crimes. The threats from her supporters have been so bad we've had to file a police report. I feel sick.
— Sharna Bremner (@sharnatweets) January 25, 2020
Her honour notes referenced her 2018 “Fake Rape Crisis” university speaking tour, where she dismissed high rates of sexual assault on campuses as a “scare campaign”.
Other recent highlights include a 2017 interview with a convicted paedophile Nicolaas Bester, where she joked with him that young female students were “exploiting their seductive power to ruin the lives of men”.
She refers to modern feminism as “poisonous” and recently released a book titled #MenToo about discrimination against men.
‘Ms Arndt defended a Canberra doctor who molested multiple patients, including a 12-year-old child, arguing the sex offender should not be charged over the molestations, because in another context masturbating a person would be a “loving and pleasurable” act.’ #australiaday2020
— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) January 26, 2020
Bettina became a Member of the Order of Australia on Sunday, awarded for her “significant service to the community as a social commentator, and to gender equity through advocacy for men”.
Unsurprisingly, many Australians are furious that she was chosen for our third highest civic honour.
I’m just waiting for them to nominate Ivan Milat for his work towards Australian tourism, because that’s the kind of bollocks this is :/
— Corsair Aquilus (@CorsairAquilus) January 26, 2020
Absolutely livid that Bettina Arndt won the paedophile support category in the #StroyaDoi honours for her 2018 crimes – this was Miranda Devine's year, she's been robbed.
— Pauline Pantsdown (@PPantsdown) January 25, 2020
If they set the bar any lower it will be under ground.
— Jason (@Kaotic_Jas) January 26, 2020
So @thebettinaarndt was just awarded an Australia Day Honour? Why the disgust? Seems to be a perfectly apt winner on a day where we celebrate genocide, systemic human rights abuse and actively encourage racist and ill informed rhetoric to me. @vanbadham @@JennaPrice @bencubby https://t.co/dQ3hf9T31i
— Dr Karen Williams MPH FRANZCP (@DrWilliams) January 25, 2020
she shouldn’t have a platform let alone an order of fkn australia
— Wilford Quimley (@friendlykitties) January 26, 2020
Advocate Grace Tame, who was groomed by Bester, slammed the decision.
“I believe that honouring someone who actively defended a paedophile on a public platform is a blatant example of the protracted, systemic moral corruption that still hampers our society,” she told news.com.au.
Former Australian of the Year Rosie Battie was worried the award would legitimise Arndt’s views, saying she felt sickened.
“Bettina Arndt represents who we are trying to educate and bring on the journey with us and I can’t believe someone with her thinking is being publicly rewarded and acknowledged in this way. How could this happen? How could we get to this place. I am in utter dismay,” she said.
A woman who has publicly lent her support to a convicted pedophile & routinely smeared @RosieBatty, a woman who has endured unimaginable trauma & grief, being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for “gender equity" is insulting beyond words. https://t.co/mr1Pz8Nypj
— Georgie Dent (@georgiedent) January 27, 2020
Bettina Arndt lamented the “moral panic over paedophilia”, saying “such minor abuse rarely has lasting consequences”. For this, & many other actions toward normalising the sexual abuse of women & children, she has been awarded an AM. #AustraliaDay #auspol https://t.co/lhnciDQKXc
— Sandra K Eckersley🔹 (@SandraEckersley) January 26, 2020
So just to be clear, we have awarded an Australia Day honour to a woman for ‘gender equity’ who herself pushed the smear campaign against an Australian of the Year and anti-violence campaigner who watched her own son be murdered by his father.
— Rick Morton (@SquigglyRick) January 26, 2020
An appalling decision to give this woman an Australia Day gong … it has devalued the ones going to the deserving …
— Serenaz (@SerenaGuild) January 26, 2020
I stand with Rosie. Anyone who thinks sexual abuse or abuse of any kind won’t have lasting effects on the victims doesn’t deserve to be recognized with any Australia Day honours. Our government and the committees that decided this should be ashamed for giving her this award.
— Paul Tooney (@paul_tooney) January 26, 2020
Bettina appeared on Studio 10 this morning to defend herself.
“Gender equity is about fair treatment for men and women and I’m trying to redress the imbalance of what’s emerged in recent years, where men aren’t getting fair treatment in a whole range of areas, but I know a lot of people don’t want to hear that,” she said.
“What this is showing is the poisonous side of modern feminism and their determination to shut down anyone who challenges the orthodoxy.”
So Who Decides These Awards?
The Order of Australia recognises Australians who have “demonstrated outstanding service or exceptional achievement”.
Anyone can nominate a candidate. That nomination is then assessed by the Honours and Awards Secretariat, considered by the Council of the Order of Australia, and then recommended to the Governor-General.
The Council is an independent body made up of 19 people, with representatives recommended by the Prime Minister.
Lovely.
Feature image: Bettina Arndt/ Twitter