An ever more vocal group of angry men is rising in an Australia where women, protesters and dissidents should be seen and not heard, writes John Passant.
ANOTHER ANGRY MAN has killed two members of his family. But it is all about "misandry", isn’t it?
Because all those angry women out there killing their partners and kids are just ignored by the feminist media oligopolies and the left-wing lesbians running the ABC. Or, could it be, women don’t often kill their partners or ex-partners?
It is usually men who kill their partners, ex-partners and other members of their family — not women. And yes, not all men (who else is tired of this misogynist response?) but a man is many times more likely to kill their partner or ex-partner than a woman is.
As reported by Jane Gilmore in the Sydney Morning Herald:
… men commit more than 80 per cent of murders between couples who have a history of domestic violence. The overwhelming majority of those men had a history of abusing the women they ultimately killed.
In the 20 per cent of murders committed by women, over two-thirds were women killing men who had been abusing them. Of the 152 murders examined by the report only two cases were found where a woman killed a man she had a history of abusing.
Women live in fear. Men just need to ask the women in their lives how often they feel scared.
Misandry does not explain any of this, unless you live in a warped world where men are threatened by women who want to be equal and safe. Some men do live in that men’s rights – or even "incel" – world. Others, like Senator David Leyonhjelm, live vicariously with them and off them to harvest their votes. That is part of the reason the "honourable" Senator told Sarah Hanson-Young, during a Senate debate on protecting women, that she should "stop shagging men".
When the Prime Minister called on Leyonhjelm, the "libertarian" (in fact, a contrarian posing as a libertarian), to apologise, he refused. Not only that, Leyonhjelm called Turnbull a "pussy" for suggesting he apologise. As Donald Trump helped make clear, "pussy" is slang for vagina. Leyonhjelm also called Turnbull a "soft-cock".
The Grand Wizard of Misogyny described Turnbull in genitalic terms. A pussy is, in incel world, weak. A soft-cock is impotent. Turnbull is effeminate. Leyonhjelm’s approach is not an accident, since the essence of misogyny is that "real" men are strong and women are weak. So-called "strong" men, of course, can also be killers. They own "their" women and "their" kids.
Ownership of women springs from the bowels of capitalist society, and the vital role women play in the reproduction of capitalism through childbearing and rearing.
There is a systemic problem in our society. The giant penis that men’s (far) right activist Andrew Nolch painted on the makeshift memorial to comedian Eurydice Dixon is another example of this systemic problem. Dixon was raped and murdered on her way home from a comedy gig. Nolch said it was the most anti-feminist thing he could do.
Women are the enemy. They are raped and murdered by men, and then they are blamed for their own rape and deaths or ridiculed. In the case, I mentioned earlier of the 68-year-old father who killed his two teenage kids, the mother and the court custody system are to blame if you read the comments on men’s (far) right activist and even mainstream sites. Men are the victims; women and the court system – which Pauline Hanson wants to change – are to blame.
There is something else in all of this. Leyonhjelm’s slut-shaming of Hanson-Young is an attempt to shut her down. He wants to stop her from talking, from advocating for women and from making the point that it is overwhelmingly men who kill or attack their partners or ex-partners. It is men who rape women.
Similarly, governments want to stop us learning about the reality of the brutalisation of women, children and men on Manus Island and Nauru. The release of information about that reality has been criminalised. The Nauruan Government, with the Turnbull Government cheering quietly from behind the scenes, has stopped the truth-telling ABC from attending the Pacific Forum on Nauru in early September.
The current Government has charged Witness K and his lawyer for revealing the truth about Australia bugging the East Timor cabinet. Prime Minister Turnbull and Opposition Leader Shorten have joined forces to pass draconian new legislation that could see protesters gaoled for the crime of their protests being effective.
The men’s far right want to return us to a world where women are men’s possessions, to do with what they want. The Government wants to suppress the voices of real journalists, protesters, dissidents and whistleblowers.
The message is clear. Women, protesters and dissidents should be seen and not heard. The suppression of women is the suppression of all of us. It is systemic. For the liberation of women, for freedom of expression, we need system change. The women’s liberation movement of the '60s and '70s shows a way forward.
Don’t be too polite girls, don’t be too polite. Let’s make Leyohnhjelmosaurus extinct and, in doing that, open up a space for freedom, for all of us.
Read more by John Passant on his website En Passant or follow him on Twitter @JohnPassant. Signed copies of John's first book of poetry, Songs for the Band Unformed(Ginninderra Press 2016), are available for purchase from the IA store HERE.
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