https://lnkd.in/gV8APAUZ
South Australia's Premier, Peter Malanauskas spoke to the murders of women in Australia with reference to the four women murdered by men known to them in November 2023 in South Australia and the 24 women murdered by men known to them nationally in 2024.
The premier spoke to the Cabinet this week tightening bail laws and the introduction of electronic monitoring for 'serious repeat offenders'.
Unfortunately, when asked, he hesitated to acknowledge an Australian masculine culture steeped in misogyny. He acknowledged the existence of misogynistic beliefs and the role in violence against women, but was concerned that such language tends to inflame people and was a 'too broad' term.
I'd like to qualify that being a non-Aboriginal man I am not speaking for First Nations men or women and feel it is important to acknowledge that much of what lifts white men up, also pushes men of colour, First Nation's men and women down.
Whilst I would agree that there are men, both direct perpetrators and not, who may be discouraged and confronted by the idea of an Australian culture of misogyny, the links of men's violence towards women are unequivocally from an ideology of male supremacy and exaggerated male entitlement to have access to and control women's bodies. Men receive a dividend from patriarchy, and though the benefit is not shared equally, men need to acknowledge this. Structural oppressions push women down, whilst simultaneously pushing men up. Naming the ideology would seem an important step in being clear about what the target problem is as it is not idiosyncratic deviant behaviour, men's violence to known women is an individual man's way of expressing his relationship with patriarchy - an ideology of misogyny. Men who may become upset at having gendered privilege spoken about may not turn out to be as benign as their protests are intended to indicate.
Two concerns I have re a hesitance to name ideology relates to allyship and bystander behaviour between man collectively, or as worried individuals who are not willing to acknowledge the structural advantages we can trade upon are perpetuated by the same theories as the practice of men's violence against women? What are we willing to accept in the behaviour of other men if the ideology of gendered entitlement and misogyny is not clearly named? The sense of allyship and honesty I believe would be enhanced if men can openly and rigorously reflect on how what men may think is non-violent, non-abusive behaviour may be just the types of behaviours that perpetuate women feeling unsafe and perpetuate a culture of male entitlement.