FEMINIST activists have failed to remove an Australia Day honour from their one-time poster girl Bettina Arndt, despite powerful backing from media and politicians to do so.
Ms Arndt, who was awarded the Order of Australia honour in January, fell foul of modern feminists after rejecting claims of a university rape culture, saying there was no evidence to support such assertions.
After statistically proving university campuses to be generally safer than society as a whole, violent demonstrators shut-down her 2018 speaking tour at Sydney University.
ANGRY
Ms Arndt was a prominent feminist and sex therapist during the 1970s and 80s. She continues to be a high-profile author and social commentator.
The move to rescind her honour was this week rejected by the Council of the Order of Australia review committee.
“This was an orchestrated campaign that started within hours by campus activists who were angry that I was exposing what they were doing at our universities,” Ms Arndt told Sky News anchor Chris Kenny yesterday.
“They’ve been promoting all this misinformation about me for eight months and the compliant media are totally captured and just churned out all this rubbish without ever looking to see who was doing this and why.
“I’ve been constantly saying and presenting all the information to show the media that these videos they were promoting were carefully edited to make me look really bad.
“Every quote they promoted was misrepresented in some way.
“We are talking about a media that uniformly has been shown to be captured by the feminist narrative.”
Ms Arndt said she felt abandoned by people in positions of power.
“It’s really scary that there was no-one in Australia, in the end, that was prepared to stand up for me.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
“It absolutely shows this is the cancel culture in full force – doing what they do to whoever challenges the views that they’re promoting.”
NSW Liberal Attorney-General Mark Speakman was part of the push against Ms Arndt and formally petitioned the Australia Day Council review committee.
He wrote to the committee in his official capacity saying “the values that underpin Ms Arndt’s statements are not consistent with her retaining her Order of Australia”.
Ms Arndt said Mr Speakman’s actions were misguided.
“He regurgitated all this rubbish about me which had come from the campaign that’s trying to take me out.
“It shows the reach of feminism in our society: major institutions, two attornies-general, the Senate in Australia, numerous prominent people all lined up to condemn me using this misinformation.
“We need to look very carefully at what’s happening to our society. We have ideologues running so many of our major institutions.
TRAUMA
“Where are the advocates for free speech in Australia? It was really scary watching everyone lie down and let the feminists run over me and try to take me out.”
Ms Arndt indicated that, despite her personal trauma, there was a silver lining.
“In many ways I believe the feminists overplayed their hand. Why would they bother if I wasn’t making real inroads into exposing their dangerous narrative and what they are doing in our universities and a lot of our institutions?” she said.
“They are tilting laws to favour women at the expense of men.
“They don’t like the fact that I’m onto something and that the public is listening to me.” PC
Bettina wholly deserves her Order of Australia – and yes Justin, your statement is a tad unfair.
Bettina stood up impressively to promote and protect women’s causes when they needed a strong voice. Now women seem to often have the strongest voice altogether and in many ways the pendulum has swung too far our way.
With the rapid rise and proliferation of the stereotypical dominant, smart woman, men are often made to feel inadequate and diminished, many even fearful. Some find themselves unjustly demonised and even vilified by female harridans, although rarely by those women who have a strong understanding or love for a son, husband, brother, grandfather or other male relative, friend or connection.
I for one am relieved and delighted that a strong female such as Bettina feels the need to use her prodigious mind and skills to speak out for oppressed males.
Bettina is a strong, intelligent lady with resolve – an inspiration and a model for all.
Bettina was the last of the sensible (even likeable) feminists. Her movement, however, has been hijacked by screaming, hate-filled “victims”. Would it be unfair to say she is now reaping what she (unintentionally) sowed all those years ago?