Bettina Arndt hits back at ’poisonous’ side of feminism as backlash grows against her Australia Day honour

Bettina Arndt has hit back at the feminist campaign being waged against her as the backlash to her Australia Day honour grows.

Bettina Arndt has hit back at critics of her Australia Day honour and says it shows the “poisonous” side of modern feminism.

Ms Arndt has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) — Australia’s third-highest civic honour — for striving to achieve “gender equity through advocacy for men”.

But the announcement has been greeted with shock and was described as “vile” by one commentator.

A change.org petition calling for her to be stripped of the honour has more than 4000 signatures, and former Australian of the Year Rosie Batty said she felt “sickened” by the award.

“My immediate response is one of utter incredulity. I feel sickened. It makes me question the legitimacy of the awards system in the entirety across the spectrum,” Ms Batty said.

Ms Arndt, who is a former sex therapist and commentator, caused outrage when she interviewed convicted sex offender Nicolas Bester in 2018.

Bester spent more than two years in jail for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old student while he was a maths teacher at the elite St Michael’s Collegiate girls school in Hobart.

In footage of the interview, Ms Arndt notes that evidence of the girl’s “sexually provocative behaviour” was presented to the judge.

Footage of Bettina Arndt interviewing Nicolas Bester.

“The question that remains for me is whether there’s any room for this conversation, for talking to young people, particularly girls about behaving sensibly and not exploiting their seductive power to ruin the lives of men,” she said.

Ms Arndt told Studio 10 this morning that only selected comments from that interview were being used as part of a campaign against her, and that she had also talked to Bester about how serious his crime was.

Bettina Arndt (centre) on Studio 10.

She said she got involved with Bester’s case because he was being targeted by feminists, who were trying to stop him from doing a PhD at the University of Tasmania, after he had been released from prison and served his sentence.

When Ms Arndt was asked whether she understood why some people may be upset with her receiving an AM, she said: “Certainly the issue with the way the award was worded would be controversial.”

She said many feminists think they own the idea of gender equity, which to them is all about promoting women at the expense of men.

“So I was very pleased that they described my award as gender equity through advocacy for men, which is what I’m doing,” she said.

“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.

“What this is showing is the poisonous side of modern feminism and their determination to shut down anyone who challenges the orthodoxy.”

Criticism is growing over Bettina Arndt’s Australia Day honour.

However, when one of the panellists pointed out Ms Arndt’s comments about the student Grace Tame — who fought a legal battle last year to be able to speak publicly about the case — had “devastated her”, Ms Arndt said she had apologised.

“I can understand her point of view and I have apologised for the tone of some of that interview,” Ms Arndt said. “But I don’t apologise for addressing the issue of whether people who serve their crime should be allowed to get on with their lives.”

She also acknowledged that Bester had since been locked up again for publishing graphic and lurid descriptions of the offences he committed against Ms Tame, bragging that the sexual abuse had been “awesome”.

“He stupidly got involved in a fight on social media where he talked about the victim and he shouldn’t have done that,” Ms Arndt said.

She said she strongly condemned any sexual offences against men or women.

“I haven’t always got it right — you can’t talk for 45 years on the media and not get some things wrong.”