‘Misogynistic massacre’: Sydney Writers’ Festival closing address dedicated to Bondi Junction victims

Australian author and academic Kate Manne dedicated her closing address at the Sydney Writers’ Festival on Sunday about the “future of misogyny” to the victims of violence at Westfield Bondi Junction last month when six were killed.

The now US-based Cornell University professor of philosophy called the deaths of Jade Young, Pikria Darchia, Dawn Singleton, Yixuan Cheng, Ashlee Good and the security guard who tried to intervene, Faraz Tahir, “a horrific misogynistic massacre”.

Author Kate Manne at the Sydney Writers’ Festival at Carriageworks.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

“According to authorities, the killer, Joel Cauchi’s targeting of women was obvious, unmistakable. He also wounded nine women, two men and a nine-month-old girl,” she said.

“Cauchi’s actions fit into a much broader pattern, of men who feel entitled to the social and sexual services of women, and lash out in violence when they are disappointed.

“For the sake of victims, past and present and future, it is important to find our way through the fog and to soberly recognise what happened for what it is: misogyny of a kind that proliferates in our culture.”

Manne, regarded in the US as the “philosopher of the #MeToo movement” after the publication of her first book Down Girl, is the daughter of public intellectual and La Trobe University academic Robert Manne.

The Melbourne-born writer was at the festival to talk about her third book Unshrinking: How to Fight Fatphobia, which examines aspects of misogyny in diet culture.

The feminist author used her closing address to call out “himpathy”, where “men who commit acts of misogynistic violence receive disproportionate and undue sympathy and concern as compared with their female victims”.

“In the immediate aftermath of the Bondi Junction attacks, the police said there was no indication that Cauchi was driven by ideology. This is not only likely false, it is also revealing. Patriarchal norms and expectations are so deeply embedded in Anglo-American and Australian culture that we may fail to even notice their everyday adherence and policing and enforcement,” she told the closing night crowd at Carriageworks.

The week-long celebration of writing, books and ideas heard from a host of authors from around the world including Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry, 38-time novelist Michael Connelly and best-selling author Ann Patchett in conversation with her friend and fellow author Meg Mason.

Actor and author of The Drowning Bryan Brown brought the audience and himself to tears when describing his single mother’s devotion to him and his sister, in conversation with his friend, fellow actor Sam Neill.

Festival CEO Brooke Webb said: “We had 39 international guests, which is back to where we were pre-COVID. We believe 70,000 to 75,000 people attended festival events through a combination of free, digital and ticketed events.”

Artistic director Ann Mossop said that after the overturning of a book ban at Cumberland Council this month, it was timely to hear from Lauren Groff, best-selling author and owner of The Lynx bookstore, which sells banned books in Gainesville, Florida.

“She spoke of 5000 books that have been banned in Florida. It’s so interesting to hear how exercised people were here to prevent the banning of one book by Cumberland Council. It was wonderful to hear her perspective and know we are in a very different place to Florida,” Mossop said.

“Booker winner Paul Lynch spoke about his dark extraordinary book, but it was a conversation that was so lively and engaging, showing something of who he is as a person. It was also encouraging to see how much our audiences are invested in our amazing Australian writers many of whose events were sold out.”

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