Use of Eurydice Dixon’s murder by ideologues to denigrate all men is reprehensible

Clementine Ford, left, Benjamin Law, centre, and Jenna Price, right.

What happened in the aftermath of the rape and murder of Victorian woman Eurydice Dixon last week is testament to the adage these crimes bring out the best and worst in people. Within hours police had arrested the alleged offender. On Monday night thousands of Melbournians gathered in a candlelight vigil at the scene of her death to honour the memory of the young woman most of them had never known.

Unfortunately it also gave rise to repugnant behaviour, as demonstrated by those who vandalised Eurydice’s makeshift memorial. Not quite as despicable, but still reprehensible, is the haste with which ideologues, opportunists, and those obsessed with self-promotion seized on the crime for their own agenda.

“If my daughter is ever murdered, I already know who is going to kill her. A man,” wrote Fairfax columnist Phil Barker this week. “The answer is, simply, there’s something profoundly wrong with men.” You may have read about Barker in this column before. Last year he declared he was on the “far left” as a result of writing about men’s issues, and said he was feeling “exultation and gloating” in the wake of the #MeToo movement. “Some innocent men are going to get shot in the head,” he observed dismissively. “So be it.” If we were to use Barker as the sole subject, then yes, we would definitely conclude there is something profoundly wrong with men.

“Perhaps any study of Western Civilisation could examine how and why violence against women is such an integral and accepted part of it,” tweeted ABC newsreader Juanita Phillips.

Perhaps any study of Western Civilisation could examine how and why violence against women is such an integral and accepted part of it #EurydiceDixon

— Juanita Phillips (@Juanita_Phillip) June 16, 2018

Never let it be said partiality and laughable false premises are impediments to the art of pious sneering. What does it say of her that she uses the murder of a young woman to make contemptuous remarks about the Ramsay Centre’s proposed funding of a degree in Western civilisation?

“Hey, nice guy,” wrote Fairfax columnist Clementine Ford this week in typical belligerent fashion, “What do you actually do to be this famed #notallman? Do you speak out against your friends and colleagues when they harass or abuse women?” This, from the same person who on ABC television last year shamelessly called Daily Telegraph columnist Miranda Devine a “c**t”?

“Do you insist on carrying 50 per cent of the domestic workload at home, and track whether or not this is actually happening,” she continued. “Do you do your equal share of the parenting?” How you can segue from the subject of murder to haranguing men for being remiss in housework or parenting I have no idea. But these crude browbeating tactics are effective. If a man does not acquiesce in ultra-feminist demands, he must be complicit in misogyny. You know, the ‘You are either with us or against us’ argument. In fairness I should point out #notallfeminists are like Ford.

Speaking on Tuesday, Victoria’s Police Minister Lisa Neville said there were “underlying issues” concerning men’s behaviour towards women that needed to be addressed. She is right. But on that note, did Neville ever protest her party’s treatment of her former Cabinet colleague and emergency services minister Jane Garrett? In her dealings with the militant United Firefighters Union, Garrett’s position was a difficult one given the perception that Premier Daniel Andrews was beholden to UFU secretary Peter Marshall. In 2016 Garrett alleged Marshall had “threatened to put an axe” through her head — a claim he strongly denied. She later resigned from Cabinet after it agreed to support the UFU’s move for more control over the Country Fire Authority.

Andrews later claimed he had not been aware of this allegation, despite a leaked memo from one his advisors concerning Marshall’s alleged behaviour. Just this week Andrews tweeted that the “culture of violence against women…has no place anywhere” and “men…need to change their behaviour”.

I saw thousands of people at Princes Park tonight, and I know each and every one of them were utterly determined to end a culture of violence against women.
It has no place here.
It has no place anywhere.

— Daniel Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) June 18, 2018

Perhaps he could start by apologising to Garrett for not sooner acknowledging what was a serious allegation.

“Now is the time to stop making excuses for men, to stop saying boys will be boys,” wrote Fairfax columnist and University of Technology Sydney lecturer Jenna Price this week. “From this moment on, say boys must be decent human beings.” She is one of the many feminist commentators who conflate aberrant human behaviour with masculinity. Consider this for example.

“Some women have described this hateful male behaviour as ‘toxic masculinity’, but you won’t get out of it that easily with my permission,” wrote Price in 2016. “Toxic masculinity makes it sound like there is some other kind, along the lines of the ‘not all men’ argument.” If that is not a case of misandry I do not know what is. She is a co-founder of the movement ‘Destroy the Joint’, which calls for “gender equality” and “civil discourse”.

‘’This is about feminism, and this is about putting the idea out there that women need to be treated decently,’’ she said in 2012. Let’s compare Price’s principles with something she wrote about an incident involving then prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2009.

“Which brings me to the poor young poppet who was shouted at when Kevin Rudd allegedly lost his temper when he was not provided with the right food on a Royal Australian Air Force flight earlier this year,” she wrote. “Now hands up if you would like to have a sharp talking to the young flight attendant who burst into tears when the Prime Minister reprimanded her for not providing him with the right meal. For God’s sake woman, get a grip.”

Now hands up if you think Price is guilty of gross hypocrisy. The power imbalance between the country’s most powerful man and a 23-year-old female flight attendant is enormous, and Rudd’s behaviour was an act of bullying, not to mention an early indicator of the true Kevin. “I quite like the fact that he has chewed up countless members of staff during his time in office,” she wrote admiringly, which gives you an inkling into Price’s judgement.

To put her defence of Rudd in perspective: this purported feminist did not just make excuses for a powerful man abusing a woman for not serving a meal to his liking, but Price also used sexist language and stereotypes to denigrate the complainant. “I’d quite like to punish the person who thought it was worth distracting the nation’s collective consciousness with an anecdote about a weeping hostie,” she wrote. How does that sit alongside Price’s proclamation that “women need to be treated decently”?

Similarly, screenwriter, author and pompous moraliser Benjamin Law was his sanctimonious best this week. “If you’re a man who’s been tweeting #NotAllMen and whataboutery into women’s timelines this week, congratulations on not being a murderer and instead proving you’re a deadshit, well done,” he tweeted.

If you’re a man who’s been tweeting #NotAllMen and whataboutery into women’s timelines this week, congratulations on not being a murderer and instead proving you’re a deadshit, well done.

— Benjamin Law (@mrbenjaminlaw) June 16, 2018

Let’s remind Law that in 2011 he, similar to Ford, publicly referred to Devine as a “snide c*** from hell”. Who was he labelling a “deadshit”?

On the subject of Eurydice’s murder, the founder and CEO of the Melbourne-based Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Kon Karapanagiotidis, tweeted his condemnation of “rape culture & patriarchal society”.

We should not be worried about what time women are walking alone, what they are wearing or how much they’ve drunk & instead be worried about the rape culture & patriarchal society that we have that raises & socialises men to think they are entitled to women’s bodies.

— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) June 14, 2018

Aside from raising awareness about his organisation, he uses his Twitter account primarily for two reasons: first, to remind people he is a recipient of the Order of Australia who has six university degrees (including three masters); and secondly, to flaunt his feminist credentials by denouncing “traditional’’ masculinity.

Yet the normally long-winded and self-promoting Karapanagiotidis was uncharacteristically quiet two years ago when The Age detailed complaints by numerous former staff about bullying and a “toxic” work environment at the ASRC. Six of the seven directors quit in 2015; one of them successfully lodged a claim for stress and anxiety in the course of her employment. Four of the former directors co-signed a letter to the ASRC board which read in part “We are greatly concerned about our safety and wellbeing, and that of our staff, due to the unknown response from an increasingly volatile CEO.”

The ASRC board said in response that its own investigation found “no basis” to the claims, which Karapanagiotidis is understood to have denied. He did not respond to questions when The Age contacted him. But leaving aside whether or not the allegations had substance, it grates no end that a pompous windbag who incessantly demands men be accountable was silent when his behaviour was questioned.

By all means use Eurydice’s murder to denounce men who commit violence against women. But remember the #metoo movement is not all about you and your personal agendas. Using these tragedies to denigrate all men is a despicable distraction, regardless of whether it is for pushing a bigoted ideology, or for promoting your virtue. The louder you subject others to your vitriol, the more you invite scrutiny as to whether your own conduct is consistent with the standards you demand of others.