My thoughts around Betina Arndt are surprisingly mixed. Don’t get me wrong- I hold those who defend child molesters in complete contempt. I just wasn’t sure what the best way to respond to the Australia Day Council’s decision to seemingly elevate one of them instead. Much like it’s poorly chosen date, the ‘honours’ awarded on Australia Day have become a divisive phenomenon in themselves. I asked a few years ago, who would actually want to be named Australian of the Year in light of the deluge of negativity recent recipients have received? So I’m a little reticent about being the one criticising a recipient this time around. Yet I am. I also have some reservations about giving greater notoriety and exposure to someone who obviously courts it. I didn’t really know who Betina Arndt was until last week. I vaguely recognised the name from some sensationalist headlines of common conservative talking points in the Murdoch trash and had concluded I didn’t actually want to read anything she had written. The likely result of this furore is that Ms Arndt will be more loathed by many but will also have gained a greater loyalty from the most blinkered and morally flexible corners of the MRA movement, who will forgive anything of someone who attacks feminists. Moreover Scott Morrison would love us to be arguing about men’s rights and feminism (I truly think he is amoral enough to use Australia’s problem with domestic violence for political gain) right now, which dishonest actors could easily conflate the issue to. The more this argument is allowed to be wage, the more distracted we are from the blatant corruption and rorting of sports grants and drought relief funding or from Morrison’s negligent handling of the bushfire crisis.
For all that, this is not a minor issue and it must be called out. Sometimes morality has to take precedence over politics and this is one of those times. Child abuse and those who attempt to enable or downplay it are morally reprehensible and cannot be tolerated, let alone celebrated. So not without minor misgivings, I have joined the chorus of anger at Ms Arndt’s award. Perhaps if enough outrage is felt, then Ms Arndt’s platform will be reduced as the ‘news’ organisations that employ her will begin to see her as toxic (remember what happened to Milo Yiannopolis- what is it with conservatives not being able to take a clear stance against child abuse?), but I’m just not convinced that will happen. Public opinion of John Howard and Tony Abbott in light of their support for convicted pedophile, George Pell, suggests my loathing of child abuse and its enablers is not as widespread as you might think in this country. Time will tell I suppose.
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