Prof Deborah Harcourt (PhD)

There have been a number of amazing pieces written this week about the Lehrmann verdict and Bondi Junction murders. But still, we’ve only seen one - ONE - which adequately referenced the role of the mainstream media in the growing epidemic of women’s murders, rapes and disrespect. That piece was written by Julia Baird. A few other writers obliquely referenced the media, but only in passing and not as something we at MFW know is true: harm to women is growing mainly because most commercial media operations not only allow but actively encourage it. Because (as we say all the time) their owners and other senior men feel the #MeToo movement “went too far” so their response is to prevent women from reporting sexual misconduct. Ever. Few women in their right minds would now report a rape after what Brittany Higgins has suffered. Especially if the accused man has any kind of power or money to drag her through both criminal and civil courts for years. In that sense, Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes and those who work for them or have mates who work for them have succeeded (whether all of them meant to or not) in this deadly result of shutting up women. In coming years, that silencing will leave a huge and unforgivable hole where mercy, support and justice for women should be. Women everywhere feel let down not only by the media this week but by governments, too. Governments who rushed to blame the stabbing of a priest on terrorism while steadfastly ignoring the far greater terrorism - men’s terrorism - we saw at Bondi Junction. For those now banging on about mental health without also referencing the way 13 out of 16 victims at Bondi were women: shame on you. Women have mental health issues too, but don’t (or at least, only in vanishingly rare circumstances) murder men. We’ve had platitudes on platitudes from senior male politicians this week. They say “men need to step up” and “let’s teach our sons” without any clue as to how they mean to achieve these aims while they let Murdoch, Stokes and others pump misogyny, hatred and lies out to millions every fucking day. And while several governments have already announced their meetings with religious leaders and intention to ramp up anti-terrorism funding in the wake of the church stabbing, we’ve seen no recent meetings or funding promises relating to increasing women’s safety. Maybe there were, and we missed them. But to be honest we’re not even hoping for meetings or extra funding as solutions now because whatever’s done is useless while the media do nothing about themselves and governments let them get away with it. In addition, governments have now turned their narratives towards failings of social media rather than regular media, despite the fact that @Channel7 was the largest and most influential peddler of misinformation last weekend AND remain the biggest fuckheads in causing shitloads of men to believe women are liars via their eager funding of a rapist. Where are @AlboMP’s words of condemnation for them, and his intention to stop their unrelenting woman-hate? Nah, it’s easier to go after smallish Twitter accounts than the powerful misogynist men he refuses to even notice, much less curb. Bruce Lehrmann may’ve been holding a box of joy last week as he moved house yet again, but there’s no joy in any of this for women. We just get to watch men speak for us and over us, misunderstand us, make promises they won’t keep, issue empty words which mean nothing compared to the 29 women killed this year just for breathing while female … then they even get to abuse us for caring. We see no solution but to damage the media by impacting their profits. They care for nothing but money, so let’s make this about money. Their fucking money. For women and the men who genuinely care about us, our challenge is clear. It’s a huge job but essential: now, more than ever. Because nobody’s coming to save us, so we’ll have to fucking-well save ourselves. #ToYourBrooms