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The hysteria around the issue of domestic violence and violence against women has dominated the Australian political discourse for many years. While of course, everyone agrees that domestic violence is abhorrent the effect of the feminists’ campaign on the issue has led to a destructive gender war with innocent men being smeared as abusers and normal masculine behaviour being dubbed toxic masculinity and a gateway to violence against women.

The feminist lobby has not just captured the media narrative but also our federal and state governments with millions now being allocated to anti-domestic violence campaigns and creating a new domestic violence bureaucracy. Meanwhile, the real facts around family violence have been buried and are only highlighted by men’s rights activists such as Bettina Ardnt. These include that 1 in 3 domestic violence victims are male, women make up the majority of child homicides in Australia and that children are as just as frightened by witnessing domestic violence by their mothers.

No government is more eager to virtue signal on the issue of domestic violence and violence against women than the Daniel Andrews’ Labor Victorian Government. It has already launched the primary school aged Respectful Relationships program which aims to demonize young boys and masculinity while at the same time introducing school children to sexualized content. It has defended this program claiming it was a recommendation of their Royal Commission into Family Violence.

It has now implemented another recommendation from the Commission with the launch of Respect Victoria, a new state government agency dedicated to preventing family violence. Respect Victoria has already received $12 million in state government funding. The Andrews’ government believes that gender inequality is the root cause of family violence. So if an industry does not have enough female employees are they creating a climate for violence against women?

The federal government also has its own Respect website which claims that “Not all disrespect towards women results in violence. But all violence against women starts with disrespectful behaviour”. It urges men to “stop the excuses” and that even stating “boys will be boys” can lead to domestic violence. This probably explains why pyjama manufacturer Peter Alexander pulled a “Boys will be Boys” jumper after a backlash on social media.

One cannot help the scope of these agencies will be expanded following the horrific rape and murder of comedian Eurydice Dixon in inner Melbourne. Her death was blamed on toxic masculinity and Daniel Andrew claimed in a tweet that “women don’t need to change their behaviour. Men do”.

Any advice on helping women to be safe when out at night was deemed to be enabling rape culture. Many thought it was a bit rich of Daniel Andrews to lecture about respect for women since he was happy to see one of his female Ministers Jane Garrett bullied out of her job because she refused to succumb to the demands of Peter Marshall and United Firefighters Union over the future of the state’s Country Fire Authority.

Given that Victorian Government schools are now teaching teenage girls how to send safe sexts to their male counterparts, a move supported by the feminist Greens there is not an entirely consistent approach for creating a culture of respect for women.

The easiest way for a new government agency to demonstrate its commitment to its mission is an advertising awareness campaign. So Respect Victoria has released three Respect Women: Call It Out advertisements that have started airing during programming geared towards men, such as the AFL at a cost of $250,000.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zb2VSd-tas

The first ad features a man with his mates at a restaurant taking a call from his girlfriend Deb, who he calls Deb-shit. During the call he hurls a whole host of cartoonish insults at her about her cooking, refusing to give her more housekeeping money (does the Victorian Government think women receiving housekeeping money is a right?), he then tells her off for speaking over him. After finishing the call he laughs to his mates who being the good male feminists we all should be asking him ‘do you think that’s funny’ and tell him ‘It’s not a joke, man’ to which he then falls silent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34PWhoB8u8s

The second ad is two mates at a barbeque where one starts criticising his wife’s cooking and ironing. The other man then thinks about whether he should say anything given they’ve been mates for 20 years (you would think if he’s known him for 20 years this might not have been the first time he’d made such a remark). Once the wife walks away he says to his mate “You know that’s not okay, right?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ateMHtxXgbQ

The third ad is three blokes getting beers at a bar and one starts talking about how he has the hots for the female bartender saying “I wonder how much she charges? See what’s she’s wearing?” then one of the other mates thinks through whether to say anything before saying “Mate, just don’t do that…You serious? That’s horrible”.

These ads should clearly be insulting to the average Australian male who these types of scenarios would be quite foreign to. Contrary to the feminist narrative Australia men don’t sit around discussing and enjoying how to denigrate and abuse women. The worst part of it is paid for by taxpayers, including working men whose money is going towards this campaign rather than supporting their family. If this is the mindset of Respect Victoria then we will gender relations denigrate even further.

Author Details
Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.
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Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.