This is not the first time Bettina Arndt has given a platform to someone who does not deserve one.
Bettina Arndt has only come onto my radar this week as the woman giving alleged rapist Bruce Lehrmann a platform to tell his story of how he “had his life turned upside down by Brittany Higgin’s rape allegation.” but gosh did I fall down a rabbit hole while reading some of her articles on her website. I cannot tell you how many times I raised my eyebrows or rolled my eyes. This woman really is something else.
Arndt was one of Australia's first practising sex therapists back in the early 1970’s, operating a Sydney clinic that worked mostly with men. Initially, Arndt was a self-proclaimed feminist, but in the mid-1990s her opinions and views changed and she began to advocate for men’s rights. In the years since she has worked extensively in the media, including writing a personal advice column for Cleo, being a guest reporter on Four Corners and regular radio appearances.
In 2020, Arndt was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for “significant service to the community as a social commentator, and to gender equality through advocacy for men.” in the Australia Day honours. Less than a month later there was an outpouring of calls for that honour to be revoked after she made comments in relation to the death of the Clarke family. In case you have forgotten - on the 19th of February 2020 Rowan Baxter poured petrol through the interior of a car occupied by his estranged wife Hannah Clarke and their three children, before setting it on fire. Hannah was pulled from the car by bystanders, who were also actively stopped by Baxter when they tried to put out the fire. Baxter stabbed himself to death, their three children burned in the fire and Hannah Clarke died that evening in hospital with 97% burns to her body.
Queensland Police Officer Mark Thompson made a comment that the crime would be investigated with an “open mind” and asking “Is this an issue of a women suffering significant domestic violence” or “is it an instance of a husband being driven too far by issues he’s suffered by certain circumstances into committing acts of this form?”
While many people looked at those comments with disgust that there was a suggestion that there could be a justifiable excuse for murdering your wife and three children, Arndt had a different view. View her tweets below.
Now, let me share some of her other views with you.
When the new laws that will make coercive control and stealing a criminal offence in 2025 were announced, this is what she had to say: “Meanwhile in Australia, a country controlled by some of the worlds most powerful feminists, we are preparing for the next massive attack on men.” That “massive attack” being the coercive control laws.
Her view on violence protection orders: “With so many violence orders now based on false accusations used in family law battles, it’s nonsensical to suggest breaches tell us anything about the deterrent effect of a violence order, given that breaches are often set up as part of the false accuser’s strategy. Plus, there’s the fact that we’re often not talking about physical violence, with violence orders now issued for emotional abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, spiritual abuse… the list goes on. The shield is often used to protect a woman’s hurt feelings rather than keeping her safe.”
Arndt is a big supporter of Bruce Lehrmann, obviously, and has made that support very known, as well as her disgust of Brittany Higgins. Just one of her comments on such includes Higgins being “a lying, scheming bimbo who destroyed a man’s life to save her career and conned her way into $3 million compensation payout, all taxpayer’s money.”
And when it was revealed that Lehrmann was being accused on non-consensual sex by another woman in Toowoomba? “Another gold-digger goes after Bruce Lehrmann.”
While we’re talking about Brittany Higgins, she was also brought into this comment about the Opposition: “Why would we trust them? We watched as Malcolm Turnbull and then Scott Morrison sold men out at every possible opportunity. Pandered to the women’s vote, pouring more money into the domestic violence rivers of gold, denouncing toxic masculinity, failing to defend men against false allegations, apologising to Brittany Higgins. The list goes on.”
Mining giant BHP have said many times that they are actively working to employ more women in their workforce and have their sights set on 50%, and what did Arndt have to say to that? “Women are lining up to come on board. Take a look at this lot, all real Australian women who have sought work through websites advertising mining jobs in recent weeks. An unlikely backbone of our future mining industry?”
BUT she went one step further here. She accompanied this comment with multiple images of women who actually work for BHP, images I assume she has taken from their social media. In all the photos the women are dressed nicely, they have their hair and makeup done, as if to say that these women, because of how they look, are “an unlikely backbone of our future mining industry.”
Further into that article, she makes these comments: “What happens if you push thousands of young women into a very traditional male workforce? Pretty naturally the industry has been flooded with reports of men behaving badly. We’re currently seeing a huge campaign to change the mining culture “to keep women safe”, after the usual cooked-up “survey” showed heaps of predatory male behaviour, as usual mainly unwanted staring and the like. The result is they are wheeling out rape kits at mine sites, setting up a FIFO sex offenders register, and even introducing robotic dogs at Gina Reinhart’s Roy Hill mine for surveillance of misbehaving me.”
What about this description of Mia Freedman? “the young media personality who sees everything through the blinkered lens of an ideologue, absolutely sure her view of the world is the right one. Women like her are everywhere and never shut up.”
In 2017 she interviewed Nicholaas Bester, a convicted paedophile who was jailed for repeatedly raping his 15-year-old student when he was 58 years old. She entitled the interview “Feminists persecute disgraced teacher”. In the video, she made many dismaying comments such as that young women needed to “behave sensibly and not exploit their seductive power to ruin the lives of men.”
Arndt gave this man a platform to blame his victim for his behaviours.
While her Order of Australia says that she has made contributions to “gender equity”, I refute that entirely. She instead promotes the idea that to be truly gender equal is to be anti-men.
I have so many thoughts about this woman. Her comments are damaging. In so many cases she is diminishing the experiences that women have of family and sexual violence. She promotes division, she continually makes it men vs. women. She continually weakens the courage and the motivation of survivors to report their abusers and share their experiences.
She continually gives people a platform when they should not be given one. And now she is doing the same to Bruce Lehrmann, an alleged rapist.
Let me leave you with a final comment from her, something that really sums it all up.
“Women seem endlessly to covet things that give men a thrill. They love to take over activities previously reserved for males – determined that men shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy anything that was traditionally their territory. Everywhere there are women making the case that men should be forced to share their toys.”
