New Year’s message from Bettina Arndt
 
I wish I had a dollar for every letter I have received from an Australian man congratulating me for daring to write about what’s happening to men in this country. I’ve written about issue after issue where men are being done over: the denial of women’s role in domestic violence; the beat-up over sexual harassment; the increasingly anti-male rape laws; the scandal over shonky research being used to deny fathers overnight care of young children after marital separation. The list goes on.
 
My correspondents claim they wouldn’t dare speak out about these issues for fear they will be howled down. That’s the great irony. The men who are claimed to still rule our world are too frightened to stand up for themselves. Well, now there are things you can do to help change the debate in this country.
 
This year an important international conference on men’s issues will be held in Brisbane on June 9-11. See more information here:  http://icmi.info/ . Some of the great international speakers coming to that event are bound to shake things up – I’ll write more about them in the future but they include Erin Pizzey and Karen Straughan. (https://www.youtube.com/user/girlwriteswhat) It’s important we get people to sign up soon to ensure the conference is a success. So please spread the word.
 
But there’s another issue where we need you all to get on board. Last October I wrote in The Australian about a documentary called The Red Pill which was to have been screened by Palace Cinemas that month in Melbourne. Unfortunately the Palace owner caved into pressure from an anti-male lobby group and ended up cancelling the screening – the only place in the world where this happened. See my blog…http://www.bettinaarndt.com.au/news/the-red-pill-2/
 
The Red Pill was made by a well-known feminist filmmaker, Cassie Jaye, who took a good look at some of the men’s issues – thinking she was going to send up men’s rights groups – and ended up concluding there are serious issues that are impacting on men and that feminists are behaving badly in shutting down proper debate on these topic. The Melbourne screening ended up taking place as a result of crowdfunding, which attracted a huge response from people offended by the idea that in a free country like Australia it is possible for such a small lobby group to determine what the rest of us are allowed to see.
 
See Cassie Jaye’s interview with Andrew Bolt on Sky News. http://www.bettinaarndt.com.au/news/time-mens-issues-agenda/#foobox-1/1/xb0NOcWv4cE
 
Since then the lobby groups have managed to stop another viewing in Sydney.
 
Now a new one is planned for Brisbane on January 14 : https://www.facebook.com/events/377824965903301/?active_tab=about
 
But lobby groups are working hard to close that down too. See here, a typical article which misrepresents the contents of the movie, falsely attributing misogynist quotes to the men’s rights activists interviewed in the movie. http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/12/29/secret-brisbane-screening-for-divisive-mens-rights-doco-the-r/.
 
We have to stop this happening. Just think about it – here’s a movie about the unfairness of feminist activists stopping public discussion over important issues in men’s lives and we are allowing them to get away with preventing Australian audiences even seeing the documentary.
 
You can help stop this madness by exposing what is going on here. We need you all to ensure this Brisbane screening of The Red Pill is a success by making sure people book in and come along to see it.
 
Can you please post information about what is happening here everywhere you can think to do so – on facebook, twitter, send messages to your email contacts, ring up radio stations, write letters to newspapers, post comments on line. The reason the activists are getting away with closing down these events is people aren’t aware of what is going on.
 
Let’s make 2017 the year we stopped complaining about anti-male treatment and actually did something about it. Promoting The Red Pill is a great place to start. And don’t forget to book in for the men’s issues conference in June.