The role of “culture” in male violence toward women is often invoked in the media, and rarely examined or explained. There are, apparently, nebulous but very real elements of our culture that encourage male violence, and encourage its direction toward women. We can argue over what they are, but everyone agrees there’s something “cultural” going on.
As with the most recent wave of migrants getting the blame for social ills, it’s usually new arrivals in culture that cop the blame for whatever we want to stop. Reading the bible in your own language (or reading at all). The novel. The waltz. Jazz. Radio. Movies. Television. Rock’n’roll. Video games. The internet. Social media. Big tech. All have been blamed for causing significant social ills, whether that be youth suicide, mental health problems, substance abuse, crime or violence against women. It’s been happening since printing was invented, and probably before then as well.
Cultural institutions already embedded in society are happy to play the game of pinning responsibility on the newcomer, given new forms of media and new types of content threaten them and their business model. And so it’s proving now, with the corporate media leading the charge against social media, big tech companies and the internet generally for causing or contributing to terrorism and male violence.
That we had much more terrorism and violence before there was an internet is just one inconvenient data point of many in this campaign by the media against a rival.
If there is a cultural component of male violence, it’s more likely to be found in well-established cultural institutions as much as, or more so than, any recent arrival. Which makes the corporate media a prime candidate for analysis.
Take, for instance, this piece at The Nightly by Chris Dore, attacking Anthony Albanese for his behaviour at a domestic violence rally, accusing him of gaslighting and of being unfit to be prime minister.
If The Nightly, funded by Kerry Stokes and fossil fuel interests and designed to shore up Stokes’ political influence as that of the Seven Network wanes, wants to publish anti-Labor screeds, half their luck. It’s their money. But Chris Dore suddenly and dramatically left The Australian in 2022 after making lewd comments to a woman at a News Corp event in the United States. According to The Guardian, “senior executives at News Corp had witnessed highly inappropriate, drunken behaviour by Dore, long before his attendance at a party at Laguna Beach which the Guardian understands led to him losing his job”. The Guardian also identified him as the “incoherently drunk” guest at a function held by then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2016 who launched “a tirade of drunken abuse”.
Dore hasn’t merely found a gig with Kerry Stokes, he’s now been promoted to editor in chief of The West Australian — the in-house newsletter of the mining lobby that controls Western Australia — following the shift of predecessor Anthony De Ceglie to run Seven News in Sydney.
The massive recent turnover at Seven is due to the exposure of a depraved culture of news and current affairs as a result of the network’s extensive support for the rapist Bruce Lehrmann. But prior to giving a rapist a platform to defend himself at a scandal-plagued current affairs show, Seven was best known for employing and supporting Ben Roberts-Smith, found by the Federal Court to have been “complicit in and responsible for the murder” of three people while serving in Afghanistan.
War crimes. Rape. Drunken tirades and lewd comments. You want to see male violence and aggression in the media? Switch over to Seven.
Which prompts the question: how the hell does Chris Dore and anyone employed by Kerry Stokes have any right to lecture anyone about male violence?
All workplaces, no matter which industry, whether it’s the media, politics, finance or anything else, have male staff who behave badly toward women, from inappropriate comments to sexual harassment through to crimes such as sexual assault and even homicide. It is how those workplaces deal with those men, and protect their staff, that is key. Most large corporations now have far less tolerance of such behaviour, and even consensual relationships between CEOs and more junior staff have become the basis for dismissal at large firms. It is a change that Australian politics lags far behind on. It is also a change that large media companies plainly struggle with. At least News Corp, after years of promoting Dore, eventually let him go. Seven, however, remains mired in a very dark age.
At The Australian, there’s also been no lack of enthusiasm for lecturing the prime minister about how to respond to male violence. But does The Australian come to the issue with clean hands? Hardly. The Australian has been the lead newspaper outlet in trying to destroy Brittany Higgins and backing Lehrmann, including by suggesting Higgins should be investigated for acting corruptly even after the Federal Court found she had been raped, and using material such as private text messages wrongfully shared by Lehrmann. And Higgins is hardly the first victim of News Corp’s relentless campaigning. The company’s treatment of Grace Tame has been particularly vile.
The Australian’s campaign against Higgins is aimed at making an example of her for any woman who might embarrass the Liberal Party by revealing sexual assault or harassment by Liberal politicians. Like Seven, News Corp engages in campaigns in the service of covering up male violence and predation. That anyone at The Australian even thinks for a moment that outlet has any right to lecture anyone about male violence is extraordinary.
You want to talk about culture and male violence? It starts with two of our biggest media companies.
If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
For counselling, advice and support for men in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania who have anger, relationship or parenting issues, call the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491. Men in WA can contact the Men’s Domestic Violence Helpline on 1800 000 599.
