Another reason to ditch the G-G
The Institute of Criminology is bitterly regretting its invitation to the governor-general, Bill Hayden, to open its national conference on violence last week. In a few ignorant words, Hayden managed to skew coverage of the event away from the results of years of painstaking research by the institute and onto his own personal and uninformed attack on feminists.
Amongst the pearls which fell from Hayden's lips during his speech was the assertion that feminist campaigns such as Reclaim the Night are "downright dangerous" because they encourage women to expect to be able to walk in dangerous areas at any time of the day or night. He also railed against the media, with special reference to a Melbourne Age feature entitled "The War Against Women", for what he called an "epidemic of journalistic hysteria" over violence against women.
"To see violence ... in such simplistic terms as a 'war against women' is to distort the reality. Men, too, are victims", he said. "Women, too, are perpetrators."
The work of the Institute of Criminology, it may be argued, has been an important factor in the growing community awareness of the problem of violence in Australia, especially violence against women. Last year the institute's conference on violence made headlines with the news that Australia is one of the most violent societies in the world, and evidence was produced correlating this finding with the extreme levels of gender stereotyping, including violence as a part of the traditional Australian macho ethos.
This year the release of Dr Patricia Easteal's important and groundbreaking study on spouse homicide in Australia, "Killing the Beloved" was overshadowed by the galumphing Bill Hayden. Contrary to Hayden's preferred version of reality, Easteal's study proves gender to be an enormous factor in the ultimate act of violence — murder.
The institute put out a statement following
Hayden's address condemning his remarks as "anti-feminist and incorrectly gender-neutral".
"Overwhelmingly, the perpetrators of violence against women, children and men are men", it pointed out. "We regret that a number of prominent speakers at the conference have failed to understand the fundamental realities of violence."
Moral: never open a conference on violence with a speech by an ex-cop.
By Karen Fredericks