One time a few years ago I looked up countries with the highest incidence of rape and was surprised to find Australia very near the top. Now the attorney general, Christian Porter, has been accused by a woman who committed suicide in 2020, alleging that rape occurred in 1988 when she was sixteen years old. More than this one incident, or any one incident however, Australia seems to have come by its reputation as a rape capital legitimately:
Canberra, a manicured capital designed to be set apart from competing states, has long been a boozy playground for men, a threatening environment for women, and a secret society where misdeeds are expected to be kept hidden.
A rape capital with a capital in the capital.
Many advocates for women note that while businesses, universities and other institutions in Australia have tried to get better at dealing with sexual misconduct — partly to protect their own reputations — the government continues to behave as if it were the 1970s.
“As if it were the 1970’s”? A rape capital with a rape government, maybe there’s a Minister of Rape, who knows, inside a rape culture. “Mite, it eyen’t the ‘70’s anymore. Not too much riping now, only adults!”
What the hell is going on? I make no apologies for this stereotyping: Men are the bad gender, the source of violence, a curse on humanity.
