Untethered: Confronting Silence on Palestine and Men's Violence Against Women

Speaking with conviction has always been my approach, especially when discussing topics that many shy away from. For this episode of Untethered, I'm going solo to talk about the hypocrisy of those suddenly speaking up about men's violence against women while remaining silent on the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

This dialogue is more than just talk; it's a call to action—a challenge to examine the heavy cost of true change. As we consider the complexities of advocating for justice and liberation, I dissect the interplay of capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy and how these systems of oppression often silence the most critical voices. This episode is an invitation to reflect on our collective responsibilities and the sacrifices demanded in the pursuit of a more equitable world. It's time to weigh the importance of our humanity against the comfort of staying silent, and I'm here to guide that introspection. Join me, and let's dare to envision and fight for the change we so desperately need.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Untethered with me, your host, clementine Ford. Now, if you've been listening to Untethered for a while, you'll know that I interview people every week. I'm going to do something different today. Don't worry, I'm not planning on getting rid of the guest interviews completely. I love speaking to guests and I love reading their cards, but one of the reasons why I started Untethered was because I wanted a place to share my unfiltered, uncensored and yes, untethered views.

Speaker 1: 0:29

I am a very strong-minded person. I have lost jobs in the past because of that. I obviously lost my Nova podcast last year because of my untethered views about Palestine, so this is a continuation of that. I would love to have a space where I can speak freely about the things that I care about and the political moments and social moments and cultural moments that I'm passionate about. I would love to also reintroduce some kind of formula, like I was doing with Dear Clementine at Nova, where, instead of necessarily answering your questions about your personal lives although I'm very happy to do that I can receive questions for you on other topics that you would like explored, like this, where I can share my own views and my own research and my own findings. If you have a question about any topic that you would like me to address, then you can email me on clementineford at gmailcom and I will very happily look at it, and you may even be featured as a question on Untethered in the future.

Speaker 1: 1:31

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Speaker 1: 2:11

I'm very lucky to work with amazing women run businesses, and this episode is brought to you by Beyond Rest in Moonee Ponds, where I am a frequent visitor. I do my floating there, my infrared saunas and generally just love Mary, the owner and operator. So if you go to Beyond Rest in Moonee Ponds and mention Untethered, you will get a 10% discount off your first treatment. So thanks very much, beyond Rest Love having you here. For now I will get to this week's episode of Untethered, which is me speaking freely about cowardice, palestine, what we choose as people to care about and our own responsibilities as humans to step up. I hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 2:49

I'm recording today on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation and remember, wherever you are know whose land, to be clear that I believe it should get attention. But I have seen more headlines internationally written about and more op-eds and videos made about the massacre in Bondi and what it says about misogyny and what it says about attacks on women and the lack of action on attacks on women. I have seen more headlines written about that since Saturday than I have seen pretty much on any of the massacres of Palestinian people, but especially this one that happened on Tuesday, a massacre in which 11 children who were targeted by an Israeli missile in a park were killed. Can you imagine if your child was targeted in a park? I'm frustrated as someone who has spent my entire adult career writing about men's violence against women, calling it men's violence against women, being discredited because of the language that I use, being abused, being targeted by the right-wing press and sometimes the mainstream press, which these days it's basically the same thing.

Speaker 1: 4:34

I am frustrated, firstly, that we haven't moved forward when it comes to addressing men's violence against women, calling it terrorism. I mean, I've written so many articles about that and once again this week I'm seeing you know, posturing about why do we not call it terrorism yet? Like no fucking shit. Been asking these questions for years. But again, all of these women who suddenly have something to say about men's violence against women and the terrorist war on women where are you?

Speaker 1: 5:09

On Palestine, misogynistic individual with additional mental health problems but people with mental health issues in the main don't attack others, so that distinction needs to be made. But clearly, a man who had a problem with women and went on this terrorist rampage and yes, we can talk about how no one calls violence against women perpetrated by men terrorism, even though it is, because we all live in fucking terror of it every day of our lives. Imagine if this, as an act that killed six people and injured dozens more. Imagine that this were being upheld by governments around the world who were also saying well, he has a right to defend himself from women. Imagine for a moment that the horrific violence that was perpetrated in Bondi Junction on Saturday, where a deeply misogynistic individual with additional mental health problems but people with mental health issues in the main don't attack others, so that distinction needs to be made but clearly, a man who had a problem with women and went on this terrorist rampage and, yes, we can talk about how no one calls violence against women perpetrated by men terrorism, even though it is, because we all live in fucking terror of it every day of our lives. Imagine if this, as an act that killed six people and injured dozens more, imagine that this were being upheld by governments around the world who were also saying well, he has a right to defend himself from women. Imagine if, even as you saw more and more attacks perpetrated against women in this fashion, as they became more brazen within being excused, as they became more defended, as they became less concealed, imagine you still had governments and men and their female supporters because they'd call them females saying well, they have a right to defend themselves.

Speaker 1: 7:41

Women are very bad to men and men have a right. They've had their dignity taken from them. They've had their you know their purpose for being taken from them. Feminism is the real scourge. Feminism is the problem. They have a right to defend themselves. So I don't know what the problem is. And if you speak out against it, you are a misandrist and you should go to jail. And imagine if, as part of those attacks that were being condoned and funded at this point by numerous governments around the world, defended in the media, debated on television news, shows in which any critics of men's behaviour within this were howled down and portrayed as the true villains, the real hateful terrorists. Imagine if, as a progression of that, more and more parks were attacked, more and more women in shopping centres, children were being maimed, children were having to bury their mothers, all in service of men defending themselves from feminism's great attack on them. That is how ludicrous this is, and I get that on some level.

Speaker 1: 9:10

The attack in Bondi Junction feels very close to home for women here. But let's be real. It feels close to home for a particular kind of woman, a woman like me who in almost every other circumstance doesn't have to worry about being killed by a bomb, doesn't have to worry about being arrested on a train for, you know, having had too many drinks and fallen asleep and then killed in custody, as happens to so many Aboriginal people in this country Doesn't have to worry about having her children arrested, as happens predominantly to Aboriginal children. Doesn't have to worry about having her children taken away from her, as happens predominantly to Aboriginal women. We see things like this as the threat and that's why we pay attention. And this is the problem, because if the only women that we're paying attention to and I'm speaking now directly to the majority of my audience, which is women who are like me if the only women that we pay attention to are the ones who seem like us, then we are demonstrating that our practicing of feminism, our practicing of humanity and the fight for human rights and women's rights and children's rights extends only to the degree that we see ourselves impacted by attacks on our human rights and attacks on our rights as women, that essentially, we're happy for everything else to occur. We wouldn't say that we're happy, but we're just content to live in ignorance and in that and in inactivity, because it's a bit too hard to care, isn't it? But the moment that something happens where we think that could have been me. That's when we step up.

Speaker 1: 11:05

And the really chilling thing about that, I think, is that people who live that way feel that way in part because we've been conditioned into a lack of care for others, but also because it seems to them more of a random act of violence that if a middle to upper class white lady can go to Bondi Junction to do her shopping at Country Road on the weekend or whatever, and risk being attacked and perhaps killed by a knife wielding misogynist, well gosh, that could happen to anybody, that could happen to any one of us. That really feels like a very scary, particularly dangerous attack. But you know, there's women over there in those brown Arab countries. It's like it's just kind of the region is just, they're just used to it, so it's not really that big a deal, right, like the fact that indiscriminate violence, or rather unpredictable, unexpected acts of terrorist violence against women are now happening to us. That somehow makes it really serious because we couldn't have predicted this. No, we're not living in a war zone. We're not used to our children being attacked like to me.

Speaker 1: 12:36

That is what is underpinning this and that's what makes it particularly grotesque, because I have seen a particular genre of woman in australia and internationally who's commented on this speak about this topic with horrified gasps and a demand for action, silent, silent on a genocide that has killed over 35,000 people and over 14,500 children. And those same women will berate men in this country, as we should, by the way. But those same women will berate men in this country, as we should, by the way. But those same women will berate men in this country for not caring, for not stepping up and saying something, for not putting themselves in the line of you know, verbal fire for expressing their views. Those same women will demand that men who claim to not know much about it or not want to get involved, but they educate themselves, that they step up, because this is, this is a human problem. We all need to be active. This is a men's problem. We need to do something about it.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Well, palestine is a fucking imperialist's problem, and we are all imperialists, we all live in an imperialist country. If you're a white person in this country, then then you have a colonial history of violence. You are racist. I am racist because we've been conditioned as white people into the theology of white supremacy. So we have to educate ourselves, because that same rage that you might be feeling as a woman in this country, that we are still here seeing women being killed week after week because of men's violence, because of the scourge of misogyny and it being insufficiently handled, if not mocked, by members of our community.

Speaker 1: 14:22

That same rage that you feel about that, magnify that by 10,000. In fact, magnify that by 35,000 for the people in Palestine, who are filled with rage and despair and agony at the lack of interest that is being shown by people in the countries that are paying Israel to bomb them. That is the despair that they feel. If you can feel it for yourself in Australia, where you don't have to worry about your children being murdered in a fucking park by a drone strike, then feel it for them. We aren't more important than Palestinian women. Our children are not more valuable than Palestinian women. Our children are not more valuable than Palestinian children. And our menfolk, the good ones who so many women bend over backwards to defend and who we are appealing to here to care about what is happening to women, have actually shown themselves to be less important and valuable than the men in Palestine who are working. We see them in videos working so hard every day to rescue people from beneath rubble to feed their families, to fight back against a system of oppression and occupation that has diminished a people, robbed them of their land, their dignity, their culture for almost a century now. We are not more important than them, and as much as I hate the fucking term content creator, this is for the content creators, particularly.

Speaker 1: 16:09

If you can summon the words and the rage and the perfect Canva template to put together your little hot take on men's violence against women in Australia and what should be done about it and the lack of what's being done about it, and feel articulate enough to say something on that matter, then trust me, you have the fucking capacity to say something about Palestine. And the fact that you haven't at this point still almost seven months in, is not an indicator that you just don't know enough about it, because you've also had seven months to educate yourself and you shouldn't know. You shouldn't need to be an expert in fucking geopolitics to know that what is happening is wrong. And it's not that you're scared of putting people off from your content, which is normally a lie, because you don't care about that with this. It's because you are a coward and you're selfish. You're a selfish coward. You're selfish because if it ain't happening to you then you're not going to spend the energy worrying about it. And you're a coward because you know on some level that it comes with risk. And the fact that it comes with risk alone should tell you why it's so important to speak up about.

Speaker 1: 17:22

It has been risky for years to speak up about men's violence against women Trust me, I have the emails in my inbox to prove it but people do it anyway. And before the age of the internet, it was risky to speak up about it because the risk of physical response from the cops was huge. Do you think that systems of change have come about because people nicely moved into them? How many people in the history of LGBTQIA liberation were threatened by, sometimes killed, even by cops and certainly by civilians? Everything comes with a risk if it's worth it.

Speaker 1: 18:00

So what are you doing? Protecting your brand deals, protecting your follower count? You don't have arguments in your comments threads. You don't want people to accuse you of things. Get over it Like. If you are still concerned, 35,000 slaughtered Palestinians in 14,500 slaughtered children, children being murdered now in parks. If you are still concerned with whether or not speaking up for Palestine and being a conspirator, a co-conspirator with Palestinians in their unending, just awe-inspiring quest for liberation. If you are still worried that aligning yourself with that cause will make the makeup brand drop you, or you know, the travel company drop you, or whatever fucking nonsense you're working on, then congratulations, you're on the wrong side.

Speaker 1: 19:01

I'm not saying this to big note myself or say that I've done anything special, because I haven't. I've just done what I think is right, but I've lost work, I've lost friendships, I've lost family relationships, and I would still do it again, over and over and over, because what we are being faced with is not just an unrelenting slaughter of a people happening in real time, broadcast to our phones where we can see it. We are being faced with a challenge to our own humanity. What is it that we are prepared to fight for? What is it that we're prepared to step up for? What is it that we're prepared to lose of the artificial currency that we operate in? As people living in the 21st century? What are we prepared to step away from in order to upend systems that oppress us all? Because a lot of you are actually collaborating with those systems and pretending you're not.

Speaker 1: 20:01

You might see people say things like well, I've got a book coming out. You know I've got to, like, promote my book. Or it's my work, it's my work, I can't speak out because of my work or you know well I'm I support my family on my brand deal, so I've got to work. It's like there's no fucking brand deal or book more important than this right now. I had a book that came out last year on October 31st and I worked really hard on that book. I love that book. I think that book is is really important in its own way, but it's not more important than this. You know, sorry to my publisher, but it's not, and actually it's still done. Okay, like if you just put yourself in a position where you refuse to compromise on the values that you claim to have, then, even if the things that you thought you cared about bomb they, won't matter anymore, because this is what matters.

Speaker 1: 20:59

There are legislatures around the world that are making it illegal, now punishable by law enforcement, to say things like from the river to the sea. Palestine will be free. There are Jewish people around the world who are being arrested on charges of anti-Semitism. I mean, how's that for a fucking ludicrous state of affairs? Because they have correctly aligned themselves with Palestinian liberation because they don't see Zionism as being representative of them. And, by the way, jewish people who are anti-Zionist, who have aligned themselves with Palestinian liberation, have been completely erased by the largely non-Jewish systems but very Zionist imperialist systems around the world that have an extraordinary amount of power, who want to perpetuate this idea that somehow there's two clear sides.

Speaker 1: 21:59

So again, you don't have to be an expert in geopolitics or in you know even in the history of the region, to know that what is being done is incomprehensibly barbaric, that the slaughter of people that is occurring in real time, that is becoming more brazen day by day, and that we in Australia, our taxpayer dollars, are fucking helping to fund that. That is something we should be standing up against. But even if you've struggled to wrap your head around that, consider why it is that it has become so important and vital that the systems that oppress us the systems of capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, the systems that we are locked into, why they have made it so impossible for us to speak out against what's happening. You might not think that what's happening in Palestine has anything to do with you, and that's why you care more about what happened in Bondi Junction, because it feels closer to you, because it feels more applicable to your life, because it feels realer to you. And, okay, I disagree with that. But consider for a moment that it does actually have something deeply to do with your own freedom and your own future liberation and your own future entrapment and imprisonment as a person living in the world.

Speaker 1: 23:34

To be standing by in this crucial period of time where we are watching free speech clamped down on, and free speech not to spread toxic ideas of oppression or domination, but the free speech of people who are speaking up to liberate and oppress people. Ask yourself that and again, think about the abject rage that you would feel if suddenly in Australia, women and their children were being attacked in the thousands by government-sanctioned bombs, government-funded attacks that were then being excused worldwide by the press, explained away as some kind of nonsensical act of defence, and that anyone who tried to speak up for you was then systematically punished. Imagine the rage that you would feel, knowing how helpless you were, that not even showing people videos of your dead child was enough to have them stand up for you. That is what you are doing right now. I can't make any of you care. If you haven't yet, I can't make any of you put even a scrap of your stability and security at risk. If you have decided at this point, you simply won't do it.

Speaker 1: 25:13

But I will say that you can stop telling yourself that somehow there's a good reason why you haven't gotten involved, that somehow it's justifiable. It's very complicated. There's no good reason. You are actually just simply a coward and whatever excuses you might shroud that in, it doesn't change that fact. You've chosen yourself and your comfort and your convenience and your self-preservation above what in your heart of hearts you know to be the right choice, because you lack conviction and you don't want to confront that in yourself. Sorry, and that is me untethered. Untethered, speaking my mind, speaking my truth, speaking the things that I care about, and I'm going to be doing more of that.

Speaker 1: 26:09

If you would like to have a particular topic addressed or looked into or to hear my view on something, you can email me on clementineford at gmailcom. This format is great because I can basically upload anything during the week on any set day that I like, and it really is just about me having an opinion, and I have lots of those. If you would like to subscribe to the show, then you can do so by clicking the link in the liner notes of this. You can either become a subscriber directly of Untethered for as little as $3 a month, or you can subscribe to my Substack, which is wwwsubstackcom. Forward slash at Clementine F.

Speaker 1: 26:49

I produce a number of different newsletters each week in addition to this podcast as well, so I'm doing a special newsletter on the tarot. If you're interested in exploring tarot for creativity, then you can find that there in my newsletter Death Becomes Her, I'm also doing Well Actually, which is a weekly newsletter, essentially providing you with a watertight rebuttal to all of the nonsense arguments that you might hear misogynists make at the pub, like men built all the roads or women are naturally caregivers Wrong, and I will tell you why and how to rebut those arguments. You can do that by becoming a subscriber there. In addition, I also have chat threads there, and people who are my besties on Substack, which is my paid subscribers, will get first access to tickets, events, special, exclusive things that I'm doing only with them, so for the price of a glass of wine. It's a really good investment and you can find that in the liner notes of this episode.

Speaker 1: 27:53

I hope you enjoyed this episode of Untethered brought to you by the amazing crew at Beyond Rest, mooney Ponds, remember mention Untethered, you get 10% off Until next time. Stay untethered, baby, and free Palestine.