I want my money back.

I should not have to pay to hear anti-women, misogynistic, sexist views which sympathize with male violence. We should not be giving a platform to views such as this. CH Sommers sympathizes with male violence perpetrators, and has been previously described as a white supremacist. In a country in which we are experiencing a fundamental crisis of violence against women, views that sympathize with violent perpetuators and blame victims of violence, is dangerous.

Last night I attended an event named “Feminism”, featuring Roxanne Gay and CH Sommers. This was organised by a group called “This is 42”, in Sydney and Melbourne. I went to the event in Melbourne.

This event was the worst I have ever attended. It was very badly organized. They could not even find a host for the event.

We knew immediately it would be terrible when a man stepped out on the stage and the first thing he said was a joke about his penis. (He was clearly so inexperienced that he had to draw on a very old gender binary and assumption about feminists not liking men as his opening joke). He then revealed that he could not find a suitable host for the event. Literally no one wanted to be there and be associated with this pile of rubbish. He revealed that he would be the host. So – the person who organized the event hosted the event – it was incredibly amateurish, and it showed throughout (Desh Amila).

The questions were shallow, weak and poorly thought out. CH Sommers did most of the talking, and the host never encouraged it to be shared.

Sommers said that women would not be raped if we were more self-empowered. She said that women will not be raped if we undergo “self-empowerment training”.

She said that the pay gap between men and women simply did not exist.

She said that rape culture does not exist and consists of ‘hysterical’ women who are accusing ‘poor men’. She said that accusations are fabricated by women sometimes. She used inflammatory language about victims. It was highly offensive towards victims of violence.

This event was clearly organized by an extremely frustrated individual. They got people in the door with Roxanne Gay’s face.

If we refuse to let Milo Yiannopoulos into Australia, why are we allowing Sommers into Australia, who sympathizes with male violence and blames victims?

The organizers advertised the event using Roxanne Gay. This is false advertising. Gay said during the event that she did not know she would be talking with Sommers, at the time of signing the contract.

This event was poorly run, poorly organized and we want our money back. I did not pay to hear this total rubbish. Sign the petition if you want your money back from ‘This is 42’, and let them know we will not stand for this.