Cathal Crotty and the patriarchal lie of ‘protecting women’

In the wake of the vicious attack of Natasha O’Brien, the silence from conservatives and the far-right, normally concerned with “protecting women”, is deafening. One thing is clear, women cannot solve a problem that is caused primarily by men and if we want change, it’s time for the good men of Ireland to step up.

When approached by Gardaí, Crotty initially denied the attack. Only when confronted with CCTV evidence and the Snapchat message which Crotty had believed had disappeared and had to be retrieved from Snapchat servers, did he decide to plead guilty, aware that guilty pleas come with more lenient sentences – and indeed, a lenient sentence was given.

“I spent the following weeks and months attending hospital and doctor appointments, and due to persistent concussion symptoms I was deemed ‘high-risk’ for a brain bleed, and I received a battery of tests including a head CT scan. “He may not remember, but my memory of the vicious, sinister look in his eyes as he approached me will haunt me forever.”, feminist philosopher Kate Manne coined the term ‘himpathy’; the flow of sympathy away from female victims towards their male victimizers.

Over the past few years, conservative and far-right groups have arranged protests, partaken in violent and disruptive riots, ran election campaigns, and harassed immigrants, refugees, people of colour, trans people, feminists and liberals, all using the same lie to justify their horrendous actions: they want to protect Irish women and children.

Conservative and far-right groups use women as a rhetorical pawn to push their agenda, while absolutely hating women. This is why conservative and far-right groups will use any isolated incident of violence against women from a person of colour or immigrant to perpetuate racism but allow sexism, misogyny, slut-shaming, gendered violence and rape to fester in their own friend groups, communities and cities.

Crotty signed up to the Irish Defence Force, vowing “to defend the State against armed aggression” – but it’s clear that Crotty doesn’t believe that everyone in the State deserves to be defended against aggression. Not LGBTQ+ people, and certainly not women. To Crotty, ‘the State’ that he believes deserves protecting is one of straight men.

Violence Against Women Ashling Murphy Natasha O'brien

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