When Sydney student Freya Willis shared her story of an alleged sexual assault on campus last year, she didn't expect to become the subject of a column arguing for women to take responsibility for their alcohol consumption in rape cases.
"I vividly remember reading the article and I immediately burst into tears," the 21-year-old told BuzzFeed News. "I felt so disempowered because when I was sexually assaulted I lost so much autonomy and agency and control over my body and my life, but one thing that had always gotten me through was that I had my story and a voice. But then you read these articles and just seeing my words twisted into a lie, I felt like I'd lost my voice."
The column was by social commentator Bettina Arndt. In it she argued that women make "stupid decisions" exposing themselves "sexual harm". Next month Arndt will give a series of lectures titled "Is there a rape crisis on campus?" at Australian universities.
A protest has been organised by the women's collective at Willis' university, the University of Sydney. The event page asks students to stand up against a "disgusting tour of misogyny and misinformation".
La Trobe University in Melbourne originally blocked Arndt's event but then reversed the decision.
Student Sienna Brown contacted Arndt's hosts, the La Trobe University Liberal Club, last week.
"I was reading the flyer and just thinking 'are you serious?'" Brown told BuzzFeed News.
The club responded to her on Facebook with a message that said: "it is a great shame that you do not feel safe on our campus."
Brown also commented on the club's page to express her concern about the event and received replies from multiple men who she said weren't interested in having "any kind of conversation that Bettina says she's having".
"It was all about shifting all the blame onto women," she said.
Other female students, including assault survivors, also expressed their concern and Brown said they were all trolled.
Arndt told BuzzFeed News she was concerned activists were promoting “misleading statistics about safety on our campuses” when the Human Rights Commission survey showed universities are "very safe for most young women".
The Human Rights Commission report showed over a quarter (26%) of students were sexually harassed in a university setting in 2016, and at the time then sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins said the "unavoidable conclusion" to be drawn from the data was that sexual assault and harassment at universities is happening at unacceptable rates in Australia.
The report found 1.6% of students had been sexually assaulted in a university setting in 2015 or 2016 and Arndt has argued sexual assault survivors should be "delighted that so few other women are experiencing the ordeals they suffered".
The derogatory comments made on La Trobe Liberal Club’s Facebook page, Arndt hopes, were not an indicator of the discussions to be had at her events.
“I believe it should be possible for people to wish to attend my talk without being abused as misogynist and violent,” she said. “Naturally I see rape as a serious crime and do not wish to denigrate rape victims.”
La Trobe’s administration was “shameless” for initially banning her talk, Arndt said, and the university was “cowardly” for kowtowing to activists and continuing to “promote the rape crisis” in the absence of any evidence showing there was such a crisis.
Administrators at the Melbourne university have now promised to cover the cost of security, out of a "desire to preserve free speech and discussion on campus", The Australian reported.
Two weeks ago Arndt started a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money for the event, including her travel expenses. She is almost $2,000 of the way to her $3,000 goal.
"Thank You for having the determination to stand up against these screeching bullies," wrote one person, who donated $40.
The National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.
CORRECTION
A previous version of this post incorrectly stated Bettina Arndt is a psychologist. That reference has been removed. (H/T New Matilda.)