Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek accused Australia’s biggest media company, Nine Entertainment, of “normalising” coercive control by broadcasting an exchange in which a Married at First Sight contestant says he wants a woman to be obedient like a dog.
Plibersek urged parents not to allow their children to watch the “dangerous” reality TV show, which regularly draws more than 2 million viewers on broadcast television alone.
In the video that the minister published from the program Mafs: After the Dinner Party, presenter Laura Byrne raises the man’s attitude towards controlling behaviour: “If you want someone who is obedient, yes, they are controlling. And you want a dog.”
Contestant Tyson Gordon responds, “Maybe that’s what I want.”
Later he says, “I don’t want a dog. I want to be the man of the house. I want to be a leader… I’m sure all women want that.”
Plibersek said we needed to call out this type of misogyny and there’s only so much the government can do.
“When men idolizing ‘submissive’ and ‘obedient’ women are normalized on prime-time television, it means coercive control is given a national platform,” Plibersek said in a post on Instagram.
“That’s not entertaining, it’s incredibly dangerous. This is exactly the kind of cultural message we are trying to change. Messages that encourage control and dehumanize women, that are overloaded by algorithms that sell misogyny for profit.”
Plibersek said the government had delayed children’s access to social media to prevent their exposure to this type of content and promote healthy and equitable relationships.
“Please don’t expose your children to these things. And let’s continue to call out this behavior for what it is: the harmful need to exert control over women disguised as a normal part of a relationship.”
News.com.au commentator James Weir claimed producers had scoured “the darkest, dankest corners of the brosphere” for contestants this season.
TV Week said the show had crossed the line from “entertainment to concern very quickly” by airing scenes of bullying, insults and physical violence.
Privately, the producers argue that they are not expressing the man’s views because on the Stan episode, Plibersek made reference to the hosts and the other contestants confronted his behavior and criticized him for his sexist attitude.
Plibersek has highlighted in her portfolio the scourge of gender violence and the problem of abuse facilitated by technology.
The Nine network declined to comment.
