Ms Elizabeth Farries:

I thank the Senator for raising the issue of toxic masculinity. It is part of the problem that needs to be addressed and it is very important. Dara Quigley was certainly exposed to it. It is not absent from law enforcement institutions. Long ago academics used to think that what they called information and communications technology spaces would create safe zones for people who were experiencing things like toxic masculinity to group, talk and collaborate. What we are seeing instead is the opposite in that the inequalities we experience offline are amplified online. Toxic masculinity is certainly an example.

As for solutions, in our submissions to the committee, in addition to law and our rejection of the roll-out of State CCTV surveillance systems, we advocate changing these cultural issues at Garda level. We advocate education, training, assessment and integrated modules across units to ensure the harm attached to the intersectional nature of online harassment, including toxic masculinity, are addressed. We have to be very careful that we do not erase the context of power and marginalisation in which the inequalities occur by simply saying something like "bullying" or "cyberbullying". West Coast LEAF is a rights group in Canada and I am a lawyer who used to practice in Canada. It likes the term cybermisogyny because it captures better the harm associated with things like toxic masculinity.