Gable Tostee is defending himself against backlash over a sexist Facebook post he shared on International Women’s Day, labelling media who have reported on the story “desperate” and “bitter feminists”.
The Gold Coast man, who was last year acquitted over the death of his Tinder date Warriena Wright, found himself back in the headlines this week after sharing the following status on March 9.
A commenter threatened to forward the post to feminist writer Clementine Ford who is renowned for naming and shaming sexists on social media, to which Tostee responded, "Go on, send it to the c***."
Listen: The Mamamia Out Loud team discusses Gable Tostee's 60 Minutes interview. Post continues...
Tostee's vile status has since been derided and debated in the press, prompting the 30-year-old to double down.
In response to discussion of the post on Sunrise by journalist Samantha Armytage, News Local's Kathy Lipari and 3AW's Justin Smith, Tostee wrote on Facebook:
"The bitter feminists presenting this segment are just mad that no men would touch them with a 10 foot pole. As for the dude on the left, who'd he hand his testicles over to?"
He's also accused the media of "bully tactics" and suggested Channel 9 reporters that allegedly showed up on his doorstep must be "desperate".
It's been close to five months since a Supreme Court jury cleared Tostee of murder and manslaughter, after his 26-year-old date fell 14 storeys to her death from the balcony of his Gold Coast apartment in the early hours of August 8, 2014.
The case, which earned headlines around the world, centred largely around an audio recording Tostee made on his mobile phone, which captured the final hours of the fatal date.
The Gold Coast man maintained his innocence throughout, and insisted he "didn't do anything" to prompt the New Zealand woman to attempt to escape the balcony below.
"I was inside on my own," he told 60 Minutes in November. "That’s one of the most perplexing things, to me. I can’t understand what would drive a person to climb off a 14-floor balcony, into nothingness."
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I consider myself a feminist, but perhaps he is lashing out as he is feeling bitter and twisted and pretty angry with feminists from going through such an ordeal whereby some feminists assumed from the get go that he was guilty, just because he is a guy and the victim was a woman.
Let's put the shoe on the other foot for a moment, if one of us went through a terrible ordeal at the hands of a man, such as being raped, and men's activists were baying for our blood simply because they automatically take the man's side, then how would we feel about men's activists?
I do think there are many men who do heinous things to women, but I personally felt that many women immediately jumped to the conclusion that this guy was in the wrong simply because it was a guy versus girl situation. Whatever you may think of his behaviour, even the prosecution admitted that he was not out on the balcony. The woman in question also did a number of things such as pelt him with rocks. Once again if this was a reverse situation our sympathies would be completely with the woman, yet when a man is in a difficult situation with a woman who is being violent to him, and he himself still does not resort to violence but decides to try and put a barrier between her and himself by putting her out on the balcony still we decry his behaviour. Yes perhaps he was a playboy that slept with a zillion women, but I actually felt sorry for him and can understand that maybe he is feeling still a bit bitter and twisted about it all, keep in mind that despite the trial being over I bet he still receives lots of hate mail/tweets etc. I personally wouldn't be too Gandhi like if I went through such an ordeal myself.
He threatened her with violence and he restricted her breathing. You can hear terror in voice. She pleaded to go home and he detained her, a woman who he plied with alcohol and threatened. She showed that she did not feel safe there, with him and I believe that's why she didn't try to leave via the balcony door.
He was at least partly responsible for her death by his actions and he needs to actually accept that. He's said some disgusting things about her and if he wanted to move on with his life, he wouldn't be constantly baiting the public.
He was found not guilty so should be left alone. That being said, his attitude does him no favours whatsoever.
Agree Flissyb. His behaviour is not allowing people to move on though.
And the media isn't allowing him to move on either.
The man is innocent, tragic as it is, the woman made poor choices at every turn.