Luke Bateman: Embracing feminism will fix my past relationship failures
BookTok superstar Luke Bateman has revealed his “selfish” reason for loving feminism.
The former Canberra Raiders rugby league footballer turned reality show contestant and soon to be author also concedes his past behaviours have stopped him finding love.
“Being a father is the absolute number one goal of my life,” Bateman said on the latest episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast.
Luke Bateman is a former Bachelor star adn Canberra Raiders rugby league player who has blown up on BookTok., Picture: Instagram
“There’s nothing I want more than being a father so hopefully one day … and that’s why this is really important to me too, because I’ve failed at romantic relationships and to be a father, I need to be successful at romantic relationships. That’s also why all this stuff is really important for me to learn and understand, because if you don’t think that the way that boys and men are conditioned and the patriarchy and masculinity, if you don’t that’s also affecting our relationships and how we parent and how we love, … I can look back at my romantic relationships and see exactly how patriarchy, masculinity, all of these things showed up in those relationships.”
Bateman, who appeared on reality shows The Bachelor and I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!, has been open about his mental health journey, also detailing in the podcast his downward spiral from gambling addiction that saw him give up professional sport.
The 31-year-old has been widely critical of the ‘boxes’ society puts on people, and in-particular hyper-masculine environments, while pushing back on the ‘manosphere’.
“The main people who benefit from feminism,” he explained.
Luke Bateman for Mental As Anyone. Picture: Christian Gilles
“Don’t get me wrong, it benefits everyone, women especially, but the amount of benefits that men will get from embracing feminist ideologies, feminist values, feminist practices, will change their lives completely.”
Bateman believes feminism needed a rebrand to “humanitarianism”.
“Because that’s really what it is. It is, how do we live in a more kind world with less violence, more acceptance, more love, you know? And how do we connect with each other as humans, how do we get men to open up and be literally more human with each other, because we are so bereft of that in the world, like genuine intimate vulnerable male-to-male connection is so rare in our world and I nearly think it’s selfish in a way because I love what feminism stands for. I want it so that I can have good relationships with the men in my life. I want to be able to sit down with my dad and my brother and have vulnerable connected conversations.
Luke Bateman will appear on I’m a Celeb which starts Sunday, January 18.
Luke Bateman of the Raiders in 2018. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
“That’s what feminism achieves, and the beautiful thing about that is it also comes with giving women equality, access to everything that we’ve oppressed them from having and stopping the violence and the actual murdering of women, the people who we as men say that we love and protect.”