Consequential Baggage for a Woman in Power
Prime Minister Julia Gillard ripped into Opposition Leader Tony Abbott earlier this week, accusing him of being a sexist and a misogynist. Her attack has elicited polarised responses. Nationally, the media has given backhanded praise, or else condemned her speech outright. Internationally, she’s received wide acclaim for speaking out against gender discrimination.
Does she have grounds to level such a serious accusation? Or is she reading too much into the words of her most prominent critics?
All politicians cop flak from the press and the general public. Let’s take a look at some content from our major media outlets and public figures to see what all the fuss is about.
But first, just so everyone’s clear…
Sexism
noun
– discrimination on the basis of sex, esp. the oppression of women by men
Misogyny
noun
– hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women
Here are some views published in the media about Prime Minister Gillard:
Publisher: The Australian
Placards
Publisher: The Courier Mail
Artist: Peter Nicholson
Publisher: The Age
From an email sent to parliamentarians and published in the Sunday Herald Sun
Artist: Matt Golding
Author: Andrew Bolt
Artist: ZEG
Publisher: The Sydney Morning Herald
A Sydney Morning Herald headline
Publisher: Daily Life
Artist: Graeme Dazeley
Publisher: National Times
More from the National Times article
And more.
Artist: Wilcox
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Gillard’s comments in parliament this week have exposed some deep-rooted prejudices in Australian society, prompting many people to viciously deny that these prejudices exist. Australians are good at extolling the virtues of democracy, freedom of speech and equality. Yet when ideas of traditional social roles are challenged, conservative thinkers rise up to spit and curse at the offending speaker. Unfortunately, a few of our most morally-crippling conservatives are also handed microphones and a generous amount of air time, or else copious space in national newspapers, to express their opinions, which are frequently misinterpreted as being the “voice of Australia”.
Sorry, boys, but this time you’ve got it wrong. Really wrong.
The men of our parliament (and of our airwaves and print media) may profess to love their wives and daughters and sisters and mothers, and be “advocates of women”, and support equal opportunity, but sadly they’ve missed the point.
Love and respect are not the same thing.
As is all too common in Australian politics, two separate and distinct concepts have been blended into one heaving rhetorical mess. No wonder we’ve seen such a vehement backlash – half of us understand completely where the Prime Minister is coming from; the other half have no idea what she’s talking about.
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