Quote:

---

Originally posted by kpo:
What's with the constant sexist war against PM Julia Gillard?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22900880

Is it the 21st century over there or what??

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by kpo:
What's with the constant sexist war against PM Julia Gillard?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22900880

Is it the 21st century over there or what??

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
yep, I'm embarressed.....

I've posted about this behaviour before.

Please note that this disgraceful misogyny comes from the right wing of politics and is in the vein of Karl Rove et al. who cannot comprehend the thought of a childless, atheist PM who chooses to live with her hairdresser male partner, rather than marry him.

---

Quote:

---

Politics is toxic here, which is why I post on an American site. Your politics is also toxic, but its not mine to deal with.

---

Quote:

---

Hell, when you say it like that, I can't help but think there may be some truth to him being gay now.

---

Quote:

---

Juvenile, buffoonish and a bit moronic, but 'sexist' ? I didn't see it.

---

Quote:

---

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said a menu for an opposition party fundraiser that made crude comments about her body was "grossly sexist".

It offered up "Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail - Small Breasts, Huge Thighs and a Big Red Box".

The menu was for a dinner for Liberal National Party candidate Mal Brough - the restaurateur later said it had been "a joke" and was not used at the meal.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by kpo:

Quote:

---

Juvenile, buffoonish and a bit moronic, but 'sexist' ? I didn't see it.

---

I'm suggesting that the actions were motivated by sexism, if not explicitly sexist. That guy would never have asked such a stupid and insulting question to a male prime minister.

It's not personal. It's just war.

---

Quote:

---

Well, inappropriate if the guy is indeed not gay. If he IS gay...

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by kpo:
By the by, I have to say she handled the situation well in that interview - staying calm and answering the question even as she dismissed it as absurd.

But I also see that the right-wing Aussie press is predictably calling her a 'Prime Victim', and accusing her of being 'divisive' on this issue. Yeah, it's her fault.

It's not personal. It's just war.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:

Jongs, The Flight of the Conchord might have been funnier if it has had sound. Love those guys, btw. You and i might actually have something in common if we don't talk politics.

---

Quote:

---

One thing no one can dispute about the prime ministership of Julia Gillard is the impact a woman's elevation to the top job has had on political discourse.

In the three years Ms Gillard has been in the top job we have managed to plummet to ever lower depths in the way we discuss the prime minister.

When she was first sworn in Ms Gillard probably thought the worst of it would be too much focus on her hair and clothes and endless requests for interviews with herself and partner Tim Mathieson about life at The Lodge.
Advertisement

Such a scenario seems almost quaint now given we inhabit a landscape where people feel it is okay to appear at protests holding signs calling the Prime Minister a witch, a bitch and a liar; where radio hosts feel it is okay to mock the death of her father; and where restaurant owners feel it is okay to produce ''joke'' menus referring to her body parts.

These are public events where people are either known or are visible and can, to some extent, be held to account for their actions.

Venture into the murky world of the internet and it's an even more vicious and revolting place.

If you don't believe me check out the widely circulated speech former Labor staffer and feminist Anne Summers gave last year in which she documented the unrelenting barrage of abuse that has come Ms Gillard's way.

So why are we particularly surprised that another pernicious radio host has decided to ask the Prime Minister about her sex life?

Because this is pretty much what Howard Sattler did when he interviewed Ms Gillard on Fairfax-owned Perth station 6PR on Thursday afternoon.

Imagine what would happen if, as someone suggested on Twitter a short time ago, a radio host asked Opposition Leader Tony Abbott if his wife was a lesbian.

Or if a television interviewer asked Treasurer Wayne Swan about his sex life.

Would they even try? I suspect not because men don't do that to other men.

Mr Sattler's questions are shocking but not surprising.

His ''excuse'' was that there are rumours that he wanted to clear up.

Bollocks.

This is just another example of a man unable to cope with the idea of a powerful woman and subjecting her to treatment he would never dream of meting out to a man.

Rumours fly around about all sorts of public figures, particularly those in politics – affairs, children born after a one-night stand, fake marriages etc etc etc.

It's the flip side of the celebrity obsessed world we live in, where politics has become increasingly ''presidential'' and focused on personalities to represent parties and ideals.

I've been covering politics since John Howard's prime ministership and I cannot recall a time when either he or the man who replaced him, Kevin Rudd, was ever subjected to anything that approaches similar treatment.

Was Mr Howard ever asked about the intimate details of his marriage? Was Mr Rudd? No.

The worst example I can think of during either man's time as prime minister was when Mr Rudd's wife, Therese Rein, was photographed without her permission by a weekly women's magazine while she was at the gym.

Even then it was Ms Rein who copped the attention, not her husband.

Greens leader Christine Milne also attracts a far amount of distasteful attention.

Is this because all three women are strong, successful, forthright women who forged careers that made them trail blazers?

Do they get this kind of attention because they do not fit the incredibly outdated idea of what a woman should be and how she should act?

Anyone who answers ''no'' probably thinks the Prime Minister made too big a deal over the vile menu, that it was just a joke and her overreaction shows why women aren't really cut out for powerful, high-profile jobs.

It is this kind of treatment that explains why women respond so strongly to Ms Gillard and why it is complicated to hold Ms Gillard up as some kind of feminist icon.

Many women can identify with the kind of treatment Ms Gillard receives because it is so endemic in our society.

Just look at the ongoing saga of the way women are treated in the military.

It is possible to be sympathetic to the way Ms Gillard is treated while not agreeing with a single one of her policies.

Sexism is not a political issue. Neither are manners, respect and courtesy.

As so many people say all the time: do unto others as you would have them do to you.

Even if that person is a woman and the prime minister.

---