Discrimination against women politicians in Australia 21 Sep 201121 Sep 2011 The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the rough equivalent of the BBC or NPR, has a “comedy” show entitled “At Home with Julia”, a parody of the Australian Prime Minister’s home life as an unmarried couple with partner Tim Mathieson. Now, every public figure who is playing a role in public life is a target for parody – it is one of the things that keeps us able to criticise and critique those figures – but this is, in my opinion, beyond the pale. Julia Gillard is not being parodied for her public policies (which I often despise, like her failure to support gay marriage and her adoption of off-shore “processing” – detention – of refugees who arrive by boat), but solely because she is a woman. Australian politics is often chauvinistic. The Australian media almost always is. Recently a commentator on a show called the 7PM project tried to raise this and make the point I am making, and was cut off by jokes by the twenty something male host. Even the supposed media critics are unable to come to terms with the deep chauvinism of this show. Political home lives are not, in my view, a matter of public parody or discussion unless the public figure chooses to make it so (by, for example, overtly supporting “traditional families” while having gay sex). Gillard has done or said nothing to make this show justifiable, and I can only presume that the ABC decision makers thought it would be good to show they are “balanced” in their political comedy. This is balance like a bullet through the head is a reasonable response to an insult. There are many women in Australian politics, and with few exceptions (those who follow the male bullies in and out of politics and conform to the roles assigned to them) they get treated in ways that would never be tolerated by the male politicians. I cannot imagine anyone, not even the most radical of cartoonists, showing any of the male prime ministers of the past thirty years in bed with their partners. The one exception was a cartoon that showed Gough Whitlam in bed with his wife during an earthquake in China, and asking “Did the earth move for you too, dear?” which was justified by the punchline if not good taste. Democracy cannot work if we can invade and demean the private lives – the partners, children or lifestyles – of public figures, and when this is permitted it will be used by the bullies in the media and in politics, which presently seems to comprise mostly bullies. Australian stuff Politics
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Democracy cannot work if we can invade and demean the private lives – the partners, children or lifestyles – of public figures, and when this is permitted it will be used by the bullies in the media and in politics, which presently seems to comprise mostly bullies. I agree with that. But welcome to the American way of doing politics.
I’m fighting a rearguard action against the Americanisation of the Australian polity. But you should have fought the same action against the Britishisation of the press first.
Wasn’t it the Australianisation of the British press? I’m sure Murdoch was a product of the land down under. On the issue of slagging politicians, I can’t see ABC so won’t comment on this comedy, doesn’t it just go with the job?
I think Murdoch took an existing British tradition and over-inflected it somewhat in the quest for profit; the quest which justifies all he does from his own disagreeable and limited perspective. In the same way Fox takes the absurd to new levels of extreme state- side.
Is showing your Prime Minister in bed your major complaint? If so, then I’m so overwhelmed by the Americanization of American politics that my first reaction was “What’s wrong with showing your national leader in bed?” Now, I assume the point here is some direct implication of sex. I believe the first time “respectable” newspapers showed a President in bed with his wife was c. 1975, when a well-known editorial cartoonist depicted Gerald Ford in bed with his wife. The occasion was the Fords’ being the first American President and spouse not to maintain separate bedrooms – as was the odd aristocratic fashion that had governed White House protocol, which contrary to American political pretext is oddly aristocratic. This decision by the Fords was treated as another sign of his common-manness, like his making his own lunch. He was our unelected, accidental Nixon-displacer, and the cartoon of him asexually in bed beside Betty was positive and intended respectfully, though it went not without criticism Under Clinton – you can imagine. Now respectable news outlets would show a President in bed routinely if somehow justified, but in a sexual context only in some unusual context. The issue here is, of course, that a plurality of Americans no longer get their news from respectable news outlets. The American equivalent of this Ozzy TV series would be SNL, I suppose. They would show some restraint showing a President and spouse in a sexual situation, but restraint that would break for some really good laughs. So, this gets back to, I’m surprisingly stumped exactly what that show is depicting that has you so lathered? Am I really that sadly American?
Australians are chauvinistic? Try political reality news, Italian style … At home with “Babuccio” or the more romantic title of “Who Are You Bringing Me Tonight?” There is an element of anti-intellectualism in the Australian cultural identity.