who’s the biggest sexist of them all?: a response to Emma Koehn’s ‘Media Round Up: Sexism and Our Politics’
Bob Brown’s remark about the level of sexist criticism directed at Julia Gillard put the Greens Senator firmly ahead of Gillard in the unpopularity contest that is Australian politics. Charges of sexism are nothing new, so why the outcry when someone accuses them of being directed at Gillard?
Much of the early debate about Gillard focused on the fact that she is a woman and the first to be in the top seat of Australian politics. The novelty of Gillard’s situation was only heightened by the image of her kneeling before Australia’s first female Governor-General. Given the level of media attention Gillard’s wardrobe, hair, relationship status and lack of children receive (sales of a Carla Zampatti jacket reportedly slumped after Gillard was pictured wearing it), you could be forgiven for being frustrated at yet another press conference that reminds us of the blindingly obvious: Gillard is a woman.
Unsurprisingly, the reaction of the Australian public to Brown’s charge of sexism overwhelmingly reflects this frustration. “Alf of Brisbane”, commenting on an article in The Australian (in this age of digital media, reading the comments on news articles and Op-Ed pieces is a form of entertainment in itself), writes ‘No Bob, we don’t dislike Gillard because of her gender, just like we are not homophobic because we dislike you,’ while “The Modern Woman” writes, ‘Oh please it’s not because she a woman it’s because she is incompetent and I myself think her policies are ridiculous and wasteful!! Whimpering like a spoilt child because people don’t agree with her policies! Hello it’s called an opinion! I am sick of those on the left trying to play the racism/gender card.’
I like Brown, even though I don’t agree with all of his policies. I like him because he seems to be a decent man with personal conviction and a consistent agenda. When I read the headlines about his defence of Gillard, I didn’t even question the premise. Sexism is rife in Australia so I didn’t understand why Brown’s claim was such a bombshell. As the furore stretched on for days in the bloggersphere and twittersphere, it was clear that I’d missed something.
On re-reading Brown’s statement, I was forced to do a 180 spin into the monolithic mass of popular opinion. According to Brown, ‘The degree of relentless criticism on this Prime Minister, coming from male commentators, it is probably all subconscious, is sexist and quite ridiculous at times.’ In singling out men, Brown proved himself guilty of his own charge.
If we’re really going to try and pinpoint where and how sexism occurs in Australian politics, we have to be honest with ourselves. As John Birmingham noted in what was one of the most amusing articles written on the subject, Gillard’s got her fair share of female critics from across the political spectrum. So why single out male commentators? Surely the women reading the Women’s Weekly spread on Gillard’s marital arrangements are easy targets to be given the sexist card? And what about Gai Waterhouse’s disgust at Gillard’s hair rather than the carnage of tsunami-stricken Japan?
While I disagree with Birmingham’s labelling of Brown as the real sexist in the political fairytale for his ‘weird, knightly defence’ of Gillard, he’s not too far off the mark. Gillard’s not the subject of Brown’s sexism. It’s men. Women can be just as guilty of sexism as men and, if you’re a woman, you should know this all too well. Arbitrary charges of ‘subconscious’ sexism attributed to anonymous male commentators without mention of sexist criticism from women do more harm than good. Brown’s gaffe has ensured that the public will be even more sceptical of the next person to cry sexism in Australian politics.
By Rebekah Oldfield
This was a great read, Rebekah! Brown’s phrasing and referring specifically to men does seem a bit odd, considering that the ‘relentless’ tone he was talking about is practised by both genders of political commentators. Indeed, I feel that sometimes conservative female opinion writers use their gender as a defence for being incredibly harsh to Gillard (i.e. I’m a woman, so you cannot accuse me of sexist rhetoric).
One conclusion could perhaps be that regardless of overtly sexist acts, traditional concepts of gender inform coverage of politics. It may not be a case of people waking up and deciding to be sexist, but rather having their expectations re: what public figures SHOULD be like influence the tone of their criticisms. I know that there are lots of grey areas so it’s tricky to nail down what is/isn’t informed by gender, but certainly it isn’t only men contributing to that kind of flawed commentary.
No doubt the near futures of the Labor and Liberal parties will further inform this discussion!
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