By Jugal Mody
And if you think you’re preparing these minnows for manhood, you better think again…
–Lt. Col. Frank Slade, Scent Of A Woman (1992)
Food fights and gags are fun when you are a part of them. Not so much when someone is trying to raise money to fund their political intentions. Invite me for lunch and get the meanest stand-up comic to make as many jokes about me and food while I am sitting there, and it’s a roast. Fair game. But just gathering your friends for lunch and making mean jokes about me so that they can give you money is not funny. This is what I have learnt from Australia’s first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Gillard has been dealing with some very sexist responses to her leadership for a while now. She has been dealing with disproportionate rage directed at her policies expressed in pornographic terms. She has been dealing with an offline version of the classic internet MCP response to women: go make me a sandwich. When a kid chucked a salami sandwich at her recently, she said, “Maybe he thought I was hungry.” But when the opposition party’s fundraiser menu said: “Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail — Small Breasts, Huge Thighs & A Big Red Box” what is an appropriate response. Gillard calls it lack of respect but really is there anything more she can say about Australian women in public life that can better her passionate, roof-raising, October 2012 speech?
The first time I looked her up was in 2010 when she said, “I don’t believe in God.” She told ABC radio in Melbourne that she was not prepared to go through ‘religious rituals’ for the sake of appearances.
The next time she blipped on my radar was in 2011, when she said that she was “on the conservative side” of the gay marriage issue “because of the way our society is and how we got here.” This was when she also said, “I’m on the record as saying things like I think it’s important for people to understand their Bible stories, not because I’m an advocate of religion – clearly, I’m not – but once again, what comes from the Bible has formed such an important part of our culture.”
That was a curveball for me. But I have never claimed to understand power and politics. And following the premier of a nation like a reality TV star is probably the wrong thing to do, especially while sitting in another nation which has its own set of political and gender-related suffering. But there is nothing gained by not examining the actions of people who control policies that not only define but at most times also affect how people are treated in their own country and across the world.
Then came October, 2012. Do you remember Al Pacino as Lt Col Frank Slade, standing up for a young Chris O’Donnell at the end of school court proceedings where O’Donnell’s character is about to be suspended for not being a snitch? Yes, you do. You even remember the chills you felt when you first heard him. You even remember your blood pumping as you watched him in silence, in reverence and you might even have choked. Prime Minister Gillard did exactly that. She took a flame thrower to the Parliament and burnt the place down with her (as the media has dubbed it) ‘sexism and misogyny’ speech. Her speech was a passionate one, to change the language of politics. Don’t be old school, don’t be too old to school, she seemed to be saying. You can find the transcript here but I’d advise you to do one better and watch her deliver it.
The fun part is, most of the sexist and misogynistic things she pointed out that the opposition leader (Tony Abbot is trying to wriggle out of the current situation too) had said over a period of time (she quoted him from various instances), are things that all of us have heard people say about women and mean them, had a laugh over without meaning them, or even heard said in movies. The question is, humour aside, do those things need to be said when one is campaigning for votes? Shouldn’t the menu lose Abbot and crew the elections the way the 47 percent speech let’s say, failed to help, Mitt Romney’s case.
Maybe Gillard’s October speech was a political maneuver to protect Peter Slipper (someone on her side accused of sexual harassment of a young male staffer) as some of the media has analysed it. (Though she certainly hasn’t allowed her colleague Peter Slipper to take back his position as Speaker even though the judge dismissed the case against him.) Maybe it was just her making sure she wins again. I don’t follow Australian politics. Hell, I barely even follow Indian politics. But I do believe that Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is, if not a hero, a definite character to watch out for, just for the next truthbomb she drops. The only line that probably best describes her (mostly from all the news I have been reading) was from a Daily Mail piece, where a spokesman said: “I think she is being honest and true to herself.”
In October the opposition party tried to dubbed her speech “playing the gender card”. As if being the first female Prime Minister in Australia while being unmarried, childless and atheist can be a gender-neutral situation. As if it was the same as some uber-smart, bored girl telling the PT master she has feminine problems and can’t do PT this week. After watching the speech I wished I these things were happening on Jimmy Kimmel Live as Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Sarah Silverman and Kimmel himself say horrible things about betraying one another and we were just being entertained. But this is happening in the parliament of a “developed” nation.
Here are some classic quotes from Gillard’s speech:
And then a discussion ensues, and another person says “I want my daughter to have as much opportunity as my son.” To which the Leader of the Opposition says “Yeah, I completely agree, but what if men are by physiology or temperament, more adapted to exercise authority or to issue command?”
I was very offended personally when the Leader of the Opposition, as Minister of Health, said, and I quote, “Abortion is the easy way out.”
Good sense, common sense, proper process is what should rule this Parliament. That’s what I believe is the path forward for this Parliament, not the kind of double standards and political game-playing imposed by the Leader of the Opposition now looking at his watch because apparently a woman’s spoken too long.
Also see: AIPWA Secretary Kavita Krishnan mocking the system, “Suraksha (protection) matlab you get back into the house“.
Photo: Troy Constable Photography