Battle of the sexes
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The ladies aren’t seduced by Tony. The fellas aren’t charmed by Julia. This election, the nation is politically divided along gender lines. This whole men not liking Gillard thing is a new political phenomena, says Cameron Stewart in The Australian. His justification comes from yesterday’s Newspoll results, with 42% of men dissatisfied by the PM’s performance, compared to just 33% of women. Writes Stewart:
Forget the men, it’s the womens’ vote that matters, writes Dennis Atkins in The Courier-Mail: “What lies behind the fascination with any differences in the way women vote is that in a tight election, like in this contest, a point or two this way or that will matter.” But women shouldn’t vote for Gillard just because she’s female, because “what has Gillard done for women — except for being one?” asks Susie O’Brien in The Herald Sun. Like it or lump it, Gillard’s gender does make a difference in this campaign, says Simon Benson in The Daily Telegraph:
Are voters frightened of a non-traditional leader? According to Phillip Coorey in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Liberals are certainly hoping so. “Senior Liberals have been backgrounding the media against Ms Gillard, saying her single, childless status and her atheism were problems among more conservative voters and should be highlighted,” he writes. But the Liberals have their own strong unmarried female leader. And Julie Bishop is making herself known this election — “…if Julia can do it, Julie reckons she can too. Just differently,” says Malcolm Farr in The Daily Telegraph. This election is seeing a different type of politician and political family. Margie Abbott, Tony’s wife, made her first brief appearance on the campaign trail yesterday. She’s not expected to be a regular feature. Gillard also fought off questions about where her partner Tim Mathieson was, with Gillard pointing out: “He is not a Labor Party official, he’s not a candidate or a minister, so you won’t see him out on the campaign trail.” It is becoming awkward for Gillard, say Tom Arup and Kirsty Needham in The Age:
Partners on the campaign trail are a whole different ballgame now, but it just reflects society, writes Michelle Grattan in The Age:
Meanwhile, Gillard can’t escape the constant belittling comments about her appearance, including one of the oddest news articles we’ve seen so far in this campaign, focused on Gillard’s apparently large ears. Kate Legge in The Oz says Gillard’s lobes were the most memorable part of the debate:
It’s not just the ears, the wardrobe and hair criticism also continue unabated. Gillard’s hair is a warning device to the opposition: “When she has it coloured you just know that something is afoot,” writes Georgina Safe in The Oz. But the wardrobe is improving: “Gillard’s drab and often unflattering wardrobe choices seemed to say, ‘don’t look as me as a woman’. But since she became Australia’s first female prime minister, Gillard is embracing more confident and colourful attire,” says Safe. From gender wars to questions over partners and childish squabbling, it’d be nice to have some criticism over actual policy. Tim Colebatch in The Age agrees:
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23 Comments
this is not just the gender war election, but the cross-dressing gender war
I woke this moring to the Libs carping on about parental leave and childcare, and the ALP talking about reducing the rate of company tax.
they are wearing each others clothes!
just as I was getting all confused the Liberals released Julie Bishop from whichever secure facility they have been holding her and I remembered who to hate.
I’m confused….doesn’t Abbot’s ears stick out more. I mean talk about elephant ears but I don’t remember reading an article about that. Also attacking the person in Australian politics is usually a no win situation, ask the miners.
Julia has funny ears??? Compared to Tony???!!!!
Someone is taking the piss and the MSM hasn’t quite figured it out yet.
It appears to be mainly female reporters women writing the derogatory stories about personal appearance. So much for the sisterhood.
You have laugh about journos though, They go on about dog whistling but they do it more than anyone. if senior Liberals are saying this then out them and let them say it all in public. If they won’t go on the record then stop doing the dog whistling for them.
Better an unmarried atheist with a settled relationship than some of the serial philanderers who have been PM in the last - oh no they were blokes so that was okay.
I thought the Libs were actually getting some momentum up. To head down the road of personal denigration now is not only despicable, it is stupid politics.
Geez. If you vote against someone because of their ears, or for them because they drag their wife around on the campaign then you don’t deserve a vote at all.
How about this for a re4al campaign issue -
Abbott dragged his wife into the fray yesterday because he was making an announcement about increasing childcare funding. His wife runs a childcare centre. She will benefit from this policy should Abbott become prime minister. I seem to remember another politician’s wife who had to sell her business BEFORE her husband became PM because she would have gained a benefit from government funding. Why is there always one very strict rule for Labor and another, totally different and much more tolerant one for the Coalition?
I think anatomy is probably the only substantial difference that can be found between the candidates. No real difference on social policy, a mere veil of a difference between climate-change denial and climate-change inaction, both largely beholden to banks, miners, and real-estate developers, neither serious about funding civil infrastructure to support a growing population. If there was a gelatinous beast under parliament house with two tentacles called Tony and Julia then the diversity of opinion would not be diminished in this election.
Im one guy who is on Julias side and bugger the worm. Plus I had enough of Mad Monks at College.
I was expecting it, and now SKINK has made the first sighting of the Tranny State!
How typical of the Liberals to be feeding this sort of rubbish to the media - gee, must be a tough gig being a female in the Liberal party, particularly if you have leadership ambitions -what a bunch of hypocrites they are- anyway, would conservative voters seriously ever vote Labour anyway?
This election shouldn’t be about gender, but policies. Shame on the media for these absurd stories - the Age and the Australian in particular. How about some stories about policies and issues?
@LEONE - Abbott dragged his wife into the fray yesterday because he was making an announcement about increasing childcare funding. His wife runs a childcare centre. She will benefit from this policy should Abbott become prime minister. I seem to remember another politician’s wife who had to sell her business BEFORE her husband became PM because she would have gained a benefit from government funding. Why is there always one very strict rule for Labor and another, totally different and much more tolerant one for the Coalition?
Indeed! This has always been so, whether the discussion is about where funds come from, or politicians’ partners, their business interests etc. The hypocrisy and double standards are amazing! If Therese Rein hadn’t relinquished that part of her business, the media would’ve hounded them, and the election may not have been won by Labor. The sexist comments made about Julia Gillard prior to the last election were offensive and immature! We really have a long way to go!
The sexist nonsense in this article just points to how too many men in Australia expect/demand women to behave! We’re still in the ‘little woman in the home,surrounded by the white picket fence’ era? It’s offensive, immature, frustrating and sadly, typical. Too many men still fear successful women as being some threat to them. That by treating people on merit not sex, women who succeed will take something from them. Women who also engage in this nonsense aren’t doing themselves any favours either! I’d hoped that we were growing up!
I thought it ironic this morning, when Andrew Robb had to justify the Coalition’s parental leave policy in relation to how men/fathers will be paid - first 2 weeks at men’s pay, any more leave at woman/wifes’ pay! He pointed out that in most cases, men’s pay is higher than women’s? Women have to work 63 hours extra per year in order to receive the same income! He conveniently omitted to mention, that the equal pay situation for women deteriorated while he was last in office!
Of course, people who think they’re naturally superior will always find it necessary, to pick out the (physical) faults and defects in others. So much comment on Julia Gillard’s hair style/colour etc, but no comment about the receding hair on Abbott’s head, or people being overweight or ?????Sigh!!!!Tedious!
@Lenore
Unfortunately out beyond the black stump in the suburban wastelands of Sydney and Brisbane, where most of the marginal seats that will decide this election lay, it is exactly this kind of reactive or visceral response that informs many swinging voters choices.
The reason Australian politics is largely analysed by the media as if it were some kind of bare knuckle intellectual bloodsport, a football match or reality TV programme is because the said same media organisations and research indicates this is exactly what the public wants.
I’m endlessly amazed at the hypocrisy of journalist carping on about poll and focus group driven political campaigns when almost all pervasive shift to the New’s as Infotainment business model in recent years has been driven by exactly the same cynical market research based approach
“were a problem amongst more conservative voters and should be highlighted.”
The more conservative voters are still voting for Menzies and think the ALP are a bunch of communists so they were hardly ever going to be won over. I think the Libs are preaching the converted on that one.
It probably sums up why Julie Bishop has pretty much gone into hiding during the campaign. You can’t bang on endlessly about the need for a family man in charge only to reveal if Tony ever crashed his bike Julie Bishop would be in charge.
@Liz45 - you picked up on my next point - we had 12 years of Coalition government and in all that time not one thing was done to give women equal pay. That speaks volumes about the 19th century attitude the Coalition still has towards women. If I were a Coalition pollie I’d have been to ashamed to get up and start spruiking about women being paid less. The hypocracy in this announcement is breathtaking, but I bet the media will remain dutifully silent on it.
If Julia Gillard had children we’d be getting drivel from the media questioning how a mother could possibly be a prime minister as well because the media (and a lot of male politicians on all sides) still insist that us poor, weak, incompetent women can’t be expected to handle both a demanding career and a family. No-one ever questions how male politicians manage to combine family life with their work, why would it be any different for a woman.
Women are damned whatever they do. If they have kids they can’t cope with a family and a career, if they are childfree they don’t understand what it’s like to deal with the demands of family life. Why? It’s all sexist garbage and we should be over that sort of stereotype.
Some of the recent topics in the media are cute, irrelevant, but cute. ‘Churnalists’ need something to write about. That’s ok, as long as we remember when it counts to keep conservative extremism at bay. Never, ever again, please! For me these memories are still too painful. Let’s hope political amnesia hasn’t set in. Good luck to OZ!
More evidence of the appalling state of journalism in this country. The so called serious media is basically Who Weekly on newsprint. And dont keep blaming the pollies and your readers!
I have two of what Mr Abbott describes as the best immigrants, twins aged 3. In order that they are prepared for life under either labor or Liberal I have taken to giving the male child $1 per week in pocket money and the female child 82 cents. He’s happy but she is asking why and is not happy with my explanation of preperation for life in modern Australia. She’s asking if she’d get the missing 18 cents if she dyed her hair ginger and I’m suggesting probably not. Golly this is a complicated issue, anybody with any ideas on placating her?
There is a segment of both parties that is committed to dirty personal attacks. Who cares what size the ears of the respective party leaders are? Tell me policy - who is prepared to lead us into the 2010s?
@Tom..stop being a miserable bugger and give them a dollar each, a dollar even a 3 yr old will have a problem finding something to buy for a dollar. As for 82 cents stop having a lend of us…..
@LEONE - Anne Summer’s book, ‘The End of Equality’ clearly sets out all the areas that women were ‘driven’ backwards under Howard. I thought I was aware of most, but was surprised by the broadness of his 1950’s attitudes that influenced the lives of women in a negative manner. Apart from equal pay going backwards, the Dept of Women was scrapped and put into the PM’s cabinet and ??? section, there to be ignored for the rest of his time in govt. There was the money to go to the education/prevention of domestic violence, and it went to frig magnets instead, telling us to ‘be alert not alarmed’(I sent mine back - with a message?) but the alarming reality of the increase in the incidents and violence towards women and kids was almost ignored. The ads that did make it were the 2nd choice! A program of ads aimed at young people to be viewed during the summer school/Uni/TAFE holidays was pulled immediately prior to going to air. This despite the fact, that the assaults on young women and girls escallates during this time?
Of equal import was the forcing sole parents into the workforce when their youngest child turned 8 - it was originally going to be 6, but we kicked up such a stink, that it was raised to 8.(Remember the every child needs both parents mantra by Howard etc?Apparently doesn’t apply to sole parent households - kids don’t need even need one parent at home when they’re there?)
Women who didn’t take any job, even when they didn’t have child care or access to transport, were still treated in the same way - with punitive damages - withdrawal of pension for 8 wks! Not only that, but in an area close to mine, a federally funded program that cared for kids before and after school was scrapped!!!!!!
The tax system introduced by Howard/Costello acted in favour of households, where there was one breadwinner on say $100,000 per year - if both parties earned the same amount, they were penalised. The higher the woman’s income, the higher the tax - even though their joint income was no higher than the first example? The aim? To keep (married)women out of the workforce, while penalising women who were raising kids alone! Then there was RU486 and removing Abbott from deciding on what drugs the community had access to!
There’s heaps more examples? I read the book every now and then, just to remind me of them. At least under Labor, there’s now more money to try and stop domestic violence, and to provide more support networks - started by Kevin Rudd as PM and continued now. Tania Plibersek announced some just last week! I don’t think the media paid much attention to her Media Release - more interested in talking about hair colour; skin colour, ear size/s and budgie smugglers???What positive policies do the Coalition have re women’s issues? None that I know of, except their high cost paid parental leave, which is going to cause increased costs being forced onto the community, whereas the ALP Legislation has been costed and paid for out of the budget?
LEONE, have you noticed that the complaints or criticisms re women in the workforce, and also mothers, don’t include occupations such as teachers, nurses, physiotherapists, podiatrists, women who work in hospitality or women’s ‘stores’ etc? It’s only those areas that men believe(too many of them) are their domain, where the media harps on how important motherhood is etc? It’s only been in the last few years that the message re the importance of fathers, and how men want to bond and nurture their babies has been given any importance, but they can work from daylight till dark, and it’s OK? Imagine what chaos there’d be if all the women I just mentioned stopped work this afternoon and stayed away until the weekend? Howls of protests? screams of outrage! Irresponsible and selfish would be the claims! If they refused to go back, the economy and society would collapse! Strange how these are the workers who are some of the worst paid, and have to fight for every small improvement in salaries and conditions! Strange how the majority are also women! We have a long way to go!
The women journalists who are engaging in the type of trivia outlined on this site should be ashamed of themselves. I’m twice as angry with women who sell out other women - they should know better! Shame on them!
@TOM - Make sure they both get the best education, and advise your daughter to have a career - be financially self sufficient, so she won’t have to rely on any bloke to care for her and/or her kids! Reinforce the ‘girls can do anything’ attitude. That’s what I tell my grand-daughters!
Wait until they start arguing with you at 7 or 10 or 15????They’ll challenge you on everything - mine did - which is good! Keeps us on our toes!
I bet they’re gorgeous! Lucky you! Enjoy them now - it goes in a flash!!!
In every home there is some fight or at least a misunderstanding between man and woman and husband and wife. Why this has never led to polarization of women on one side and men on the other? Why there has never been a pitched battle between the sexes so far?
http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/parental-control-a-complete-parental-control-software-review-2130892.html
Well we all must living living great, life is a breeze, we all love our jobs, we’re so well paid, plenty of holidays and overseas trips, no worries at all. It’s the life.
I don’t give a rats bum about Gillard’s or Abbotts features. Do they have policies that will contribute to the wellbeing of community and country? If so let me know media. And get off this self indulgent debate about how they look. That an election can be won or lost on how big someone’s ear lobes are is a good indication that we have no real problems in this country. I’m relieved. No health issues, no unemployment issues, no homeless issues, no… nothing! Wow.
Thanks media, and I thought we had some serious matters at hand, but it seems not. Ahhhhh, well I’m better off that I thought.
I pretty much hate both candidates on the inside, regardless of the pink fleshy wrapping.
Is this going to be a gender election people? That would be a grave mistake I believe. Issues and policies are the important things here, and not who has the sexiest ankles or the prettiest hair colouring!
It’s not very long ago that the American People voted in their First African American President – on a platform of ‘change’. I would guess that non white Americans were delirious when Barack Obama was sworn in as their 44th President, praying for, pleading for and dreaming of great changes that would be of immense benefit to themselves.
http://just-me-in-t.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-would-younger-women-vote-for-julia.html