Sunday, October 14, 2012

She Was Magnificent


I first heard the sound bites on the radio while out at the fishing camp but those bits and the political commentaries were pretty ordinary compared to the raw but disciplined power of Gillard's whole speech, which I found upon entering the ether world again today.

Maybe the Prime Minister has been ramping this up for a while. Maybe she finally cracked. Well, fair enough. Anne Summers spelled out the pressure that the Prime Minister has been subjected to: the lewd cartoons emailed to every parliamentarian right before a day's work, the references to her sexuality, fertility choices, physical attributes ... etc ..etc ... It goes on and on. I've thought for a long time that our Prime Minister was holding out on calling her treatment for what it was, in deference to not playing the 'gender card'.

Today's Weekend Australian seems to be full of angry old men getting cranky about her speech. Like, how dare a woman actually say the words misogyny or sexism out loud? Let alone the Prime Minister. She should be careful playing that game. Thatcher would never do something like that. These damned colonial whores and God's police are just Destroying the Joint.


19 comments:

  1. Fuckyeah! Go Julia. I have been meaning to watch this speech. Brilliant. I've also been meaning to do a parallel blog about this issue.

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  2. It's worth the fifteen minutes, yes? I thought her speech was tight, reasonably clean and very personal all at once.

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  3. And there is a link in there to the Anne Summers essay. I think she actually sent it to Gillard. Perhaps it helped her realise it was the right time to call it, finally.

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  4. It's not yet 6.00 in the morning here Sarah but I just watched the entire 15 mins and 2 secs without hardly blinking. I think was terrified. "The leader of the opposition" certainly was.

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  5. I wondered whether you would post on this - she has even made it to the headlines over here in the U.K. and clips of her tirade are played over and over again. Brilliant!

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    1. P.S. I just watched the whole 15 minutes entirely for the first time, so thanks for that. (This is a slightly off-topic question, but does the Deputy Speaker look a bit like a young Mick Jagger?)

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    2. Thanks for putting up the link Tom.
      The ex speaker behaving like a young Mick Jagger, rather than looking like him, was probably part of the problem.

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  6. Yep, watched the entire thing. I did a follow-up blog as well and e-mailed Anne Summers to ask permission to use comments from her post. She was very supportive. I'm singin': 'Sisters....are doin' it for themselves....' :)

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  7. Well done that woman. I've just watched the whole clip, and am amazed that she managed to stay so calm. Pity you didn't post his response too; I'd loved to have seen THAT!

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    1. Yes, like Tom wrote over at his place, most of us would have been in bits within the first minute.
      I could be wrong Cro, but I think that speech was HER response to his motion/lecture, so there may not be one from him. I'll have a look though.
      Looking at his watch was certainly not a clever response!

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  8. Worthy of any Hollywood movie
    I will look forward for Nicole Kidman to play her in the mini series
    Cracking!

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  9. "It's worth the fifteen minutes, yes?"

    On my bean can and string internet connection it took me ALL day to download this but by 'Eck was it worth it. Calm? You could see she was trembling with barely controlled rage. And quite right too. I'd have strode across the house and kicked the git under the chin and had done with it. Instead she gave a reposte worthy of Churchill. Did anyone notice at about one minute fifty seconds in when some male guffawed the icy glare she gave him? She wasn't pissing around or mincing her words.

    I would be too scared to marry her but by God I'd vote for her.

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  10. I'd marry her Tom! Awesome, just awesome!!

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  11. Clearly Chris, you have balls bigger than the Australian Prime Minister...

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  12. It is really encouraging to see so many men, obviously confident and balanced people, weighing into the debate. (I'm going to do a fair and balanced follow-up post on the 'fear-of-the-feminine' - a lay-person's look at the universal psychological determinants behind the misogynistic side of Aussie culture)

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  13. Yes, even those folk with only one ball! (And thanks to those northerner blokes who commented too).
    Good stuff MF. Can't wait to read it. It may be worthwhile to track down the book Damned Whores and God's Police for a historical perspective on women's status in Australia.

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