Jane Caro is feeling sympathetic toward men. It must be embarrassing “to see your normally rather pleasant and decorative gender being represented by such a pack of loudmouthed fools.”
Men like Todd Akin for instance. Or the Anglicans.
In what they clearly regarded as a great leap forward into the 15th century, the Sydney Anglicans triumphantly announced that they had changed the female version of their wedding vows so that women no longer promised to obey, but merely to submit.
And the difference is…?
The next bloke to trash the male gender’s reputation was ex-Liberal Party machine man, Grahame Morris. Asked what he thought of the ABC’s 7.30 presenter Leigh Sales’s withering interview with Tony Abbott, he remarked that Sales could be a bit of a “cow” sometimes. (Only when confronted with a lot of bull, perhaps, but that’s another story.) Worse, even when challenged on his use of such a term, Morris seemed unable to comprehend what the fuss was about.
Which is typical. “But bitch/cunt/twat/pussy/cow isn’t sexist at all, what is your problem, you uptight Femistasi bitch?”
Long-time broadcaster Alan Jones let rip with a tirade on 2GB against PM Julia Gillard. This time it was about her promise of additional aid to help get more women in the Pacific into parliament and other decision-making positions. Gillard argued raising the status of women was the best way to reduce the appalling domestic violence statistics in the region. Jones didn’t agree. He claimed that “Women are destroying the joint – Christine Nixon in Melbourne, Clover Moore here. Honestly.”
He then topped it off by revisiting a remark he’d made about Gillard previously: “There’s no chaff bag big enough for these people.” (Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon responded by branding the Jones comment ”good old fashioned sexism”.)
His previous remark was that Gillard should be put in a chaff bag and dropped in the sea.
Caro confesses shyly that she started the hashtag #destroyingthejoint in homage to Alan and his ilk and it’s been trending just a little bit. [Looks at the ceiling and whistles casually.]