Warrigal
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- Location
- Sydney, Australia
As bad as Americans think their politicians are, I cannot imagine something like this happening in the Congress.
This worm is a particularly odious creep who was elected as a libertarian.
This worm is a particularly odious creep who was elected as a libertarian.
This is Australian-style sexism brought to you by a senator and Sky News
Gay Alcorn
A fortnight ago, the Australian government launched what it called a world-first inquiry into sexual harassment at work in response to the revelations of the #MeToo movement. It was a widely-praised initiative, with an expectation that it would dig into what the problem was, and what needed to be done to fix it.
Then David Leyonhjelm, a federal senator, delivered a real-life case study in what the problem was and how women, especially uppity women with a public profile, can expect to be treated. With perfect timing, he exposed the obvious: insulting or disagreeing with women almost invariably becomes sexual in a way that it does not for men. And parts of the media use outrage as a business model, and women – those feminist women – are all part of the show. There is nothing uniquely Australian about this, but let’s say we do sexism with Australian characteristics.
The Senate was debating a motion to allow the importation of pepper spray and personal tasers to give women options to defend themselves. That motion was in part inspired by the rape and murder of 22-year-old Eurydice Dixon when she walked home through an inner-city Melbourne park in June. Greens senator Janet Rice opposed the motion in a way that highlighted the culture war debate that arose after Dixon’s death: the onus should not be on women to go to extreme lengths to combat violence, she said, when it was men’s crimes that were the issue.
Sarah Hanson-Young, a fellow Green senator, interjected that “men should stop raping women”.
Leyonhjelm, who was one of only five senators who supported the motion, shot back that Hanson-Young “should stop shagging men”. When Hanson-Young went over to confront him, she called him a “creep”. Leyonhjelm replied, “f*** off”.
Leyonhjelm, a member of the Liberal Democrats, is a libertarian elected to the Senate in 2013 through sheer luck. His party drew first on the ballot and, because it had “liberal” in the title, many thought they were voting for the mainstream Liberal party. So here he is, a powerful crossbencher in a divided Senate, espousing his notion of “freedom”.
He’s pro same-sex marriage, wants lower taxes, is keen on privatising the ABC and campaigns to loosen gun control laws. He invited Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at Parliament House, the same Milo who during his national tour put up a photo of feminist writer Clementine Ford, with the word “UNF***ABLE” superimposed. Leyonhjelm found Milo a “reasonable, rational sort of a guy”.
Every parliament has its eccentrics, and they have a place. Having a libertarian in the house is no bad thing, however accidental his election. Yet we are in the outrage era, the angry era, the era of political disillusionment. The loudest, most outrageous comment gets media attention, especially in those parts of the media that rely on it.
Sky News is a cable news channel controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. It has excellent, award-winning news programs, and a number of shouty rightwing opinion shows. Sky News decided Leyonhjelm’s remark about Hanson-Young, and his refusal to apologise to her, was so juicy it had him on twice to discuss it. On Sunday, he appeared on a little watched show called Outsiders, hosted by Rowan Dean and Ross Cameron, middle-aged rightwing culture warriors.
Leyonhjelm would certainly not apologise, he said, because he was calling out misandry, or hatred of men. He hadn’t quite heard what Hanson-Young had said, but it was “to the effect of men should stop raping women, the implication being all men are rapists”. Those statements are not at all the same, but he went further.
“This is not a criticism, but Sarah is known for liking men, the rumours about her in parliament house are well known, so I just said, ‘well just stop shagging men, then Sarah, it just doesn’t make any sense. If you think they are all rapists why would you shag them?’ ”
The remark drips with tawdry contempt, implying that Hanson-Young sleeps around. It is such a routine way for men to dismiss women they disagree with – they’re sluts, they’re frigid, they’re ugly, they’re hot. Sky News has apologised for the “appalling” comment, and many of its credible presenters, including the award-winning journalist, David Speers, says they were “completely unacceptable and should have been called out by Rowan and Ross at the time.” Something called “basic human decency” should come first.
Sky News apologised and launched an investigation, and has in the meantime suspended a young female producer responsible for writing the strap at the bottom of the screen - which accurately recorded what Leyonhjelm said. It has not reprimanded the hosts – not Rowan Dean, who rants against feminism and identity politics and who once wrote a column blaming “climate change alarmists” for the Grenfell fire tragedy.
Sky News apologised and launched an investigation, and has in the meantime suspended a young female producer responsible for writing the strap at the bottom of the screen - which accurately recorded what Leyonhjelm said.
It has not reprimanded the hosts – not Rowan Dean, who rants against feminism and identity politics and who once wrote a column blaming “climate change alarmists” for the Grenfell fire tragedy.
Hall apologised, saying it was a “silly thing to say and not a reflection of who I am ... I have nothing but respect for women”.
Gee, we’ve heard that before. Nothing but respect for women. Leyonhjelm won’t even say sorry, can’t even see that saying “men should stop raping women” is not comparable to “all men are rapists”. (Hanson-Young said she neither said nor inferred that all men were rapists and any suggestion she did was a lie.)
Leyonhjelm told Fairfax Media that “insincere apologies seem to be all the rage at the moment and I’m not in for it”.
What a hero he is, what an ornament to our parliament. Hanson-Young is considering taking legal action for defamation. She wrote in the Guardian after the “shagging” remark that she had had enough of the sexualised insults she had put up with as a senator. “I’ve had enough of pretending the slurs and taunts aren’t there.” Men’s names are shouted at her across the chamber, supposedly men she sleeps with. She is told to change the way she looks, to smile more.
The slurs and taunts are there, and women put up with them for fear, as Hanson-Young has said, of being accused of playing the “gender card”. It’s hard for women to win this game, harder still when the cards are stacked against them.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/03/leyonhjelm-hanson-young-sky-australian-style-sexism
