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| Sure, Australia is a sexist place. But we have some serious competition | Sure, Australia is a sexist place. But we have some serious competition |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Australia’s reputation for a political culture of sexist piggery precedes itself: this is, after all, a country where a male prime minister who refers to the female electorate as “housewives doing the ironing” also appoints himself minister for women, or where a male senior minister publicly goes on TV to say abortion causes breast cancer. | |
| What can one expect, of course, from a modern, western nation that presently has fewer female cabinet members than Afghanistan? We have a single one, by the way. In Afghanistan, they have three. | What can one expect, of course, from a modern, western nation that presently has fewer female cabinet members than Afghanistan? We have a single one, by the way. In Afghanistan, they have three. |
| More enlightened minds than those above once observed that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Australia’s fun-loving feminist community have provided that reaction for the past 22 years in the form of the annual Ernie awards, bestowed on those (male or female) who have made the most sexist public remarks of the year. | More enlightened minds than those above once observed that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Australia’s fun-loving feminist community have provided that reaction for the past 22 years in the form of the annual Ernie awards, bestowed on those (male or female) who have made the most sexist public remarks of the year. |
| Named after Ernie Ecob, a trade unionist who once declared women only wanted to jobs in the shearing industry in order to get laid, the awards receive nominations across categories from the judicial to industrial, and are voted on by a chorus of volume-measured public booing. | Named after Ernie Ecob, a trade unionist who once declared women only wanted to jobs in the shearing industry in order to get laid, the awards receive nominations across categories from the judicial to industrial, and are voted on by a chorus of volume-measured public booing. |
| The education minister, Christopher Pyne, was a stand out top-prize “Golden Ernie” winner amongst some stiff competition. | The education minister, Christopher Pyne, was a stand out top-prize “Golden Ernie” winner amongst some stiff competition. |
| This included the industrial winner, the campervan company that donned vehicles with the slogan “Fat girls are harder to kidnap”, and a media commentator who decried the broadcasting of Peppa Pig for her “weirdly feminist line”. A special award for repeat offenders is called “The Clinton” – it went to the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott. | This included the industrial winner, the campervan company that donned vehicles with the slogan “Fat girls are harder to kidnap”, and a media commentator who decried the broadcasting of Peppa Pig for her “weirdly feminist line”. A special award for repeat offenders is called “The Clinton” – it went to the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott. |
| Australia is, of course, not the only country on earth where those in public life demean the reputation of their culture by uttering sexist remarks. So here, let me propose both a globalisation of the Ernies and a few international candidates for a 2014 Global Ernies – or “Gernies”, if you will. | Australia is, of course, not the only country on earth where those in public life demean the reputation of their culture by uttering sexist remarks. So here, let me propose both a globalisation of the Ernies and a few international candidates for a 2014 Global Ernies – or “Gernies”, if you will. |
| Media sexism award | Media sexism award |
| A hot contender in the media section would have to be the editorial team of the Times of India, whose services to journalism this week included publishing the piece “hot babes with ugly legs”. A list of female celebrities so deemed included Britney Spears whose “muscular legs would look more at home at the wrestling ring!” and Oscar-winning, UN spokesperson and activist Angela Jolie. Wrote the ToI: “Her knees, in particular, could surely use some meat.” | A hot contender in the media section would have to be the editorial team of the Times of India, whose services to journalism this week included publishing the piece “hot babes with ugly legs”. A list of female celebrities so deemed included Britney Spears whose “muscular legs would look more at home at the wrestling ring!” and Oscar-winning, UN spokesperson and activist Angela Jolie. Wrote the ToI: “Her knees, in particular, could surely use some meat.” |
| In the media category, though, it’s hard to go past a gentleman like America’s Rush Limbaugh, who has built an impressively global media reputation for saying pig things. Limbaugh’s response to released footage of Baltimore Raven Ray Rice bashing Janay Palmer earlier this month was to declare: | In the media category, though, it’s hard to go past a gentleman like America’s Rush Limbaugh, who has built an impressively global media reputation for saying pig things. Limbaugh’s response to released footage of Baltimore Raven Ray Rice bashing Janay Palmer earlier this month was to declare: |
| What this illustrates is what I’ve always said about feminism: it’s artificial, it isn’t real, because men and women aren’t equal. If feminism was actually what they are portraying it to be, there wouldn’t be this kind of outrage and shock. | What this illustrates is what I’ve always said about feminism: it’s artificial, it isn’t real, because men and women aren’t equal. If feminism was actually what they are portraying it to be, there wouldn’t be this kind of outrage and shock. |
| He’s had a big year, our Rush: in March, he attacked the support of his conservative brethren in the Republican party for a National Women’s History Museum. “We already have museums for women,” japed the funster, “they’re called malls.” | He’s had a big year, our Rush: in March, he attacked the support of his conservative brethren in the Republican party for a National Women’s History Museum. “We already have museums for women,” japed the funster, “they’re called malls.” |
| Industrial sexism award | Industrial sexism award |
| In the industrial category, there’s still some competition from Team Australia on the global stage. Software company Atlassian recently forced to apologise for the local engineer who in June decided to tell a developer conference in Berlin that Atlassian plugin Maven was “like his girlfriend”. She may have been beautiful, he conceded, but “complains a lot, demands my attention, interrupts me when I’m working” and “doesn’t play well with my other friends”. | In the industrial category, there’s still some competition from Team Australia on the global stage. Software company Atlassian recently forced to apologise for the local engineer who in June decided to tell a developer conference in Berlin that Atlassian plugin Maven was “like his girlfriend”. She may have been beautiful, he conceded, but “complains a lot, demands my attention, interrupts me when I’m working” and “doesn’t play well with my other friends”. |
| Judicial sexism award | Judicial sexism award |
| An excellent judicial nominee comes from Malaysia. Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun, the party lawyer of the ruling Umno party argued that a female candidate, Datuk Sei Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, should not be allowed to contest a local government position in Selangor because ... she menstruates. His argument ran that a menstruating woman may not be able to accompany the Sultan of Selangor at religious functions: “there could be problems because of the said circumstances”, he told the New Straits Times in July. | An excellent judicial nominee comes from Malaysia. Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun, the party lawyer of the ruling Umno party argued that a female candidate, Datuk Sei Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, should not be allowed to contest a local government position in Selangor because ... she menstruates. His argument ran that a menstruating woman may not be able to accompany the Sultan of Selangor at religious functions: “there could be problems because of the said circumstances”, he told the New Straits Times in July. |
| Celebrity sexism award | Celebrity sexism award |
| The celebrity Gernie has a real contender from Palash Sen, singer of Euphoria, one of India’s biggest bands. Performing at a festival on a university campus last December, Sen experienced some confusion when he asked whether there were any “good looking girls” on the campus and a male crowd reportedly raised their hands to signal “no”. Sen’s response “Don’t say that, guys - God’s most beautiful creation is a woman. And if a woman is the most beautiful creation, then man is the most intelligent one” did not go far to ameliorate the gender tensions there. | The celebrity Gernie has a real contender from Palash Sen, singer of Euphoria, one of India’s biggest bands. Performing at a festival on a university campus last December, Sen experienced some confusion when he asked whether there were any “good looking girls” on the campus and a male crowd reportedly raised their hands to signal “no”. Sen’s response “Don’t say that, guys - God’s most beautiful creation is a woman. And if a woman is the most beautiful creation, then man is the most intelligent one” did not go far to ameliorate the gender tensions there. |
| Culture sexism award | Culture sexism award |
| A special group award for cultural piggery is deserved by the gang of UK critics who decided to collectively body shame the 27-year-old opera singer Tara Erraught after her performance in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier in May. Comments from Andrew Clark, Rupert Christiansen, Andrew Clements, Richard Morrison and Michael Church in turn described the singer as “a chubby bundle of puppy-fat”, “dumpy of stature”, “hard to imagine this stocky Octavian as (a) plausible lover”, “unbelievable, unsightly and unappealing” and as having the “demeanour of a scullery maid”. Their concession that Erraught’s role was “gloriously sung”, by the “talented” and “hugely promising” singer was somewhat lost under the deluge of body-bullying. | A special group award for cultural piggery is deserved by the gang of UK critics who decided to collectively body shame the 27-year-old opera singer Tara Erraught after her performance in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier in May. Comments from Andrew Clark, Rupert Christiansen, Andrew Clements, Richard Morrison and Michael Church in turn described the singer as “a chubby bundle of puppy-fat”, “dumpy of stature”, “hard to imagine this stocky Octavian as (a) plausible lover”, “unbelievable, unsightly and unappealing” and as having the “demeanour of a scullery maid”. Their concession that Erraught’s role was “gloriously sung”, by the “talented” and “hugely promising” singer was somewhat lost under the deluge of body-bullying. |
| Sport sexism award | Sport sexism award |
| To sport, and it’s cricketer and former West Indies Test skipper Chris Gayle from Jamaica who has earned an Gernie nod. Interviewed by a female journalist before a match between his team the Jamaica Tallawahs with the Antigua Hawksbills in July, Gayle was asked: “How does the pitch feel so far in terms of the training (and) the weather?”. He thought it appropriate to respond: “Well, I haven’t touched yours yet so I don’t know how it feels”, then added “I like your smile; that’s nice.” | To sport, and it’s cricketer and former West Indies Test skipper Chris Gayle from Jamaica who has earned an Gernie nod. Interviewed by a female journalist before a match between his team the Jamaica Tallawahs with the Antigua Hawksbills in July, Gayle was asked: “How does the pitch feel so far in terms of the training (and) the weather?”. He thought it appropriate to respond: “Well, I haven’t touched yours yet so I don’t know how it feels”, then added “I like your smile; that’s nice.” |
| Politics sexism award | Politics sexism award |
| An obvious nominee in the political section is Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Bülent Arinç, who in June made a celebrity of himself by claiming: “A woman should be chaste. She should know the difference between public and private. She should not laugh in public.” Arinc became the literal laughing stock of the internet when Turkish women took to social media with portraits of themselves very publicly laughing – at him. | An obvious nominee in the political section is Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Bülent Arinç, who in June made a celebrity of himself by claiming: “A woman should be chaste. She should know the difference between public and private. She should not laugh in public.” Arinc became the literal laughing stock of the internet when Turkish women took to social media with portraits of themselves very publicly laughing – at him. |
| Yet the behaviour of gentlemen in the Tokyo Assembly in Japan gives Arinc great competition. Akihiro Suzuki, a member of that country’s ruling party the LDP was caught on tape heckling female Your Party MP Ayaka Shiomura during a parliamentary speech with taunts along the lines of “you should get married!”, while other colleagues chimed in with “can’t you even bear a child?” Forced to apologise by prime minister and party colleague Shinzo Abe, Suzuki proved himself another double-winner by adding to his official retraction that he “really hoped (Shiomura) could marry soon, bearing in mind this ongoing trend where women are delaying marriage and having fewer children.” | Yet the behaviour of gentlemen in the Tokyo Assembly in Japan gives Arinc great competition. Akihiro Suzuki, a member of that country’s ruling party the LDP was caught on tape heckling female Your Party MP Ayaka Shiomura during a parliamentary speech with taunts along the lines of “you should get married!”, while other colleagues chimed in with “can’t you even bear a child?” Forced to apologise by prime minister and party colleague Shinzo Abe, Suzuki proved himself another double-winner by adding to his official retraction that he “really hoped (Shiomura) could marry soon, bearing in mind this ongoing trend where women are delaying marriage and having fewer children.” |
| Originally considered for the Celebrity prize, I’m inclined to make scientist Richard Dawkins my nomination for consistent awfulness award. With an established record of telling Western women to shut up about sexism because things were worse in other countries, recent evidence briefly suggested that atheism’s poster-boy seemed to have evolved upwards: only this August, he publicly claimed himself to be a feminist. Last week, alas, a thorough process of peer review established something of a regression in the man. Recent tweets denouncing his feminist critics as “feedingfrenzy thoughtpolice bullies” accompanied a declaration that rape victims weren’t trustworthy if they were drinking. The fossil recorded: “If you want to drive, don’t get drunk. If you want to be in a position to testify & jail a man, don’t get drunk.” | Originally considered for the Celebrity prize, I’m inclined to make scientist Richard Dawkins my nomination for consistent awfulness award. With an established record of telling Western women to shut up about sexism because things were worse in other countries, recent evidence briefly suggested that atheism’s poster-boy seemed to have evolved upwards: only this August, he publicly claimed himself to be a feminist. Last week, alas, a thorough process of peer review established something of a regression in the man. Recent tweets denouncing his feminist critics as “feedingfrenzy thoughtpolice bullies” accompanied a declaration that rape victims weren’t trustworthy if they were drinking. The fossil recorded: “If you want to drive, don’t get drunk. If you want to be in a position to testify & jail a man, don’t get drunk.” |
| It’s the kind of gift that just keeps on pig-giving. | It’s the kind of gift that just keeps on pig-giving. |