Welcome to Gilead?
I had this horrible feeling last night that if Abbott became PM we'd be heading towards a republic of Gilead moment. If you've read The Handmaid's Tale, you get it. If not... I think we all know he's a misogynistic areshole and the apparent willingness of voters to accept that in a leader - for the sake of a mining tax break and some change in the national petty cash - pretty much says it all.
The Handmaid's Tale feeling only got worse every time I saw footage of him surrounded by his accessories. Gillard's campaign might have been run by faceless men, but at least she didn't try to say that presenting a person as only relevant in terms of her role within the family was somehow egalitarian. Abbott clearly doesn’t seem to understand that “my mother is a woman” didn’t exactly do much in the way of presenting a modern egalitarian ideal, but only goes to show that he’s stuck in the pre-suffragette era when women were just mothers, just wives, just daughters. They may as well have been wearing colour coded veils.
On the other hand, there was Gillard, who might have been a step forward for women in Australia; our first female PM - only 13 years behind New Zealand - if she hadn’t gotten there by being a backstabbing bitch. Watching The Circle after the knifing incident (yes, I watched The Circle, that’s not the point to focus on here) I was genuinely surprised to hear these otherwise intelligent women talking about “Julia” as PM as a great step forward. Our First Female Prime Minister. Like it was some great step forward (moving forward, perhaps?) that showed how Australia was coming out of the dark ages and finally embracing women’s lib.
Not really.
Australia has still not had an elected female Prime Minister. She has not been voted in. Abbott is ostensibly as popular. The people have spoken indeed, but nobody’s sure what the hell they’ve said. Unless you count the fact that the Greens have a seat, Bob Brown is a rock star, and a hung parliament means we’re in for a lot of shouting in the House of Representatives. But then, there’s always been a lot of shouting in the House of Representatives. It’s when the shouting stops that we’ll really be in trouble.
I had this horrible feeling last night that if Abbott became PM we'd be heading towards a republic of Gilead moment. If you've read The Handmaid's Tale, you get it. If not... I think we all know he's a misogynistic areshole and the apparent willingness of voters to accept that in a leader - for the sake of a mining tax break and some change in the national petty cash - pretty much says it all.
The Handmaid's Tale feeling only got worse every time I saw footage of him surrounded by his accessories. Gillard's campaign might have been run by faceless men, but at least she didn't try to say that presenting a person as only relevant in terms of her role within the family was somehow egalitarian. Abbott clearly doesn’t seem to understand that “my mother is a woman” didn’t exactly do much in the way of presenting a modern egalitarian ideal, but only goes to show that he’s stuck in the pre-suffragette era when women were just mothers, just wives, just daughters. They may as well have been wearing colour coded veils.
On the other hand, there was Gillard, who might have been a step forward for women in Australia; our first female PM - only 13 years behind New Zealand - if she hadn’t gotten there by being a backstabbing bitch. Watching The Circle after the knifing incident (yes, I watched The Circle, that’s not the point to focus on here) I was genuinely surprised to hear these otherwise intelligent women talking about “Julia” as PM as a great step forward. Our First Female Prime Minister. Like it was some great step forward (moving forward, perhaps?) that showed how Australia was coming out of the dark ages and finally embracing women’s lib.
Not really.
Australia has still not had an elected female Prime Minister. She has not been voted in. Abbott is ostensibly as popular. The people have spoken indeed, but nobody’s sure what the hell they’ve said. Unless you count the fact that the Greens have a seat, Bob Brown is a rock star, and a hung parliament means we’re in for a lot of shouting in the House of Representatives. But then, there’s always been a lot of shouting in the House of Representatives. It’s when the shouting stops that we’ll really be in trouble.
