Of course, it's not only prime ministers who are subjected to the wrath of men angry at having to answer to a woman.
you to the woman who had unapologetically called out his misogyny in Parliament, and who received great fanfare from the countless Australian women who had identified so strongly with the moment. Rather, it served as a deliberate and final f. But the accusations only saw him double down on his desire to put women in their place.Īppointing himself Minister for Women after the LNP's election to government wasn't an example of his total lack of self-awareness.
#Bully boys series
His time in opposition was dogged by accusations of sexism, prompted perhaps by a series of gaffes so ridiculous and constant that he can only have been speaking from the heart and not merely revealing his embarrassing lack of political nous. He was so proud of the allegiance that he allowed himself to be photographed standing in front of the signs. As Opposition leader, Tony Abbott had no problem aligning himself with protesters holding signs saying: "Ditch the Witch"and "Bob Brown's Bitch". Entire books have been written about the appalling misogyny that undermined Gillard's governance, not least of which was inflicted by the current Prime Minister.
Naysayers are fond of pointing to the Prime Ministership of Julia Gillard in an attempt to disprove this – after all, if the Australian people are willing to elect a woman to lead them, we can't really be the unreconstructed, sexist buffoons that those pesky feminists make us out to be. The fact is, Australia has long struggled with the idea of embracing women in power. The speed with which supposedly adult men have feverishly rushed to turn into braying schoolboys has been astonishing they are no longer even bothering to conceal the enjoyment they take from making it known to their female colleagues just how little they respect their presence in public life, telling them instead to "settle down" (as O'Sullivan pompously did to Senator Penny Wong) and quipping with each other to be careful what they say lest they be "accused of sexism", presumably by the silly biddies who overreact to everything and can't take a joke.īut this is no great surprise given the general disdain foisted upon the women here who dare to put their heads above the parapets.