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GoneOffShore

(17,339 posts) Tue Oct 9, 2012, 12:16 PM Oct 2012

Australian PM Julia Gillard calls Tony Abbot a misogynist

'Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard fearlessly scolded Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Tuesday as he sat just six feet away over his record of “misogynistic and sexist” attacks on her.
Raw Story (http://s.tt/1pAqC)'

She really gets going at the 3 minute mark.

6 replies

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Highlight:

Australian PM Julia Gillard calls Tony Abbot a misogynist (Original Post) GoneOffShore Oct 2012 OP

Bravo! Bravo! rurallib Oct 2012 #1

I watched in amazement. GoneOffShore Oct 2012 #3

No wonder Julian Assange doesn't like this woman. She isn't taking crap from any man. nt msanthrope Oct 2012 #2

What did Assange say about her? PragmaticLiberal Oct 2012 #6

She was superb. Matilda Oct 2012 #4

This incredible speech is also highlighted in the New Yorker... DreamGypsy Oct 2012 #5

rurallib

(62,416 posts)

1. Bravo! Bravo!

Reply to GoneOffShore (Original post)

Tue Oct 9, 2012, 01:14 PM

Oct 2012

GoneOffShore

(17,339 posts)

3. I watched in amazement.

Reply to rurallib (Reply #1)

Tue Oct 9, 2012, 01:37 PM

Oct 2012

Tony the Toad's face is priceless several times in the video.

msanthrope

(37,549 posts)

2. No wonder Julian Assange doesn't like this woman. She isn't taking crap from any man. nt

Reply to GoneOffShore (Original post)

Tue Oct 9, 2012, 01:24 PM

Oct 2012

PragmaticLiberal

(904 posts)

6. What did Assange say about her?

Reply to msanthrope (Reply #2)

Wed Oct 10, 2012, 07:28 PM

Oct 2012

Matilda

(6,384 posts)

4. She was superb.

Reply to GoneOffShore (Original post)

Tue Oct 9, 2012, 08:34 PM

Oct 2012

Everything she said about Abbott was true, and it was great to see her fighting back, not just for herself but for all women who have been put down by sexist men.

There is a background to this, for our American friends, and it involves an ugly, equally misogynistic talk-back host named Alan Jones (think Rush Limbaugh), who hates Labor and hates Gillard even more, and has accused women in power of "detroying the joint". It reached a climax when Jones said that Gillard's father, who died a few weeks ago, had "died of shame" because of her.

There has been a very spirited response from women and from progressive men, with a Facebook site and a Twitter hashtag called "Destroy the Joint" set up denouncing Jones, and calling for a boycott of his show's sponsors. His good buddy Tony Abbott has refused to condemn his sexist tirades, and it has reached a point where all advertising has been pulled from Jones's top-rating talk-back show.

So Julia was taking a stand with all of us, and on behalf of all of us, when she made her spirited attack on Abbott yesterday. I don't think it has yet dawned on mainstream men just what it was she was doing, but the rest of us know, and Twitter went wild.

She is brilliant at parliamentary debate, and it's a great shame that so much of the population never gets to see it.

DreamGypsy

(2,252 posts)

5. This incredible speech is also highlighted in the New Yorker...

Reply to GoneOffShore (Original post)

Wed Oct 10, 2012, 07:14 PM

Oct 2012

October 9, 2012
Ladylike: Julia Gillard’s Misogyny Speech
Posted by Amelia Lester

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/10/julia-gillards-misogyny-speech.html#ixzz28wLEfl7D

The occasion of Gillard’s speech, and of Abbott’s motion, was a gem of the gaffe-driven news cycle that American and Australian politics share: the Speaker of the House, a man by the Dickensian name of Slipper, sent texts to a staffer in which he compared female genitalia to a particular kind of shellfish and described a party colleague, seemingly with auto-correct turned on, as an “ignorant botch.” He’s been sued for sexual harassment.

snip

But the fact is that Abbott speaks for a relentless gang of Australians who seem very angry at Gillard, in a bizarrely disproportionate and unpleasant way that suggests the real problem might simply be that she is running the country. Their hatred—comprehensively documented by the Australian writer Anne Summers in a speech given at the University of Newcastle in August—seemed to reach fever pitch around her introduction of the carbon tax this year. Yes, Gillard had introduced the carbon tax despite a promise she made in an election campaign, but—as Summers demonstrates through an ascending series of uglier YouTube clips and protest signs, many featuring explicit pornographic images and the popular nickname “Ju-liar” (first coined by Alan Jones)—what started as a legitimate political disagreement has become deeply personal in nature.

Her response is a beautifully choreographed impassioned denouncement of Abbott and his men's club mentality, especially near the end when she improvises after Abbott checks his watch.

I had to applaud at the end of the speech...causing no little consternation to the dog lying under my feet.

Australian Women Rock!!! (I am perhaps a little biased ... I married one.)

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