Australian PM Rudd - women should stay out of school and have babies.

snip

Rudd's argument that all too many women are using their further education or their careers as an ''excuse'' to avoid having children is wildly problematic.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/dont-be-rattled-by-the-baby-guilt-trip-20100214-nzb9.html

If he wants business to do something, he offers incentives. What do the young women get?

Being treated like breeding stock is what every girl really wants, don't you know.

Is at risk of losing the next election (to a coalition led by a climate-change denying, sexist throwback) by stupid pronouncements like this, as well as the sub-par performance of other members of his party at the state level.

It would not be a good thing for Australia or the world.

I had the weird feeling that I'd been transported back to the '50's, and all that that means, good and bad, fresh innocence (good) and very old fashioned mind sets (bad).
My daughter and her English husband (he'd lived and worked in Australia for many years before they met in England) went there to try it out, see if they could make their home happily there. They didn't stay, partly because she felt so far away from everything she'd ever known...but also because she simply could not find a job that offered her any challenge, respect, or responsibility.
She has absolutely found such work here in the US since that time.
Again, let me say that I think Australia is a wonderful country, full of bright, open,gentle and very kind people. They've got great, civilized cities, astonishing open spaces and very good health care, too.
But that uncomfortable first-hand experience of my daughter certainly lines up with Mr. Rudd's silly comment...

And I've found quite a bit of this retrograde thinking -- on the part of both men and women -- since I got here.

Normative behavior calls for girls to be girlier, and men to be more manly. By which I mean presentation of women as pure sex objects attracts less scorn than in the US and traditional male pursuits like drinkin' an' fightin' are romanticized.

The reality, of course, is much more complex. Women still struggle for survival like anyone anywhere (and don't get paid as well), and are unsubtly directed by society to find a male partner to help support them. And men sadly get themselves killed or disabled in bar fights (almost never involving guns) on a regular basis.

It's a mutation/perversion/evolution of Australia's rough-n-ready heritage.

Where I find it most scary is in the lower grades in school where machismo and heatherism are rampant, and kids really get hurt.

Because Australia is wonderful, too. I'd go back there, for a visit, in a minute. (If I had the air miles to buy the ticket, that is.)

I had one of those moments recently with the Prime Minister. I was at a function where Kevin Rudd was giving the keynote address. He talked about the ''crisis'' of Australia's ageing population and the various economic challenges we will face as a result.

Arguments were made about superannuation and the strain on healthcare. But there was a deeper message: young people (women in particular) are failing in their civic duty to reproduce. Apparently, gen Y is to blame for the inverted population pyramid.

There were hundreds of people in the room but only a handful under 30. As one of the under 30-crowd, I shuffled nervously, hoping no one would recognise me - and my empty womb - as the deeply unpatriotic and traitorous felons that we are.

After Rudd came off stage, he spoke to me and the few other under-30s (we had congregated for strength in numbers). He extended his points about the problems with the ageing population and the financial problems gen Y will incur when the baby boomers become pensioners.

At that point one of my friends introduced me, dropping in that I am completing a PhD. At this, Rudd rolled his eyes and in a terse voice lacking any sense of irony remarked that is the "excuse" that "all" young women are using nowadays to avoid starting families. Since then I've come up with numerous one-line retorts, but in the moment I just froze in shock.

But there are some serious points that should be raised in response, even after the moment.

For starters, even if we ignore the fact few people go on to complete PhDs (and of those who do, the majority are men), Rudd's argument that all too many women are using their further education or their careers as an ''excuse'' to avoid having children is wildly problematic.

Why do we assume it is the obligation of all women to reproduce? And why do we label them as selfish when they don't? We never label career-driven men as selfish.

Women should be seen as more than mere baby incubators who procreate for the benefit of the nation. Despite what some might think, women can contribute in a variety of ways which do not involve their uteruses. Just ask Julia Gillard.

(Julia Gillard is Deputy Prime Minister).

Rudd has been on the frontlines of Climate Change and Cyber Security.

Excuse him all you want, but this most certainly does not qualify as a slip of the tongue. Not even close.

How cool is that?

Don Caballero, stuff it!

He is such a step up from John Howard.

Get's in the way of their petty outrage.

And they have no idea about the current opposition leader (and former health minister) Tony Abbott- an anti-choice, conservative Catholic chauvinist.

Suffice it to say, Australian women are more than fine with Rudd and won't go overboard about private, off the cuff remarks (though I'it might be interesting to hear what deputy PM Julia Gillard thought about the piece).

by a politician who has nonetheless done a lot to help minorities... would you call their outrage 'petty'?

It never ceases to amaze me when men give creedence to idiots like this because of "all the good they've done". After all, he's just talking about women's lives here, not like it's anything as important as cyber fucking security.

...muttering swear words under my breath now....

.

feel it's perfectly acceptable to tell women what to wear, how to live, and what to believe and think.

Worse yet is the claim that they know what we or anyone else is thinking!

Excuses indeed...like we're required to live a certain way, and are 'making excuses!'

Where the sun don't shine, Ruddy baby.

Rudd is usually one of only a handful of Aussie politicians that doesn't let his inner neanderthal come out on a semi-regular basis.

"At that point one of my friends introduced me, dropping in that I am completing a PhD. At this, Rudd rolled his eyes and in a terse voice lacking any sense of irony remarked that is the "excuse" that "all" young women are using nowadays to avoid starting families."

How disgusting.

was a primer for an ideal world.

:wow:

she is not going to be a haapy camper!

I wish Ms. Funnell had been able to dress him down properly in front of all those people.