Thursday 27 June 2013

The game of politics


This is the most vile, despicable, man in Australian politics, willing to stoop to any act for his personal benefit. We must ensure we never see his like again.
This is the most vile, despicable, man in Australian politics, willing to stoop to any act for his personal benefit. We must ensure we never see his like again.
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  • Margaret Pereira With Rudd as prime minister he's on a level playing field defined in his own sexist terms, so it will be interesting to see his performance. He's used sexism and negativity to conceal his own lack of policies, now his inadequacies and the true extent of his misogynistic treatment of Julia Gillard will be revealed.
  • Jennifer Frances Armstrong Yes, I think that restorative dynamic will come into play. However, patriarchal attacks are notorious for being invisible, even long after they have occurred.
  • Margaret Pereira True, but I think it is important to watch his performance and constantly, and publicly, place it in the context of his previously displays of misogyny and his vicious sexist attacks on the Julia. We cannot afford to lose sight of this - not just in terms of Abbott as a potential PM but also for learning lessons about how misogyny works.
  • Jennifer Frances Armstrong There are already trolls dressed up as sophisticated news reporters who are using misogynist slurs. What is a misogynist slur, you might ask? Well it is the suggestion that a person might be "uncomfortable with authority".
  • Jennifer Frances Armstrong They try to get you with the double bind. If Gillard was uncomfortable with babies, because she did not embrace the typical feminine role, this implies she is uncomfortable with her role as PM, which means she was not comfortable accommodating a femi...See More
  • Margaret Pereira I hadn't considered much how these trolls present combine the gender role with the PM role. They certainly distort anything important and have little or no integrity, but I see what you mean about the double bind.
  • Jennifer Frances Armstrong Not just trolls, but journalistic commentators. Of they deliberately misunderstand some small point, like "The Real Julia", which had to do with the well known fact that all VIPs have image consultants
  • Jennifer Frances Armstrong One of these journalist trolls emoted: "Ah but she blamed her image consultants instead of taking responsibility". The suggestion that perhaps she was not taking responsibility implies she is a child...women are children, etc. another gender slur
  • Margaret Pereira That's so patronising and I don't believe Abbott would ever have been spoken about in those terms.
  • Margaret Pereira I see what you mean
  • Jennifer Frances Armstrong It's quite a subtle put down actually. When I unpack it, you can see how patronising it really is
  • Margaret Pereira What about Abbott constantly deferring to Margie and his girls to deal with suggestions that he's a misogynist. Surely that is a lack of responsibility.
  • Jennifer Frances Armstrong of course it is. Hiding behind the woman's petticoat
    3 minutes ago · Like · 1
  • Margaret Pereira Yet hating women at the same time. He's intimidated, yet totally dependent on women's strength.
  • Jennifer Frances Armstrong In any case, takedowns in politics happen when the opposition latches onto some irrelevant data and makes it center stage
  • Jennifer Frances Armstrong Thing is, people won't see things as they are because of the image, in the back of their heads, of all all powerful male God. It's cultural conditioning
  • Margaret Pereira For sure, just a way to create something that doesn't necessarily exist.
  • Jennifer Frances Armstrong A skilled politician will keep a cool head about these attacks, realizing they are without substance. But unfortunately, we have the general populace, who do not realize that this is all a game

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Cultural barriers to objectivity