This week’s been another strange one in Australian politics, and carried a reminder of how far we’ve still got to go to end flippant sexism.
Following Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s surprise Monday announcement of a possible early election, and a new budget date of May 3rd, Treasurer Scott Morrison was left contradicted and looking pretty foolish. In an earlier interview that day, Morrison had been spruiking the original May 10 budget date, unaware of the PM’s change of heart.
Needless to say Labor was quick to pounce on the gaffe, with the Sydney Morning Herald reporting that Chris Bowen said the Treasurer had been “completely emasculated” and clearly had “no influence over tax policy or even the timing of his own Budget.”
Initially it was hard to pinpoint why Bowen’s choice of words had left a bad taste in my mouth. But it didn’t take long to recognise that the very casual description of Morrison being left “emasculated” once again proved just how entrenched sexism is in Australian politics.
When emasculated, a man is stripped of his manly role or identity. In other words, the man either has no gender or he starts to resemble a woman. What a bizarre and offensive analogy for Bowen to use, and yet barely an eyelash was bat. So why was this the case? Why are we so quick to disregard comments like these without first observing the damage they can cause?
So often we are reminded that gender equality is still light-years away and that sexist attitudes run deep. For women in politics this is more evident than ever. Currently there are only six women out of a possible 21 positions in the Turnbull cabinet. Granted this is a huge step up from the previous government where Julie Bishop sat alone while then prime minister Tony Abbott expressed his disappointment that there weren’t “at least two women in Cabinet”.
Prior to this we witnessed the relentless bullying of Julia Gillard, our first female prime minister. She was subjected to taunts about her body and voice, was labelled “barren” by Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan and “A real weakling” by Mark Latham. She was sniggered at by Abbott who chose to stand in front of a rally placard labelling her a “witch” and a “bitch”.
Indeed, there are many, many blatant examples of sexism that have marred the Australian political system for too long. These instances often lead to outrage and produce fierce backlash and bitterness.
Minister Bowen’s comments toward Scott Morrison on the other hand, weren’t so blatant. In fact, they were so casual and so unconsidered, that we considered nothing of them.
Was the situation embarrassing for Scott Morrison? Sure. Should Turnbull have communicated the changes with his team prior to the press conference? Absolutely. Was Morrison “emasculated” for having not been made aware? Absolutely not.
If we continue to take offence only at brazen sexism and not nuances of it, we will never see true, lasting change. We should not be brushing such remarks off with unabashed ease, we should be demanding change and insisting that the boys club that so heavily defines Australian politics right now, be ended for good.