Few Andrew Olle Media Lectures, if any, have moved members of the audience to tears. As a rule, the speeches have focused on issues such as media ownership, censorship and technological change — usually provoking nods of agreement from the cynical, world-weary journalists in attendance rather than vigorous debate. They have also — with only two exceptions over the past 17 years — been given by men.
That all changed this year. In front of a black-tie crowd including Treasuer Joe Hockey, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose, Channel Nine Today host Lisa Wilkinson homed in on a topic no Olle lecturer has previously tackled: sexism and misogyny. Zeitgeist, consider yourself captured.
“[A]s a woman in the media, it has truly saddened me that while we delight in covering public issues of overt sexism — possibly the hottest topic in the media right now — the media itself can be every bit as guilty at treating women in an entirely different way to men,” the former Cleo and Dolly editor said.
“I despair when I see the same media that decries sexism and misogyny itself engaging in it with such uncaring ease.
“I despair that every time a female journalist is profiled in the press, her age is usually mentioned by the second paragraph, as if it is a measure of her sexual currency and just how long it will be, before it expires. And yet, does anyone here know or care how old Kerry O’Brien, Kochie, Tony Jones, Hugh Riminton, Ray Martin, Peter Overton or Laurie Oakes are? They are all brilliant at what they do, and the rule of thumb is that the more experienced they are, the better they are at their jobs. So why, so often, doesn’t that same measure apply to women?”
The annual lectures are given by a senior media figure in honour of the late, beloved ABC broadcaster Andrew Olle. In her turn at the podium (read the full speech here), Wilkinson also took aim at the prevalence of scarily skinny models on magazine covers and on catwalks, and at the obsessive focus on how women in the media look and at what they wear. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Wilkson argued, have only made this worse.
Many in room were left aghast when Wilkinson read out a letter from a female Today viewer who compared her and newsreader Georgie Gardner to a “chorus of cats” and said she should stay at home with her husband instead of interviewing politicians. Wilkinson later discovered the viewer was a former executive at Unifem, the United Nations body dedicated to combating gender inequality.
While unlikely to follow former prime minister Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech and become a global hit on YouTube, Wilkinson’s speech had a similarly cathartic, divisive effect on those at Technology Park in Sydney’s Redfern. The crowd gave it a genuine, lengthy standing ovation; one senior ABC producer was crying. Many were rhapsodic; others hated it. Debate about the speech raged on until 2am among those who kicked on to the Imperial Hotel.
This is an extract from a story that was first published on Women’s Agenda sister publication Crikey. To read the full story, please sign up for a free Crikey trial subscription.