Tag Archives: politics

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Sexism and the Minister for Women

So, Australia’s new Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, is now the Minister for Women. Well done on the promotion!

This got me thinking, which is always a dangerous thing. Is it not sexist for the post of Minister for Women to only ever be held by a woman? If there were true equality, the position would be divided roughly equally between males and females (of course, that’s ignoring the fact that if there were true equality there would be no need for a Minister for Women in the first place…).

The gender bias inherent to the post implies that it is not possible for a man to understand women’s issues, or have the appropriate empathy and understanding to represent them. To believe that makes you just as sexist as the very people the Minister is trying to combat. And let’s face it, who would be better than Tony Abbot for the job? After all, he has personally experienced misogyny and the oppression of women.

And what of transgender and intersex people? Could one of them ever qualify to be a Minister for Women? Of course, that’s a bit like asking if a watering can could become Prime Minister: completely pointless since Australia would never elect one to Parliament in the first place.

Nice work Liberal voters, whoever you are (no really, who are you? I don’t know anyone who voted for Abbott. I’d love to keep not meeting you sometime).

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The extremely obvious solution for illegal boat people in Australia

Both parties have been issuing rhetoric about the problem of the illegal boat people (for example, the Liberal Party talk about them here (linked from the Liberal Party policy page), and of course there is Prime Minister Rudd with his Papua New Guinea solution).

But all these discussions seem to be missing the single most obvious solution: if these boat people are illegal, then one simply has to try them in court under the relevant laws. Why come up with all these whacky ways of solving a problem when there is already a legal framework for dealing with it? Like, hello! It’s not rocket surgery. I should be Prime Minister!

I had a look and I couldn’t personally find the part of the law that states that the asylum seekers are illegal, but of course I am not a lawyer and I know it must be in there somewhere because our leaders are saying it, and surely they would never be so dishonest as to spread lies to the Australian people that they wish to represent.

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Misuse of sexual assault as a political tool

It’s a bit dated now, but this has always bugged me. During the Occupy Melbourne protests, the protestors were ordered to remove any tents. One person wore a tent as an outfit, then claimed she was being sexually assaulted when the police came and removed the tent (as they had been ordered to do; and the person in question was warned of this). Here is a video.

This made me so very very angry. Sexual assault is a horrible, awful crime that has long-lasting impact on its victims. The person in this video knew full well what was going to happen, and deliberately set herself up so that she could use the claim of sexual assault as a political tool. It disgusts me. If sexual assault weren’t so darn horrible, I would wish that she were a victim of it so she could truly understand the difference.

Maybe she should spend some time with people from a country where rape is really used as a political tool so she can get some perspective.