I talk a lot about United States politics because, well, it’s where I live. But I know there’s a big wide world out there. And there are amazing people in it. So today, please take 15 minutes out of your day to enjoy the righteous roaring of an even more righteous woman. This is Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard giving what can only accurately be called an epic smackdown of sexism to opposition leader Tony Abbott. It’s extraordinary for so many reasons. But for us U.S. politics watchers, it’ll probably be most extraordinary for her unabashed willingness to call a spade a spade. All too often we tiptoe around sexism and brush it off as business as usual. But Not Julia. She calls a misogynist a misogynist. And right to his face. Now that is what I call some thunder Down Under.
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15 comments:
Too bad she is against marriage equality.
Also too bad that earlier that same day she and her government voted to lower benefits to single mothers.
Yes, it sucks she's against marriage equality (at least publically). My personal feeling is that privately she's actually for marriage equality but she doesn't want to annoy the religious right too much as she depends on their votes.
HOWEVER, this woman has been subject to the most horrendous sexism as well as personal attacks that are beyond reasonable, even for a politician.
Let's choose to praise her for standing up for what's right, at least in this case, not denigrate her for not being perfect in everything. Marriage equality will happen in Australia. Soon. The majority of Australians want it and that's not all PM Gillards decision.
Thanks Julia for standing up for us against this vile man.
Ms. Gillard my have her not-so-good-points, but DAMN, she smacked Abbot down GOOD!
Serves the bloody wanker right.
Us Aussie's are with her on this one.
Too bad the argument wasn't short on pragmatism, despite what her tone might suggest. As Gideon Rachman sums it up:
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it should be noted that through her speech, Gillard was pursuing a political end entirely separate to simply standing up for equal rights – she was also arguing against a motion to force the disgraced Speaker of the House, Peter Slipper, to leave office. That was an outcome she wanted to avoid because she herself helped Slipper secure his job, and he counted towards the Labor party majority. In the end, the motion to forcibly remove Slipper was defeated – but he resigned anyway.
Oh my, why don´t we here in Germany have a chancellor like her ?
oh my, why don´t we here in Germany have a chancellor like her ?? She is fantastic !
If you want to see what kind of sh&t our PM has been subjected to based on her gender (not her politic). Check out Anne Summers's speech http://annesummers.com.au/
Anne is one of our foremost feminists and this speech near zero coverage in mainstream media. That is the back back story to this righteous response.
Go Julia.
A friend of mine had already sent me this but it was well worth watching again. I commented because of what you said about calling a spade a spade which is something this country sorely needs. Part of the problem is something I read in a column yesterday, where escapes me, about why we vote for liars. What it came down to is that a large part of the population simply doesn't want to hear the truth. Sad but all to true.
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I have no knowledge of the political views of either party in this video, so the finer points of this are lost on me. Nevertheless, I THOROUGHLY enjoyed watching her lay the smack down on this guy! If women all over the world could embody this fierce spirit, I think a revolution would be inevitable!
Dear God darling, what the hell is going on?! More (drunken?) defilement of your lovely site with yet another damn *traitorous* *crook*!
Please darling, enough of these ruddy monsters! (Quite honestly I don't think my poor heart can take much more!)
PD
PS Less I be accused of being somehow opposed to female politicians, let me just say this: when it comes to politics I am almost gender (as well as colour and party) blind. A few notable exceptions notwithstanding, I DETEST the whole damn lot of them in equal measure!
A couple of those notable female exceptions...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqR92v7Toag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFnh-itueCk&feature=plcp
PPS Oh yes, and she IS a damn traitor! (In more ways than one actually!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHoQ_124qIw
Julia Gillard is our first female PM, and regardless of her policies (I actually think she's doing a good job), she has been on the receiving end of some awful, vile comments. While she has disappointed me on occasion (her vote against gay marriage is one), I loved this speech. It was a long time coming and it had a sense of "Enough is enough, I've put up with it for too long." It was beautiful to watch live as it happened and seeing twitter explode.
Abbott will always be a billion times worse and he deserved everything he got, the sexist grub.
Another time she said to the assembled National Press Club reporters "Don't write crap"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nv-E7vEY0o
You go girl - not just support gay marriage and we'll be BFF again!
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