Okay so by now we all know that if you look up the
definition of misogynist, you’ll find that strictly speaking it’s a person who
hates women. Sure, I’m not usually
a stickler for the dictionary definition, but in this case it might be a bit
important? It seems to me that a misogynist
is more than a person who has
outdated, sexist or at times offensive views about women, or who has doubts
about a woman’s capacity to lead.
It’s a person who actually hates women. For that reason, I’m one of those people who’s not all that
comfortable with the label being applied to Tony Abbott. I think he probably has a right to roll
his eyes when he’s accused of holding this attitude ‘every day, in every
way.’ I mean, seriously?
Not that I feel any sympathy for him. In choosing to relentlessly accuse Prime
Minister Gillard of being a liar, and standing by signs like ‘bitch’ and
‘witch’ he and his Government have also chosen to use language in a way that
strips it of much of its meaning.
When you hype language to this extent, labelling people with terms that
hold so much emotional baggage and neatly assassinate entire characters in one
fell swoop, something happens not only to the person, but to language
itself.
You’re left with
nothing to use in situations where language really could communicate something
serious.
And that bothers me.
Take places around the world where people actually are the victims of serious hatred,
arguably gender based. Or
where people genuinely can’t be trusted, about anything. In Afghanistan a fourteen year old school girl is shot
because she wants to pursue education for herself and other girls. The Taliban opposes this, arguably
motivated by the desire to hold women and girls captive in poverty and
ignorance, which may or may not amount to sheer hatred of women but which
certainly manifests itself in very evil behaviour toward them. If Malala recovers, and continues her
quest to liberate her sisters, the Taliban say they’ll target her again.
Is this an example of misogyny? How does it compare to Abbott’s behaviour? What language are we left with to
describe the Taliban if we’re throwing around the term misogyny to describe Mr
Abbott?
For mine, Tony Abbott and others like him say things that
are offensive, sexist and sometimes just plain stupid. Abbott’s ideas about the roles of women
and men seem outdated to me, although they’re certainly shared by many people
who are deeply respectful of women in other ways. But a hater of women, every day and in every way? In my opinion, that’s just not
realistic.
I’m glad that Julia Gillard spoke out against the fact that
she’s been maligned by people who should be using language in ways that are
more fitting of intelligent debate.
The ongoing comments about her as a woman and recent statements about
her father are off-the-scale offensive. But I’m not sure that protesting
against the use of inaccurate and offensive language by returning it was a good
tactic, understandable as it might have been at the time.
Can we not just take a deep breath here? To me, it’s depressing that our desire
to make a point pushes us to use more and more hyperbole. Hyperbole just strips language of its
power. It makes us two-dimensional
cut out characters who don’t stop to consider all the reasons why people say
and do the things they do.
Politics makes people play games with power, but we don’t all need to
get in on the act. We seem all too
willing to write people off with a simple label, no matter what side of the
bench we sit. (And sure, I’m as
guilty as anyone. It’s often
really quite fun.)
I guess I can’t help but think there’s a lot of genuine evil
in this world. If we absolutely
must distil people down to one word adjectives, why don’t we save words packed
with invective like ‘hatred’ for where they’re really needed? At least then they’d retain some of
their power.
Tony Abbott doesn’t inherently hate women. And Julia Gillard isn’t inherently a
liar. They’re actually probably
both reasonably decent people who in their variously human and flawed ways
probably have a lot more in common than they realise.
Damn. I’d make
such a boring political speechwriter.
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