Sheilas Put The Mockers On Ockers
Sheilas put the mockers on ockers*
*Ocker: an uncultivated or boorish Australian ... now the target of the feminist Ernie awards
Barbara McMahon in Sydney
Sunday November 11, 2007
The Observer
Australian men who make sexist remarks rarely hang their heads in shame, but a book published tomorrow may cause a few red faces. One Thousand Terrible Things Australian Men Have Said About Women includes a celebrity chef remarking after watching Nigella Lawson's TV show, 'Why doesn't she get them out; that's what they are watching for,' and a magistrate telling a defendant to 'come back when your IQ is as high as your skirt'.
It is a compilation of male chauvinist piggery that has been collected over 15 years by Dr Meredith Burgmann, a prominent politician and her co-author Yvette Roberts. It includes quotes from actors, politicians and sportsmen, all of whom have made cringeworthy comments about their wives, girlfriends, female colleagues or women in general. Burgmann sees the book as a barometer of Australian sexism as exemplified by Australian MP Bill Heffernan who said that Julia Gillard, the woman who could be Australia's next Deputy Prime Minister, was unsuitable for high office because she was 'deliberately barren'. Probably the most shocking remark came from Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali, a Muslim preacher who accused rape victims of being 'uncovered meat' who should have stayed indoors.
Burgmann, who retired this year as president of the New South Wales Legislative Council, said the themes that irritate women had remained unchanged over the decades: 'Using semi-naked women to advertise products, saying career women can't be good mothers and vice versa, and regarding anyone over 40 as unattractive and past it. We can't stand it when men blame their mummies for their unreconstructed views and it drives us insane when any professional disagreement between two women is referred to as a catfight,' she added.
'It used to be trade unionists, judges and politicians but they've all become much more wary so now it's the cult of celebrity - sportsmen, TV personalities and celebrity chefs. We're never going to change them so we're just waiting for them all to die off,' she said.
'We're constantly asked why Australian men say these kinds of things but British men and American men and men all round the world say them too. It's just that they haven't been recorded the way we've done it here,' she continued.
'We'd like this to be seen as a way of poking fun at these men and letting them know that if they keep saying these dreadfully sexist things, it will be reported. But it's also a serious piece of research into misogyny. We think it should be used in academic courses and women's groups.'
The book was culled from 5,000 sexist remarks from the annual Ernie awards, a ceremony named after a misogynist trade union leader. Tomorrow, at the NSW Parliament House when the book is launched, 20 of the past year's worst remarks will be judged by a traditional 'boo-off'.
A prime contender is the Workplace Relations Minister, Joe Hockey, who, speaking of his wife, said: 'Well, it's exhausting for me, her being pregnant. I don't know why, during the birth process, they only focus on the women. What about the men standing there? I mean, that's pretty hard. Well, as long as they get the cricket in the hospital.'
There are also Elaines, awards for remarks by women least helpful to the sisterhood. They include the model Kate Fischer saying: 'I am beautiful. I am a model. I am allowed to be dumb.'
Unwise words
Former Labor Party leader Mark Latham claimed that the Aussie bloke is in crisis and has been replaced by: 'Nervous wrecks, metrosexuals, knobs and tossbags ... [because] left-feminists have sanitised public culture.'
Paul Keating, former Prime Minister of Australia: 'I will not be harassed by journalists, even pretty ones like you. Nick off.'
Christian Kerr, writing on the Australian news website Crikey about two women competing for a top union job: 'An industrial relations catfight erupted today ...'
Joe Hockey, Minister for Workplace Relations: 'Well, it's exhausting for me, her being pregnant. I don't know why, during the birth process they only focus on the women. What about the men standing there? I mean, that's pretty hard. Well, as long as they get the cricket in the hospital.'
Fashion designer Wayne Cooper, talking about Australian models: 'Compared to the runways in Europe, they're porky.'
Union leader Martin Ferguson calling women campaigning for paid maternity leave 'hairy-legged femocrats'.
Roddy Meagher, retired judge: 'Looking at the shrivelled old parsnip Germaine Greer has now become, I can hardly believe she was the comparatively beautiful young woman I once knew.'
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