SHOCKED OR drop-jawed to hear what Alan Jones said about
Julia Gillard? If yes, then good for you.
Some of us were not shocked.
We heard it with a sag of the shoulders or a dropping feeling in our
stomach, but no sense of surprise.
That kind of vilification has been going around our country for
a while now, and Jones IS reflecting a segment of public sentiment. That does not excuse his culpability in being
one of the players driving it.
But you actually may be shocked at the depth of the
vilification. Have a read about some of the things that Anne Summers has discovered on what has been said about Julia
Gillard.
I won’t replay some of these crude politico-sexual brayings
that have been circulating since Julia Gillard became Prime Minister – they would
curdle milk.
In fact, Anne Summers had to publish an R-rated version and
a “vanilla” version of her 2012 Human Rights and Social Justice Lecture at the
University of Newcastle.
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| Photo annesummers.com.au |
So what’s new? Such
rumours and vilification were once whispered.
Now they are being blared and blurted across a number of public
platforms.
Where denigration was once subtle, people are now frantically
competing to air their abuse about our female Prime Minister.
Spreading vilification and rumour has always been a nasty
sub stream in politics. Quietly ask a
politician about what has been said about them, and you see their faces cloud
over.
Someone from Deception Bay once told me they heard three
different rumours about me. One, that my
residency in my community of Deception Bay was a front, and I really lived
elsewhere with my girlfriend.
Two, that I was gay.
A clear conflict with the first rumour, but logic and careful reflection
are not important here.
Three, that I was in Deception Bay on a Work For The Dole
Scheme, which was my personal favourite.
Rumours and vilification of political figures do not spread
by accident, but through political design.
This is one of politics’ dark arts.
When Lyndon Johnson ran for the US Senate against venerated former
Texas Governor Coke Stevenson, his campaign paid for “missionaries” or “walking
delegates” to simply walk around and spread rumours about Johnson’s opponent.
For $50 a day, the paid trusted local would drop into bars
or go to the local courthouse. He would buy
beers, chat to people one-one-one, dropping into conversation what someone in
Austin told him about Stevenson. And the
whispering campaign worked.
For women politicians, there has always been political vituperation
based on sexual innuendo.
The venerated Mary Queen of Scots didn’t escape it. At one stage, a placard portraying her as a
mermaid, which was a symbol for a prostitute, was publicly posted in Edinburgh.
What is new in the Gillard era is that modern technology
gives everyone a printing press and a mass audience. And no time for mature reflection before a
germ of an idea is published.
Also new is that we can see who is purveying some of this
raw visceral abuse. There seems to be a lot
coming from older males.
For ageing men, there may be something disturbing or
confronting when a younger, attractive and unmarried (read: available) woman suddenly
becomes their leader.
The success of such a woman who would traditionally be under
them (erm, in a career sense) would especially be galling in a time when they
have lost their own professional power and prestige.
Whew. A Freudian
analysis of the political vilification of Julia Gillard is begging to be done.
But it would be best if the first patient on the couch is
not Alan Jones.
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