Gender expectations are huge in Australian politics- people either want the women to be ballbreakers, and it seems to some extent that women have to abandon much of their femininity in order to succeed in any way. The way the media and the political sphere percieve and judge female politicians is also very unfair. There was an article in the Herald a few weeks ago about Gillards makeover since the last election. You would NEVER see an article about a male politician trying a new hairstyle.
1. There were articles about John Kerry's hairstyle and tan when he was running in the U.S. There have been articles about the Bomber trying to lose weight, frequent carictatures of Howard's looks, articles about how Latham's youth appealed to female voters etc. Oh, and just as a retort to your comments about women having to lose their femininity, Gillard has makeovers! MAKEOVERS! How female is that? Unless of course you're saying that feminity equates to the opposite of being a ball breaker which is being piss weak.
It's extremely condescending- also how the criticized Gillard for not having milk in the fridge in that photo in her kitchen. It's just bullshit. The patriarchy still very much exists in Australian politics- the only way women can get in to the boys club is to take on a more "masculine" persona to be taken seriously.
Please explain? What is this masculine persona? Are you trying to say that women have to adopt a passion for cricket, monster trucks and beer to be taken seriously within Australian political circles? You seem to be saying that men within political circles need to have "balls". So are you saying that women within politics should be piss weak? Are you saying that being piss weak is a female trait? I'm confused
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I think that we do to a certain degree expect our politicians to lack humanity to a certain extent- but only in certain areas. People want to see happy shots of Iemma with his kids in the park the day after he won the premiership, but if Iemma ever said "I'm going to cancel a press conference today because my kid is sick" people would probably react very differently.
I believe that it was George Lucas who once said that "With great power, comes great responsibility". It's nice for the electorate to see that the premier has a strong family life. However, in such a powerful position, like in any major business or profession, the premier just can't take a day off. Or are you going to rail against doctors, lawyers etc now? Since Iemma is payed with public money, instead of being accountable to a boss, he's accountable to us, and he should be working every damn day that parliament sits.
It's like we almost expect our politicans to be robots to the party line and to their job- they aren't allowed to show who they really are beyond some stereotypical images e.g. talking to kids in schools, making a remark about that they hope their local footy team win on the weekend etc. And when they do err, the nation jumps on them so they won't make the same mistake twice. Brogden is a perfect example- his attempted suicide should be waking up people to the fact that politicians are PEOPLE. They have feelings, stresses, problems etc. And do you know what? That to me is what we need. We need more PEOPLE and PERSONALITIES in Australian politics instead of drones that simply tow the party line.
1. Brogden was just silly. He over-reacted. If he just brushed the comments off Tony Abbot style, nothing would have happened.
a) Vote for boring baby boomer drones all the time- we need charismatic politicians. And anyone who says Johnny is TRULY charismatic needs a bit of a head check- compared to Keating, Whitlam and others he is very boring.
Yes, we need politainment, watching question time should be fun!
b) Condemn anyone who has a view that differs somewhat from their party line. We need that to foster healthy democracy, I really hate the way we expect politicians simply to tow the party line and get mad when someone doesn't. We should vote in people that actually have their own ideas rather than "Liberal party policy 101" or "How to make Labor look mildly unified 101"
People vote for their parties. When one party member crosses the floor, you have one member, of one seat, dictating for the majority. That isn't democracy.
In my opinion Australian politics is looking tired and old at the moment- we have had the same government in power for too long, and tragically I really doubt Labor can get their act together for the next election. And for christs sake, why aren't there more women in politics in Australia? NZ has had a female prime minister, we don't even see many women with important portfolios.
Justice, Immigration, Communication, Education and Health are all piss weak portfolios then? Perhaps deputy leader of the Labor party is also a piss weak job?Actually, I guess it is