All sexism is offensive but not all that is offensive is sexism

As journalist Elizabeth Farrelly wondered last year, has our society been conditioned to accept that to criticise women or poke fun is considered misogynist? And by being so thin-skinned, are our female politicians, inadvertently or otherwise, contributing towards a culture whereby no one is allowed to criticise women? Spiked editor Brendan O’Neill commented earlier this year that Male MPs have become “increasingly fearful of appearing like ugly playground toughs…and women as fragile creatures who might wilt or faint upon hearing a coarse or mocking critique”.

Certainly a sizeable amount of vitriol is directed Gillard’s way, aided by the power of the internet and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but I would question how much of this malice is inherently sexist or misogynistic.

Independent Australia’s website claimed Gillard has been “bombarded with the kind of horrendous, sexist abuse that would make anyone’s stomach churn”. The example they give, however, is a tweet from one Matthew Van Den Bos: ‘How’s your Dad?’ (Following the death of Gillard’s father).  This comment is clearly mean-spirited and childish, but sexist?

Tony Abbott glancing at his watch during Gillard’s misogyny speech was inconsiderate, and probably designed to offend, but not obviously related to gender. Gillard, however, took even this small opportunity to declare his actions sexist; claiming Abbott was annoyed that “a woman’s spoken too long”. I would suggest that whomever Abbott’s opponent, he would have acted the same way.

Anne Summers contends that men in politics are not subjected to the same kind of personal and sexist insults as women. Try telling that to Joe Hockey, taunted by Gillard for being overweight, or Christopher Pyne, the “mincing poodle”.

Yet Summers maintains that “there is an entire vocabulary of words that describe, and demean, women…[yet]…there are no equivalents for men”. I can think of some. Political Journalist Mungo MacCallum variously called John Howard an unflushable turd, a little c--t and a shithouse rat and no one uttered a complaint. Similarly, Paul Keating, renowned for his foul mouth, told Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey to “Shut up! Sit down and shut up, you pig!” That is on par with what Julia Gillard has endured, possibly worse. Indeed (and rightly so) no male politician would get away with directing this kind of abuse at a women.

Is there a double standard at play in Australian politics, where women in politics enjoy the protected position of being untouchable by men, but with men being unable to criticise them for fear of being outed as misogynists?

Ultimately, I am a feminist, but I feel uncomfortable taking part in this “let’s make it all about women versus men” palaver that Gillard pedals.

A bit of integrity please, Prime Minister.