Last night, survivor advocate Tarang Chawla appeared in the Q&A audience to ask the panellist a question: in light of the recent Eddie McGuire debacle, how can media and politicians work to enact change to end a culture of violence against women?
Not an easy question to answer by any means, but panellist Steve Price made a mockery of it anyway.
He defended his mates Eddie and Sam Newman as making a “joke”, became upset when he was challenged, and accused fellow panellist Van Badham of become “hysterical”, and if you want to read more about that shitshow, do so here.
#StevePrice is the only person on panel who stuck up for Eddie McGuire and then went on to call a woman “hysterical”. Good job, mate #QandA
— Nakkiah Lui (@nakkiahlui) July 11, 2016
Chawla – who’s sister Niki was murdered by her partner last year – today challenged Price’s boneheaded comments in an oped today for News.com.au.
“We need to acknowledge that ‘jokes’ which normalise violence against women are not OK,” he wrote, drawing on his own experiences. “Your friends aren’t being maligned because the so-called feminist agenda is out to get them.”
While he degenerated Price’s comments that Badham was becoming “hysterical” – and rightly so – his main point was Price’s easy excuse of brushing away McGuire’s comments as a harmless joke.
“Steve, sexist comments thinly disguised as ‘banter’ are part of a complex problem.
“They feed a culture of male privilege and entitlement that lead to victim-blaming, justifying violence and excusing misogynistic attitudes.
“It doesn’t have to be that way, and accepting that won’t take away your privilege.
“As others on the panel pointed out – we’ve come a long way. But there’s still a long way to go to make gender equality a reality in our country.
“Steve, you can get upset because your mates’ jokes weren’t that all funny, or you can be upset because women are being murdered.”
You can read his full piece here.
Source: News.com.au.
Photo: ABC.
