Look, I am not very good at the politics thing – I know the stuff I care deeply about and I *generally* know the parties that support/don’t support the causes important to me. I usually work things out closer to election day (FYI it is very important to vote correctly and know who you are voting for and why, no excuses). But day-to-day? Not super clued up.
[jwplayer wnC9Zumv]
One thing I do know is when I hear some absolute “but think of the men!” bullshit. Like this doozy that our current PM Scott Morrison spilled at an International Women’s Day event. A LITERAL EVENT FOR WOMEN that he decided to turn into a hand-wringing exercise over the plight of men in the face of feminism.
“See, we’re not about setting Australians against each other, trying to push some down to lift others up. That’s not in our values. That is an absolutely Liberal value, that you don’t push some people down to lift some people up. And that is true about gender equality too. We want to see women rise. But we don’t want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse. We want everybody to do better, and we want to see the rise of women in this country be accelerated to ensure that their overall place is maintained.”
I’m sorry, but casual excuse the fuck me?
Firstly, if we’re to strive for gender equality, we’re gonna have to see some more representation of women in workplaces and positions of power. There will be a shift. So uh, yeah – that means that, for example, ScoMo’s Liberal party would need more than 21% of parliamentarians being women, for example.
79% of the Liberal party in parliament right now are men. That is some extreme inequality, no?
Here, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi said it better than I could.
Happy #IWD2019 from Scott Morrison whose party *definitely* doesn’t have a problem with women.
We can’t avoid the fact that equality for women requires a rebalancing of the power patriarchy gives men. No twisted words or empty platitudes from the PM will change that. pic.twitter.com/MbHnKshoCv
— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) March 8, 2019
Also, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Tanya Plibersek.
Gender equality is good for both women and men. It gives all of us more freedom and choice at work, at home, and in our relationships.
Feminism is a fight for equality between men and women, what’s so complicated about that? #IWD2019 pic.twitter.com/dgoyWNwEjm
— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) March 8, 2019
The fact is, things should be changing – it’s not about which gender is better, but it IS about dismantling patriarchal systems where men hold most of the positions of power. Like governments, for example!
Sorry not sorry, ScoMo.
