Content warning: this post contains graphic spoken material about violence against women.
ICYMI (but you probably didn’t), Melbourne writer and Guardian columnist Van Badham got into a verbal biff with big-mouthed shock jock Steve Price during a discussion about the link between attitudes towards women and violence on Monday night’s ep of Q&A.
It went a little something like this:
Badham: You’re an idiot, Steve.
Price: Blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahyou’rehystericalblahblahblahblah.
A question from family violence campaigner Tarang Chawla kicked things off: he told them that his sister Nikita had been stabbed to death by her partner last year, and asked – in the wake of the Eddie McGuire‘s gross “drowning” comments about Fairfax writer Caroline Wilson – how we can change the cultural norms which enable domestic violence.
Price parroted the classic line: McGuire’s comments were just a bit of harmless banter between the boys, and he apologised, so who what’s the issue? Badham rightly took him to task, especially given that was his immediate response to someone’s account of their sister’s death at the hands of DV.
How will politicians & media play a better role in shifting the language of VAW? @StevePriceMedia @vanbadham #QandA https://t.co/74wqYGM9jA
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) July 11, 2016
Their clash has been covered nationwide in the days since, and Price continues to defend his assertions that Badham calling him out was just another example of a woman taking a silly little thing called overt sexism too seriously.
As he said on ‘The Project’, when Waleed Aly he explained the historical significance and gendered nature of ‘hysterical’ as a term of dismissal:
“I don’t need to make judgements about whether it’s a man or a woman. If that’s the way the person’s acting, I’ll call it out every time. I don’t need to change my behaviour in that area.”
It’s also sparked days of intense online abuse directed at Vadham, which have included a barrage of death threats.
She posted a video detailing some of the abuse sent to her following the Q&A appearance to her Facebook page, and it’s fkn horrifying.
“I honestly pray for your death every day.”“She needs a hole drilled in her ass so she can be carried around like a bowling ball.”“With a mouth like that, I’m surprised she hasn’t been a victim of DV herself.”
IN WHAT UNIVERSE IS THIS KIND OF MISOGYNISTIC FILTH ACCEPTABLE?
The key takeaway from Badham’s well thought-out, calm response is that Price’s comments – and the comments of the sexist trolls who’ve harassed her online in the wake of their clash – has done nothing more than to strengthen the point she was making in the first place.
“It’s actually a really good illustration of what the questioner was talking about: how we normalise attitudes towards women, and how important it is that cultural leaders like people in the media show deference and respect to the disadvantage of women that does manifest in the cultural experience of discrimination and disrespect… that ferments the kind of attitudes that normalise violence against women.”
You can watch it in full below:
Badham: 1; Price / sexist trolls: -100.
Source and photo: Facebook / Van Badham.
