Julia, you'll have to take it like a man

Good on Nikki Savva for showing up the dishonest way that the Sisterhood tries to protect its members, no matter how incompetent they turn out to be - for example, Joan Kirner. Eva Cox has already been busy trying to set the terms for Julia Gillard, saying that any criticism of Ms Gillard is going to be because she is a woman, because nobody ever criticises male politicians harshly, do they? Pause 30 seconds . . . and wait for the outcry because we dare to mention the first female prime minister's appearance. Like it's somehow unfair or unusual for the media to comment on the way a politician looks, or speaks, or acts, or as if image is irrelevant. Female politicians are not singled out for special treatment, or held to a higher standard, or treated more harshly, despite what the faux feminists and their sympathisers claim whenever they are subjected to the same kind of scrutiny as the men. You can bet your favourite lip gloss they are ready to pounce on the first pack attack against Gillard to say it wouldn't happen if she were a man. Journalists will be just as cruel or just as fawning or just as forensic with Gillard as they are with the blokes. Let's hope so anyway. And if the women keep trotting off to magazines for makeovers, sporting expensive designer suits, red feather boas or black leather and killer heels, as Gillard, Cheryl Kernot and Kate Ellis have all done, they invite it. When Gillard makes a mistake, she is going to cop it. When she does well, everyone will say so and then some. When she looks lousy or dresses inappropriately, same again. And if she looks hot, it's OK to say that, too. When Tony Abbott was running around in his undies and Lycra, were we all expected to pretend we didn't notice? No. In fact we became obsessed with what he was wearing, or not wearing, and couldn't stop focusing on it until he finally stopped showing off his toned torso and legs and covered up in the standard issue blue or grey merino wool suits. Eventually he was coerced into a ritual burning of his budgie smugglers. Her full article is here.

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