Interesting paper on women in politics by Kathie Muir, from the University of Adelaide. You’ll need Adobe Acrobat to view it though.

It’s disturbing how mysogynistic — no, perhaps it’s too hard a word let’s say instead “backward” — news services — and many people — are regarding women in positions of visibility in society.

Take Noel Ashby’s opinion that too many female recruits hurts the police force in Victoria.  Perhaps his version of the force — overbearingly male dominated — might be hurt, but oddly enough, the force might grow to become a bit more inclusive and have a better foot in the community by including more women (I won’t say minority group, because on average, women outnumber men; 51% is the number most often used). It might also be improved by adding people from other groups; aboriginal and Torres-Strait Islanders, Vietnamese, Chinese, ex-refugees, homosexuals, the religious; when the police force properly reflects the society which it polices, it might actually find itself in a far better position to do its job.

Then there’s John Westacott, channel 9‘s new boss opinion that “…To make it in this industry, you gotta have f—ability. To make it in this game, women have to be f—able…”. Nice, inclusive and not at all sexist, mysogynistic or backward. Course, it’s notalot worse than former chief Eddie “Everywhere” McGuire‘s comment that a former female employee should be “boned”.

What is it with men in positions of power in this country? I understand that the minority who get the bad press don’t do the majority any good, but on the other hand, where the hell do opinions like this come from?

Some people blame the mothers for not teaching their sons to be more respectful. This sort of opinion not only makes my eyes water involuntarily, trying to work-out how it can be a females fault that a male is being an arsehole, but it also gives the male in question open slather to be as nasty as he wishes; it’s not his fault, it’s his female parent. What?!

But at the core, I wonder about the male psyche in this country… I wonder about any place where a male can get away with being so horrendously disrespectful and abusive to any other human being.

And I wonder most about the other people around them that nod and do nothing, say nothing, and by this very act, become complicit in the abuse.

Interesting vid (first seen on Fake Steve Jobs)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SdevjDLkO4&rel=1&border=1]

One of the additional things I’d point out is the savage abuse of the English Language that’s suddenly appeared over the last year.

Learnings is not a word, no matter which fucking context you put it in. Idiots! This is equivalent to phonetic spelling for acronyms such as MC.

Slightly ironic number for the post however