Every day it would appear someone plunges deep into the pool of dingbattery. The object of my derision at the time of typing is Greens Senator Larissa Waters, who has accused Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and Shock Jock (seriously, what a moronic job) Ray Hadley of 'sexist claptrap' after they played a clip of a song parody directed at Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. The parody is set to Youth Group's 'Forever Young', and I guess as far as parodies go, it's not bad. It scans musically, as far as I can tell, anyway. Well, I've had a listen, and could not find one skerrick of sexism in the song. I think it would be easier to find rocking horse crap than sexism in that song. Certainly it is a bit infantile of Hadley and Dutton to play it, but sexist? C'mon, gimme a break! It really makes the enamel peel from my teeth when people play a minority card, when that card is not even in the deck. It doesn't help the cause. Ms Waters should stop and realise that being parodied goes with the territory when you're a politician, and when you utter a gaffe or commit a faux pas, you are going to be parodied. And in the world of show biz, of which politics is the darker black sheep cousin, you are NOBODY until you have been lampooned. Ms Hanson-Young made a silly mistake about the television series 'Sea Patrol', in which she forgot it was actually fiction. And that's largely what the song dealt with. If a male politician made the same error, and was lampooned thus, would everyone be crying sexism? You can bet your lungs they wouldn't.
I don't care that much SHY slipped up on blurring lines between fiction and reality in choosing her television shows. There but for the grace of God goes anybody, when you think about it. I am pleased for her she won her defamation case against Zoo Weekly, in which a photograph of her head was superimposed upon the body of a lingerie model. I can understand her annoyance, and I would not be overly happy if somebody did this to me, either. No, true. I wouldn't be. I am not happy that she explained she was not happy to see her head on the body of a 'trashy lingerie model', and didn't want to be seen looking like a 'prostitute'. Why does she assume the original posing model is trashy, and why does she want to denigrate sex workers? This has annoyed me.
But her minion Larissa Waters has annoyed me even more. Darls, that song ain't sexist. But your comments referring to Dutton and Hadley as 'old white men' can be construed as ageist, racist and sexist if you want to split hairs.
Guess I shouldn't be too surprised. After all, Ms Waters was the same one urging parents to buy non-gender specific toys last Christmas. Hey listen, my kids like what they like, okay? They like Nerf guns, and anything with a screen. I played with dolls as a little girl. I also played with cars. My husband played with action figures (boy dolls) and loved his Evil Kneivel stunt motorcycle. To my knowledge, we're normal. My younger boy attended a Nerf gun battle-themed birthday party yesterday, and I had to take him shopping for bullets. I am standing by waiting for the barrage of criticism for being a part of what some would construe as violent gun culture. My local Big W had Sweet FA by way of what I was looking for (it's my guess the mothers of the other kids attending bought the shop out), but there were some from the Nerf Belle range, which is Nerf for girls. Yes, girls like Nerf, too. The bullets were all pretty pastels, and some looked like they had been painted by Ken Done. My son took a packet off the shelf, and said, 'If I'm going to shoot someone, I may as well do it with style.' If they had Nerf when I was a kid, I don't know if I would have liked it, but as a Mum who finds herself doing most of the tidying here, I do not like those bullets. They are as bad as tiny bits of Lego and dried Play Doh when it comes to aggravating stressors.
But can pollies please stop finding discrimination when there is none? We are running the risk of having another Gillard fiasco, after she totally mutated the word 'misogyny'. Listen, not everyone is going to like you. It's got nothing to do with your gender. If someone doesn't like me, it's because I'm an opinionated smart-arse, not because I was bought with a uterus and ovaries.
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