Anna Goldsworthy’s “Sex, Freedom, and Misogyny” quarterly essay presents an argument about the relevance of feminism in today’s society, which proposes whether sexist and misogynistic behaviours like these are generally accepted by the Australian public, or if ‘pulling the gender card’ is now a baseline tactic for a losing argument.
The tone of the essay leans towards the current abuse, mistreatment, and objectification of women in the workforce, social media, and through pop-culture; such as Stephanie Meyers “Twilight” series, and E.L James’ “50 Shades” series.
Using an informal style, and a journalistic, conversational approach, Goldsworthy has raised important questions about the ‘shame’ of being a woman, and the current issue of ‘rape-culture’. According to Goldsworthy, misogyny comes in three forms: brutal assessment of female appearance, the threat of violence, and the ‘fundamental shame’ of being a woman.
Goldsworthy’s piece is opinionative and biased, as the structure of her argument delves deeper into her own opinion; using convenient facts and ideas that back up her argument, yet she does not let the argument stray into the broader spectrum of the issue at hand. Instead, Goldsworthy’s essay is very one-sided, and only relevant to her own ideas, rather than opening up and discussing both sides of the feminism topic.
Goldsworthy brings up the outrageously sexist comments that Kyle Sandilands made towards a news journalist in 2011, on “The Kyle and Jackie O Show.”, as well as Alan Jones’ comments on Julia Gillard, and his ‘young liberal’ followers.
Goldsworthy has argued that Sandilands’ and Jones’ comments, along with many other sexist or misogynistic actions or rants, are generally accepted, praised, or ignored. In Goldsworthy’s opinion, these actions are tolerated by the female and male population, but she made no mention about the context or revolt against the actions from the public, such as the backlash Sandilands received, or Jones’ moment in the limelight.
Kyle Sandilands is infamous for his inappropriate behaviour and commentary on his radio segment on 2DayFM with Jackie O. There are several cases where he has made repeated offenses, such as the “Lie Detector Incident” in July 2009, where he forced a fourteen year old girl to come clean about her sexual history, as well as his abusive response to a critical article about his and Jackie O’s show, in 2011. Due to these incidents, the radio segment was immediately cut short, the show was recessed for a period of time, and several major sponsors, such as Holden, and The Good Guys, had withdrawn their sponsorships. Channel 7 reviewed their association with him, and Channel 10 also took action by sacking Sandilands from his position as an Australian Idol judge. Several thousands of people boycotted Sandilands’ radio show, and there were petitions created against him.
Channel 10 released a statement, claiming that:
It has become increasingly clear that as Idol has remained a family-focused show, even more so this year with the 6.30pm Sunday time slot, his radio persona has taken on a more controversial position over this period which is not in the interest of the show.
Obviously culminating with events of last week, we have made the decision that Kyle will no longer be a judge on Australian Idol.
Allegedly, Sandilands’ show lost millions due to his sexist and misogynistic behaviors, which contrary to Goldsworthy’s argument, proves that sexism is no longer tolerated in today’s society, thanks to feminism and equality.
Goldsworthy had also brought up the controversy around Alan Jones’ comments in September 2012, where he stated offensive comments about the Prime Minister of that period, Julia Gillard. Goldsworthy claimed that Jones had used Gillard’s gender against her, by stating that Gillard’s father had “…died a few weeks ago of shame.”, using this as a key point for her main argument about the role of feminism, and current misogyny in society. Goldsworthy claims that this comment was said to undermine the legitimacy of Gillard’s position, or any other female in power, and shames the ‘young liberals’ supporting Jones for not realizing their sexism. Goldsworthy also states that Jones’ comments “speaks to the ancient disgrace of having a daughter on the stage: the shame of female visibility.”.
Jones’ full quote was not used in Goldsworthy’s argument, just the sentence that was relevant to her argument; thus taking it, and Jones himself, out of context. In 2012, The Sydney Morning Herald published an article with the full quote:
Every person in the caucus of the Labor Party knows that Julia Gillard is a liar, everybody. I will come to that in a moment. The old man recently died a few weeks ago of shame. To think that he has a daughter who told lies every time she stood for Parliament.
Jones may have been referring to the controversy earlier that year where Gillard was branded a liar due to her interview on ABC’s ‘Four Corners’ program, as she allegedly avoided questions about the honesty of her Prime Ministership, her relationship with Kevin Rudd, as well as some of her Government policies. Jones’ radio show mostly consists of criticism about Australian politicians and issues, and although the comments were unnecessary, inappropriate, and in poor taste, fundamentally, he was just sharing an opinion on Gillard. There is not enough evidence to prove that he was shaming Gillard for her gender, as Goldsworthy suggests.
When Jones responds with an apology later on, after his opinion on Gillard was not well received, Goldsworthy proceeded to question his manhood by adding her own italics to his quote, which proves how biased and one-track her argument is: “’Can I (Jones) just say there are days where you just need to man up and say you got it wrong.’ (my (Goldsworthy’s) italics.”
By doing this, Goldsworthy has inadvertently brought up the question that many millennials have about modern feminism; have women developed an overly sensitive ‘victims complex’, and are men now less important than women? Is it okay to question someone’s manhood, but not okay to question someone’s womanhood?
Annabel Crabb has stated that; “One of the saddest things I’ve seen is the ‘Women Against Feminism’ Tumblr.” (W.A.F.). W.A.F. is a response to ‘Third Wave’ feminism, which is a disguise for blatant abuse and misandry against men, victim blaming, and claims they are the cause of ‘rape culture’. The users of W.A.F. are young women who are confused about the relevance of feminism, as they are only exposed to the ‘Third Wave’ feminism. Although Goldsworthy acts like a martyr for feminism and equality, it seems that she too has had her opinions warped through the victim’s complex that ‘Third Wave Feminism’ encourages, as she only speaks about the misogyny of women in society, but not about the men who are mistreated for simply being a man, in contemporary society.
The actions of Sandilands is an extreme case from a known offender who did not get let off the hook, and Jones’ comments were definitely offensive, but not a gendered attack, but Goldsworthy’s opinion seems to be skewed from a subjective and personal view. She seems to be too close to the issue to see the whole picture, and only finds and uses information relevant to her argument, whilst ignoring the surrounding context or response to that information. Besides this, Goldsworthy is a highly passionate writer who does speak volumes about the impact of the media, the adverse effect it has on young women, as well as the blatant mistreatment of women. Goldsworthy’s “Sex, Freedom and Misogyny” is a professionally written and well discussed opinion piece with some persuasive arguments throughout, but Goldsworthy should consider the broader horizon of the impact of feminism and equality, instead of focusing on the negative behaviors, and should refrain from picking and choosing segments of information and then taking them out of context. If the information opened up for a broader line of thinking, it would leave more of an impact.