Misogyny Speech
.jpg)
Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
The Misogyny Speech was a parliamentary speech delivered by then Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on 9 October 2012 in reaction to alleged sexism from opposition leader Tony Abbott.
The Opposition Leader at the time, Tony Abbott, had risen in parliament with a motion to have Peter Slipper removed as Speaker over crude and sexist texts Slipper had sent to an aide. Abbott stated that every day Gillard supported Slipper was "another day of shame for a government which should already have died of shame". Gillard made statements in support of Slipper and linked Abbott's motion to remarks made by Alan Jones in the then-recent Alan Jones shame controversy. Gillard said that "every day in every way" Abbott was sexist and misogynist.
The speech was criticised by some Australian journalists but attracted widespread interest and positive attention in feminist blogs and social media. Expat Chloe Angyal wrote for Britain's The Guardian that the speech tackled "sexism head-on" and was a "masterful, righteous take-down" and similar opinions were expressed by other expatriate Australian journalists. Britain's Daily Telegraph women's editor said that Gillard had cleverly shifted the focus of the news story with "an impressive set of insults". Within a week, a YouTube version of the speech had had one million views. As of 2016[update] the ABC news video has 2.8 million views. The context of the Labor Party's support for Peter Slipper, however, meant that commentary from domestic journalists was far more critical, with Michelle Grattan writing "it sounded more desperate than convincing", Peter Hartcher that Gillard "chose to defend the indefensible" and Peter van Onselen that the government had "egg on their collective faces". The public reaction was also polarised: approval ratings of Gillard and Abbott both improved following the speech.
...
Wikipedia