A Man's World

It is a curious state of affairs in the International Community, when the LGBT population of the US gets DOMA repealed, on the same day that Julia Gillard gets ousted from the Australian Labor party. It appears that the new global (or at least Western) political cause du jour is gay rights: celebrities and politicians everywhere have "come out" in favour of equal marriage, against DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) and DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell), and in favour of gay adoption. Australia has proved that, far from being ready to join the 21st Century, its politicians are still sat firmly in the 19th.

Julia Gillard, the ginger kangaroo-knitter from South Wales (the Old one, with sheep and rain and actual real Welsh people) ousted sly PM Kevin Rudd from office in 2010 in the 3rd favourite past-time of the Australian people (after Barbecues and Aussie rules) - the 'Spill.' Clearly a woman on a mission, the Australian media and political community set about trying to tear this unmarried, baron dominatrix apart. Particularly telling of the nature of regression in Australian society, however, was the way in which they undertook this task: rather than creating policies that were better for Australia and holding the Prime Minister to account, they broke her down in the only way their tiny chauvinistic minds would allow them.

So intrusive were the questions about her hairdresser partner's sexuality, the never-ending debate about this childless woman's ability to relate to normal Aussie families and cruel pranks played by the opposition - notably the Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail added to the menu at a fundraiser being organised by an ex-minister, which described the dish as having "small breasts, huge thighs and a red box" - that Gillard was forced into a corner where she cringingly opened up about her private life by taking part in a photoshoot, clad awkwardly with balls of wool, her cavoodle Reuben and a part-knit kangaroo that she stated was being made as a present for Wills and Kate's new baby. This was the end of the line. If the politicians had hated Gillard being a woman already, they hated even more her last-ditch attempts to integrate into the culturally-transcendent stereotype of a dull, menopausal housewife.

Rudd decided to win back his place in the top seat as voters realised how much of a desperate PR stunt Gillard had just engaged in. Which is a shame, because despite the almost-constant struggle of Gillard to single-handedly defeat sexism in Australia (and why not the World?), there was something us Pommies loved about Gillard. We will miss her falling over, her battlefield-worthy corridor walks with her ever-diminishing allies and her definitely-only-mildly islamophobic remarks which are now used across the world by right-wingers as the ideological political stance on immigration. Being called a bitch is something that no woman should have to endure, let alone by the leader of the opposition.