Trouble brewing

There is trouble brewing…right here in the great southern land…Trouble with a capital T, that rhymes with E; that stands for Election! (Apologies to the Music Man!)

For my non-Aussie readers, Australia is heading for a federal election in September.  Our current Prime Minister happens to be female.  The gender card is on the agenda and the proverbial S**t is being slung.  I’m over the 1950’s school yard antics!  It is all a big fat (!) distraction from the lack of policy and real debate. I mean...seriously. What is going on?

I had a teacher once who said that if you think that there is a difference between male and female you are involved in seduction.  So it has got me thinking about the difference.  We are in a society where the only words we have to describe the gender other than male has reference to man in it…wo-man – the derivative of wifman which is a man’s wife.  From what I can find, “female” comes from the Latin femella, the diminutive form of femina, meaning "woman". It is not etymologically related to the word male, but in the late 14th century the spelling was altered in English to parallel the spelling of male (of course!) (thanks Wikipedia!).

I have heard another take on the word female….FE being the chemical element of IRON – so in fact, Females are the ultimate IRON-MAN! (credit unknown)

But back to the difference.  Sure we have different genitalia.  Other than that I really don’t believe there is much else in it.  My partner’s star sign is Scorpio, mine is Piscean.  That is about as different as people are.  We all bleed, we all ache, we all have different histories, but we all have a history. We all have opinions about things that might not be the same as our neighbours, but to be threatened by different beliefs is just not useful.

A few weeks ago, Victoria's new Women's Minister Heidi Victoria (confusing I know) said it would be naive to think equal gender representation could be achieved in Victorian Parliament because women are generally ''nurturers'' and politics is too demanding.  (Read “too bullying to women”!)

We think that the natural state of a women is soft, gentle, yielding (or should be) It's just not true; Women do not need to grow balls to be in leadership positions.  We need to be accepted as the same – as not different.  We need to be accepted on face value with no preconceptions.  We need to be judged by our actions and achievements just like men.

There seems to me to be a real issue here with the concept that we are being governed by a system that is not nurturing.  Question – why can’t politics be nurturing?  Shouldn’t the very system that is there to support us – the community, also support the people who are brave enough to take on positions of leadership?  Surely we need this to be a nurturing support!

Secondly, by implication, this statement is saying that men are not nurturing. Well I have issue with this as well.  Some of the most nurturing people I know are men.

So the following day across the world in the UK – Glena Jackson launches a tirade against Thatcherism.  One of the strongest lines from her very cohesive speech was when she talked about Britain in war times, when women didn’t run the government, but they did run the country.  This made me smile.  Reminds me of the old paradigm adage that behind every successful man is a good woman. My hope is that those times are long gone, and that women can stand front of the line now…(sigh!*#).

Why are these men so threatened and think that it is OK to set examples to our community that allow the denigration of someone’s character based not on what they do but by the genitalia they happen to have.  It set a scene that allows for sickos to believe they have a right to bash, rape, murder out of a sense of power over.  I know that might be a big leap for some, but these are our leaders acting out this stuff and condoning the behaviour that it’s a hoot and hilarious to vilify on the basis of gender…its just another expression of the same belief.

Australian politics has disintegrated to the lowest of lows.  Tit for tat, ball for bat; all bully tactics.  Come on guys, grow up.  Love is all there is!  I am imagining a political landscape that came from the basis of love first.  I don’t mind seeming naive!

Am I?

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