Gillard speech: Abbott a misogynist

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THE NEW YORKER ONLINE

OCTOBER 9, 2012
LADYLIKE: JULIA GILLARD’S MISOGYNY SPEECH
POSTED BY AMELIA LESTER

Australians living in the United States are accustomed to their American friends passing along “news” from back home about dingoes and crocodiles. Australia’s a long way away, after all. But this morning, something weirdly substantial made the rounds: a fifteen-minute clip of Australian parliamentary proceedings in which Australia’s first woman Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, calls the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, a misogynist, and does so with genuine anger. “I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man,” Gillard said in her opening. “If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn’t need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror.”

Gillard's speech has gone viral with newspapers and blogs around the world giving it headline ratings:

• The Guardian  in the UK republished the video, while a writer for The Spectator said there was "much to admire" about the speech which had left Mr Abbott "carved to pieces".
• A blogger for the New Statesman compared Ms Gillard to the Incredible Hulk, beginning his report with "The Australian PM is angry. You wouldn't like her when she's angry."
• A blogger at the influential Business Insider linked to the video, with the headline "An Australian politician shrinks in embarrassment, as the prime minister destroys him for being a misogynist". 
• The speech also made headlines in the Independent Online in South Africa,  Canada and India.
• Social media helped spread news of the speech, with "Gillard" hitting the top ten Twitter trends in Australia and also trending internationally.
• In the UK actor Chris Addison, from hit political satire The Thick of It, retweeted a link to the video saying "This is the best smackdown I've ever seen. Glorious. Advance, Australia Fair!"
• The New Zealand Herald also carried the ABC video.
• The British conservative newspaper The Daily Telegraph called the speech "brilliant" and "blistering".
• In probably the most bizzare mention of the PM's speech, Hollywood-centric movie website Movieline offers up five 'Oscar calibre' actors who could play Julia Gillard.
• “If only the U.S. could borrow Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to take on Congress’s misogynist caucus,” Natasha Lennard of Salon.com says.
• The Irish Times also took up the story and the video.
• Viral news site Buzzfeed reports: “Julia Gillard spends 15 awesome minutes of Parliament accusing a lawmaker of sexism." 
• Murdoch's Times in London comments As Mr Abbott slumped in front of her, she gave him the coup de grace: “I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition stood next to a sign that described me as a man’s bitch. I was offended by those things. Misogyny, sexism, every day from this Leader of the Opposition.” The entire 15-minute tirade appeared to be a brilliant lesson in how to cut through political hypocrisy and disingenuousness and after being uploaded on YouTube it resounded throughout the world.
• The ABC video of her speech has had more than 500,000 views on the ABC News website and YouTube.
• In less than a week Gillard's speech had crashed though to one and quarter million views online ... undoubtedly a parliamentary record. The Canberra press gallery and News corporation male reporters were left as the only critics of the speech screaming against the gale of public appreciation. You still don't get what's happening "do you Mr. Jones?"