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Pauline Hanson held a press conference this morning and said the photos of her which were published at the weekend were not of her. I’m not here to discuss the pictures themselves or the morality of publishing them (but if you want to do that, please comment your socks off and go for gold).
What has dismayed me since this story broke yesterday, is the reaction to the pictures, particularly by sections of the media.
Last night, while I was working, I was also watching Rove. He opened the show by saying he was feeling sick. It was the set-up for a gag whose punch-line was the photos of Pauline (or whoever). It drew a huge laugh – the idea that seeing pictures of Pauline Hanson (or whoever) in lingerie being sexy was so disgusting as to inspire nausea and physical illness.
I never thought I’d find myself in the position of defending Pauline Hanson. Her politics, her attitudes and her rhetoric are repulsive to me. I was ashamed to be Australian when she and One Nation was able to gain the levels of support they did on an unabashedly racist platform of intolerance and prejudice – while our Prime Minister at the time, John Howard, pretty much just stood back and allowed her to take all the oxygen she wanted. And then co-opted many of her policies as his own. They were dark days for our country. Don’t get me started on that or we could be here for a week.
But.
Whether those shots were of her or not, the woman is still a person. To have people (not just Rove, this was the general attitude expressed publicly and privately) openly saying “Yuck, I want to vomit” at the sight of her, well that to me was just cruel and nasty. Not to mention sexist.
If it was her? How awful to have a private moment in your youth, splashed everywhere for ridicule. And if it wasn’t? Pauline has spoken of her distress and the distress of her family over the pictures. One can only assume whoever it might be would be feeling pretty distressed too.
And they wonder why more women don’t want to get into politics……
Top Comments
Haha, Jaz, fairly sure I'm not the lovely Cate Blanchett. God, I wish I was. I love that woman.
I agree with most of what you're saying Jaz. The thing is, there's still so many racist people in our society. Among my own group of 'friends' at school, there are several who think it's perfectly acceptable to make Aboriginal jokes. The 'lazy' Aboriginal jokes; you all know them, we've all heard them. Half the time it's easiest not to argue with them, because it's something I get so upset about. But the thing is, racism against Aboriginals has become almost institutionalized, something that's just there. And then it gets worse, because there's so many people out there who see them as getting handouts all the time, who get everything for nothing where we have to work for it. I'm NOT saying that's my view at all, but it seems to be an Australian mentality.
Then there's the other group, that feel like the only positive action to be taken IS to give them money. Because yes, we pretty much screwed up their country when we colonised it. We feel terrible for it. As a result, we have this kneejerk reaction of giving out money to make ourselves feel better for what has happened in the past.
Jaz is right - the only way to create a truly equal society is to treat the Indigenous people exactly like we treat every other Australian. Well, not exactly - because, granted, we've created a lot of problems for the Indigenous that need fixing. The problems in the NT are an example of that. But we need to stop viewing money as the solution. Because all that does is divide our society even more. And that's what our society is at the moment; divided, because either you have these people who view racism as okay, or you have the people who think we need to be looking after the Indigenous people.
I do feel sorry for what happened to their land. And I do wish it had happened differently. I strongly believe, however, that to fix it we need to do something that will actually empower them, not just make us feel better. And that is just my opinion.
To get back on topic :)
Pauline Hanson is a politician and as such is subject to qualified privilege, which effectively makes it easier to publish that kind of material and get away with it.
Sure it can be abused, but privilege is there for a reason. The reason is so that public figures can be scrutinised.
Also, Pauline Hanson never had a great reputation in the first place, ie, she had a reputation mainly as a racist.
This of course doesn't justify what was printed, especially if it wasn't of her, as she claims.
It does, however, suggest she won't do as well as Andrew Ettingshausen in her payout.
But hasn't this woman had a colourful life? These pictures are just the latest twist in the dramedy that is Pauline Hanson.