Senator says Abbott sexist rather than misogynist
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AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Tony Abbott is a sexist rather than a misogynist, a retiring politician from his party said in an interview yesterday, adding that he was just one of many in Parliament.
Liberal Senator Sue Boyce, who is leaving politics at the end of this month, described former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s fiery misogyny speech in 2012 — which targeted Abbott — as “powerful,” and said it was “a brilliant speech” in building support for the country’s first female leader.
But she told The Sydney Morning Herald Gillard should have labelled Abbott sexist rather than misogynist. “I think it would have been more accurate if she had called him a sexist,” Boyce said.
Gillard’s speech prompted a row over the definition of “misogyny,” with Abbott’s defenders accusing her of misusing the word and saying he did not “hate women.”
The row pushed Australia’s most authoritative dictionary, the Macquarie Dictionary, to broaden its definition of “misogyny” beyond a hatred of women to also denoting a prejudice against them.
“Sexism” is defined as discrimination based on gender.
“But singling (Abbott) out as a sexist was not reasonable either,” Boyce added, saying the prime minister was one of many “subtle” sexists in parliament.
The latest criticism of Abbott came a month after he was flayed for winking during a testy radio chat about the tough May budget with a female pensioner who worked on a sex phone line.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in her book Hard Choices, which was released earlier this month, that Gillard faced “outrageous sexism.”
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