Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, arrives with her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, at the Indian Presidential palace for ceremonial reception, in New Delhi, India , Wednesday, October. 17. Manish Swarup/AP/Press Association Images

Australian PM outburst prompts misogyny definition update

Dictionary updating definition, after Prime Minister Julia Gillard lambasted opposition leader Tony Abbott as a misogynist in parliament last week.

AUSTRALIA’S PRIME MINISTER did not define “misogyny” wrong in a blistering attack on a male rival — the dictionary did.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s fiery speech last week in which she branded conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott a misogynist for a string of allegedly sexist comments he had made in recent years has been lauded by feminists around the world.

But Gillard’s critics have accused her of hyperbole, pointing to dictionary definitions of misogyny as hatred of women.

Sue Butler, the editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, which is regarded as the definitive authority on Australian meanings of words, said Wednesday that the political furore revealed to her fellow editors that their dictionary’s definition was decades out of date.

The dictionary would broaden its definition from a hatred of women to include entrenched prejudice against women, she said.

“Since the 1980s, ‘misogyny’ has come to be used as a synonym for sexism — a synonym with bite, but nevertheless with the meaning of ‘entrenched prejudice against women’ rather than ‘pathological hatred,’” Butler said in a statement.

Gillard’s speech in Parliament last week came after Abbott attempted to move a motion to oust the House of Representatives Speaker Peter Slipper over crude and sexist terms Slipper made in text messages that came to light in a court case.

“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 told Parliament.

“Misogyny, sexism — every day from this leader of this opposition,” she added.

She complained Abbott had questioned in a media interview whether it was a bad thing that men had more power than women in Australian society and had described abortion as “the easy way out.”

Gillard said she was offended when Abbott once said to her in Parliament : “If the prime minister wants to, politically speaking, make an honest woman of herself …”

The term “making an honest woman” in Australia traditionally refers to a man marrying a woman with whom he has had a sexual relationship.

As well as being Australia’s first female prime minister, Gillard is also the first to share the prime minister’s official residence with a common law partner, former hairdresser Tim Mathieson, who is widely referred to by his unofficial title “first bloke.”

Female lawmakers in the conservative Liberal Party defended Abbott, who is married with three daughters, saying he did not hate women.

Butler said while the Oxford English Dictionary had expanded its definition of the word from a psychological term to include its contemporary meaning a decade ago, it took the debate over Gillard’s speech to prompt Macquarie to review its definition.

“Perhaps as dictionary editors we should have noticed this before it was so rudely thrust in front of us as something that we’d overlooked,” Butler told Associated Press.

She said the decision had drawn complaints.

“We’ve had various emails accusing us of a political stance in this,” Butler said. “Our changes to the dictionary usually don’t cause quite so much public interest.”

Among the critics is Sen. Fiona Nash, a member of Abbott’s coalition, who accused Macquarie of making the change to suit Gillard’s center-left Labor Party.

“It would seem more logical for the prime minister to refine her vocabulary than for the Macquarie Dictionary to keep changing its definitions every time a politician mangles the English language,” Nash said in a statement.

Gillard and Abbott declined to comment on the change.

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
23 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Buster Lawless
    Favourite Buster Lawless
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:04 PM

    Well done,a great days labour…..a lot on here just think you go in past the 1.5million euro security hut, down past the 365 thousand euro bike shed,see the 190 thousand euro fitness instructor for an hour before going off to the heavily subsidised dail bar for a spot of lunch.

    195
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Phillip Smyth
    Favourite Phillip Smyth
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:18 PM

    @Buster Lawless: haha buster your gas.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Willie Marty
    Favourite Willie Marty
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 11:49 PM

    @james rowan: lol!( chuckle)

    7
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Phillip Smyth
    Favourite Phillip Smyth
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 11:51 PM

    @james rowan: good evening sir, I have no malice whatsoever towards the lady in question and by the sounds of it you are a big fan and I respect that.
    I just felt the way he put it altogether was if you like clever and I had a chuckle and hence gas.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eoin O Flaherty
    Favourite Eoin O Flaherty
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:39 PM

    Very well said Catherine

    103
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ger Murphy
    Favourite Ger Murphy
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 11:05 PM

    @Eoin O Flaherty: Too bad she isn’t as vocal about the urgent necessity to build the bypass and stop the city chocking. Nothing moves in the city most of every day. Everything going east – west and vice versa has to funnell through 3 effective bridges – 2 of which marshelled on both sides by traffic lights. 2 of the 3 bridges were built in the era of ass & carts.

    50
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fergus O'Donnell
    Favourite Fergus O'Donnell
    Report
    Sep 26th 2024, 12:13 AM

    @Ger Murphy: in fairness it was the Greens that put the kybosh on that.
    They seem to think massive congestion is good for the environment…

    47
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eddienowy Byrne
    Favourite Eddienowy Byrne
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 9:23 PM

    One of the few politicians I admire

    92
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fergus O'Donnell
    Favourite Fergus O'Donnell
    Report
    Sep 26th 2024, 12:14 AM

    @Eddienowy Byrne: in fairness she’s very good.

    38
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Oh Mammy
    Favourite Oh Mammy
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:01 PM

    If only we could have a 13b euro windfall……..

    74
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Danny O'Mahony
    Favourite Danny O'Mahony
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:56 PM

    It’s not just Galway. The single biggest infrastructure problem in this country is our water provision and waste water systems. It’s sickening to think how much raw sewage is pumped into our rivers and the sea and the damage its doing to aquatic life and ultimately ourselves. But there’s no votes in water. Noone cares as long as water comes out the taps and they can flush the jacks.

    68
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute thomas molloy
    Favourite thomas molloy
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:21 PM

    Many of our super confident and knowledgeable politicians have missed operational careers in utilities and house building that would have our country flying

    37
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Gorman
    Favourite James Gorman
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:11 PM

    Another reason not to vote for independents who stay in opposition

    She might as well howl at the moon

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hayagriva
    Favourite Hayagriva
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:49 PM

    @James Gorman: Catherine Connolly is one of the few td’s of any integrity in the Dáil unlike many Independents who are FFG in all but name

    158
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Darth O'Leary
    Favourite Darth O'Leary
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:59 PM

    @James Gorman: She’s a great advocate for the people Ireland. Done more with her time as a TD than most of the chancers in government ever did

    123
    See 7 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
    Favourite ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:59 PM

    @James Gorman: And yet this is a failure of government parties, not the independent TD.

    If anything, this will be forced to a resolution.by the independent TD *despite* the uncaring government parties.

    38
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michale Kane
    Favourite Michale Kane
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 11:10 PM

    @James Gorman: Sorry don’t agree.. She is a good TD, has integrity and genuine desire to help her country. We need more like her.

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Peter Donnelly
    Favourite Peter Donnelly
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 11:39 PM

    @Hayagriva: just like your man donnelly who was elected as an independent and within a few weeks joined ff and got a job as a minister of some sort, I hope the people who voted for him remember that….

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute H Woo
    Favourite H Woo
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 11:51 PM

    @Darth O’Leary:
    She has the luxury of never having to make a decision.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fergus O'Donnell
    Favourite Fergus O'Donnell
    Report
    Sep 26th 2024, 12:15 AM

    @James Gorman: ah no. She’s a genuinely hard working decent politician.

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Colette Byrne
    Favourite Colette Byrne
    Report
    Sep 26th 2024, 8:55 AM

    @James Gorman: Catherine Connolly is one of if not the best politician in the Dail. Truthful, always polite, and honest.
    I’m not in her area. Pity we don’t have more like her.
    She is respectful of all yet gets her point across. She doesn’t stand at the gates for every photo op when there is something going on.
    Ye can say a lot about most wasters in the dail. But she is a good one.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Colette Byrne
    Favourite Colette Byrne
    Report
    Sep 26th 2024, 9:09 AM

    @James Gorman: If she howls at the moon, the moon would listen.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Peter Boyle
    Favourite Peter Boyle
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 8:13 PM

    Probably most of the problem comes from vast amounts of rainwater going into the sewage system overwhelming the capacity to safely treat?

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alex
    Favourite Alex
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 10:14 PM

    Imagine bragging that you completely failed to secure proper funding for your local council during 17 years and blaming the government.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute P. V. Aglue
    Favourite P. V. Aglue
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 10:31 PM

    @Alex: but the councils around the country have been charging development levies on new builds since 2006,to pay for all the infrastructure and the house tax since 2013 was another boost to the budgets. So what are they doing with all the money? Pi§§ING it up against a wall like the opw

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Willie Marty
    Favourite Willie Marty
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 11:41 PM

    @P. V. Aglue: not even a wall in the bike shed to piss up against.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paddy C
    Favourite Paddy C
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 9:32 PM

    Great spot for speech and waffle where no accountability ever happens,reminds me of match of the day were they just talked pure s#### for a while to pass time. Except in there it’s large salaries and expenses talking about problems and not solving them.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Phillip Smyth
    Favourite Phillip Smyth
    Report
    Sep 25th 2024, 11:59 PM

    The bikes are getting pissed on now as we post.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Keogh
    Favourite James Keogh
    Report
    Sep 26th 2024, 3:26 AM

    Well spoken and highlighted but, this situation should also be voiced by and come from the Galway Councillors as it did originally. Unfortunately at the moment some of the Councillors are lost in mediocre or even lesser drum beating like shipwrecks on the shore, or the inconveniences of the Chamber moving to Mervue. Should the situation as outlined by you not be dealt with, then there will be more than Ships on the Shore !

    6
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds