Fight Fire with Sapphire!

Appalling reich-wingers continue to claim that institutionalised sexism doesn't exist anymore. Excuse me? Take the Iguana-gate affair. Would there have been even the slightest interest in this matter had Belinda Neal been a male?

Of course not.

And remember all the mockery of Ms Neal for saying, "Don't you know who I am?". No man in politics would have received such criticism if he'd said it. (And no man would have needed to say it anyway, because people would have known who he was.)

In any case, this seemingly aggressive attitude is quite understandable from a woman in politics. She has been routinely ignored; treated as second class citizen by the political patriarchy for decades. She shouldn't be excoriated for such demands; she should be celebrated for them!

Of course many other media attacks on her have been sexist in the extreme. But sassy as always, she continues to fight on. For instance, understandably affronted by an appalling item in the Murdoch rag The Australian in which it was claimed "she wears the pants" in her relationship with her signifcant other, she is complaining to the Press Council.

I hope she finds justice. I also hope that John Della Bosca lodges a claim of his own, because it implies that he doesn't wear anything!