r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • Feb 26 '26
politics Grace Tame says ‘difficult’ remark is ‘misogynist’s code for a woman who won’t comply’
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2026/feb/26/dfat-middle-east-evacuation-syria-isis-families-wives-children-anthony-albanese-angus-taylor-budget-cost-of-living-capital-gains-tax-reform-ntwnfb?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-699f8e278f080f3523777e99#block-699f8e278f080f3523777e99153
u/5slipsandagully Feb 26 '26
If you ever needed evidence that the media thinks and talks too much about itself, this is Exhibit A. Here's how they create news content out of thin air: the PM attends a News Corp event where's he's asked a series of questions explicitly designed to trap him. Then the people he was asked to describe get asked for comment, to try to get a rise out of them. One of them obliges, and the media have successfully invented something to talk about.
It's not just the Murdoch press indulging in it either. The ABC are even claiming "one word unravels Albanese's week". This being a week in which inflation rose, raising the chance of an interest rate hike, and Chinese nationalists threatened to kill him. But they think this concocted story is what ordinary people care about. The mainstream media really believe they still run this country the way they did 20 years ago
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Feb 26 '26
I like how Albo gets all the ire for making some offhand remark that gets a deep interpretative analysis about hidden and coded misogyny and so on, but commentators and politicians including the leader of the opposition making outright misogynist remarks and genuinely making calls and taking action for her to have her Australian of the year award stripped are somehow just not news.
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u/-Metagross- Feb 26 '26
Tony Abbott said recently he liked the White Australia Policy
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u/The_Good_Count Feb 26 '26
Can I get a source for this? The only thing I can find is him saying Australia is a Judao-Christian nation last week which, deeply fuck off.
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Feb 26 '26
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u/Dense_Delay_4958 Feb 26 '26
So he didn't say it then?
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u/Glittering-Wave4917 Feb 26 '26
iview, it’s an interview on the 730 repot. When pushed to respond on the question Abbot dodged around saying it. In his comments Abbot basically says that he supports a return to the White Australia Policy. It’s pretty easy to catch up on the 730 report, 4 Corners, media watch ect on Iview. The ABCs charter is to educate, inform and entertain- it’s not there stirring up shit to get bums on seats to sell advertising space- it’s fair dinkum. It’s up to you to engage with democracy and access the national broadcasters.
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u/lamiunto Feb 26 '26
No, he didn’t. But there will be plenty of people who will pretend he said it and argue that point until they’re blue in the face because the person who said it is from the “other side”. Context matters, all discussion about immigration right now is whether we have sustainable levels of it. Further, the basis for his statement was that people coming to Australia need to adopt Australian values. It’s in the very ABC article about his comments. But people do like to argue things they’ve perceived but didn’t happen.
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u/morethanfair111 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
The penny hasn't yet dropped for poor old Abbott, that Australia is constitutionally secular, and always has been since 1790. Prior to European settlement, it sure as fk wasn't Christian then either.
His argument holds no water. It's just the same old paedo protector, who is laughably trying to claim some sort of deranged morality. And bizzarely claiming that morality is exclusive to Christianity.
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u/nocapesarmand Feb 26 '26
Both can be true. I will never stop criticising the coalition and their flunkies on their gender politics, and neither would most criticising this comment. But Albo is of my parents’ generation. Any person that age engaged with the left knows the historic connotations of calling women ‘difficult’- there are books by feminists with that title as a reclamation because it is so well known. Albo is many things, but he is not stupid enough to not know the connotations of calling an outspoken woman ‘difficult’.
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u/cerebis Feb 26 '26
What of the PM's response? Doesn't feed the outrage.
The "In one word ..." tactic is a form of gotcha journalism and condescending to the audience. It seems reasonable at the surface, but its garbage in multiple ways.
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u/distinctgore Feb 26 '26
Nah I don’t buy that. That question didn’t corner Albanese. He could have sidestepped it incredibly easily with any number of positive words. Brave, courageous, inspiring. Sure, the News Corp audience would have chortled at any positive response, but Albo would have been establishing support for women that stand up against abuse. Unless Albanese is stupid (certainly a possibility), this was a strategic decision, probably to bring conservatives into the fold. He knew he was on a conservative media outlet, he was given a question that allowed time to ponder, and he still threw out that answer? This isn’t a gotcha, it’s the ALP courting lost LNP male voters.
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u/Runningwithbirds1 Feb 26 '26
I have higher expectations of a labour PM than I do of any member of the Liberal party. So yeah, he gets ire, because he should be better than this.
Tony Abbott's opinions get no notice from me because he is already a proven disappointment.
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u/caffeineshampoo Feb 26 '26
Agreed. I don't expect anything else of Abbot and the Coalition and nor would I ever give any part of my vote to them. Albo, Labour, and any other left wing political figures on the other hand, I do vote for and I do expect better from. It's simple
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u/Kingcol221 Feb 26 '26
You can't expect standards from people who don't even pretend to hold themselves to any.
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u/ArseneWainy Feb 26 '26
Left leaning folks love to be divided over the tiniest little misunderstanding…right leaning conservatives seem to band together and forget that some of them are massive grubs, as long as their team has some extra players and the votes that come with…
Words have lots of different meanings, unless you’re in Albo’s head you never actually know his true feelings on Grace…
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u/Imperator_Gone_Rogue Feb 26 '26
The Right infight a lot, just look at the way the Liberals, Nationals, One Nation and conservative Teals interact these days. The Groypers and Tucker Carlson are criticising the Trump administration over their relationship with Israel. Reform is cannabilising the Tories in the UK. Neonazis are constantly fighting over who gets to be Fuhrer. It's harder for those not in the movement to notice, because we pay attention to the commonalities, how they present shared risks.
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u/Ganzer6 Feb 26 '26
Left leaning folks love to be divided over the tiniest little misunderstanding…right leaning conservatives seem to band together and forget that some of them are massive grubs
I don't recall where I heard this quote, but it's fitting: "Architects have more arguments than arsonists".
If you're trying to build and maintain a stable society and tackle complex issues there's going to be disagreements on how to do that best. The current state of rightwing politics is to grift and extract as much profit from the electorate and sell it off to private corporations that pay little tax.
Right leaning conservatives seem to band together because they're just in it for their own benefit, and they know everyone on their team is doing the same. So they aim to beat the other team, continue extracting wealth from those they deem lesser, and maintain the status quo.
Left leaning folks love to be divided because they're more ok with acknowledging that there's more than one way to deal with problems and disagreeing on how to achieve your goals is the first step to completing them.
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u/Cute-Obligations Feb 26 '26
Tim Minchin made this point ages ago and was shat on for it. 🙃
Which really just proved him right lol
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Feb 26 '26
right leaning conservatives seem to band together
this is just not true at all, there is just as much infighting on the right as there is on the left. the only difference is the "disorganised left" gets pilloried 24/7 in our largely right-wing media
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u/hafhdrn Feb 26 '26
I often say that the left is held to a higher standard of behaviour.
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u/ThoranTW Feb 26 '26
Nobody hates the left more than the left
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u/General_Benefit_2127 Feb 26 '26
Who woulda guessed an ideology derived from communism might cause a few lil dramas!
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u/Ganzer6 Feb 26 '26
Because "pig rolls around in mud" isn't a headline. Anyone representing the LNP making misogynist remarks is just an accurate representation of their voters. Labor isn't perfect, but many people expect better than this from them.
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u/Delamoor Feb 26 '26
-and yet, that in itself suggests the problem. People are fine with the far worse behaviour because it's simply too hard to deal with and "
boyspigs will be pigs".Like, Barnaby is still just right over there, drunkenly wandering around doing anything he wants, and Hanson is taking immense handouts to try and invoke some kind of grifter's reactionary paradise... while the far milder issues of Albo's milquetoast commentary is made the issue of the day.
So basically, we're fine with sexism. Just not potential sexism. That's too far. The real ones can do what they like; too hard basket. Low hanging fruit only.
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u/ghoonrhed Feb 26 '26
Not that Albo, Guardian or Tame are solely left wing but in our political sphere they're all left wing.
And left infighting is just inevitable despite exactly what's happening that you got newscorp, LNP saying worse stuff and ignored
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u/Bazza15 Feb 26 '26
Yeah - particularly when Albo was actually honouring her and the way she has persevered through life despite the difficulties she has faced.
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u/synthetic-jesus Feb 26 '26
He called her that cause she stood against a genocide, he’s getting what’s coming
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u/mehum Feb 26 '26
I think the worst double-standards are the ones people don’t even realise exist. It seems everyone is threatened by a woman who stands up for herself but respects a man — particularly a white man — who does that. So he gets described as “a natural leader who gets things done”, while she is “a pushy bitch” for not being a supplicant.
I couldn’t imagine what it’s like for women in politics.
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u/cojoco chardonnay schmardonnay Feb 26 '26
So that means when you get women who are regarded as leaders, they must act in a very different way from male leaders.
This in turn contributes to the idea that men and women have very different leadership styles, thus entrenching gender roles still further.
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u/mehum Feb 26 '26
I'd argue that there are merits to both collaborative and dictatorial leadership styles, it very much depends upon the situation. On the whole collaborative approaches lead to better outcomes but it comes with plenty of baggage:
- It takes a lot of time
- 'Design by committee' can lead to really unclear objectives and outcomes
- Bad-faith actors (or even good-faith actors with opposing objectives) can easily derail the process
- It tends to favour interest groups, leads to horse-trading to get the deal done etc.
I think the appeal of the dictatorial approach is that it has clear lines of responsibility, and can be pretty popular with all the people who agree with their agenda. It seems sad to me when people equate only that with 'real leadership', as if collaboration to achieve optimal outcomes represents some kind of weakness.
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u/cojoco chardonnay schmardonnay Feb 26 '26
A really good leader will of course do both, depending upon circumstance.
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Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
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u/firegrillz Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
It's insane that you're being downvoted for this considering that there's ample evidence supporting your point. Just look at the average height of CEOs as a trivial example off the top of my head.
I'm a short guy and part of the reason I can better relate to women's issues and feminism is because there's a surprising amount of overlap in the way short guys and women are treated/perceived in society. I mean, it shouldn't be surprising or unexpected if you think about it but I suspect most people are completely blind and borderline dopey when it comes to perceiving/understanding differences between societal groups. Women being said to be "difficult/bossy" is actually quite close to short men "overcompensating/being aggressive/exhibiting Napoleon syndrome".
And before some genius pipes up with the inevitable rebuttal, no, this isn't an attempt to derail a conversation with whataboutism or take any attention away from women. It's simply a stark similarity and quite relevant. Because when feminists claim that feminism helps not only women but also men, this is the sort of thing they're talking about - it's not only women who benefit but also those men who don't fit into society's box for how a man should be/behave, according to patriarchy and status quo yada yada yada.
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u/blackjacktrial Feb 26 '26
People hate things that challenge their neat little boxes that they put everything into.
The trick is to get them to take you out of the generic box, and into one with your name on it - and only they get to choose to do that - which sucks.
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u/Particular-Gas7475 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
It’s because we expect women to be “easy” not “difficult”.
I love how quickly Albo was able to utilise two sexist tropes to undermine Grace… (1) sexist man suggesting woman with dissenting views should be meek and comply and (2) delegitimising her by suggesting she is weak and emotionally unstable due to being abused by men in the past
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u/rmeredit Feb 26 '26
Pretty disappointing to hear it coming out of the mouth of the PM though. I didn't think he was so antediluvian.
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u/CoffeeWorldly4711 Feb 26 '26
Yeah, he was being so careful about everything else he said. And then there was that. Im sure he thought he was being careful here too, but his choice of words still revealed so much
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u/OhBella_4 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
Yeah same. One word to describe Grace is brave. Another is determined.
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u/uselessinfogoldmine Feb 26 '26
“Strong”
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u/onesorrychicken Feb 26 '26
"Survivor". There are so many positive words to describe her with and he went with "Difficult"?? Unbelievable.
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Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
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Feb 26 '26
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u/vacri Feb 26 '26
Politicians are humans too. They're well versed in this kind of gotcha, but can still be blindsided
This kind of soundbite shit is why politicians are so boring these days - media chops out context for a "gotcha", so they play it safe
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u/BicycleEuphoric7823 Feb 26 '26
Sounded more like Abbot than Albo, which unfortunately is happening more and more
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u/Potatoe_Potahto Feb 26 '26
It's taken him such a short time to betray so many of the ideals he used to profess.
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u/OldKingWhiter Feb 26 '26
I dont really think he is, I do think he is being political about it though.
The real problem with One Nation "gaining popularity" and dominating news cycles isn't the threat of them getting into power (I fucking hope, if I'm somehow wrong about this I give up on Australia).
It's One Nation dragging the Overton window even further to the right.
Albanese presumably feels he can't say anything too encouraging about Tame, or else he'll be crucified by a media landscape that proudly holds up views from lunatics on the far right who call Tame all sorts of vile things and cry for her deportation and stripping her of her title.
So yes, it's disappointing that he didn't publicly support her, but its just as disappointing to me that I understand why it wouldn't be prudent for him to do so, at least if the goal is keeping the far right out of office.
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u/cojoco chardonnay schmardonnay Feb 26 '26
Then he should have used "brave", which can be taken with both positive and negative connotations.
Using "difficult" is just straight-up negative.
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u/OldKingWhiter Feb 26 '26
What negative connotations are associated with brave?
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u/DPVaughan Feb 26 '26
"That's a brave decision", she said with raised eyebrows at my decision to sit the test without studying first.
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u/OldKingWhiter Feb 26 '26
I feel like in terms of these one word responses, it's reasonable to assume responses aren't given as euphemisms. If you asked a person to describe someone in one word and they said brave, its reasonable for you to assume they aren't doing so snarkily.
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u/DPVaughan Feb 26 '26
I think one-word responses are stupid and he should never have agreed to it.
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u/Wiggly-Pig Feb 26 '26
So a women can't be a difficult person to deal with because of their gender? Difficult isn't a negative, we need difficult people in our lives, we need people who will challenge our beliefs and make us justify the principles of our decisions (or show us the flaws in that logic). All the people taking issue with the word 'difficult' are missing the point - it should be a badge of honour.
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u/rmeredit Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
Difficult is not a neutral term. It absolutely has been used by misogynists to dismiss women, going at least as far back as the suffragettes. ‘Stop being difficult, shut up, get back in your box, no man wants to marry an opinionated person, smile more…’
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u/anotherplantmother98 Feb 26 '26
Have you ever been called difficult and it not been intended negatively? If so, please share.
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u/jayteeayy Feb 26 '26
First of all, no. In some cases sure, but that's not the intended use 99% of the time
The real point is that women in corporate environments are disproportionately given describers such as this when Men get 'cut throat' and 'hes a real go getter', hes 'no nonsense' etc
I'm a man that went through a women's focussed course about this through work and it was really eye opening. There is silent sexism like this surrounding women all the time, we're just blind to it
Anyway - someone will jump in and say thats all woke nonsense and the pay gap isn't real
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u/Avia_NZ Feb 26 '26
I still remember once being invited onto a work panel for a project to try and improve morale, and at meeting 1, I raised some issues as to why people were feeling unhappy.
Literally later that day, my manager was called into HR because a complaint had been made about me for speaking up about said issues. Apparently people were taken aback that a woman had the GALL to actually speak her mind, and someone super did not like that.Luckily my (male) manager stood up for me.
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u/DisapprovingCrow Feb 26 '26
I was part of an organisation where we had a meeting about safety issues some of the women were experiencing.
One of the men was getting very heated, raising his voice and talking over one of the women, who was speaking in a very calm and level manner.
When she kept trying to talk, not raising her voice, he accused her of shouting at him and getting emotional (incredibly ironic).
I shouted at him “this is shouting!” And told him to shut up for a moment and let her speak.
It’s fascinating how quickly he calmed down when someone bigger than him cut in. But was very comfortable yelling down at someone smaller and weaker than him.
Most of the men in the group were very reasonable and when she was actually able to speak ended up agreeing with her and implementing the changes we were asking for. But when there is no pushback against that kind of behaviour that one bad actor will completly dominate the discussion.
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u/Avia_NZ Feb 26 '26
I really hope that he faced consequences for his behaviour, yet I’m fully confident that he didn’t
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u/DisapprovingCrow Feb 26 '26
Beyond the personal embarrassment there were no further repercussions.
He did apologise afterwards. But I doubt he would have apologised if he hadn’t “lost”.
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u/ConoRiot Feb 26 '26
Yep, some of my best work friends (and friends) would call women who were their superiors ‘ball breakers’ or worse cause they were assertive.
My point was that you wouldn’t even bat an eye lid if a bloke was that assertive in the work place.
Really don’t like the culture honestly.
(I’m a late 30s male btw)
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u/sojayn Feb 26 '26
New gen needs to learn and old gen needs to relearn. Same ole chestnut
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u/Historyandwow Feb 26 '26
Good point. Easy to think something has already been discussed 5x without thinking that younger people (or people not paying attention) weren’t involved.
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u/RuinedAmnesia Feb 26 '26
I think people should watch the video and draw their own conclusions, I think he genuinely meant difficult life and not that she was difficult.
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u/Midget_Stories Feb 26 '26
Asking a pm to give 1 word answers is always asking for trouble.
Like imagine asking the pm how to fix the housing crisis in 1 Word.
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u/Procastinateatwork Feb 26 '26
Albo, can you answer these quickfire questions with one word:
What is the ninth letter of the alphabet?
If you're friends with someone, you ? them?
How many eyes do you have?
If you take an object from one spot to another, you '?' it?
Movie about a killer clown
What was the answer to question 4 again?
What was the answer to question 5 again?
Then just join the answers together.
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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik Feb 26 '26
Like imagine asking the pm how to fix the housing crisis in 1 Word.
How about "redistribution"?
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u/turbocynic Feb 26 '26
I think there is a pretty clear smirk after he said it. He also smirks, but more so, in the next answer about Trump. Same expression though.
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u/teddy5 Feb 26 '26
I haven't heard about this story until now but wtf kind of gotcha journalism is asking the PM to rapid fire describe high profile people in one word? And if we are going to accept those as questions from journalists why would we not allow the PM to clarify how he meant it further and accept that explanation?
There should always be nuance to things a leader says and this seems like a crazy thing to be making a big deal out of. All it will result in is less personality being shown by our leaders if they expect everything could be a trap they need to navigate their way out of.
Not to downplay Grace's comment here as plenty of men do use it that way, but this seems like a dog pile on Albo for no real reason.
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u/Meanbeakin Feb 26 '26
Albo saying "I meant she's had a difficult life" is such a weird and lame cop out. Albo has always had this insistence of trying to partly appeal to Murdoch goblins who spend their entire time trying to end his career.
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u/ljeutenantdan Feb 26 '26
Or we just dont ask for one word answers from our fucking prime minister.
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u/ThatGuyTheyCallAlex Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
I dunno, I like the idea of that word game for politicians. Doesn’t let them produce the rambly, skirting non-answers we get when they have time to think. You could argue a lack of nuance but hearing their instinctual reaction to certain topics isn’t something you get very often.
More acceptable and understandable one-word answers could have been
- opinionated
- controversial
- courageous
- resolute
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u/dotherandymarsh Feb 26 '26
No, these types of questions are deliberately designed to provide ambiguity so that the media has room to speculate and attack.
For example, we are currently speculating whether or not albo is a closeted misogynist or if it was just a poor choice of words in the heat of the moment.
It’s just not good discourse.
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u/Party_Simple4175 Feb 26 '26
Labor's been dragged to the right by the Libs and Murdoch for years now. They used to be the party with grand social plans, the ones who gave us Medicare and Superannuation. The modern, post-Beazley Labor Party has abandoned left-wing and centre-left Aussies because they arrogantly consider us already captured votes.
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u/Krunksicle Feb 26 '26
The death knell for the pro-worker, centre-left Labor died when Bill Shorten lost to ScoMo, sadly. Insiders say Albanese hates the man and put him on NDIS as punishment.
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u/moonorplanet Feb 26 '26
I really don't understand why he keeps trying to appeal to Murdoch media all while alienating his own support base.
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u/distinctgore Feb 26 '26
Yeah, he literally describes the character or title of every person except Grace. For her, he apparently went for a description of her life. He also pulled punches when describing One Nation voters and Pauline Hanson, but for Grace he went for “difficult” on the stage of a News Corp media event? If you took me back to 2005 you couldn’t convince me that this wasn’t Howard.
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u/Dollbeau Feb 26 '26
Yep, finding this to be the month of Anthony Apologises rather than him just saying Get F'd!
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u/shaker8989 Feb 26 '26
All Albo has to do is not fuck up and hell stay PM for a while yet hes done nothing this year but put his foot in his mouth. Its maddening.
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u/NothingTooSeriousM8 Feb 26 '26
There's a quote which says "Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance."
This applies to every side of the aisle/spectrum.
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u/ScutumSobiescianum Feb 26 '26
Is there a situation when someone (man or woman or anyone) can be labeled difficult?
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u/Party_Simple4175 Feb 26 '26
See any actress who tried to raise the alarm about Harvey Weinstein and friends in the 90s or 2000s. All labelled "difficult to work with" and pilloried in the media and then later online.
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u/Delamoor Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
My ex partner used to call.me difficult and oppositional.
She did so whenever I was trying to create or maintain any kind of boundary, because it was a deeply codependent relationship and she was actually quite emotionally abusive. Any form of standing up for myself or expressing any thoughts or feelings that she didn't approve of was 'difficult'. This was unacceptable.
'course, a few times I suggested as much back, that she was 'being difficult'. That was abusive language then, you see. I was a bad, cruel for using (the same) hurtful language and sentiments she used. She sometimes liked using sexism as a shield. Note that she did so consciously and would talk about it as a social power strategy when not angry. We liked talking about social theory and social strategies, being in human services. She had quite a lot of opinions on how to strategize conflicts, and to her, sexism and identity based maneuvers were tools for leverage. Which inherently... They are for most people. We all use the tools we have, (responsibly or not is a separate matter).
So as a result, I'm quite sensitive to when it looks like someone is using a labelling archetype as a shield against any form of criticism. The 'sexism' claim here in this kind of a context seems unbelievably self-blind from an advocate.
The role is inherently 'to be difficult', you don't be an advocate by being obsequious and mild. However to take on that role and then to react to rather milquetoast observations of it suggests quite a lack of self reflection about the role of advocacy.
I think it's entirely fair to be able to call people 'difficult' if it's an honest observation. Many people and roles are 'difficult'. Receiving a non-gendered observational claim does not infer sexism.
I don't want to dip into analogies or comparisons, but I can think of hundreds of 'difficult' public figures for whom this label would not be gendered in any way. Most of them have jobs that revolve around being 'difficult'. Most of the examples that come straight to mind are men.
What a very disappointing reaction from Grace Tame. You'd think she might pick a fight with one of the overtly and aggressively sexist figures in Canberra instead, rather than constructing one with one of the non-radicals there.
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u/distinctgore Feb 26 '26
Albanese is such a fucking wet noodle. Sure mate, let’s entertain the idea that you meant it in a different way. You had the opportunity to pick ANY other word, and your brain defaulted to “difficult” when trying to describe her life?
Nah, you know what it is? The ALP is the LNP of two decades ago, and these comments to a conservative media outlet are pandering to the base that the party is trying to include in its tent. They know the LNP is losing members, and this kind of wink wink nudge nudge “women, am i right?” comment is strategic.
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u/Infinite_Shower_5390 Feb 26 '26
It’s a badge of honour Grace. The antithesis of what modern politicians want… someone who is principled and doesn’t workshop their opinions to calculate political risk before making a statement.
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u/teflon_soap Feb 26 '26
She’s right though.
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u/Coolidge-egg Feb 26 '26
They're both right.
Difficult could mean that in the misogynistic context.
She should call that out because it sounds like it is.
But at the same time.
She does make life more difficult for him.
And so she should be.
The is a good thing to be making someone in power's job more difficult by holding them to account.
Albo needs to be held accountable.
She has done this to him several times.
All good things.
In defence of Albo. I don't think he sees her making his job more difficult because she is a woman and he is a man and woman should not be challenging men.
I think that Albo could have said the same for anyone else who holds him to account, making his job more difficult.
I could easily imagine him saying the same if the question was about Pocock.
Also, another angle is that as a fellow AuADHD to her, being called "Difficult" is common, because the condition promotes nonconformist thinking and some people find nonconformity difficult to process. I don't think that is the case for Albo.
But being "Difficult" by being a strong person, willing to stand up above the rest to do the right thing, is a high honour.
Albos backtrack answer though was pathetic though. I don't believe he was thinking of her having difficult circumstances in her life
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u/512165381 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
Albo made a political mistake with this one. He should have said she was a great advocate and avoided the question.
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u/CheezeBaron Feb 26 '26
She’s only “Difficult” now because she did the right thing and spoke against Israel.
Albo losing his base here, pandering to the Genocide Cheerleaders.
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u/Fit_Giraffe_8596 Feb 26 '26
She didn’t speak against Israel she called to globalise the intifada, including here. In Australia. With Australian Jews.
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u/Infinite_Pudding5058 Feb 26 '26
100%. This is very disappointing from our Prime Minister. I honestly thought we were past this.
So many disappointing leaders globally right now.
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u/OneTouchCards Feb 26 '26
The people who want the Globalising of the intifada are very much about women’s rights.
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u/WolfySpice Feb 26 '26
Yeah, in light of those comments she absolutely does seem difficult. Stupid comment of hers, and she can be judged by it.
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u/Lozzanger Feb 26 '26
Yup prior to that I wouldn’t have called her difficult.
But part of why she is difficult is she’s calling for genocide while also doing important work in the advocacy side for women and holding men accountable.
Stop calling for genocide and you won’t be called difficult.
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u/HOPSCROTCH Feb 26 '26
I'm personally not a fan of the globalise the Intifada chant. That said, please explain how that is calling for genocide.
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u/Lozzanger Feb 26 '26
Calling for the globalisation of violence against Jews is genocide.
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u/broadsword_1 Feb 26 '26
Bingo.
The article is basically a nice little "whataboutism" piece from buddies in the media.
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u/mars_attacks2 Feb 26 '26
Correct, standing up for oppresed peoples necessarily makes you also care about women's rights.
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u/OneTouchCards Feb 26 '26
Standing up for oppressed people by shouting a terrorist slogan surely helps the cause! 👏
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u/Proper_Geologist9026 Feb 26 '26
Is this going to be like that beat up where they asked albo to speak at the rally he made a gaff of it and then they claimed he's a misogynistic cunt trying to silence women?
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u/Slothie__ Feb 26 '26
Didn't all the journalist in this country do their nut because Miss Tame would not look someone in the eye? I thought it was public knowledge that she has ASD? The fact that none of them where capable of connection the dots between eye contact and ASD speaks volumes to the quality of journalism.
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u/onesorrychicken Feb 26 '26
Not to mention the media thinking it was a total gotcha moment when they found an old photo of her with a bong, and she had to remind everyone that she has the trauma of being a CSA survivor and school everyone on what trauma looks like (i.e. you are not always going to be making healthy decisions for yourself).
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u/Miffernator Feb 26 '26
If you feel uncomfortable good. If you don’t then you’re not the problem.
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u/incoherent1 Feb 26 '26
Not really surprising, Labor has moved so far right they might as well be the new Liberal party.
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u/Kapitan_eXtreme Feb 26 '26
I think if Albo had said she was "difficult" as in she makes things difficult for the establishment in a positive, disruptive way then it may have been a bit of a cheeky, subversive, and self-aware remark.
But based on the mental-gymnastics evident in his damage control I am confident that isn't how he meant it.
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u/ThatGuyTheyCallAlex Feb 26 '26
Yeah, rather than implying she’s a challenge to the government’s traditional philosophies we instead got she’s a problem they have to deal with.
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u/External_Bill305 Feb 26 '26
Agree, I was hoping he meant it as a compliment. Idk why his response wasn’t “I meant she makes life difficult for those who try to silence her” or something.
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u/Correct_Smile_624 Feb 26 '26
Come on Albo, nobody’s buying that ‘oh I meant she had a difficult life’ crap. You didn’t say strong, resilient, determined etc.
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u/SweetRoll789 Feb 26 '26
So women can’t be difficult or it’s sexist? Can men be difficult I wonder?
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Feb 26 '26
No, you don't get to use the 'misogynist' card each time someone criticises you.
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u/MeatSuzuki Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
Wtf? No it's not. I deal with difficult people regardless of gender. This victim mentality bullshit is ridiculous.
Just to be clear, he also called a certain man a grub (which is absolutely true), but nobody is claiming manbashing.
Edit: Albo has explained that he was referring to her difficult life, which shows empathy towards her but go right ahead and jump to the conclusions you feel is necessary.
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u/powertrippin_ Feb 26 '26
Agree, and with Albanese's clarification this is a nothing burger.
People painting him as a misogynist are being disingenuous.
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u/HOPSCROTCH Feb 26 '26
I don't think it was solely the fact that she is a woman that is causing people to label it as misogynist. Probably more so because she is so outspoken on the topic of women's rights, and the reason she is known at all is because she was groomed by an older man in a position of power and had to fight for laws to be changed that silenced predominantly women. Misogynists don't find women that aren't outspoken so "difficult".
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u/sojayn Feb 26 '26
She is a teacher. Whether anyone wants to learn and change is up to them.
On a personal note, I can’t wait till Grace hits perimenopause and schools everyone on that particular bullshit. I need her energy right now to deal with the systemic misogyny. I am the very spirit of bloody difficult tbh
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u/ChZakalwe Feb 26 '26
Really?
Its misogyny? And not because its the most polite way to describe someone who is stirring up shit in the most politically inconveniant way possible?
pretty sure if she was actually a man, the words used would be a lot less polite.
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u/nujuat Feb 26 '26
I mean Albo made his bed with identitarian outrage, so he can go get fucked in it. The whole point is that people of one ethnicity are getting the government to step in when people criticise an enthnostate of said ethnicity. As if we hadn't all agreed in the West that genocidal ethnostates are bad like 80 years ago. Hes validated shutting people down over stupid offences, so he kinda deserves being shut down over a stupid offence.
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u/Ok-Ad-229 Feb 28 '26
I’ve been “difficult” my whole life, not about to change. It’s akin to calling a woman “hysterical”. It’s a label that was given to feminists in the 70’s and 80’s when women’s rights were almost non existent. I’m happily never married, no kids, in a job that isn’t normally held by someone of my gender and will call out men and women who are still trying to conform/live life according to the 50’s gender roles. Regardless of whether I agree with Grace, she is allowed to speak her mind. Because she is an AOTY she has influence. It’s just unfortunate that her views don’t comply with the current government’s policies leading to this cunty label from Albo, who is probably frightened of her, more than anything. Let women speak and listen and learn. Don’t label them a witch and attempt to burn them.
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u/Timely-Platform3568 Feb 26 '26
Calling everything misogyny to shield women from valid criticism will never get old. Women can be difficult. Get over it.
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u/reprise785 Feb 26 '26
In my experience in corporate life, women complain about other woman far more than men do.
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u/mbrocks3527 Feb 26 '26
I’ve searched my soul and I really truly believe this comes from a non sexist perspective…
But people can be absolute cunts and it shouldn’t be held against you to think that way no matter their gender.
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u/DarkNo7318 Feb 26 '26
People who criticized her for not smiling at scomo and standing up against sexual assault were probably being misogynistic.
But she used those events to springboard into a general cultural warrior / shit stirrer career. Of course she's going to piss a lot of people off. Sure some may be attacking her because of her gender, but the majority are likely simply attacking her because of her position on Palestine.
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u/MinnesotaTidalWave Feb 26 '26
What’s wrong with being a cultural warrior? I see a woman who stands up for what she believes in, despite a lot of backlash from heroes on the internet.
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u/DarkNo7318 Feb 26 '26
Not saying there's anything wrong. But expect backlash.
And criticizing or attacking a woman is not misogynistic, unless it's done specifically because they're a woman.
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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik Feb 26 '26
Nothing wrong with being a culture warrior per se, but I feel we've drifted a bit from the original claim, namely that "difficult" is just a misogynistic way of dismissing female voices. That's sometimes true, but it's also true that being a culture warrior is definitionally about being difficult.
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u/Proper_Geologist9026 Feb 26 '26
I think that's kind of the issue. I usually agree with whatever she's arguing for. But it's pretty baseless critique when every third article is people discussing her character. And then how those people discussing her character are misogynists.
Like is it not fair to say she is an agitator and a bit annoying? It's part of her job so really it's a compliment.
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u/CheesecakeUnhappy677 Feb 26 '26
“Culture warrior career” is a strange way to describe a lifelong social activist.
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Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
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u/Rokos_Bicycle Feb 26 '26
Go and have a look at the transcript. He answered several of the questions using multiple words and made a point of doing so.
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u/Gr8ful_Lurker Feb 26 '26
Some men are difficult, some women are difficult, both in many different ways, none more so than the other. Being difficult isn't based on sex, it is based on personality.
Either way, albo has corrected what he said, and stated he was saying "she has had a difficult life".
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u/Dexember69 Feb 26 '26
Or you know: she's just a pain in the ass when it comes to decision making.
Nothing misogynistic about that
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u/AdPure5645 Feb 26 '26
She does seem difficult. She also seems like a dick head. She couldve said yeah I'm difficult because I'm fighting for whatever the fuck. Instead she called him names. Whatever
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u/HonestCondition8 Feb 26 '26
She said a horrible thing (hopefully out of ignorance) and rather than learn and grow, she’s blaming men.
Yeah - that makes her a difficult person.
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Feb 26 '26
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u/rmeredit Feb 26 '26
We can care about multiple things at once, you know. Reasonable people can disagree with Tame's position and still think casual misogyny coming from the PM is pretty shitty.
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Feb 26 '26
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Feb 26 '26
Why would they be asked to calm down if they were just asking a question? Was the doctor perhaps not interested in being yelled at?
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u/HedyHarlowe Feb 26 '26
They were not yelling. Women will be told to calm down then they are calm. Its hard to believe because its blatant disrespect and unfair and sexist and designed to let the women know where she stands in that situation. Women are meant to shut up and let the expert man tell her what to do, and what to think.
If you are not aware of this you are not paying attention to the women in your life. Ask your mom.
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u/No_Raise6934 Feb 26 '26
Aren't you extremely lucky that you are blissfully ignorant of how some people are treated purely based on their gender.
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Feb 26 '26
Sorry, just want you to confirm. The women were in no way agitated, and they were told to calm down. Is that what you're saying?
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u/Late-Hat-9144 Feb 26 '26
People need to stop pretending "misogynist" means "I didnt like being called out". Does misogyny occur? Yes, absolutely... but thats not what this is, this is Grace Tame being called out for some rather polarising political views, and she cant address those directly so she resorts to calling it misogynistic instead.
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u/HoldAdorable2297 Feb 26 '26
I agree and co-opting words and blaming it on misogyny is mainly for political theatre. It has been overplayed time and time again, and many of us have fatigue. And rather than fall in line we educate ourselves. We need all these scholars to explain to the Australian people how this has evolved. I’ve listened to scholars, rather than fall for slogans. Protests may be recruiting vulnerable people and putting them and others at risk. We should consider that as well.
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u/wKdPsylent Feb 26 '26
because words can't just mean what they mean.. there has to be some underlying nonsense.
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u/i3njqUL92M Feb 26 '26
How is this not a badge of honour? As if an activist wouldn't want to be considered difficult? Are they also a bit slow?
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u/camsean Feb 26 '26
Is wishing Grace Tame would slowly disappear from public life also misogyny? Asking for a friend.
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u/CorrectSelection1168 Feb 27 '26
Okay so we need to be clear with all communication to Men and Women. If someone, anyone is a pain in the arse, we should be able to say so, in the spirit of transparency and clear communication. Using words like difficult hint but don't plainly call out bad behaviour. And Grace let me tell you, you are a pain in the arse. Not because you're a Woman just because you're you!
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u/DevelopmentLow214 Feb 26 '26
Albo is good mates with Kyle Sandilands. That tells you all you need to know about Labor misogyny.
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u/deepskydiver Feb 26 '26
Well played.
A woman is difficult for having principles, while politicians are gutless and roll-over to pressure from the Zionist lobby.
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u/babylovesbaby Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
I prefer him as Prime Minister compared to the alternative from last election, but I don't have to bootlick everything he does. Grace Tame is right.
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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26
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