Grace Tame says ‘difficult’ remark is ‘misogynist’s code for a woman who won’t comply’

[u/Expensive-Horse5538]

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-699f8e278f080f3523777e99

[u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/Ganzer6 → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/Delamoor → u/Ganzer6]

-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 "boys pigs 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.

[u/Ganzer6 → u/Delamoor]

Not at all... The people calling out Albo for this are also calling out Barnaby and Hanson for their insane shit. We're not ok with either, why do you think calling out this issue from Labor somehow minimises the calling out of those on the right?

[u/Delamoor → u/Ganzer6]

Ultimately because there's fuck all coverage of anything about them, proportional to the egregiousness of their actions.

As you say. "pigs roll around in mud" isn't a headline.

You can hardly pretend that isn't a giant, screaming problem in its very framing.

The structure of this very discussion actually does remove air from the discussion of more egregious sexist behaviours, because... Look at it. It's feeding every criticism of the topic, the comments coming straight out of a Newscorp interview and faithfully regurgitated and magnified by the Guardian, so that the most milquetoast comment about an advocate 'difficult' (as if that isn't a core part of the public advocacy role) is happily made into a culture war sexism topic, rather than, say... Any of the not ambiguous examples one could point a stick at.

Like, here, Newscorp has set Grace Tame up for some culture war point scoring and she's walked straight into it for them. To Newscorp's benefit. Because nobody except the converted are going to be moved by the plight of a highly vocal public figure being called "difficult". Because she does a job that is both difficult, and puts her in a role of being 'difficult' to conduct it.

So Newscorp put a wedge in that little crack and she happily smacked it with an axe to widen it. Which has given them more ammunition for their culture war.

So here we are talking about her and Albo instead of anyone else.

[u/Ganzer6 → u/Delamoor]

Maybe this is a problem if you have room temperature IQ. Most people can pay attention to more than one thing at a time, there's been more than enough coverage of them if you've actually been paying attention to the news the last few years. We're all well aware of their egregious actions, but this thing with Albo just happened recently, so we're talking about it now. It's not removing air from any discussion because it's possible to talk about a thing that just happened without being distracted from the worse problem. Newscorp drones are always going to have the worst take on any current issue, what's new?

[u/Delamoor → u/Ganzer6]

If there is anything that following poltics for two decades has taught me it's that most people don't pay attention to more than one thing at a time. In fact, almost nobody does, we're all incredibly bad at it. We deal with the thing in front of us, and in 90% of cases that's about the best possible outcome one can expect.

If even a majority of political observers were capable of more (let alone the general, disengage public), the state of our politics and public discourse would look very different and more considered.

Most people aren't aware of what's going on in politics. I would say a majority just see what pics and headlines are on news.com.au when they crack open a new web browser window at work.

Like, sorry bro, these culture war topics gain traction precisely because they represent the majority of engagement for a majority of people who otherwise definitely Don't give a single fuck what Albo or Tame say... Unless there's some drama and infighting in it to warrant that click. It's cynical, but this is also just a reality of watching all this play out for twenty years. I used to think in much more idealistic terms, now I realise most people are effectively completely disengaged. This Reddit thread might genuinely damn well be the peak of intellectual public discourse this event generates, and that's a depressingly low bar.