Alan Jones said a particularly stupid and sexist thing this morning. It’s what Alan Jones does when he’s preaching to the converted on his radio show. He tells them things they already think so they can feel righteous in thinking them. That’s his job.

Some guy with some views on things… Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

It’s been a tiring week for anyone who takes part in debate about feminism in Australia. Between silly old Grahame Morris calling Leigh Sales a cow, and Bic having the temerity to, shock horror!, release a range of pink ball points branded for the ladies, there’s been a lot to start bashing the keyboard about.

But in an environment where these skirmishes demand an increasing amount of energy, it’s time we started picking our battles a little better.

Alan Jones, and the crap that he sprouts, is very irritating, and as a feminist I would really rather he didn’t say things such as: “Women are destroying the joint.”

I would also rather dingbats like Morris didn’t call senior journalists cows for doing their job.

As to the Bic pink pen thing - I seriously don’t have an opinion on that.

But my point is, modern feminists with a voice shouldn’t waste their time fighting battles on these grounds.

People like Leigh Sales are just fine. Sales has a highly prestigious and influential job, which she combines with a family and a brilliant flair for the kind of witty retorts most of us only think of when it’s too late. She is not who we should be worried about.

The diminishing influence of people such as Alan Jones is also not something we should spend too much time fretting about.

So he thinks Gillard, Christine Nixon and Clover Moore are hopeless and he reckons it’s because they’re women. Of course he does. He’s Alan Jones!

Worry about the women without the power and influence of Gillard, Nixon, Moore and Sales. The ones who get paid less than their male counterparts, or don’t have access to safe abortions, or get hounded out of their jobs when they come back from maternity leave.

Save your energy for the battles that might change something.

Comments on this post will close at 8pm AEST.

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96 comments

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    • M says:

      02:32pm | 31/08/12

      You guys can’t help yourselves can you? No matter how many times we tell you the reasons that women on average earn less than men for a whole variety of reasons that have nothing to do with sexism or “the patriarchy”, all of you still feel the need to inject it into whatever she-ra article you decide to pen that day.

    • nihonin in the original packaging says:

      02:47pm | 31/08/12

      she-ra, for an animated character was pretty hot and muscle bound too.

    • marley says:

      02:48pm | 31/08/12

      @ M, I think Tory may have been looking beyond the borders of Australia with that comment.  So far as I am aware, women here get equal pay for equal work and have access to safe abortions.  In Egypt or India or Afghanistan, not so much.  Those are the issues feminists should be focussing on.

    • James1 says:

      02:57pm | 31/08/12

      To compound that issue, in this article Tory says that women get “paid” less than men.  This has a different meaing to the word “earn”, which is usually cumulative, so that at least it would be correct in that men will on average earn more than women in their respective lifetimes (for good reasons, as you say).

      To say “paid” instead implies that a man can get paid more for performing the same job as a woman, which is incorrect.

      But then, I believe Tory has a young child at home so I can understand how, what with the demands placed on a working parent, she might be a little tired and could have overlooked the small, yet important, differences in meaning between the words “paid” and “earn”.

    • M says:

      03:17pm | 31/08/12

      Oh good lord, listen to yourselves.

      “Women in afgahnistan have it worse.”

      Yes, sure, but we’re talking about women in Australia.

      “She’s missing out on money because she has a child”

      FFS, if I didn’t work I wouldnt get money either. How is it “unfair” that a woman earns less than a man on average if she choses to raise children?

    • M says:

      03:40pm | 31/08/12

      Good lord, listen to yourselves.

    • jj says:

      03:48pm | 31/08/12

      Tory, your statement about Morriss is ageist, a pc crime on equal par with what AJ says.

    • James1 says:

      05:05pm | 31/08/12

      No one said she is missing out on money because she has a child. If you are referring to my comment, I suggest you read it through to the end, because I was agreeing with you.

    • Smurf Silva says:

      06:38pm | 31/08/12

      @ M
      “How is it “unfair” that a woman earns less than a man on average if she choses to raise children? “

      Considering that the government has spent the better half of the last decade encouraging this generation to have children in order to deal with the aging population problems we have, I would say very unfair. We need this next generation and in order to have that next generation, we need to be able to care for them and that requires financing. Thus bringing about one of the very real issues that feminists should be fighting for - decent amounts of paid maternity and paternity leave.

    • Brad Coward says:

      06:40pm | 31/08/12

      Tory….I’m always so proud of the fact that this site never,ever, ever does any preaching to the converted .  That would be wrong, wouldn’t it ?

    • nihonin says:

      02:36pm | 31/08/12

      Alan Jones, the loudest woman on radio?  wink

    • Brad says:

      03:01pm | 31/08/12

      Yes the rabid misogyny pushes him over the brink as Australia’s worst closet case. Is it true after the One Direction interview he invited them all back to his place for oysters and snails and then to wrestle with their shirts off?

    • Arnold says:

      03:51pm | 31/08/12

      Brad your statement is a form of gay bashing. Is that OK? Apparently its OK for you but not for him.

    • Steve says:

      06:02pm | 31/08/12

      Funny how moral norms apparently don’t apply when you’re a sneering lefty.

    • Smurf Silva says:

      06:24pm | 31/08/12

      @marley

      Women in Australia may be getting paid equally when doing jobs perceived as traditionally male, but traditionally female occupations are still paid well below masculine occupation. E.g an industrial seamstress is paid far less than an carpenter.

    • Chris Topher says:

      02:37pm | 31/08/12

      Hah wow, any time a conservative anybody says something controversial you guys have an article response to go within 5 minutes.

      Now what Alan Jones said was…well typical Alan Jones, ill thought, over the top and dumb.

      I can’t help but notice though that anytime a female gets criticised for anything lately the “SEXISM!?!??” card gets pulled. Regardless if it’s directly gender based or not.

      And this can’t be helpful to women or the cause of feminism, this implication they need to be gone easy on, or need constant defending. It only helps make women look weaker.

      And that, is not, equality.

    • Danielle says:

      02:48pm | 31/08/12

      And whenever a woman in power makes a controversial decision, some moron interblogger/shock jock will deduce that “this is what happens when you get a female be Prime Minister”, or “women are ruining the joint”. Despite the fact that the world has been rife with war and famine and rape and whatnot for the past 2000 years whilst run solely by men, and no-one is suggesting they be seen and not heard.

      And that, is not equality.

    • mikem says:

      02:53pm | 31/08/12

      And did Barnaby Joyce say anything to mitigate Allan Jone’s stupidity?

    • Phil S says:

      03:17pm | 31/08/12

      You have a point. However, this is not the article to make it over. Alan Jones said “Women are destroying the joint”. He didn’t say these particular people, he said “women” and then listed a bunch of the most influential in the country (or at least used to be influential).

      When you mention a particular gender in a derogatory way, you are being sexist. If you mention a particular person (and make no reference to their gender) you are not.

      It’s not that difficult.

      Also, I find your comments re “conservatism” disturbing. Do you honestly think they wouldn’t have articles to go for someone of a different political persuasion if they said something as pathetic as Jones? Are you just trying to bring politics into something that really has none at all?

    • Lara says:

      03:17pm | 31/08/12

      I agree that sometimes we’re too quick to cry FEMINISM - for example when Germaine Greer actually SUPPORTED the Prime Minister in all her feminine booty glory on Monday’s Q&A - but when Alan Jones (the idiot that he is) says something like “Women are destroying the joint” I feel like it could be warranted.

    • Lara says:

      03:17pm | 31/08/12

      I agree that sometimes we’re too quick to cry FEMINISM - for example when Germaine Greer actually SUPPORTED the Prime Minister in all her feminine booty glory on Monday’s Q&A - but when Alan Jones (the idiot that he is) says something like “Women are destroying the joint” I feel like it could be warranted.

    • M says:

      03:18pm | 31/08/12

      I agree with Danielle. Not all female politicians are incompetant.

    • KMFA says:

      03:21pm | 31/08/12

      Dear me Chris. I am sure you would be the first on your soapbox if a prominent woman came out and said men have destroyed the joint (which they mostly have). How can it not be regarded as sexist when it is used in the context that Alan Jones used it? If he said “Gillard has destroyed the joint” it would be different but he chose to use the word “women” and provided other examples. You must be a bit of a numpty head if you can’t see that.

      So are you suggesting that women sit back and say nothing when dudes like Alan Jones make these comments? Surely that can’t be helpful to women either. To you it may make them seem weaker but I don’t think so at all. It makes men like Alan Jones look like a pathetic little whiner whose used by date is a long time expired.

    • AdamC says:

      04:08pm | 31/08/12

      @Danielle, I agree. We do not treat every failed male leader as representative of mankind in its entirety. The same should be true for women.

    • Zeta says:

      04:19pm | 31/08/12

      Alan Jones is as conservative as Lee Rhianon.

    • marley says:

      05:21pm | 31/08/12

      @zeta - oh, I disagree with that.  Alan Jones sounds like something from the 1950s;  Lee Rhiannon is stuck back in 1917.

    • mikem says:

      02:39pm | 31/08/12

      Oh dear another one of Mr Abbott’s mentors has just expressed publicly views that are gong to cause him grief.  Mr Jones has just expressed publicly the real heart of the problem the Liberals have with Ms Gillard.  She is a woman.

    • mikespol says:

      03:21pm | 31/08/12

      No, the real problem they have with Gillard is she’s incompetent. The fact she is a woman is irrelevant.

      Just out of interest, would you as a clearly left leaning person say that the Labour Party in Britain in the 1980s had a problem with Maggie Thatcher because she was a woman or her policies? Or does sexism only apply when it’s a right wing man criticising a left wing woman?

    • ibast says:

      03:42pm | 31/08/12

      Yes in a few short sentences Jone’s has really shown the true colours of the squealing conservatives and done a lot of damage to his own cause in the process.

      At the same time he’s also proven the argument that she is being treated unfairly, because she is a women.

      He’s done much more harm than good to himself and his puppets.

    • Aaron says:

      03:52pm | 31/08/12

      Yep the Liberals really have a problem with women, seeing as the Deputy Leader of the Federal party is a woman, the leader of the South Australian Liberals is a woman. The Liberal Party actually has faith in female candidates being able to stand in electorates and win pre-selection on merit as opposed to the Labor Party that discriminates based on gender.

      I understand posts can be moderated for offensive material but can they also be moderated for stupidity like the above example?

    • mikem says:

      06:20pm | 31/08/12

      There hasn’t exactly been a stampede by those in the Liberal Party to distance themselves from Mr jone’s misogynist statement.

    • YoYo says:

      02:53pm | 31/08/12

      Alan Jones has some very perverted views.

    • Denis Quigly says:

      02:56pm | 31/08/12

      A misygonist as well as a nut job

    • fml says:

      02:59pm | 31/08/12

      Is Alan Jones’s shirt see through?

      It’s rather camp…

    • BBQueen says:

      03:23pm | 31/08/12

      Nah Fml - he’s just all hot and sweaty from watching ‘Top Gun’ again before the protest to fire him up.

    • Dan says:

      03:26pm | 31/08/12

      If the shirt fits, wear it.

    • Carl says:

      03:28pm | 31/08/12

      Why is the guy next to Allan blowing kisses? Maybe he’s thanking the crowd for applauding Alan’s impromptu, bullhorn karaoke version of Kate Ceberano’s “Young Boys Are My Weakness”.

    • Scotchfinger says:

      03:41pm | 31/08/12

      I made a comment about this, plus his ‘leanings’, but was censored. The mods must prefer you, fml wink

    • fml says:

      03:43pm | 31/08/12

      Why am I getting the feeling that he is belting out some Donna Summer out of that megaphone and that he is wearing short, shorts.

    • tired says:

      03:00pm | 31/08/12

      So when should we start standing up and saying enough is enough?

    • Rob says:

      03:15pm | 31/08/12

      I’m not particularly minded to stand up for just about anything Alan Jones says - nevertheless, the “gender equality” (at least when it refers to demanding women have more high paying, high-status roles) argument has a very strong “things will be better when women are involved” theme to it. Gillard said as much herself today or yesterday. Well the evidence is there to be had: when women are involved, its better for the women involved. Not, seemingly, for anyone else. Did anyone actually seriously expect that a female PM would necessarily be any better or worse than a male PM? As an aside, does Tory really expect that a woman working in a lower paid job should get paid the same as a man working in a higher paid job - this is what the stats demonstrate: that the average woman works in a lower paid job than the average man. They do not demonstrate that women get paid less than men for doing the same job. Still undoubtedly an issue, but not one capable of being solved by pursuing the wrong problem.

    • simonfromLakemba says:

      03:15pm | 31/08/12

      The rabid right strikes again.

    • Ben says:

      05:49pm | 31/08/12

      That’s right, Simon. The right wear black hats and they ride black horses. The left wear white hats and they ride white horses. The right is made of snails and puppy dog tails. The left is sugar and spice and all that’s nice.

    • Rob says:

      03:22pm | 31/08/12

      Oh, by the way, Morris did not call Leigh Sales a cow. He said she could be a bit of a cow when interviewing. Hardly endearing, but definately not the same thing (Hint: check out the Macquarie dictionary definition of ‘cow’). Just like Kerry O’Brien could be a bit of a prick when interviewing. Nothing sexist there at all. As a matter of curiousity, if the PM had said “Leigh can be a bit of a cow sometimes”, would that be considered sexist too? Ooh, no, only men can be sexist, right?

      At the end of the day, people who voted for Labor at the last election because Julia Gillard is a woman are just as gender-biassed as those who voted against Labor for the same reason. They belong together in a room somewhere out of the way so that we non-sexist people can get on with life.

    • Gomez12 says:

      03:23pm | 31/08/12

      “Worry about the women without the power and influence of Gillard, Nixon, Moore and Sales. The ones who get paid less than their male counterparts, or don’t have access to safe abortions, or get hounded out of their jobs when they come back from maternity leave”

      So, women overseas then?

    • mikespol says:

      03:25pm | 31/08/12

      Jones might be sexist, but he’s not a nut job. He’s a smart broadcaster who knows what to say to get headlines, more listeners and higher ratings.

      He’ll cop a rebuke from others in the media, and even authorities on occasion, but people still tune in. And at the end of the day, that’s what he and the station want.

      Don’t listen and you win.

    • Mickey T says:

      06:06pm | 31/08/12

      Agree, but you do have to wonder about the mentality of his listeners?

    • Admiral Ackbar says:

      03:25pm | 31/08/12

      “It’s been a tiring week for anyone who takes part in debate about feminism in Australia.”

      How tired do you think the rest of us are with feminism in general? You claim to be a feminist in a time and a place where there is no need. If I could sum up my response to this article in a word, it would be ‘meh’.

    • M says:

      04:22pm | 31/08/12

      Haha, well played dear admiral.

    • egg says:

      04:31pm | 31/08/12

      @Admiral Ackbar, I’m glad you don’t think there’s a need for feminism right now, but some people do. As feminism isn’t directed at you or in place for your benefit, it doesn’t matter in the least what you think of it anyway.

      Why did you read such a “meh” article in the first place? Because feminism is the only thing people like you have to bitch about these days… “Oh, I’m such a poor man… somebody pay attention to me!”

      Flog a new horse.

    • Admiral Ackbar says:

      04:37pm | 31/08/12

      Always aim to please M wink

    • John L says:

      03:27pm | 31/08/12

      I’m wondering who that bloke in the blue shirt behind Jones is. He has the defeated look that anyone around Jones would have whenever Jones opens his mouth to state one of his opinions. It just screams “FFS JONES!”.

    • Terry says:

      03:28pm | 31/08/12

      Alan Jones’ radio audience already subsrcibe to his nutbaggery.

      No harm done.

    • Ausy says:

      03:29pm | 31/08/12

      LOL. Allan Jones is awesome.

    • The Colonel says:

      07:42pm | 31/08/12

      Uh uh uh uh.
      Like, no he isn’t.

    • Matt Samson says:

      03:29pm | 31/08/12

      I cannot wait for the day Alan Jones retires… the only problem is the radio hosts who would replace him aren’t too much better!

    • ibast says:

      03:45pm | 31/08/12

      He got cancer a few years ago and it seemed he wasn’t coming back.  In that time he was gone, the world seemed a much nicer place.  When he did come back it seemed he’d turned up the nutter scale 2 notches.

    • pa_kelvin says:

      04:09pm | 31/08/12

      Anyone’s better than him. Rather listen to white noise static

    • Ian says:

      03:34pm | 31/08/12

      What are you talking about Tory, I had to listen to him this morning due to getting a lift to work i don,t ever listen to him i don’t like him. yet what he said was not a sexist claim it was an observation.
      A person has the right to make an observation as you have the right to comment. replay his conversation with Barnaby Joice and we will make up our mind. did anyone actually listen to the comment? are we all just jumping on the band wagon.

    • Sickemrex says:

      03:35pm | 31/08/12

      I wonder what the likes of Julie Bishop, Amanda Vanstone and Bronwyn Bishop think?

    • cheap white trash says:

      03:35pm | 31/08/12

      Alan Jones, and the crap that he sprouts, is very irritating, and as a feminist I would really rather he didn’t say things such as: “Women are destroying the joint.”

      Well you dont have to listen to him,right?
      You do no how to turn the dial?
      Tory Maguire,have you written a particularly stupid sexist blog in your time??

      Now, would we be writing about this PC crap if there name was Mr Gillard,Mr Moore or Mr Nixon,and the Broadcaster was a Ms Jones,from the Progressive Left?
      So i guess it was ok to call J Howard all the names under the sun,but when it comes to our Beloved Leader it’s a no go Zone?

    • Mattb says:

      04:18pm | 31/08/12

      cheap white strawmen..

    • Brad says:

      03:41pm | 31/08/12

      Tory, did you just call Mr Morris silly and old? Isn’t that the similar to Alan Jones expressing his views? Still, Jones does make your job easier.

    • Pete parrot says:

      03:42pm | 31/08/12

      Who cares what this buffoon says, he lost all credibility with the convoy of confusion last year.

    • bill says:

      03:44pm | 31/08/12

      Personally i don’t care about the matter. real topics that affect our world are not really talked about in media . all media is filtered.
      media is $$  making.

    • PJ says:

      03:44pm | 31/08/12

      While I don’t agree with Alan Jones we are all sick to death of hearing womens issues especially from rich, successful, self promoting women who claim to be feminists but care little for others in reality. Gillard is hopeless not because she is a woman but because she is simply incompetent.

    • andre says:

      03:49pm | 31/08/12

      Tory : is’n it sexist being a feminist ? Clarify please..

    • Danielle says:

      03:58pm | 31/08/12

      Hear, hear!

      As Amy Poelher once said, after a male tried to admonish her for doing an ‘unladylike’ routine that he didn’t like: “I don’t flippin’ care if you like it”. Except that she didn’t say ‘flippin’.

      Who cares what Alan Jones and Graeme Somebody think?

    • Ian1 says:

      04:00pm | 31/08/12

      Who is Alan Jones?

      He needn’t refer to the gender of the Prime Minsiter to point out how poorly the job is being done.  Poor performance due to her gender?  What a cop out.  Male or female, the protracted performance shown, which we endure daily, would be equally incompetent.

      Kennealy, Bligh….  They’ve certainly stuffed up Labor’s chances.

    • leelee says:

      04:00pm | 31/08/12

      There are still instances here in Australia where men and women doing the SAME job are paid differently. I don’t know why people continue to deny this?

      The latest stats from GradStats show that in 2011, on average, the starting salary for graduate men working full time is $2000 per year MORE than graduate women working full time.

      Its worse in some industries than others (for example its $10 000 for Earth Sciences), but those are the overall figures.

    • PsychoHyena says:

      04:23pm | 31/08/12

      @leelee and are these wages at the same organisations?

      Would you expect a multi-million dollar business to pay you the same wage as a multi-billion dollar business?

      Legally all businesses/corporations/companies are required to pay you the same minimum that men are paid. If Company A chooses to pay a man or woman more than Company B chooses to do so, then that is Company A’s choice.

      If women are getting paid less than men in the same business for the same hours, etc with the same qualifications then they are in breach of the laws governing pays as these require all individuals with the same qualifications to be paid the same hourly rate with differences only made for casual workers who receive extra to compensate for lack of annual/sick leave.

    • Tubesteak says:

      04:23pm | 31/08/12

      Your first two paragraphs do not make sense.

      I’ll give you an example.

      A graduate working at one of the biggest law firms in Australia will be paid more than a graduate working at the publicly-funded Redfern Legal Centre. They are not doing the same job even though they have the same qualifications.

      But the survey you mention in your second paragraph tries to state that they are and then tries to assert that differences in salary is down to a gender bias and not the simple existence of profit motive in one and not the other and higher income in one and not the other.

      Care to guess which gender favours one job over the other?

      Moreover, there are differences in the types of jobs each gender does. The only uni course women favour that can have some remotely favourable income outcomes is law. But guess where most of them end up going? Correct. Not really the big law firms, but the charities, NGOs, public service etc.

      There is no gender conspiracy or favouritism. There is merely the results of individual choices which seems to show that one gender favours money and the other doesn’t. One gender focuses on profit and earning a living and the other doesn’t.

      Only when feminists stop using dodgy statistics to back up their nefarious claims will they be taken seriously. However, if they did, they’d realise there is nothing for them to argue about and their roles would disappear.

    • Rob says:

      04:33pm | 31/08/12

      There are many instances when two people doing essentially the same job get paid different amounts. That statement is true whether or not you put gender into the equation. As for the GradStats, are you saying they demonstrate that the starting salary for graduates in the *same field* is differentiated by gender or are you just lamenting that the field you chose has a starting salary which is lower than in other fields?

    • Hoddle Boulevard says:

      04:05pm | 31/08/12

      “..when he’s preaching to the converted on his radio show. He tells them things they already think so they can feel righteous in thinking them”.

      Are you talking about left wing shock jock John Faine?

    • The full picture says:

      04:07pm | 31/08/12

      Hang on a minute. I heard this supposed ‘rant’ this morning and you’ve blown it completely out of proportion. Granted, Mr Jones can go overboard at times but at least he is out there helping and giving people a voice that wouldn’t normally get it. For example, all the towns in the Darling Downs and Hunter region that are about to have coal seam gas mining thrust down their throats.  Selling off our prime agricultural land (which is how this ‘rant’ got started). Or the young and upcoming sporting/acting/singing stars that have achieved something for either themselves or the country and wouldn’t normally get a look in in most areas of the media.

      At the time of his ‘rant’ this morning he was talking about the Gillard government once again throwing our money away willy nilly at a brainless cause when it could be put to better use here. Women’s equality in the Pacific region is not our problem and spending $320 million on it is stupid. No, I am not against women’s rights, I just don’t see the point as the money is more likely to go into corrupt political pockets than where it is really needed. 

      From what I can see, the records of Gillard, Moore and Nixon speak for themselves. Not good.

      And for the record, I’m a woman.

    • Frank says:

      04:26pm | 31/08/12

      I wonder where he got that figure and program from? Sounds like usual nutty bs to me. Are u just taking jones word? That’s pretty dumb!

    • Brad Storch says:

      04:35pm | 31/08/12

      What does you being a woman have to do with it? If anything women Liberals seem to be more inflamed by Gillard than men! It’s that bitchy women thing see! It offends them that another women, and a younger one, has that job. How dare she!

    • harry says:

      06:23pm | 31/08/12

      Frank, did you actually bother to look it up before mouthing off?
      “WOMEN’S rights in the Pacific will receive a $320 million boost from Australia to help tackle gender inequality.

      Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development aid strategy in the Cook Islands during the Pacific Islands Forum on Wednesday.

      The funding, over 10 years, will go to increasing the proportion of Pacific women in leadership and decision-making roles, ...”

    • Tigger says:

      04:15pm | 31/08/12

      Well he was right - Gillard, Nixon and Moore are destroying the joint!

      One can’t help but wonder, the criticism of feminists has been accelerating over the past few months and years, and at least some part of it must be surely be deserved. I think if feminists started listening to everyone else rather then endlessly bleating at them, the criticism might not be so strong.

    • Tigger says:

      04:17pm | 31/08/12

      “Alan Jones, and the crap that he sprouts, is very irritating”

      Actually I find the crap that feminists endlessly sprout to be far more irritating…

    • Sylvia says:

      07:40pm | 31/08/12

      silly boy tigger - your prejudice is showing…

    • St. Michael says:

      04:36pm | 31/08/12

      “Women are destroying the joint”.

      I quite agree.  Women demand that we smoke better classes of cigarettes, and not funny ones at all.  There used to be a time when a man could happily have a neckbeard, grow his own little pot plants, ease back in the comfort of his own little garret, and happily stone himself into oblivion.

      Now you get women coming along, demanding we rip out our our pot plants and put pretty but functionless things like geraniums, orchids, or even bloody court palms in.  It leaves no space for the humble cannabinoid whatsoever.  So, yes.  Women are destroying the joint.  Fight the power!

    • BONGon says:

      06:28pm | 31/08/12

      That comment, my friend, is pure GOLD !

    • bec says:

      06:34pm | 31/08/12

      When I first moved into my home two years ago, my filthy druggo meth-brewin’ neighbours yelled at me for ripping out the plants at the bottom of my garden. Apparently, the old lady who’d owned the home before me was too blind to notice them sneaking into her yard all the time, and she was too disabled to go down her front stairs.

      Haters gonna hate. My tomato plants are just ragin’.

    • Zaan says:

      04:37pm | 31/08/12

      I as a woman find all women in politics, whether it is Labor, Liberal or Greens a bit of an embarrassment, once in power someone seems to flick over the stupid switch.

    • Eric Olthwaite says:

      04:53pm | 31/08/12

      Alan Jones is about as relevant to 2012 as penny farthing bicycles. Why would anyone care what he has to say. He preaches to the gullible converted.

    • Mitch says:

      05:02pm | 31/08/12

      Alan Jones is just an angry old man, upset that the world is changing without his permission. Much like all older conservatives, they react to the progress of the younger generations with anger and confusion. Best to ignore him and let him preach to his shrinking grey conservative following as they end up fading into irrelevance.

    • Mattb says:

      05:48pm | 31/08/12

      This pretty much sums it up. Just an insecure old conservative tosser who’s becoming more and more irrelevant day by day. If anyone was stupid enough to vote him into the position of PM (and dont worry, there’s plenty of idiots that would) then you would really see ‘hopelessness’ and ‘the joint being destroyed’

      I see a very sour, sad man that looks at females in higher positions than he’s ever been able to acheive and the insecurity of it makes him feel small and inadequate.
      pathetic really, we really should all feel pitty for the fool…

    • sunny says:

      05:27pm | 31/08/12

      It doesn’t add much to the discussion I know - but in the picture of Alan Jones in that linked news article, he looks like he’s got himself so worked up about something that his head is about to explode!

    • Brad says:

      05:31pm | 31/08/12

      Jones would have been better served to lambaste those worthies because they are incompetent. The fact that they are women is totally irrelevant. There are just as many totally incompetent men out there, for example: Stephen Conroy, Bob Carr, Robert Mugabe, Tony Abbott etc.

    • Ben says:

      05:55pm | 31/08/12

      Women are not destroying the joint.

      So-called positive discrimination, however, is destroying the joint. One only has to look at the decline in academia to see evidence of that.

    • harry says:

      06:26pm | 31/08/12

      Context is everything, and in this case the context was a decision of the Australian Govt to provide $320M over 10 years to pacific nations to encourage more women in leadership roles. There seems to be a prevailing wisdom that more women in politics etc. will improve things. Jones was just opining that recent high-profile local examples provide little evidence to support that position.

    • Rob says:

      06:33pm | 31/08/12

      We could demand that 38 of our female soldiers in Afghanistan be killed before any more male soldiers are killed . But that’s that friggin equality again

    • He is really not worth it says:

      06:41pm | 31/08/12

      While there are some things I could take issue with in Tory’s article one I totally agree with.  Alan Jones should be ignored.  he is an out of touch, arrogant, biased racist, sexist, ill-informed and totally unlikeable man. His view appeal to an ever decreasing group of ill-informed, close-minded bigots.  They are conservative members of the far right who believe every conspiracy theory going around and have the combined intelligence of a rabbit.

    • craig2 says:

      06:42pm | 31/08/12

      Whatever

 

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