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.

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.
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