Our very own Andrea Mrozek made a fine comment at a conference in Ottawa today:
When a member of the audience asked about women in politics being treated differently, Ms. Grey responded that even so, it didn’t give them licence to “throw hissy fits at airports.”
“Women are judged differently. We can like it, we can harangue about it, we can hate it, we can do all kinds of things, but that’s the way it is. That’s life,” Ms. Grey, one of the best-known Conservative women, later told The Canadian Press.
“We can’t give ourselves permission to lose control and have a hissy fit at an airport or wherever, in the House of Commons, because it will come back to bite us.”
Ms. Mrozek also waded in.
“Is it because someone’s a woman or that they’re just being an idiot in the public square?” she said.
For the record, I do think women are treated differently than men, in politics and most everywhere else (sometimes women get an undeserved break, other times it’s men). That’s because women and men are different. It’s just one of those things.
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Andrea updates: When I said that it was not in reference to Helena at all. It was in response to a student who asked whether I thought men and women were treated differently (and she was not covertly asking about Helena either) and I blabbed on about different factors that could play into the equation, concluding with the comment that was picked up. Anyhoo, there ya go. That’s my perspective on the whole thing. Someday I’m bound to be an idiot in the public square myself, and at that point, this comment will come back to haunt me!
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Guergis is being scapegoated for Harper’s airport police state.
ANY normal human being could lose it when confronted with the fascist idiocy at airports.
But I guess it is easier for some people – Grey included – to “deal” with a tantrum by a public official, than with the obscenity that our airports have become.
2 points:
1st – Hahahahaha @ Andrea’s statement!! I agree that women and men are treated differently, but in my limited experience (I’ve only ever been a woman in the maritimes where we’re treated pretty well, I find), the bias swings back and forth, and in the end we come out equal!!
2nd – Those ad “comments” are really annoying.
I agree that women and men are treated differently, but don’t necessarily feel it’s ‘balanced out’. I think the treatment of Sarah Palin by the US Press is exceptional to any I’ve ever encountered of her male (or even female) peers. In US politics, I believe being female is still seen as a weakness or handicap that one must overcome to get to being taken seriously. That said, simply being female is not always the cause for being criticized.
(Heather, you’re so right about those ad comments.)
JC–it wasn’t a panel about airport security. If it were, I’m quite sure many would agree with you. Airport security is one issue. The second is how we respond to that. I don’t think a campaign of coordinated hissy fits is going to do the trick.
@AM: I disagree. If everybody reacted as Guergis did, or worse, it would become the thing to do where airport “security” (sic) fascism was concerned. The government would back off.
Bottom line is, Guergis is being piled on right now, POSSIBLY more so because she is a she, when the real crime is the authoritarian paternalism of airport securities. Funny there is not an ounce of sympathy to be found for her; I believe it goes to show just how conditioned to submit Canadians have become.
And that quality goes directly to most of the issues raised on this blog.