Monday’s Q and A was quite a display. Steve Price’s performance during the segment about violence against women and his unrepentant attitude for his behaviours was quite a scene.
He was first asked by an audience about the media’s role to battle against violence against women. The audience member indicated his sister was a victim to it and was killed at age 23. Steve Price did not offer any condolences (he only offered that after every other panel member did so) and jumped into defence of Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman. He basically said, “It was a blokey joke but the society doesn’t like it so he apologised so that should be end of story. The society and the media had overblown it, which is inappropriate”
Firstly brushed it away as a blokey joke and still see it as a blokey joke highlighted how a non-issue he considered violence against women is. From what he said he basically said “We did not actually do it so it is ok to joke about doing it. You guys should lighten up”. This view was rightly pointed out by the rest of the panel as a first step to endorsement of violence against women because first you joke then you act.
Secondly, the fact that he blamed the society for making this sound like an issue highlighted the fact that he and his friends refused to acknowledge they have any responsibilities on the whole saga. “It is someone else faults but we gracefully showed how accepting we are to the society’s erroneous views” is basically the sub-text of his saying. Refusing to acknowledge personal responsibilities of wrong doings is another issue within the whole violence against women issue.
When the Guardian columnist Van Badham sharply pointed out that he is no different from his friends, Price immediately jumped to his own defence and accused her for painting him with the same brush. This further highlights how lack of solidarity Price is on this issue. He basically knows this is not right, that’s why “don’t paint me with the same brush” but at the same time he refused to acknowledge his views and his friends’ behaviours are incorrect.
Then in the next few minutes Price basically tried to talk over Van Badham to shut her down completely. This is a blatant behaviour of lack of respect for others, not to just mention women. And during the talk over he repeatedly pointed out it is not the women’s exclusive rights to be upset by this or to call this out, which basically mean “we men know better so we don’t need you women to tell us”. Van Badham rightly pointed out to Price his behaviour is an accurate display of the point that she was making.
Price clearly is not happy with the debate. He without a doubt lost the argument as the audience were overwhelmingly unhappy with his performance but gave Van Badham one of the greatest cheers and support on the program this year.
However, the story did not end here, in the next few days he continued to attack Van Badham using his media platforms such as his own show, The Project and his appearance on Andrew Bolt’s program to attack Van Badham. Once again shifting responsibilities to ABC claiming his does not know the question (ABC clarified none of the panellists in history knows the questions beforehand but only the topic) and he felt ambushed. So again typically it is not his fault but someone else’s. He also further trying to discredit Van Badham by claiming he eavesdropped about her troubled personal life. But then seriously is eavesdropping then publicising someone else’s personal life ethical at all? Obviously there is no ethical boundary Steve Price cannot cross gracefully in his and his friends’ views.
He continued to label Van Badham as an aggressive woman when on the show he was the most aggressive one sitting next to her talking over her on the top of his voice trying to shut her down simply because he did not like what he heard.
Steve Price is the typical old fossil right wing misogynist man that this country is currently overrun by in the upper strata of our society. The fact that he is still trying to shut down opposite opinions in the disguise of freedom of speech is disturbing. To this group of people, including Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt, and even Tony Abbott, freedom of speech means their freedom of speech. Anything different from their views are not worth of this freedom. The blatant display of this attitude in the past few years from the Parliament to the media had consolidated a number of views that are not sitting well with our society. Disrespect to and hence violence against women is exactly one of them.
Would the rest of the media let Price go easily or would the society continue to hold these people responsible for their behaviours? Time will tell. But in my opinion, continuation of misogynist speeches like this in the public will only breed a new brand of terrorists – the ones that mostly acted against women. If they think other ethnicities or faiths are not as good simply because they did not have gender equality and thus are backward, Steve Price and his friends are no different, even when they are straight white men with supremist egos and allegedly Christian upbringing. Their whiteness can never cover up the darkness of their behaviours.
