To summarise Mark Thomson:
* Women are the only ones who lie, therefore they should not be granted positions of power;
* Women only need perform in the kitchen and in the bedroom. All other talents and skills are to be performed by men;
* It’s okay to tell a magistrate how you feel while facing a tribunal – as long as you don’t recoegnise (sic) the rule of law and you type in capitals.
you said it... 
Mark certainly knows how to impress a woman. They must be queuing up.
Oh my gosh… Stereotypic world view. We should have many more women in leading roles throughout world society in order to achieve a more peaceful world. Yes, it might be a bit stiff to say this, but I think women would inevitably bring a less macho world and hence bring peace. But, that is just my opinion.
Women do not necessarily change the way leadership occurs – look at Margaret Thatcher. Nor are women intrinsically “better” than men, or more “compassionate” or “spiritual” etc etc
But they are half the human race so they should be equally able to be represented in all facets of life. That’s our contention.
Yes, but there is another factor to consider. Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, and to some extent even Angela Merkel, played the ‘men’s game’ and played harshly. I am not saying that women are inherently peaceful – but if we would just let them come to power on an equal basis to men, then they would not have to be an “Iron Lady” to stay there. Thatcher, in particular, followed the rules of men and had to go even further in her attempts to stay in power, I believe.
Yes, and you are right – they should be as able as men to sit in office and bear representation. Good posts, by the way!
drevinho, if your suggesting that women should be given roles based on your perception of “female attributes” then you’re not that different to Mark Thomson.
If you believe a public office requires someone who will work towards a more peaceful world then you must surely consider both women and men who fit those criteria equally.
Ultimately, when it comes to politicians it is up to the electorate to stop lapping up the short sighted BS and make them accountable for actual leadership, man or woman.
I never said anything about not choosing a man that holds the same attributes as does a woman in the same position. And yes, I do believe that women and men are inherently different in general. But, and this is a big but, some men have tended to be very mach and confrontation-seeking in their manner and rhetoric.
I find female leadership to be a real benefit to society when the “masculine” games are set aside. Women have innately better risk management abilities then Men, that’s not something I’m making up either, NASA was doing high amounts of research into the risk management abilities of Shuttle Pilots, look at the comparative percentage of men and women that get accepted for training. Although there are far, far more men applying for the position, less then one in ten will be accepted, for women it is just over half of all applicants (last I checked it was 53-54%). And the difference essentially came down to how the sexes reacted in a position of command to situations where decisive action is needed immediately (I.E. Landing a damaged space shuttle). The men had a greater tendency to choose options where their personal risk increased massively (the example given was it might have been akin to the urge to jump on a bomb, sacrificing the self, in order to save the rest, even though there may have been time for other options), where as the women tended to spread the risk as evenly as possible, ensuring a greater degree of safety to all. For shuttle pilots its easy to see that one bad, split second decision by someone who has an innate psychological tendency towards a kind of “sacrificial decision” can lead to all in involved suffering the consequences.
I also believe that the comparative “feminisation” of society is in general a really positive thing, as I think masculine psychology could do with the adaptation of a number of feminine traits (although to complicate my own post, there also seems to be an increasing physical “feminisation” in men over recent generations as well leading to large decreases in testosterone [leading to lower amounts of body hair and reduced muscle development], virility and aggression).
P.s. I realise I might be a bit of topic, but I felt like having myself a little rant. ;D
Although I don’t agree with his opinion of women he is right about one thing, Julia Gillard is a liar. She has a proven track record and has been a terrible example being Prime Minister and that makes no difference whether she be female or male.
You might be being a bit harsh Gama.
Policy commitments made prior to the last election were never going to be able to be maintained once she was forced into minority government.
And if you saw 4-Corners last week the extents she went to not to lie were bordering on farcical.
She’s just not a good communicator.
That doesn’t explain the recent reneging on the deal she did with Andrew Wilkie on poker machine reforms. She even signed that agreement and that was after the election so she could form that minority government. It shows Gillard has very little integrity, after she appointed Slipper as Speaker of the house she figured she didn’t need Wilkie’s vote so to hell with any promises she made to him. This is another betrayal of trust in a long list for Gillard. In fact, I’m still waiting for her to line up at full forward for the Footscray football club!
I don’t think there’s any need to get into a political debate on this thread, there are plenty of other places for that, especially at the moment.
Julia Gillard being whatever she is, or is not, has nothing to do with her gender. People are good or bad leaders on their own personal capabilities (or lack thereof) and their own merits (or lack thereof).
I think if we start discussing those merits we will go off on a tangent that loses the point of this post.
As mentioned above, men and women have pretty much 50/50 representation on this planet. Not all men are suitable as leaders, not all women are either. But that has nothing to do with gender, it has to do with the individual. The end.
Hi Cara,
If you’re the same Cara who has recently featured on one of the high school hate pages then I’d just like to offer my support (for whatever it’s worth).
I’ve always enjoyed your clever and insightful comments and admire that you have done so without ever stooping to their level.
You deserve to be proud for the way you have conducted yourself and should hold your head high.
…if you are that Cara.
Hi Greg,
Thanks for your comments. I may indeed be that Cara. Feel free to say hi next time you see me. 🙂
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh enough already I am sick and tired of hearing about Julia and The so called Leadership Challenge with Kevin in The Media.
So as Cara said “I don’t think there’s any need to get into a political debate on this thread, there are plenty of other places for that, especially at the moment”.
Like online media sites, blogs etc etc
And so can we please stick to Mark Thomas and his problems?
Thanks 🙂
Mark Thomson: No. Fuck off.
🙂
Leadership should only be based on ability and qualification, never on gender. Opportunity on the other hand should be available to anybody regardless of sex or race. Integrity and compassion are not attributes which are inherently found more often in women politicians. They are no more likely to bring peace to the world than their male counterparts, Gillard’s stance on Afghanistan is just as unyielding as Abbott’s for example. Bob Brown is in fact the biggest advocate for removing our troops which shows that peaceful ideals are determined by a persons beliefs, not their sex.
The unfortunate thing for women aspiring to high political office is that the two most prominent, current female political leaders in Australia, Julia Gillard and Anna Bligh, have abissmal approval ratings. Bligh will be swept aside in a landslide, the same would happen to Gillard if an election was held in the near future and there was also the demolition of the Kenearly lead labour government in the most recent NSW election. This has lead to a perception within the electorate, especially amongst male voters, that women aren’t competent political leaders. This may be unfair however it is the perception that is there.
As far as Mark goes, he definetly has a very high opinion of himself for such an imbysile. It sounds like his Mummy didn’t give him enough love or ran away with the postman! Or maybe Mark is actually a 70 year old Italian man and doesn’t know it.
*imbecile
Definitely a fuckwit though
I think most people on here would agree that leadership should never be based on gender but on ability and qualification. Opportunity to achieve leadership positions should be equal to all, regardless of gender or race, the problem is that this is rarely the case.
It’s a misconception that women leaders would be more capable of finding peaceful solutions to world problems. Condalisa Rice was just as willing to lie to the UN in justifying the invasion of Iraq. Gillard’s stance on Afghanistan is just as unyielding as Abbott’s. Bob Brown is the strongest advocate for removing our troops which shows that peaceful ideals are based on a person’s belief system rather than their gender.
The biggest problem facing women aspiring to high political office in Australian is that two most prominent female leaders, Julia Gillard and Anna Bligh have abysmal approval ratings. Bligh will be swept aside in a landslide in the Queensland election and the same would happen if Gillard was to go to an election in the near future, not to mention what happened the the Kenearly Labour government in the last NSW election. There is a perception, especially, amongst male voters that women are not capable of holding such high political office. Whether this is fair or not is irrelevant as the perception is there.
As far as Mark is concerned though, he definitely has a very high opinion of himself for such an imbecile. Above the law, women in the bed or kitchen, is he for real? Either he didn’t get enough love from his mummy and she ran away with the postman or he’s been watching too many reruns of the Godfather and thinks he’s Don Corleone!
Good we are back to talk about Mark and errors of his sexist way.
Not to comment on Gillard and Bligh based on believing the media stories and polls conducted by the Liberals friend Newspoll.
WORLD IS BECOMING SMALLER & CO-HEARTEN NOW .WE ARE MAKING A BETTER WORLD BY OUR FARE WORK.SO WHY WOMEN SHOULD BE UNDERMENTIONED, IT IS NOT CLEAR. THEY ARE THE PART OF A UNIQUE HUMAN WHERE MEN ARE THE REST 50% .WE MUST HAVE TO RESPECT THEM FOR THEIR BETTER BASIC THAT WE MEN HAVE NOT.
Oh Mark. It’s just you & your hand, isn’t it?
Don’t you mean his fingers Emjay?
Tweezers and pepper maybe?