Our bias and blind spots – oh where art thou integrity?
Everyone needs people in their lives who love us so much they are willing to put up with our push back when they point out our bias and blind spots.
In Australia today, March 15th, thousands of women have marched for justice for sexual assault and violence. The epicentre of this march was Canberra, our political capital.
Our Prime Minster, with a glaring track record of hiding when the heat gets too hot to bear, refused to come out of his office to listen to the voice of women. Instead, he offered a small group the opportunity to meet in private in his office, not realising that his gesture…come and speak to me behind closed doors, or not at all …was just another extension of the arrogance of the patriarchy lived loud. Stone deaf to the very reason the women were marching. Heels dug in, arrogance astounding.
Even worse, the Minster for Women, a woman…refused to participate, or come out and listen to the women marching.
To add an extra level of insult, which has left me gobsmacked, our Prime Minister then proceeded to tell parliament that the women marching were lucky they lived in Australia because in other countries protesters would be shot.
The satirist, The Chaser, said in a tweet. “Women overjoyed at news the government decided not to shoot them.”
The blind spots are so obvious it could well be the undoing of them all. I hope so. I, like so many women, am tired of the ol’boys clubs of the world dictating terms and doing so from such a dinosauric stance.
To think in this day and age a political party requires all members to tow the party line. To not think for themselves. To outright lie if they disagree with a stand taken by the leadership, even if they are 100% in disagreement. I could not do it. Lying has become business as usual when you play the party game.
I watch as a terrible murder happened in the UK. Apparently, the woman was doing everything ‘right.’ Not wearing suggestive clothes, walking on well-lit streets, calling a friend to let them know she was on her way, not drunk.
Yet she was murdered, apparently, by a policeman.
Is it really the women’s responsibility to do everything ‘right’ to stay safe and alive? That story has been used time and again.
This time the rage of women cannot be put back into the bottle. Something has shifted at the cultural level.
To turn a rape allegation of our very own Attorney General made by a woman who has since suicided, back onto her, making her the perpetrator and him the victim….this is the classic game played. This is why less than 10% of any sexual assault and rape claims ever result in conviction. This is why women have stayed silent.
Not any more. The tide has turned. Our Prime Minster has been exposed as completely ill equiped to handle anything like this. Those in his ministry are all complicit. At some point, we all come to the line in the sand.
We must choose what we do.
Integrity first.
Photo taken March 16th 2021
