let’s get hysterical

On Monday night on show Q&A (ABC), a question was asked by Tarang Chawla, a campaigner against violence against women. Panellist Steve Price called another panellist Van Badham “hysterical” when discussing the issue of casual sexiest comments and their connection to violence against woman. If you haven’t watched the show, let me just let you know, Van Badham wasn’t “hysterical”, but I wouldn’t have minded if she was. I would actually LOVE FOR THIS COUNTRY TO GET HYSTERICAL. I would love if violence against women was an issue that we stopped just giving sympathy to but didn’t actually work hard to eliminate. For years we have heard that a woman dies in Australia every week from male violence at the hands of a partner or former partner. We hear the incredible numbers that one in three women and girls will be the subject of male violence and one in five will be the victim of sexual violence. And as long as violence against women continues, we cannot claim to have equality.

This whole story started with less than appropriate comments from broadcaster Eddie McGuire about football writer Caroline Wilson. Caroline Wilson never made a big deal about it, but was entitled to say whether the comments about “holding her under water” were offensive or not. Actually we need people to stop laughing at every stupid and insensitive joke made. I am not asking for Royal Commission, but we don’t have to keep laughing and making jokes that go too far at other people’s expense, and expect them to not comment.

On Monday night, Steve Price made the whole thing about him, claiming Van Badham was trying to suggest that he would be involved in a similar joke. She didn’t say he was part of the joke she was saying that he is part of the industry (radio) and one of the conservative broadcasters that says whatever they feel and happy to apologise later if it happens to cause offence. And the next day Price was making the whole thing STILL about him, saying he felt ambushed by the question. Why was he ambushed? Because although he was told that Eddie McGuire’s comments would be brought up in a question, no one told him it would be coming from a family violence campaigner whose sister was murdered by her partner. I am (not) sorry Steve but for a start questions on Q&A are quite often from people with personal experience or interest in the issue, hence why they are asking the question. And the circumstances of the person asking the question do not matter, and you were not ambushed BECAUSE IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU PERSONALLY. Quite clearly everyone else on the panel didn’t feel ambushed, but they were in the same position as you.

Apparently Steve is standing by calling fellow panellist Van Badham “hysterical” because he won’t be “verballed” by an “aggressive woman” over an important issue. You’re on a show that asks questions of the panel and people have different opinions. Van Badham was speaking passionately about one of the biggest social issues in Australia today and if anything, was clearly frustrated at Steve Price’s 1) lack of compassion to the questioner and the topic and 2) need to make it all about himself.

Tuesday night on The Project (Channel 10), co-host Waleed Aly asked Price about his use of the word “hysterical” to describe Badham, and noted “For 4000 years, women were described as hysterical as a way of trying to say that they were irrational and incapable of being reasonable because they had ovaries. The Latin root of it is womb”. Steve had no idea about the background to the word hysteria, so it’s still not a problem. AGAIN YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT STEVE! People are outraged at your behaviour and your use of that word because a woman next to you was making a valid point (something you had failed to do) and actually answered the question and was giving the issue the respect it deserved. She is allowed to be passionate, she is allowed to be frustrated when you fob the issue off, when you don’t see the bigger picture and instead defend your “friends” and insinuate we should all get over it because they have apologised.

Steve Price doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get the issues that underlie violence against women. And maybe it’s not THAT important to him, or Eddie McGuire, to look at their behaviour like we all should to start taking the steps to change male violence against women in Australia. I would love to say Steve Price’s opinion doesn’t matter and those comments of Eddie McGuire don’t matter. But do you know why they do? Because the main cause of violence against women is attitudes and behaviours. We have an embedded issue in Australia which breeds attitude and behaviours in men where women are seen as unequal and these can, and do, lead to violence. IT’S IMPORTANT! As a woman aged between 15 and 44, I am more at risk of male violence than from cancer or a car accident.

Violence against women has not been given the priority at all levels that is required to enable significant change. And now we can’t even speak passionately about it? Steve Price gets, what he calls “hysterical”, on his radio show or The Project on a weekly basis over much less important issues. He even got ‘worked up’ about everyone making a big deal about the “drowning” comments that started this conversation. So in the words of Tarang Chawla “Steve, you can get upset because your mates’ jokes weren’t all that funny, or you can be upset because women are being murdered”.