Kylie Lang: Ignorant men are the reason we still need International Women’s Day
Pompous, ignorant men are the reason we still need International Women’s Day, writes Kylie Lang.
Opinion
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Pompous, ignorant men are the reason we still need International Women’s Day.
The March 8 global event is designed to celebrate, elevate and recognise women in a world dominated by men.
I wish it wasn’t so – how good it would be for women to be treated as equals every day of the year – but despite making up half of the population, we’re still considered the weaker sex.
We’re judged on our appearance first, our brains second. Our health conditions – including “the time of the month” – are mocked.
We’re paid less than men for doing the same job. If we stand up for ourselves, we’re being aggressive.
And when we share an opinion, like I’m doing now, we’re frequently belittled. There are different degrees of such inequality – some women cop it more than others do. Similarly, there are many excellent men who consciously treat all people with respect. We just need more of them.
The so-called leader of the free world is promoting “protective masculinity”, the concept that women are incapable of looking after themselves. In his campaign to return to the White House, Donald Trump promised to protect women “whether they like it or not”.
In Trump’s world, men are in control, leaving women to be, presumably, feeble incompetents.
Check his language around women if you doubt me. Last September he boasted he was “much better looking than Kamala Harris” and described her as “mentally impaired” and “retarded”. In 2015, he demeaned his other female rival, saying: “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?”
And of the #MeToo movement, he said in 2018: “You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women. If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead.”
On the flip side, Trump has also stated: “Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Nobody.”
I think he was being serious.
People who engage in protective masculinity profess concern for the wellbeing of women, but as political scientist Iris Marion Young has observed, they do so “within a structure of superiority and subordination”.
And then you have men like Marty Sheargold. They think misogyny is funny – until they lose their job.
The former Triple M host was sacked last week over derogatory comments he made about the Matildas. Sheargold said he “would rather hammer a nail through the head of (his) penis” than watch Australia’s national women’s football team in next year’s Asian Cup; got any men’s sport?”
He said the Matildas reminded him of “year 10 girls”.
Sheargold, subsequently dumped by Southern Cross Austereo, apologised saying, “any comedy, including mine, can miss the mark sometimes”.
Miss the mark? Sometimes?
This is a man who has been highly offensive on many occasions over the years, and who last week also claimed that endometriosis was made up.
The chronic condition which causes severe pain and can render a woman infertile must be a figment of a woman’s imagination … because a man doesn’t have a uterus.
Ditto period pain … because blokes don’t menstruate.
Good on Brisbane obstetrician-gynaecologist, Brad Robinson for having a crack at Sheargold.
In a video posted on Instagram last week, Robinson said: “Sincere thank you to Marty Sheargold for helping me today sort my scheduling out.
“I stupidly – I don’t know what I was thinking – had a surgery booked for a patient for likely endometriosis, but of course, it can’t be, because endo is not real.
“So, look, we’ve just cancelled and I have a free slot available now,” he said, adding: “Thanks, Dr Sheargold.”
The first International Women’s Day in Australia was held in Sydney in 1928. In 1931, annual marches began in Sydney and Melbourne to advocate for gender equality.
Almost a century later, women are still fighting to be heard, taken seriously and treated with respect.
The 2025 IWD campaign website highlights many avenues for driving change, including “elevating women and girl’s participation and achievement in sport”, helping them make “informed decisions about their health” and supporting them into leadership. This year’s theme is “accelerate action”.
It’s particularly apt when men like Donald Trump and Marty Sheargold are so publicly putting the brakes on gender equality.
Kylie Lang is Associate Editor of The Courier-Mail
kylie.lang@news.com.au
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