Hawke evokes nostalgia for a time when men were men and larrikins were celebrated
A man like Bob Hawke wouldn’t survive in public life today. Branded a ‘misogynist’, his manly swagger and exuberance would be condemned as ‘toxic masculinity’, writes Miranda Devine. What a shame.
The nostalgia for Bob Hawke is due in part to a wistfulness for a long-gone era when men could be men, larrikins were celebrated and political correctness didn’t strangle every interaction.
A man like Hawke wouldn’t survive in public life today, or even, perhaps, in any job. Wowsers and offenderati and gotcha photos would dog his every move. Imagine him on social media!
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If he skolled a beer at the cricket, health fascists would be after him, and that Guinness record would have disqualified him for high office. His manly swagger and exuberance would be condemned as “toxic masculinity”. He’d be branded a “misogynist”. The MeToo brigade would have a target on his head.
Can you imagine a political leader today being so incautious as to utter the words: “Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum”, as an elated Hawke did on national TV after we won the America’s Cup in 1983?
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He was just audacious and brimming with bravado and mischief.
He was an alpha male of the old school, the type that has become persona non grata in an era of soyboys and gender neutrality.
Women loved him, it goes without saying. It’s hardwired into our DNA to respond to virile masculinity, as verboten an idea as that is today.
Of course, he goes down in my estimation because he betrayed his loyal first wife Hazel. He even boasted about his philandering, including with several women on the run when he was prime minister, telling the ABC once that his “dedicated” staff and security people helped facilitate the deceptions.
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His great love was bombshell mistress-turned-second wife Blanche d’Alpuget, but in later life he deeply regretted letting down Hazel and their children.
He had his demons, but don’t we all.
A Bob Hawke born in a later generation would have been savvy enough to suppress his ebullience and modify his behaviour to fit in, but that’s a little sad.
For all their flaws, and for all the injustice done to women in their time, the world is a bleaker place without such freewheeling, colourful men.
devinemiranda@hotmail.com
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