Grace Tame risks her singular message being smudged in her optics

Grace Tame risks distorting a very righteous cause as more focus on her side-eye antics and bong smoking than her message.

An old photo of former Australian of the Year Grace Tame with a bong has prompted many reactions.

For some, the photo invites nostalgia. We were all 19 or so once.

Some of us might recall easier times of Wayne’s World movie marathons and four-day uni weeks.

Some of us might remember when a little pipe (which may or may not have had a name, such as Nigel or Debra) was lifted from its secret perch behind the couch and employed as a release for laughter and a lack of care.

Not everyone has smoked a bong. But many have. And most of those people who have not would dismiss the urge to condemn anyone else for doing so.

The teenage bong photo that’s sparked a new wave of controversy.

Many celebrities have rushed to defend Tame and the photo. It’s unclear why they would need to. Humanity has always boasted vices. If Tame’s apparent exposure to wacky tobaccy pleased her, good for her.

Reactions to her “side-eye” photo opportunity with Prime Minister Scott Morrison (and silently tut-tutting wife Jenny) is trickier.

We’re still talking about it three weeks after the event.

We’ve all been there. Who, in adult life, has not been compelled to play along when they inwardly want to stab the person they are smiling at?

Tame was not caught out by circumstance. This was no involuntary response. She was a player in the event, not the reason for it, and she presented in a way that hijacked the headlines.

Was she empowered or just rude? This goes to the point. That photo moment fragmented support for her very righteous cause.

The farewell of Andrew Peacock last week was a reminder that civility in the contest of ideas is critical to the debate, that stunts distort the message, splinter opinions, and can ostracise those who might otherwise be won over.

We are still talking about the “side-eye” encounter between Tame and Scott Morrison. Picture: Gary Ramage

Virtually everyone endorsed Tame’s unusually articulate message before her choice of approach to that encounter.

She had rightly exposed Morrison’s seeming inability to project confidence and authority on sensitive issues that need to be addressed.

The photo-op divided Australians into supporters and critics. We no longer observed the merits of her cause, but instead argued about the strategies of her approach to it.

Tame wants us to ponder cultural change, as she said at the National Press Club last week. “Certain members of the [media] have consistently labelled me as politically divisive, failing to mention that I spent most of last year having frank, productive meetings with politicians on all sides at both the state and federal level,” she said.

Instead, we are debating Jenny Morrison’s take on Tame’s behaviour on January 25.

It’s a sideshow that could have been avoided. Tame’s pathological disdain for Morrison may or may not be warranted. What’s clearer is the effect when she expresses it.

Notions of Grace v Jenny distract from Tame’s singular message. Her cause stands to be smudged in her optics.

After all, there’s always a time and a place, even temporarily, for smoking the (peace) pipe.