A certain politically incorrect diminutive has become patronisingly prehistoric

Claire Harvey backs Justin Milne’s choice of words, The Sunday Telegraph, yesterday:

I’ve despaired this week as women get themselves into a tizz about the word “missus”. The guy who was ABC chairman at the start of the week … allegedly once used it to describe (the ABC’s) chief executive Michelle Guthrie, whom he and the rest of the board sacked on Monday. That prompted a wave of concern about the denigration of women implied.

Wendy Tuohy in The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday:

There is a deep problem with such gendered signifiers of a (professional) woman’s place. Calling someone “my missus” is code for “that person of lower status over whom I have power and control, and whose opinion matters less than mine”; it’s that patronisingly prehistoric.

Helen Verlander, The Spectator Australia, last week:

Somehow the unsubstantiated complaints about bullying by the female Liberal lites have metastasised into a demand for female quotas which is absurd, even by the usual standards of … our federal parliament. It implies there would be no bullying if women were in power. That is a pipedream because women can be bullies with the best or worst of them.

Brendan O’Neill, The Weekend Australian, Saturday:

Knee-jerk belief is a central feature of #MeToo. One of the most vocal leaders of #MeToo — ­actress turned activist Rose McGowan — recently instructed the media to stop using the word alleged. “I would challenge the media to stop using the word alleged,” she said. This is the “first time in history women are being ­believed”, she said … the word alleged encouraged doubt. A feminist reporter agreed with McGowan that the qualifier “alleged” should be removed from the media parlance. In short, every accusation made by a woman against a man should be presumed as gospel.

Andre Calantzopoulos, chief executive of Philip Morris International, PMI press release, September 25:

We are radically transforming our company to deliver a future without cigarettes. We have a duty to help create a better world for the more than a billion men and women who smoke today. We are committed to these people — and to the people who care about them. Their access to better choices means a better life for them and a better future for the sustainability of our planet, our economies and our communities. Our vision for a smoke-free future, which means a future without cigarettes, is one that many share … In an ideal world, all smokers should quit tobacco and nicotine consumption altogether. We fully agree with this.

From the Philip Morris website:

We operate 46 production facilities and produce over 800 billion cigarettes each year.

Russian embassy in Canberra on the 80th anniversary of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s pact with Hitler, press release, yesterday:

The Munich betrayal … was the deal that enabled Adolf Hitler to unleash World War II that resulted in a global catastrophe and brought untold suffering to humankind, especially to the USSR, which sacrificed more than 28 million of its citizens’ lives to gain victory over the brown plague. The Munich deal was de facto capitulation by the West to the emerging power of Nazism … The Nazi misanthropic ideology … was condemned by the Nuremberg tribunal. The events of September 30, 1938, must serve as an eternal reminder of the consequences of public opinion manipulation in political purposes.