It fell to former Vogue editor Kirstie Clements to nail the Grace Tame visuals in that now historic appearance at The Lodge. Clements wrote in The New Daily that the 2021 Australian of the Year’s Saint Laurent biker jacket, black pants and black Doc Martens-style loafers were a power statement for women tired of wobbling around at garden parties in floaty dresses and stilettos.
As one who hates a high heel and loves an expensive label, I say “go, girl” to the Tasmanian who did indeed manage (perhaps unconsciously) to make a political as well as a fashion statement with her clothing that day. It worked on so many levels, not the least being Tame’s sangfroid when it comes to wearing pricey designer clobber to an event for very special, but also very representative, Australians.
Female politicians, for example, often feel they have to be careful not to go too high-end and expensive and keep one eye out for accusations they are backing overseas rather than local producers if they want to stay in touch with their constituencies.
Tame, as she has been in so many ways this past year, seems unconstrained: she looks great in clothes and clearly enjoys fashion.
Clements recognised, too, how this woman who has used her own experiences to advocate for cultural and legal changes to counter sexual abuse is so clearly not a victim. Victims don’t wear Saint Laurent, nor do women politicians afraid of standing out from the crowd. Not so Grace Tame, who has shown she does not believe in the middle ground and will not be going quietly into any night.
She may have passed the baton to, arguably, a more seasoned performer in Dylan Alcott but it’s likely she will parlay a year in one of the most high-profile positions in the country into an enduring leadership role, in the first instance through her own new not-for-profit foundation, which will “campaign for and help fund initiatives which work to prevent and respond to sexual abuse of children and others”.
And, while she divided public opinion when she tried to freeze out the Prime Minister at his own morning tea, the incident is unlikely to damage her image among those who admire her style.
Many of us objected to her manners that day and cringed at her behaviour: we’ve seen far more sophisticated public snubs in our time and Tame’s effort at cold-shouldering invited descriptions of childish and churlish.
Whatever.
As Alcott, the 2022 Australian of the Year, said at the awards ceremony a few hours later: “Tamie, you are fierce and I love it.”
Academic and commentator on gender issues, Catharine Lumby, sees Tame’s action as “honest” and equates it to the Suffragettes forced to throw themselves under horses to get attention. “She was honest and I like honesty, and I don’t see honesty in a photo op with the PM,” says Lumby. “We know that they are stage-managed and she was calling it out.”
She says Tame is one of a long line of women who, keen to talk about inconvenient truths, are told that if they are more polite they will get a seat at the table: “When important men listen to you, smile, and don’t be disruptive.” The message to women to “get back in your box” and remember your place is wearing pretty thin these days. The Doc Martens generation has booted that one all the way across Lake Burley Griffin and then some.
And it was the generational divide so starkly on display as Tame’s behaviour was dissected last week.
Many of my cohort were disappointed: as celebrity PR veteran Max Markson says, there’s a certain respect we believe should be accorded the office of prime minister, and the office of Australian of the Year for that matter.
Female friends of a certain age, who lived through the huge changes for women since the feminism of the 1960s, wondered if she had lost the support of “middle” Australia. Suddenly the young woman who had been embraced as a courageous advocate was freezing out a Prime Minister who may not be terribly popular but whose office deserves respect if we are not to descend into democratic chaos. Work within the lines; don’t polarise the country; make the trade-offs for the bigger victories; be smarter.
But here’s the thing: while Markson says Tame “could have done better” at The Lodge, he believes she will not suffer at all in the longer term. She is “brave … she’s spoken her mind, she’s been upfront with all the trials and tribulations in her life and she’s come through to become Australian of the Year and she has acquitted herself well”.
Pollster and social commentator Neer Korn agrees Tame’s brand will not suffer: even if some older Australians who support her message are annoyed by her methods, they are not her audience. She speaks to a different demographic, the “take-no-prisoners” generation that did not miss a beat as it took to social media to defend her demeanour.
In a few days, on February 9, Tame will join former Liberal staffer and advocate for sexual abuse survivors, Brittany Higgins, in an address to the National Press Club. Tame has been on the NPC podium before, and the event has sold out – as, indeed, is the appearance at the club on Tuesday of the Prime Minister.
Two very different political events at the NPC with very different optics, and two very different audiences. Some of us lament that polarisation, but the past few days have underlined the dangers younger, angry women hold for the government in an election year. That’s especially so when what is being demanded is broad cultural change rather than specific political amendments – and that is hard for any politician to deliver in the short term.
