Sure, Sheargold’s opinions are sexist dross. But we’re missing the real point

For years, I’ve drawn a wage from having opinions. Some of you may know by now I shudder at Nick Kyrgios, musicals, Aperol Spritz, coffee. I think Japan’s overrated and that Meghan Markle is a phony who will leave Harry when she cottons on he’s outlived his usefulness.

Flipside: I love hash brownies, Sammy J and doing the Nutbush at afternoon discos. I believe the commercialisation of menopause is a stitch up, that Cheek Media’s Hannah Ferguson should be prime minister and that calling obesity a crisis isn’t fat shaming.

Further questionable on-air comments about women from now dumped radio host Marty Sheargold have emerged, including when he said endometriosis was “made up”.Credit: Triple M

Those are just my opinions. You might disagree with what I say, but you’d probably defend my right to say it. We always need honest opinions, even if what you read or hear makes you want to clang Maxwell’s silver hammer down on someone’s moronic head.

Which brings me to Marty Sheargold.

Gawd. Marty. I’m choking on my mid-afternoon Nutella saying this, but – however dated and idiotic – Marty gets to have his opinion too.

Still. Couple of things. When Marty took aim at the Matildas this week, he thought he was being cool by saying women’s sport is boring and our premier global team is like bitchy year 10 girls. Yeah, nah. He was poking our national treasure right in its golden goose eye.

Marty didn’t suddenly become a misogynist this week. He’s been hiding in plain sight forever, rewarded with cushy radio and TV gigs despite – or because of – his outdated bloke-ish schtick. His Matildas comments weren’t an outlier. They were entirely on brand with his lazy sexism.

So why now? Why this sudden moral awakening? Why didn’t Marty’s racism – when he called a Chinese tennis player by a number, a la a menu order – or his claim that endometriosis is fake news hit the headlines at the time?

Had he dissed lady lawn bowlers as old ducks bickering over morning tea, nobody would have given a fat rat’s.

Unless we need a political football about aged care funding, the elderly don’t get this national chest beating. But the Matildas? Hoo.

Marty’s real mistake wasn’t being a misogynist, it was directing it at our collective girl crush. Like killing Bambi.

I’m rapt he’s gone, and Triple M bigwigs will now have to brainstorm which new pale, male, stale host to install in his stead. But Marty’s exit doesn’t solve our problems.

Kyle Sandilands continues his unfathomable reign. Reducing women to body parts, making crude sexual remarks about us and once putting a 14-year-old girl through a lie detector test about her sexual history on air. He’s making millions from being a pig.

Is the message that misogyny is fine until it targets our protected brand of plucky winners, at which time it becomes a moral reckoning?

Imagine if we mobilised with this much flaming pitchfork energy for daily systemic issues facing normal Australian women who don’t have the fame or bank balances of the Matildas.

The real question isn’t whether Marty crossed a line by bagging women’s sport. It’s why we expend more energy on the bad piss takes of a bloke with a 1970s comedy toolbox than on crises that affect not feelings but lives.

You know the stats, but we can never hear them enough. In 2024, 78 women were killed. This year to date, one woman is dying every eight days. Two in five women have experienced violence since the age of 15. One in two has experienced sexual harassment.

Anguish about these issues isn’t enough. Real change needs focus, political pressure and actual community action – none of which fit neatly into a viral news cycle. Truth is, cancelling a radio host is easier and more fun than fixing real issues which affect real women.

I love the Matildas as much as you do, but our fierce protection of them just highlights how inconsistent we are about what else we let slide.

Calling out sexism matters. But our outrage economy has warped priorities faster than fast fashion. We’ve become experts at performative anger over offensive comments while the deeply harmful stuff goes unchecked.

Kate Halfpenny is the founder of Bad Mother Media.

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.