Recently I blasted the Governor of Wisconsin for his weird attitude to women, never dreaming a man in Australia could top it.  Well, bloody hell, Max Tomlinson managed to leave me fearing for the future of equality of women yet again.  I thought I’d drop Max a little note, but as I don’t have his email, I’ll  just publish it here.

Dear Max,

I read an absolutely astonishing report in the Brisbane Times today.  Actually, I read it on-line, but I am not sure you know the internet actually exists yet.  Oh, we know you can use email because apparently you did.  The article was titled “LNP staffer quits after anti-feminist rant”: personally, I think the editor made a mistake. It was, in my view, the rant of a misogynist.  But what would I know? I am, after all, only a woman.

I was horrified to read your personal beliefs.  There are those that bleat about multiculturalism in this country, often deriding muslims for “their treatment of women”, yet here you are rabbiting on as if Dr Who delivered you to us from about the 1600s in the Tardis.

Let us look at some of your email in a factual light, shall we?

“like most women, you probably don’t possess the necessary drive, determination and decisiveness that men innately possess.”

That will be why more women than men are graduating from our universities, because women lack the drive, determination and decisiveness, I suppose?

Australia is ranked sixth in the world, with 56 per cent of women completing a degree, compared to 41 per cent of men. The OCED on average produces more female graduates than male, with 46 per cent of women and 31 per cent of men completing a degree across their lifetime. Only Japan and Turkey reverse this trend by producing significantly more male graduates than female.

http://www.advancingwomen.com.au/news.asp?newsID=104

Maybe it was just your generation, Max, back in the 1600s.  You think?

“Blokes dominate most areas of human endeavour because nature equipped them with something called testosterone.”

Yes, nature did give men testosterone.  Considerable research has shown this, in conjunction with remuneration packages focussed only on short-term returns, most likely lead to the Global Financial Crisis.

Early last year a team from Cambridge University explored the behavior of 17 male City traders and showed that when traders recorded high levels of testosterone in the morning they made more profit for the rest of the day, but they also indulged in impulsive, sensation-seeking behavior. Dr John Coats, lead author of the Cambridge research study and a former trader himself says “rising levels of testosterone turns risk-taking into a form of addiction.”

Another new study “Global Financial Crisis: Are Women the Antidote?” published in October by CERAM, the French Business School, demonstrates that women have a beneficial restraining effect on the excesses of men. This research shows that firms in the CAC 40 (the French equivalent of the Dow Jones) with a high ratio of women in top management have shown better resistance to the financial crisis. Report author Michel Ferrary found that the fewer female managers a company has, the greater the drop in its share price since January 2008. BNP Paribas for example, where 39% of managers are women, has seen its stock fall by 20% since the beginning of 2008. While Credit Agricole, the largest retail banking group in France, where only 16% of managers are female, has seen its share price fall by 50%. Ferrary comes to the conclusion that “the feminization of management seems to be a protection against financial crisis.”

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jan2009/ca20090116_310986.htm

I actually watched a very good documentary about the above research.  May I suggest you seek out such a documentary and watch during your breaks from job hunting.  You’ll have plenty of time: I don’t believe there are too many jobs in Australia for men like you, although you might find a job in Wisconsin, USA.  Governor Walker may have similar views to your own!

“Women like my wife are the life-givers, the embodiment of sacrificial love [the purest form of love], the primary keepers of the flame of civilisation that separates us from the animal world”.

We are part of the animal world, Max.  Did you miss biology class?  Sorry, of course, back in the 1600s they believed differently.  If women are the embodiment of sacrificial love, do I conclude from your statement that you consider men incapable of  pure love?  Also, really, let’s be practical: if women are the primary keepers of the flame, what on earth do we need parasites like you for?

I thought Dr Carole Ford, the poor woman targeted by your vitriolic barrage, was very gracious in her response.  Dr Ford is disappointed that in 2012 a man would think like you.  The fact that you were ever employed by a political party in this country astounds me.  After all, we don’t actually have the GOP here.  I tell my migrant daughters; in Australia they can achieve anything they aspire to if they “possess the necessary drive, determination and decisiveness”. I DO NOT want men like you filling their heads with misogynistic nonsense.  You have no place in any position of influence.

To quote your words to Dr Ford, get a life!

The article by Dr Ford Max objected to so strongly can be found here in The Courier-Mail.

I’d like to ask both men and women what they think of the tone of the email Max authored.  What do you think?  Is the man from the 1600s?

For a great academic perspective, visit The Hoopla and read what Meghan B. Hopper, a PhD candidate in journalism and gender studies at Monash University, has to say in “Sorry Fellahs, we’re not done yet“

The full text of the email can be found here: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/lnp-staffers-email-to-queensland-feminist-20120418-1x6i4.html

Related:

• Equality does not mean sameness (teamoyeniyi.com)
• Equal Pay for woman at risk? (teamoyeniyi.com)
• Cancer starts with one cell: it spreads (teamoyeniyi.com)
• Max Tomlinson, Sexist Dickbrain (theantibogan.wordpress.com)