Wtf is a gender card?

You would think that having the country’s top two positions occupied by women would reduce the sexist vitriol faced by women in Australia (Prime Minister and Governor General, YES we are still a part of the Commonwealth, so I suppose that makes 3).

But some pretty shitty things have happened on the island recently;

1. Howard Sattler (think Rush Limbaugh) grilled the prime minister, Julia Gillard, about her partner’s sexuality. He was then fired, thank goodness.
2. At a fundraiser for the opposing party, a menu was published listing “Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail – small breasts, huge thighs, and a big red box” as a main.
3. Some idiot made a big deal about the Prime Minister’s (photoshopped) cleavage. Yes, she is a woman. Women have breasts.
4. The coach of the national women’s soccer team said, “Women should shut up in public”.

Which brings me to my next point. If the experiences of Adria Richards, Laurie Penny, Lindy West or Anita Sarkeesian are anything to go by, feminists should just shut the fuck up.

For if one does complain about the overwhelming oppression in her everyday life, she, when not immediately threatened with sexual violence, is now seen as ‘playing the gender card’.

After scratching my head for a few moments, I came up with this: it’s either a magical card you can pull when you need a time out from somebody’s sexist bullshit or you can use it to give misogynists papercuts. Fortunately columnist Clementine Ford weighed in on the subject:

Playing the gender card. It’s a curious accusation that’s come to be applied whenever a woman complains about entrenched sexism of any kind. The use of it compounds the frustration that women face when they come up against the patriarchal structures that reinforce their own inequality. Rather than listening to the experiences of women disadvantaged by said structures and endeavouring to be better as a society, it’s used as a way to deflect those complaints while also ridiculing the people who dare to speak out about them. Ultimately, it’s also used to justify ongoing inequality because it posits this mythical “gender card” as a desperate tool used by people who can’t handle the sophisticated demands of a particular job or social situation.

Somebody ring Macquarie.

Image taken from here  and then heavily doctored by yours truly.