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“Australia outback mayor wins annual sexist award”

By NewHampster on November 27, 2008 at 7:50 AM in Media, Sexism, Women

From Reuters we get this story of love lost in the outback.

Australia outback mayor wins annual sexist award

CANBERRA (Reuters) – An Australian outback mayor’s plea for lovelorn female “ugly ducklings” to move to a remote mining town to reverse a shortage of eligible women has won him the country’s yearly award for outrageous sexism.

Mount Isa Mayor John Malony infuriated women in August with a suggestion that “with five blokes to every girl, may I suggest that beauty-disadvantaged women should proceed to Mount Isa,” in northwest Queensland state.

“I think the message is ever vigilant, ever watchful, keeping people, keeping blokes on their toes and making sure that we name and shame them,” annual Ernies’ award organizer and lawmaker Meredith Burgmann told state radio.

The annual awards have 10 categories and are decided by the level of boos, jeers and stamping of feet at women’s-only event held at the New South Wales state parliament in Sydney.

 

A few more good reads about this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Awards

http://www.bigpond.com/news/breaking/content/20081121/2426286.asp

Which has this pitcure of the group’s leader, Yvette Andrews,as her alter ego.

Yvette Andrews

 

There is also the entire list of this years winners courtesy of New Zealand One.

 

Golden Ernie – John Molony, Mayor, Mount Isa, for saying “The protesters are blaming me for their looks,” after suggesting lovelorn “beauty-disadvantaged” women move to Mt Isa to find a man.
 
Political – Troy Buswell, Western Australia opposition leader, now minister – for snapping the bra of a female staffer, making sexist remarks to a Liberal MP, and sniffing the chair of a Liberal staffer.
 
Media – John Westacoff, for making the comment “Sheilas do health and consumer stories, you want your blokes, your main guns, doing the real news stories,” on Network Nine. Network Nine shared the award for continuing to employ Westacoff.

Industrial - Professor Mark Wooden, University of Melbourne, for saying “The pay equity gap has got a lot to do with the fact that women are not prepared to work longer hours,” at a discussion dominated by women.
 
Sport (The Warney) – Network Nine’s Sam Newman, for saying “Women on AFL boards are just there to placate the bleating majority who are liars and hypocrites,” and for grabbing the crotch of a cardboard cut-out of a model with sports journalist Caroline Wilson’s head attached.

Judicial - Solicitor Roland Day, for his comment about a 13-year-old witness in a sexual assault case: “Never at any stage did this witness show upset, exhaustion or stress, in fact in my full opinion, there was a level of enjoyment at the attention.”
 
Clerical – Archbishop Peter Jenson for his comment: “The consecration of women bishops is against biblical teaching,” shared with the Reverend Mark Driscoll, who said “Pastors sometimes stray because their wives let themselves go.”
 
The Elaine award, for remarks least helpful to the sisterhood – Sophie Mirabella MP, who told deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard “You won’t need his (Prime Minister Kevin Rudd) tax payer funded nanny will you?”
 
The Good Ernie award (for boys behaving better) – Brendan Cannon, rugby player, for saying: “I don’t want my daughter Phoebe growing up in the country where almost all women will be victims of physical violence or sexual abuse during their lifetime.”
 
 The award was shared with the Veolia transport company for requesting an exemption from the Anti-Discrimination Act, so it could exclusively employ women drivers “because women are better drivers and gentler on the buses.”

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  • oowawa

    According to Wikipedia, Mount Isa in Queensland, Australia has a population of about 25,000:

    The ratio of males to females living in Mount Isa is reputedly five to one.[9] However, the most recent census found that men actually comprise only 52.6% of the population and that the five-to-one figure is an exaggeration.

    The mayor of this burg, who does appear to the outside world to be a chauvinist pig with an ugly sense of humor, is nevertheless probably a big hit with his mates down at the pub.

  • wodiej

    jeepers h christmas, is there no shame w some of these men?? Cripes….

    • http://thenewagenda.net/ Woman Voter

      We should start a USA Annual Sexist Award.

      I nominatate:
      1. Keith Olbermann

      2.Tweety (otherwise known as Chris Mathews who now wants to be a ‘statesman’).

      As evidence I present the following video:

      Hillary Clinton: Mad As Hell/Bitch
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcdnlNZg2iM

      • melisa

        That youtube video says it all. These guys did not even pretend to respect women.
        It baffles me how people can claim to be nonprejudiced towards one group, and hold such open prejudice towards another.
        This seems to me to be a question of character. It was convenient for these reporters to show tolerance towards an african american this election, and to show nothing but disdain towards women. Do not be fooled! Their capacity for contempt can shift and morph into racism if it is pragmatic.

  • http://www.partizane.com NewHampster

    I think the guy means well but has an issue with not thinking before speaking.

    This by the way is day 3 of the 16 days against gender violence. http://partizane.com/node/470

    • greenery

      Hey hampster now that you can see real sexism perhaps you should apologize to Obama for the endless attempts to smear him as a sexist

      Imaginary finger
      Likeable enough
      Dust off the shoulders

      Don’t you feel petty after reading some of these?

      • http://ezinearticles.com/?Three-Basic-Parenting-Styles&id=744499 Northwest rain

        Obots like the above are screaming to be included in a category for heads up their asses awards.

  • Mr. X

    I laughed out loud at the term ‘beauty-disadvantaged women’. It’s funny because he tried to say something in a PC way, but utterly failed. I also laughed when Richards went on his n-g-er tirade. That was hilarious. He was trying to use something that would tick off the hecklers, but again, he went too far. Sorry, but people who say ridiculous things just make me laugh.

    I seriously don’t think it’s these kinds of people that we have to worry about though. The truly bad people aren’t that careless.

  • http://ezinearticles.com/?Three-Basic-Parenting-Styles&id=744499 Northwest rain

    I think Obama’s name should be included in the Australian list — Image of world leader making sexist remarks & gestures.

    Obama was and IS one of the most overt misogynistic politicians in his sexist behavior during a campaign.

    In fact the New feminist — now forming should hold an event like this and name names (and words) of the sexist Neanderthals in the US.