The Journey 292: Redefining "MISOGYNY"
Read: John 8:1-11
A fiery speech by a woman in authority against another leader has received not only global attention, but it has also caused a dictionary publisher to redefine the meaning of a particular word. CNN in its news items has titled the speech as “ The Speech Every Woman should Hear”. What is the context of this speech and what is this speech that has caused such an uproar and attracted worldwide attention?. This fiery speech was delivered in the Parliament by Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard when she lambasted the leader of Opposition, Tony Abbot and described him as a misogynist. There was a heated exchange in the parliament between Abbot and Gillard following an accusation on Speaker Peter Slippers. Peter Slippers was accused of sexual harassment by a former staff member and the opposition led by Tony Abbot barraged the Prime Minister with number of questions and accused her of being a hypocrite for supporting Peter Slippers. It is at this context that Julia Gillard fired back at Abbot stating that “if Abbot should know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia he does not need to pass a motion in the house of representative on the contrary, he needs a mirror”. It is these comments and statement of Julia Gillard that made her speech go viral with hundreds of thousands of views on You Tube. The whole transcript of Julia Gillard speech can be found on this link:http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/transcript-of-julia-gillards-speech-20121010-27c36.html . This speech of Julia Gillard made Macquarie Dictionary to expand its definition of Misogyny. Misogyny was described as “hatred of woman” but now according to editor Sue Butler of Macquarie Dictionary, the meaning of the word misogyny will be expanded to “entrenched prejudice against woman”. There would have been hundreds of speech made before, against sexism or for the upholding woman's rights, especially in the recent context of shooting of teenage girl Malala in Pakistan. What made the speech of Julia Gillard remarkable, was about the fact that she stressed that there are hundreds of opportune leaders who want to grab a mileage by speaking for cause of woman, but often these remains only in paper or in speeches. Hence her claim to people to always look at the track record of people who give fiery speeches in defense of woman’s right and issue. Are these people who give speeches have proven track record of championing cause of woman and have history to prove of what they have achieved in their life?. I think Julia Gillard speech is also a pointer to all of us, in the church- the clergy, bishops, the lay leaders, people in authority, people who suddenly use each every platform to make their views known, to examine whether we use just empty boasting words or rhetoric or do we have a track record of what we have stood for, in our life and in our ministry?.
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from John 8:1-11. This is the portion where we find Jesus Christ confronting the leaders and law makers of Jewish society, when they bring to the presence of Jesus Christ, a woman who was caught in adultery. What was unique about the ministry of Jesus Christ was that though he worked within the cultural traditions of the day, he did not limit himself in those cultural traditions, on the contrary redefined it so that laws could be inclusive and that law could be more humane rather being treated as an end in itself. In this context the leaders and the law makers try to implicate Jesus Christ by bringing to his presence a woman who “ has been accused and guilty of immoral living”. Here are people who are championing the cause of just and righteous living. That is when Jesus observes silence and stoops down to write something on the sand and tells the crowd that “He who has not sinned, let him throw the stone first”. When Jesus said this, the crowd slowly withered away. Why this happened was because here was a group of people who were actually not concerned about moral issues in life or were concerned to wipe away all sorts of immorality from public and personal life, on the contrary they only wanted to use the case of adulterous woman to further their own selfish cause. But look at Jesus Christ. He supports the woman not because of any personal gain, on the contrary he broadened and redefined the gamut of law so that people who champion the cause of the oppressed and downtrodden could understand the true meaning of what it means to fight for their rights. Just as Julia Gillard asked Tony Abbot to look at his track record and not just make speech in defense of woman right, I believe Jesus Christ through his ministry showed that it is not speeches that are important but actions that go along with ones speeches are more important. Let us examine whether we just make some impassionate pleas on issues or our life and ministry has records of what we have done to champion the cause.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla
A fiery speech by a woman in authority against another leader has received not only global attention, but it has also caused a dictionary publisher to redefine the meaning of a particular word. CNN in its news items has titled the speech as “ The Speech Every Woman should Hear”. What is the context of this speech and what is this speech that has caused such an uproar and attracted worldwide attention?. This fiery speech was delivered in the Parliament by Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard when she lambasted the leader of Opposition, Tony Abbot and described him as a misogynist. There was a heated exchange in the parliament between Abbot and Gillard following an accusation on Speaker Peter Slippers. Peter Slippers was accused of sexual harassment by a former staff member and the opposition led by Tony Abbot barraged the Prime Minister with number of questions and accused her of being a hypocrite for supporting Peter Slippers. It is at this context that Julia Gillard fired back at Abbot stating that “if Abbot should know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia he does not need to pass a motion in the house of representative on the contrary, he needs a mirror”. It is these comments and statement of Julia Gillard that made her speech go viral with hundreds of thousands of views on You Tube. The whole transcript of Julia Gillard speech can be found on this link:http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/transcript-of-julia-gillards-speech-20121010-27c36.html . This speech of Julia Gillard made Macquarie Dictionary to expand its definition of Misogyny. Misogyny was described as “hatred of woman” but now according to editor Sue Butler of Macquarie Dictionary, the meaning of the word misogyny will be expanded to “entrenched prejudice against woman”. There would have been hundreds of speech made before, against sexism or for the upholding woman's rights, especially in the recent context of shooting of teenage girl Malala in Pakistan. What made the speech of Julia Gillard remarkable, was about the fact that she stressed that there are hundreds of opportune leaders who want to grab a mileage by speaking for cause of woman, but often these remains only in paper or in speeches. Hence her claim to people to always look at the track record of people who give fiery speeches in defense of woman’s right and issue. Are these people who give speeches have proven track record of championing cause of woman and have history to prove of what they have achieved in their life?. I think Julia Gillard speech is also a pointer to all of us, in the church- the clergy, bishops, the lay leaders, people in authority, people who suddenly use each every platform to make their views known, to examine whether we use just empty boasting words or rhetoric or do we have a track record of what we have stood for, in our life and in our ministry?.
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from John 8:1-11. This is the portion where we find Jesus Christ confronting the leaders and law makers of Jewish society, when they bring to the presence of Jesus Christ, a woman who was caught in adultery. What was unique about the ministry of Jesus Christ was that though he worked within the cultural traditions of the day, he did not limit himself in those cultural traditions, on the contrary redefined it so that laws could be inclusive and that law could be more humane rather being treated as an end in itself. In this context the leaders and the law makers try to implicate Jesus Christ by bringing to his presence a woman who “ has been accused and guilty of immoral living”. Here are people who are championing the cause of just and righteous living. That is when Jesus observes silence and stoops down to write something on the sand and tells the crowd that “He who has not sinned, let him throw the stone first”. When Jesus said this, the crowd slowly withered away. Why this happened was because here was a group of people who were actually not concerned about moral issues in life or were concerned to wipe away all sorts of immorality from public and personal life, on the contrary they only wanted to use the case of adulterous woman to further their own selfish cause. But look at Jesus Christ. He supports the woman not because of any personal gain, on the contrary he broadened and redefined the gamut of law so that people who champion the cause of the oppressed and downtrodden could understand the true meaning of what it means to fight for their rights. Just as Julia Gillard asked Tony Abbot to look at his track record and not just make speech in defense of woman right, I believe Jesus Christ through his ministry showed that it is not speeches that are important but actions that go along with ones speeches are more important. Let us examine whether we just make some impassionate pleas on issues or our life and ministry has records of what we have done to champion the cause.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla