Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame has spoken out about the now famous side-eye she gave Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a staged photo-op in Canberra last week.
Taking to Twitter, Tame, a fierce advocate for survivors of sexual assault, succinctly took apart what she called “the consequences of civility for the sake of civility” in just two tweets:
The survival of abuse culture is dependent on submissive smiles and self-defeating surrenders. It is dependent on hypocrisy. My past is only relevant to the extent that I have seen — in fact I have worn — the consequences of civility for the sake of civility.
What I did wasn’t an act of martyrdom in the gender culture war. It’s true that many women are sick of being told to smile, often by men, for the benefit of men. But it’s not just women who are conditioned to smile and conform to the visibly rotting status-quo. It’s all of us.
Tame received a lot of criticism for her frosty interaction with Morrison, most notably from political journalist and commentator Peter van Onselen (who has since conceded that he “probably” didn’t need to have written the column where he called Tame’s actions “ungracious, rude, and childish”), and AFR columnist Pru Goward, who described her as an “angry young woman”.
Tame’s words this morning were very well received on Twitter, with many praising her authenticity, eloquence and courage — the same traits that saw her named Person of the Year 2021 by Crikey readers.
Grace
Dignity and honesty is not a trait of those presently in power. Well done and I absolutely admire how you continue to be true to yourself and set an excellent role model for all women in Australia.
Maroochy -,extremely well put.
Over in Gilead, Jenny Morrison reckons Grace oughta be a good gel with good manners, like Lily n Abbey.
Hi Grace
Be assured that plenty of guys out here not only agree with you, they also think Scomo and his credentialled lapdog Peter Van Onselen (barf, barf) are both fit for Gladys’ description, both horrible people and psychos.
I would also like to join those who have already expressed their support for Grace and the way she handled that ‘staged photo-op’ in Canberra. I could not agree more with her remarks about “being conditioned to conform to the visibly rotting status quo”.
The grinning Cheshire cat would have probably have received a few choice words from me rather than just the ‘side-eye’. Words sort of like those used by former N.S.W. Liberal Premier Gladys Berejiklian and some unnamed Liberal Party Minister of the Crown to describe the Prime Minister.
As a female octogenarian, and retired RN of some 50 years, I have witnessed the behaviour of too many questionable people over the years. Grace…you are a breath of fresh air…just keep doing what you do, and hopefully save a few more people from what you experienced!
There’s no reward for being a sheep willing to be herded. One wonders how many of Morrison’s colleagues secretly cheered the side-eye.
Grace Tame as a future political leader has much appeal. But would she wish to get her hands that dirty….