julia gillard can't hide behind a skirt

NO, LADIES, the Prime Minister isn't in strife because she's the victim of men being sexists. She's the victim of women shouting "sexists" instead.

That's why so many men turned from Julia Gillard in disgust last week. It wasn't just because they were offended to be called sexists for concluding their Prime Minister was, on the evidence, incompetent, divisive and deceitful.

It was also because they were infuriated by a tiresome hypocrisy.

There was Gillard giving a sexist speech - telling women to vote against "men in blue ties" - but then whingeing about a sexist menu which crudely lampooned her.

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Line crossed. A Nielsen poll this week showed a quarter of Labor's remaining male supporters gave up on Gillard. Only 24 per cent of men now back Labor, compared with 34 per cent of women.

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No wonder. This was the kind of stuff men have copped too long - hypocrites demanding a fair go for women while giving men none.

Even this week, Gillard ally Nicola Roxon still hadn't learned that lesson. First the sanctimonious former attorney-general complained: "(Gillard) has been subjected to some of the most crass, silly, petty, sexist and just plain rude behaviour for years."

But in that same speech she boasted of her own sexist baiting of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott - how she'd accused him in Parliament of being weak, before holding up golf balls and leering: "I am prepared to offer him some balls."

Do Gillard's team know how such stuff grates on men? Do they realise many men would privately think, "But if I did that to a woman, my God ... "

Yes, here was another Labor woman playing the gender card not to get a fair deal, but an edge.

Men know there's a certain tribe of women hyper-alert to any insult to a female politician, but deaf to the same insults to a male.

Take Age writer Stephanie Peatling, who asked whether any male leader had suffered the intrusive questioning Gillard got last week from the clown broadcaster who asked if her partner was gay.

"Was (former prime minister John) Howard ever asked about the intimate details of his marriage?" she fumed.

Er, yes. In 1998 Howard had to deny rumours he'd had an affair with the then sex discrimination commissioner - rumours which former Labor leader Mark Latham referred to again in 2005.

Worse, Labor speech writer Bob Ellis published defamatory claims about the sex lives of Abbott and former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello for which he was successfully sued.

Costello then had the Melbourne Theatre Company stage a play depicting him as a murderer, his wife a fool and his son a junkie. Nothing done to Gillard seems worse than what is done to Liberal men.

The difference is in the media outrage.

ABC commentators were (rightly) furious when children threw sandwiches at Gillard.

But when an anti-war protester threw his shoes at Howard on the set of Q&A, the ABC happily auctioned them off for a charity in Iraq. Snigger: for victims of Howard's war.

Again, the media said nothing when Labor 's national president, Carmen Lawrence, endorsed a Rock Against Howard CD with tracks including John Howard is a Filthy Slut and Gun Him Down and lyrics such as: "Kick him 'til he's dead."

But men reading this know if Abbott endorsed a CD attacking Gillard like that he'd be dead himself.

MEN rarely complain about these double standards. Too wussy. But to then be called sexists by sexist women ... enough!

Truth is, few men mark down Gillard for being a woman. Newspoll detected only a small gender gap in Labor's vote at the 2010 election - 34 per cent of male voters, to 38 per cent of female - and even some of Gillard's toughest male critics today admired her early on.

Broadcaster Alan Jones, now painted as a sexist monster, campaigned to have her replace Kevin Rudd.

I called her "warm" and "pragmatic" and even suggested - forgive me - she could have a touch of Margaret Thatcher, a female leader I admire.

Have men who once backed Gillard suddenly become sexists now they don't?

Or is the truth that Gillard failed as Prime Minister and now hides behind a skirt?

http://m.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/prime-minister-julia-gillard-cant-hide-behind-a-skirt/story-fni0ffxg-1226666505054