{"id":19461,"date":"2014-06-20T18:35:31","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T08:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=19461"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:57:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:57:59","slug":"sheilas-sarah_capper-feminist-frightbats-unite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/sheilas-sarah_capper-feminist-frightbats-unite\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheilas’ @sarah_capper: Feminist #Frightbats Unite!"},"content":{"rendered":"[clear]\n
\"HoracekcartoonforJUNESheilasjpg\"

Credit Judy Horacek<\/p><\/div>\n

[clear]We\u2019re proud supporters of \u2018Feminist Frightbats\u2019 at Sheilas, having published more than a few of the contributors listed in Tim Blair\u2019s \u201chysterical\u201d\u00a0blog post<\/a>\u00a0on News Limited\u2019s Daily Telegraph website a couple of days ago. Under the post titled \u2018Crown Our Crazy Queen\u2019, Blair launched a predictable ideologically driven sexist spray against what he labeled \u201cthis nation\u2019s most unhinged hysteric\u201d of \u201cAustralia\u2019s left-wing ladies\u2019 auxiliary\u201d.<\/p>\n

Included on Blair\u2019s list querying \u2018Who is Australia\u2019s craziest left-wing frightbat\u2019 are Jane Caro, Clementine Ford, Margo Kingston, Van Badham, Anne Summers, Catherine Deveny, Elizabeth Farrelly, Marieke Hardy, Clem Bastow, and Jenna Price.<\/p>\n

But as a clever rebuke of the offensive post, several on the list have instead adopted the term \u2018Frightbat\u2019 and are \u2018competing\u2019 for the \u2018honours\u2019.\u00a0As Georgina Dent explains in Women\u2019s Agenda<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe contenders have to be commended for the enthusiasm with which they have embraced the poll. No doubt fuelled by their uncontrolled emotions, many of them have been campaigning for votes in the fervent hope they will be crowned Australia\u2019s \u201ccraziest left-wing frightbat\u201d. Anne Summers doesn\u2019t want to be beaten by any\u00a0baby \u201cfrightbats\u201d<\/a>, Clementine Ford\u00a0urged her followers<\/a>\u00a0to make it happen, Margo Kingston\u00a0appealed<\/a>\u00a0to her fellow Queenslanders\u2019 allegiance to bring the crown home and cartoons have been created depicting these mythical frightbats. Their collective reaction has been good-humoured. I don\u2019t blame them for making the award their own.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not astonishingly sexist and intolerable. Of course the convenient, and insidious, component of Blair\u2019s argument is that by saying that I prove his point. I\u2019m merely being hysterical and emotional. Rather than consider that there might be some merit in my argument, or the many legitimate arguments of the frightbats, it\u2019s easier to dismiss them as unhinged and off their medication.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAre they intelligent, informed, educated professionals? No of course not. They\u2019re the \u2018left-wing ladies\u2019 auxiliary\u2019. Could their issues with Tony Abbott be about genuine policy concerns? No of course not. They have a psychosocial behavioural disorder. Nothing they say or do is valid because they are crazy frightbats. Isn\u2019t that a handy way to win an argument?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is gas lighting at its most damning; you turn the problem onto the other person in a bid to avoid your own problem. Two nights ago Hillary Clinton\u00a0made a strong statement about sexism in politics<\/a>. Play the policy, argue the point, hold the person to account but leave gender out of it. If you can\u2019t, that\u2019s truly frightening.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hear, hear. And as said, at Sheilas, we are more than proud to publish or feature the work of the names included on the list and will continue to do so. Like\u00a0Clementine Ford<\/a>, who is featured in this edition, we publish these contributors for their engaging, thoughful, bold, clever insights and clear analysis. Which, by coincidence, also happens to be why we publish the marvelously talented Judy Horacek \u2013 thank you again Judy.<\/p>\n

Sarah Capper, Sheilas Editor & Feminist Frightbat Killjoy<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[clear] [clear]We\u2019re proud supporters of \u2018Feminist Frightbats\u2019 at Sheilas, having published more than a few of the contributors listed in Tim Blair\u2019s \u201chysterical\u201d\u00a0blog post\u00a0on News Limited\u2019s Daily Telegraph website a couple of days ago. Under the post titled \u2018Crown Our Crazy Queen\u2019, Blair launched a predictable ideologically driven sexist spray against what he labeled \u201cthis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":19468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,3402,585,31,43,439],"tags":[2612,185,745,1904,1065,1905,1261,2565,2574,2581,429,1906,476,2661],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/HoracekcartoonforJUNESheilasjpg.jpg?fit=800%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-53T","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}