Ditch the Witch 2.0 and the personal toll of sexist abuse in politics
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What was the significance of Julia Gillard's misogyny speech in 2012?
I say to the leader of the opposition, I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not. And the government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever.
When Julia Gillard delivered that now infamous misogyny speech in 2012, it was against a backdrop of sexist attacks. One of the most prominent was Ditch the Witch.
I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition went outside in the front of Parliament and stood next to a sign that said, Ditch the Witch. I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition stood next to a sign that described me as a man's bitch.
How is the slogan 'Ditch the Witch 2.0' relevant to current politics?
I was offended by those things.
Now the ugly slogan is back and this time Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen is the target. Ditch the Witch 2.0 putting a spotlight on the treatment of women in politics. I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to 7am. Today, Victorian MP Georgie Purcell on her own experience with sexist abuse, the threat it poses to democracy and why she's putting political differences aside to stand up for her rival. It's Thursday, June 11th. So, Georgia, you were first elected to Parliament back in 2022. Tell me a bit about once you got there, once you reached that kind of level of public scrutiny, tell me about the types of messages that you started to get from strangers, members of the public. What did you notice start to happen?
From the moment I was elected, I started experiencing pretty significant online gendered violence. In fact, the first tweet I received after my election was announced was someone calling me a horrible person. And as my profile has only grown since then, I have received it on a much higher level. It is a real... curse of when your work grows and reaches more people, you unfortunately receive more of that gendered abuse. It's reached a point for me now where I receive it on such a significant scale that I actually have to have an app installed on my phone called Social Protect that filters out sexist and misogynistic commentary in real time. Some days we find that it deletes thousands of comments and it's an unfortunate reality for me that we have to put that in because I need to shield myself from it.
I need to shield my staff from it who are women. But more importantly, what concerns me is that I really don't want people to watch on at what I receive and think that this is not something that they could do as well, that they couldn't enter public life as a young woman. And, you know, filtering it out is not the answer. We need to do something to actually address the behaviour.
Okay. So you've got this kind of filter in place, but tell me a bit more about what the impact is just on how you live your life, knowing that this is happening. Yeah.
Being a woman that receives sexist abuse and misogynistic commentary, it doesn't just end there. Often it's threats, fantasies about harming me, death threats. There's been times where there's been threats of sexual violence and it really does change the way in which you move throughout the world and the way in which you do your job. I've had to put measures in place that other members of parliament do not have to put in place. I can't advertise where I'm going to be in advance or hold events where people come and meet me in the pub, I really do have to think about my movements every single day because all it takes is one person who is going to take it further than the internet, which is the unfortunate reality of gendered violence in this country.
It also means that I have to put time and resources into it. That should be time and resources that go into doing my job and speaking out for my community and considering parliamentary matters. And then there's the personal impacts as well.
And we know, obviously, you're not alone in this. Recently, we've seen a return of the Gillard-era slogan, Ditch the Witch. This time, it's on billboards that have been driven around Melbourne, aimed at the Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allen. So tell me what you thought when you saw those billboards.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What was the significance of Julia Gillard's misogyny speech in 2012?
0:00–0:43
2
How is the slogan 'Ditch the Witch 2.0' relevant to current politics?
0:43–5:58
3
What experiences of sexist abuse has Georgie Purcell faced in politics?
5:58–10:19
4
How does online gendered violence affect women in public life?
10:19–16:15
Speakers
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