UK-based Australian feminist Germaine Greer has called Tony Abbott a "clown" and said he should have been unelectable. Writing for London's Daily Telegraph, she felt that Ms Gillard was targeted by the media during the election campaign because she was a woman.
She said "Gillard was pilloried for her 'deliberate' childlessness, her clothes, her morals, her looks, her undeniably unimpressive boyfriend and her betrayal of Rudd. In any grown-up country, Tony Abbott would have been unelectable. He looks and sounds like a clown".
"The election wasn't fought on policies or issues or ideologies, but on sound-bites and gossip and sex - not the kind you do, but the kind you are. If there was something new about it, it was that women voted for a woman just because she was a woman. The tabloids did their best to represent Gillard as a treacherous Jezebel who stabbed her predecessor, Kevin Rudd - otherwise known as the milky bar kid - in the back".
Greer didn't seem very impressed with Julia Gillard either. "Australia's future looks grim enough with Gillard, but with Abbott, it would look terrifying" she said.
Germaine has always said what she thinks and to hell with it. I remember when Steve Irwin died - she made a very insensitive comment about how, in her opinion, he teased and tormented helpless crocodiles for personal gain and suggested that he should have left them alone. You can imagine how his fans reacted. I saw her on Q and A recently and was pleasantly surprised. Because of her reputation of being a rather bizarre old lady, I found her opinions intelligent and thought-provoking. Love her or hate her, Germaine Greer, sometimes called 'The Mouth from the South' has not mellowed with age - she's as feisty and candid as ever.
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