History has been made with the swearing in of Quentin Bryce as Australia’s first female Governor-General.
I was interested to read in the Fin Review yesterday that there’s supposedly some social progress because she will become Patron of teh Really Posh North Shore Polo Club or something similar, where women weren’t admitted until recently. Maybe so. But maybe this should also prompt us to reflect on the role of a very modern Governor-General, and whether this sort of Vice-Regal social frippery really reflects what we want from the representative of our Head of State. And while we’re at it, whatever happened to that great debate over Republicanism that Kevin Rudd called for? Another sound bite?
But in any case, congrats to Quentin!
Fair questions Kim and no answers from me. Quentin certainly looks regal enough, or should that be vice-regal, even down to the fake fingernails and bouffant hairstyle. I hope she can bring something of her own character to the role but unfortunately the job, the selection, even the polo club patronage holds no interest to me. Wake me when THE debate over a republic resumes.
And only 18 years behind New Zealand!
It’s hard to get excited about this but it makes a nice change from the judge, the priest and the general.
… whether this sort of Vice-Regal social frippery really reflects what we want from the representative of our Head of State.
Vice-regal social frippery, you say…?
Please, Ma’am, can I have some more?
This Very Model of a Modern
Blonde BouffaanteGovernor General brings, strangely, to mind the glorious Max Gillies’ John Kerr (in Gian-Carlo Trimmbole’s tele-opera ‘Il Dismissale’)“Governor General what kind of job is that?
Lalalalalala!
Running around like a fool in a big top hat!
Lalalalalala!
I’m a rather weak and antique figure head!
Drink another drop and I’ll flop back in a bed
What have I said?
Governor General very ephemeral, rather be dead!”
(Full libretto here if you want to take it out for a spin at a dinner party of old duffers and fellow travellers)
While I’m there: It’s but a brief skip down
dissociativememory lane to Norman Gunston’s performance at the actual occasion of that Original Gubernatorial Sin, and full marks to Bill Hayden for showing some wit at the time.Those were verily the comedic days, the hollowmen et al look, by comparison, exactly that. Though it must be said, just having a go at extracting something funny out of the hokey-pokey that is the Rudd era is wildly ambitous.
For those who remember, and wish refreshment, it’s all there on youtube, which I guess is the contribution of the age..
Wonder how Ackerman feels today then. he had her up for interfering with the Heiner Farce,and was saying they were going to investigate her,and the truth will out, usual ravings of that loony,what has he got on Murdock,it must be good as he keeps his job.
The women that has stepped into a once only mans position, makes me tip my lid.
I wish you well Quentin Bryce .
Quentin Bryce is quite obviously and by a mile the most intelligent, capable and radical woman to emerge in Qld public life in the past three decades. Of course women everywhere should applaud. Finally, we are represented in an office of great import.
You go, girl.
“the most intelligent, capable and radical woman to emerge in Qld public life in the past three decades”
Not sure about that. Not questioning the ‘intelligence’ or ‘capability’ but the ‘radical’ dimension?
What and when? Or have I missed something?
Whoa on that jinmaro. I think that Anna Bligh is pretty good too. And I think that the office of Premier of Queensland is an office of great import.
Not that I am for a moment unhappy that Quentin Bryce has been appointed Governor General. I am sure that she will discharge her office with distinction and I would be more than happy if she were to slip from that role, through constitutional processes, to being our first President.
Then I think that you would agree that there would be a huge cheer of You Go, Girl and Go, You Girl.
Seems highly intelligent, perfectly qualified and very nice … a very safe appointment. Can’t complain.
But, I’m a little disappointed they didn’t select an indigenous person. I don’t mean that as ‘tokenism’, any more than choosing Bryce is tokenism. It doesn’t apply when the person is so obviously qualified. It just would have been great to have been able to say sorry, and to make that appointment.
Now for something more controversial. What’s with those arms in those sleeves?
wpd at 9, I’m not so sure about the radical characterisation either, unless jinmaro is saying her various firsts are radical. She’s pretty much a standard upper middle class liberal feminist, as far as I can see. Not that there’s… etc.
Perhaps it’s a study in monumental but subtle sarcasm. The ‘office of great import’ part is a clue.
BBB
WAs she properly vetted
Maybe, BBB.
Leigh, she’s been governor of Qld for five years. If she shoots mooses I suspect we’d have heard about it by now.
If she shoots mooses I suspect we’d have heard about it by now.
Isn’t that meese?
Perhaps it was a warm day. And knowing Quentin Bryce’s CV I doubt very much whether she is any more susceptible to ageist remarks about her appearance than she is to sexist ones.
I don’t see how this is in anyway a victory for women beyond formal equality and Quentin Bryce was always a good, conventional, unthreatening girl-woman and (the one follows the other) personal beneficiary of a powerful social movement that is now dead, i.e. second-wave feminism.
Germs has a great article on this at the Grauniad
Much as I love her still, I do think it’s a shame that Greer can’t advocate for one lot of people without slagging a whole bunch of other people, and from a great height half a world away at that.
And she doesn’t seem to know what the word ‘incumbent’ means. Anyway, I liked this: “The only [Canadian] governor general to have taken the role of commander-in-chief at all seriously was Adrienne Clarkson, who visited Canadian troops in Kosovo and the Gulf.” Yes, that is certainly taking the role seriously! Jesus wept. Someone fact-check this, stat!
BBB
While on the subject – Quentin recently has had a field promotion from GoQ to GG/Australia.
In my last –
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2008/05/28/hope-its-not-like-this-any-more/
I wrote about some strange matters in a large, mostly triangular bit of real estate that differs from what is usually accepted as the ‘public interest’.
In the course of writing to the AFP, Defence and Nat. Sec. – at some stage I was also invited to send my concerns to the Gof Q., herself.
Of course Quent never replied herself – which if anyone reading this could relate to Mr Terry Pratchett, his novel – ‘Wintersmith’ – my edition,leading through the chapters – ‘The Horn of Plenty – through to ‘Green Shoots’, building up to and surrounding a character called “Anagramma’, should reveal a character study of the sort of stupid, self-interested, destructive, incompetent, hurtful ‘persons’ that have flooded pivotal positions in and throughout our oligarchy these last many years.
Putting it bluntly they are so much worse that the blokes that no-one can make progress. Furthermore, they don’t read their mail at all, ever.
If, and it is a big IF – some Australians ever went back to their primary school civics, they might discover that Gubernatorial positions are somewhat more than a handshake. Their appointment and tenure possesses immense power.
Why is that power being extinguished by those who possess that power?
Why do they refuse to exercise their influence even when the evidence of malfeasance is put before them on their desk?
PC – remarks about that outfit could be ageist, or sexist, but have a look at that picture: maybe she’s actually a performance artist because that barbie’s grandmother head sitting atop those nursing home arms is quite provoking. I guess with the ageing of the baby boomers we’re going to be exposed to more of these inappropriate choices. This could be Quentin’s first big mistake. Really, aren’t you already nostalgic for Marlena Jeffery’s elegance?
I don’t think it’s relevant, Russell. I don’t recall people discussing Jeffrey or Hollingsworth or Deane’s style, fashion choices or figures.
Because they didn’t make such a mistake.
Marlena Jeffery is the spouse of the former Governor-General. The only appropriate comparison here, if indeed one finds it appropriate to comment on the personal appearance of total strangers at all, is with Michael Bryce.
Well PC people in public life are going to be commented on, if they do something to stand out. What’s interesting in that picture is that it looks like a person who is determined to look younger than she is – that’s a formidable amount of grooming: the hair, the plucked eyebrows, make-up etc – to the point that she perhaps believes she IS much younger than she is. It looks a little odd to me – trying to present a fiction of youth, then undermining the thing by wearing a dress with almost no sleeves to expose arms that show her real age.
Yep, I was going to make that point too, Dr Cat.
Geez, dude, what would you say if she turned out in tracky dacks?
But there’s a point in there somewhere about expectations of professional women.
10 minutes ago we were headed for the result I wanted in the WA election – ALP by 1 seat – but now things are looking a little worse ….
Kim, Bryce can try to make herself look younger if she wants, or thinks is necessary, I just don’t understand undermining the effect by exposing her arms.
One needs more grooming as one ages, Russell, not less (as you will one day discover. Bwahahahaha.) And if she didn’t keep the hair, brows and makeup under control then I’m sure you’d have even more of a go at her for that, as Kim suggests.
I think you know perfectly well what the real issue is here. Still, I don’t think it would matter what one said; if you are determined to judge women only by what they look like (and the irony here is that Bryce was indeed a great beauty in her day)(the other irony of course is that she is a woman of extraordinary achievements and all you have to say is that she’s got 65 year old arms, ew), then nothing that I or Kim or anyone else says is going to make a blind bit of difference.
What is extraordinary about her achievements?
I don’t see a woman trying to present “a fiction of youth” at all – if that were the case she would undoubtedly have had several facelifts and be botoxed up the wazoo. Bryce by comparison has a naturally lined face which happens to have well-groomed plucked eyebrows and an easy-care yet flattering haircut. The suit is smart and flattering to a trim figure.
But FSM forbid that a woman appear in public with natural-to-her-age crepe skinned arms, eh? Oh dear, the horror that younger men watching the news might see some bare skin that is not obviously appealing to their sexual prurience!
Quit digging that hole, Russell.
I wouldn’t underestimate how extraordinary the resistance and everyday misogyny and sexism she would have faced as one of Brisbane’s first female barristers and law lecturers in the 60s, or for that matter what it would have taken to carve out a role as Sex Discrimination Commissioner when that was a newish position and there was such a massive amount of hostility to sexual harrassment legislation etc.
65-year-old woman has 65-year-old arms, doesn’t give a fuck who sees ‘em. Good on her. Can the discussion get more trivial?
BBB
Nicely put in the first two sentences there, BBB. I disagree, however, that the discussion is trivial, not least because I’m sick of not calling bullshit on autopilot sexist remarks about high-profile women’s age and appearance. Every time you let someone get away with that kind of malarkey, God kills a kitten.
Bryce is a highly intelligent, superbly qualified, certainly handsome and seemingly very nice person. If someone got a photo of her at the beach/pool in a swimsuit, there would be nothing to catch your attention. Age isn’t the issue. What caught my attention was the disconnect in the photo – and in a way it seems almost pathetic, why is a person with her qualities doing that? How many 65 year old women would wear that top, anywhere, let alone if they were going to be photographed for the national press, at the same time as making themselves up in a way usually associated with younger people?
I guess she has every right to say “This should be an acceptable way for an older woman to look”. Maybe I grew up hearing too many remarks like “Mutton dressed up as lamb”. But I find this photo disturbing because it’s like her face is saying “This is how I want to be” but her arms are saying “This vulnerability, age, is me too”. And I don’t think she intends to send both those messages.
Maybe she just thought it was a nice dress. Looks pretty cool to me. I must admit that at first glance all I saw were her eyes, which seem to give off a ‘don’t fuck with me’ vibe. Maybe I’m reading too much into a photograph. But at least I’m not interpreting her arms. That’s just nutty.
BBB
‘A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.” (Diane Arbus)
I just thought I’d throw that in.
For a bobs, this feels a very lovely moment in our Australian story.
What’s more, something steps a’side the hors d’oeuvres, in vision… something with a little more to say, a little more smarts, a strength onward to a shake up and armwrestle won (yes, with or without that kind of phrase); something of a personal mission which carries with it an entry ticket already given us but stuck in our back pocket until we find our number called.
We’ve a bit to share, methinks, with Quentin Bryce.
Quentin always dressed in a sexually alluring, meticulously groomed, ultra-feminine, glam, bourgie way. It served to disarm the male establishment and thus was a weapon wielded to successful effect. She was loathed for it too and in that regard it’s fair cop that she still receives criticism for it today for it is key to her establishment success and acceptance.
I am so over the altogether common view that being old and growing old is some kind of personal failing, that one should try to cover up. She’s still a pretty women and without a doubt she’s got a lot more substance and wisdom in her soul than she had when she was eighteen.
Ruth – except that’s not the basis on which she’s been criticised on this thread – if you’ve been reading.
So Quentin Bryce is a liberal feminist from an upper middle class background? And that’s a reason in your mind why her achievements should be discounted? That’s neither a particularly generous attitude nor one that captures the real significance of her appointment.
I’ve got a lot of areas of disagreement with liberal feminism per se, but I don’t see that as a basis to make personal criticisms.
And it’s hardly surprising that an establishment type would be appointed G-G. It’s an establishment position – and that “social” conception of the office is one of its many anti-democratic features – which is what I was criticising in the post.
The Pavlov’s Cat comment at 20 is astounding. And not only because it comes from that source. Greer is exponentially more slagged than slagging.
Methinks marauding moggies should try the likes of Miranda Devine or Marcia Langton before bagging adhominem (feminim, for the pedantic! ) someone who is both sincere and acurate as to her comments.
There.
So you got a bite…
So the little Quentine is loved by all?
Am sure I recall Ackerman or one of that ilk on a witchhunt for her recently?
Russell… you asked… How many 65 year old women would wear that top, anywhere, let alone if they were going to be photographed for the national press, at the same time as making themselves up in a way usually associated with younger people?
My answer – those who aren’t hung up on thier arms… and who is comfortable with her age, and who she is … I mean, what do you want her to wear? long sleeves on a warm day? And it’s not like it’s absolutely hideous in any case, nor do I think it is sending a message about vulnerability, you’re reading way too much into it. Next time, we’ll get them photoshopped smooth and your ageist sensibilites will not be so offended…
BTW “Maybe I grew up hearing too many remarks like “Mutton dressed up as lamb”.” – gosh, I haven’t done a survey but I suspect that not very many lambs would want to dress in this fashion… too conservative, not enough midriff showing…