Cat calling politicians: are they sexist or stupid?

Another ‘meowing’ at a female politician in parliament yesterday as Labor whip Joel Fitzgibbon turned tomcat at Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop. This just weeks after the opposition kicked off the cat noise fad, with Liberal senator David Bushby making the same feral yowling noise at Penny Wong while she spoke. It’s possible the entire government needs spaying.

It’s difficult to decide what the greatest crime here is. Sexism? Stupidity?

Or the fact that the stunt, deeply unfunny the first time round, was trotted out for an encore performance. Fitzgibbon’s feel for comedic timing lies somewhere in the region of Homer Simpson’s guileless “Mono!” at the end of the Springfield monorail musical.

Cat noises are sexist I suppose. There doesn’t seem to be a corresponding animal noise applied by the women to the blokes. The first woman in parliament who works out how to throw her voice so it sounds like a chimp dragging its knuckles on the ground as one of her male counterparts speaks will secure my vote for eternity.

But the apparent sexism part is of far less concern to me than the ladlefuls of stupid – sexist or otherwise – so many politicians seem to believe is an acceptable, even desirable trait to possess as they go about their business of trying to be funny enough to secure a regular slot on Sunrise governing the country. Making imbecilic noises or conducting cartoonish pantomime in an effort to amuse or bemuse seems to be a genuinely lauded part of being a politician today. Witness Joe Hockey waltzing around the grounds of Parliament House with a cardboard figure of Kevin Rudd, honking deliriously like Benny Hill pursuing a daffy blonde. Behold Rudd himself making dopey Dad jokes about ABC journalist Latika Bourke’s choice of outfit when he addressed the press gallery earlier this year. Forget sexism. This is stupidism.

Perhaps our elected leaders need to be made to understand that there’s a fine line between pulling stunts that will guarantee you a spot on the 6pm news promo, and ones that will turn you into a viral YouTube phenomenon. We haven’t had anything to rival the footage of Kevin Rudd eating his own earwax for a while. But it feels like we’re working up to something of a similar calibre.

Is our politicians’ behaviour getting worse? What’s the stupidest or most embarrassing thing you can remember a politician doing?

PHOTOS: Image via GirlyBubble

Alexandra Carlton – Editor

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