Abbott Rabbits

Tony Abbott has stuck his foot in it again with his recent comments re housewives and electricity price rises as a result of an emissions trading scheme (*yawn* carbon tax please!) and ... ironing:

"What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it's going to go up in price, and their own power bills when they switch the iron on, are going to go up." That is some steaming intellect right there - and a rather bizarre way of highlighting the problems of an emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Later, after being attacked for his outdated views on women as housewives (to the exclusion of househusbands because, in his 1950s opinion on the ways of the world, they simply don't exist), Tony dug himself a little deeper as he sought to justify his views on ironing:
"But I think in many households it is still much more common to see the woman of the house with an iron in her hand."

Really? Just what is a "household" in Tony's view anyway?


He was also recently lambasted for his comments on girls' virginity ("the most precious gift a girl can give") which, although exemplifying his old-fashioned views, I didn't have such an issue with. It was a harmless thing to say, and really virginity is kinda precious so whatevs - just some clunky talk from the leader of the Opposition. And he was talking to Australian Women's Weekly after all... I'd be a tad conservative chatting to them over scones and tea too!

The thing I took most exception to with this comment though, apart from his oversimplified explanation of an ETS to the general public - as though we are too dumb to figure it out ourselves (how about, we choose not to because it's dull as dishwater?!); was his suggestion that only housewives do the ironing. Um. Hello, Tony - there's a pile of single men and women in Herringbone shirts that require ironing on a weekly basis propping up this here economy of ours, and our mums sure aren't doing our ironing for us anymore. And come to think of it... Of all the married people, and people with kids that I know, there isn't a single one of them who is a "housewife". Try working single mum, or working mum etc...

AND, this brings me to the actual point of this post - who's to say we actually iron anyway?? Given my aversion to, and lack of skill at, ironing, I just don't do it. I either buy clothes that don't require ironing, I don't wash the clothes that do require ironing because I use perfume as washing liquid (disgusting but true, and really - washing certain items is highly overrated), loads of my clothes are dry clean only so I drop them off at the dry cleaner, or I rely on good old "body heat" or the old steamy bathroom trick to iron for me. So up yours Tony. Not only are your views on housewives pretty much redundant, so are these outlandish claims that people even iron! Think of another way of illustrating your basic understanding of climate change mitigation and adaptation costing systems.