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Blog
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| Free speech or fair? |
30 Jun 2010 |
| A blog by Spinifex author Betty McLellan
In Australia, as in all other democratic countries, we’re expected to believe that the principle of Freedom of Speech covers everyone. When I took a closer look at the topic of “speech”, however, I saw that, far from being a universal privilege, speech is free for some but not for others. There’s a kind of power elite made up of mainstream men in influential positions in politics, business and the media who enjoy the power of speech while the rest of us get to listen. We’re bombarded with their words and are supposed to be fascinated as they speak to, argue with, praise and support each other.
The current debate in Australia over the mining tax is a classic example. The debate is between the federal government and the big mining companies, with the media largely siding with the mining companies. We, the people, are the audience. Players on each side of the debate are using “ordinary people” to make their case but neither is actually asking us what we think.
On one side, the government is arguing that the tax is necessary because the Australian people own the mining resources and should get more benefit in terms of money for the government to use to improve infrastructure. On the other side, mining magnates are arguing that the tax will have a negative effect on the Australian people in terms of fewer jobs and lower quality of life when mining companies are forced (by the mining tax) to close down their operations and withdraw their financial support from communities.
Both sides are quite happy to use us, “ordinary Australians”, as pawns in the debate but neither party will listen to, or be influenced by, anything we say. This is indicative of how so-called freedom of speech works in modern democracy – powerful governments, business leaders and the media exercising their right to speech, while the rest of us are silenced.
So, what about the principle of Freedom of Speech? Arundhati Roy was right when she said in her 2004 City of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture: “… the doctrine of Free Speech has been substituted by the doctrine of Free If You Agree Speech”. Most people in society have access to speech when their speech agrees with that of the power elite, but the voices of those who disagree are silenced by being ignored or trivialised or misrepresented. The dissenting voices of radical, political feminists are among those who are silenced.
In Unspeakable: a feminist ethic of speech, I contend that, for speech to be free, it must first be fair. All citizens in democratic societies must have equal access to speech - they must be free to disagree, criticise, express their opinions AND BE HEARD - if the principle of Freedom of Speech is to become a meaningful concept.
Unspeakable is available in print format from OtherWise Publications and will be available next week as an eBook from Spinifex |
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| Comments |
I was interested in Betty McLellan’s talk at UWA on Tuesday 2 November 2010, about her new book, Unspeakable, and wondered if she would be so brave as to suggest that women, as well as men, were silencing women. While she very briefly alluded to it, I noted that - as far as the audience was concerned - it was unspeakable.
I will be interested to read the extent to which Betty covers the ‘hijacking of feminism’ by WAGs (or hets as many insist on being termed) in her book. Surely it matters not whether you are a het or homo or bi feminist, or a male or female feminist, or a young or older feminist, or a short or tall feminist, or a fat or thin feminist, or a blue-eyed or brown-eyed feminist. You either believe in a fair go or you don’t.
Betty reminds us “the doctrine of Free Speech has been substituted by the doctrine of Free If You Agree Speech”. She is right, but much of the silencing is coming from (younger) women.
Faced with such blatant discriminati |
| Posted by Shorty | 04 Nov 2010 |
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