By Pauline Hopkins


On morning radio this week, the presenters ran a quick radio telephone poll asking whether female listeners would rather be Craig Thompson’s wife or Peter Slipper’s wife. (What a choice, indeed, you may ask!) The verdict was that women would rather be Peter Slipper’s wife because “it wouldn’t be their fault.” Fault, you ask?

Well, the thinking went like this. If your male partner has an affair or liaison or tryst with another man, that means he is a closet gay. So no matter now pleasing you are as a woman, you would never satisfy him because his “problem” was him, not you or your sexual appeal or lack thereof.

With Craig Thompson, however, and his purported use of the services of female prostitutes, there is an implicit responsibility on the wife for his unfaithful behaviour because, to put it bluntly, she obviously wasn’t hot enough. Or so the morning radio theory went.

So let’s get this straight. Men behaving badly, whether allegedly fraudulently with credit cards or in breech of their marital pledges. And whose behaviour also comes under scrutiny? The not-hot-enough wife who “drove” him too it? Pleeeeease!

Anyone who doubts the need for feminism or the existence of misogyny just needs to look at this example. When women are held to account for the bad behaviour of their male partners, it is clear that there is still a need for ongoing scrutiny about the norms that operate in our societies, including free democracies.