Julia Gillard’s waffling four-minute response as she’s asked ‘what is a woman?’ and whether she agrees some women have penises: ‘Floundering hopelessly’

By William On Aug 28, 2023

Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, has been criticized for giving a confusing four-minute answer to the simple question, “What is a woman?”

The former leader of the Labor Party was speaking at Government House in Adelaide, South Australia, on Friday, August 25, on the subject of ‘the advancement of women’, when public member and women’s rights activist Biddy O’Loughlin put her on the spot.

“What is a woman?” Mrs. O’Loughlin asked.

“Do you agree with Queensland Minister for Women’s Affairs, Shannon Fentiman, that trans women are women, and with British Labor Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, that some women may have penises?”

Ms Gillard said she was ‘very happy’ to answer the question before embarking on a lengthy, four-minute response that didn’t directly answer either part of the question.

Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard (pictured), gave a lengthy four-minute answer to the seemingly simple question, “What is a woman?”

The question of “what is a woman” has become controversial in recent years, with many politicians in the West struggling to find an answer, fearing they will take both sides of the exceptionally polarizing and – sometimes toxic – debate over trans rights. to disturb.

Initially, Ms Gillard told the public that she had spent half a year in Britain, where she claimed that the definition of a woman had become a ‘gotcha parlor game’ designed to mislead politicians.

‘There are some people who honestly believe they are trapped in the wrong body and want to be recognized as the gender their mind and soul have always told them they are,’ says Ms Gillard.

And it doesn’t go one way, it goes both ways. People who have transitioned from male to female and women who have transitioned to male.

“I think we should just say, as if we want to show love, inclusion and respect to everyone else in the community, we should do that for each of those individuals.”

Ms Gillard, who is seen by many around the world as a pioneering feminist for her excoriating ‘misogyny’ speech she delivered to Prime Minister Tony Abbott in 2012, went on to highlight a number of controversial issues in the transgender debate, including access to reserved spaces. accessible to women, such as prisons and the issue of fairness in sport.

“Most people in their lives won’t play elite sports, most people won’t end up in jail, most people in their lives will meet someone who is transsexual at some point and I think what really counts is the openness and a spirit of inclusiveness about the way you encounter them,” says Ms Gillard.

She rounded off her lengthy reply with a call to take the “temperature” out of the debate.

But her comments fired critics, with some condemning her for “betraying” the women’s rights movement.

“Tragically, it was our first female Prime Minister who spearheaded the erasure of sex-based rights in Australia,” said independent Victorian MP Moira Deeming.

“Now she views reasonable questions and complaints about consequences as petty bigotry.”

Sky News presenter Rita Panahi accused Ms Gillard of “wiggling hopelessly” over the simple question.

“We’ve seen this question fool many cowardly bureaucrats and politicians, but I never thought Australia’s first female prime minister, the first woman in the lodge as leader of this great nation, would be incapable of answering. to the question: ‘What is a woman?’ but here we are,” said Mrs. Panahi.

Even Albo managed to answer that question without cursing himself.

“About four minutes of idiotic wafers showing where Australia’s … first female prime minister stands on this most crucial issue … she firmly stands with the trans activists who have hijacked the left and modern feminism.”

The current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked the same question on British broadcaster Piers Morgan’s show ‘Uncensored’ in early May.

Mr. Albanese gave a very simple answer, defining a woman as ‘an adult woman’, which drew backlash from trans rights supporters who accused him of not defending transgender people.

Sky News presenter Rita Panahi accused Ms Gillard of ‘wiggling hopelessly’ over the simple question and branded her answer ‘imbecile’

Ms Gillard, seen by many around the world as a pioneering feminist for her excoriating ‘misogyny speech’ against Prime Minister Tony Abbott in 2012 (pictured), touched on some controversial issues within the transgender debate, such as access to women-only spaces such as prisons and the issue of fairness in sports, before appearing to be dismissed as an issue affecting only a small number of people

Now Mrs Gillard has angered the other side of the debate.

2GB host Ben Fordham laughed at her attempt to define female gender on his Monday morning show.

“The actual answer took more than three minutes and at the end we still don’t know what a woman is,” he said.

Angie Jones, a women’s rights activist, said: ‘Look at how former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a former lawyer and outstanding public speaker, gets confused when asked some variation of the question ‘what is a woman’.’

“It’s so obvious she doesn’t believe a word that comes out of her own mouth.”

READ JULIA GILLARD’S ANSWER TO ‘WHAT IS A WOMAN’ IN FULL

Spectator Biddy O’Loughlin:

What is a woman?

Do you agree with Queensland Minister for Women’s Affairs, Shannon Fentiman, that trans women are women, and with UK Labor Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, that some women may have a penis?

Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard:

I am very happy to answer your question, but I am concerned about it. I have to say I spend about half of every year in Britain.

And in Britain this has become something of a gotcha parlor game, so if you’re listening to the radio, someone from London City Council will literally be there trying to tell you why the traffic isn’t flowing properly. that day and the journalist will say, “Can you tell me what a woman is?” to try and create these gotcha moments.

I think we just need to move away from that and start again from first principles here and say to ourselves, we as a community are full of people with diverse stories and diverse life experiences, in the midst of that rich diversity that… is powerful. There are some people who honestly believe they are trapped in the wrong body and want to be recognized as the gender their mind and soul have always told them they are.

And that doesn’t go one way, it goes both ways. People who have transitioned from male to female and women who have transitioned to male. I think we should just say that just as we want to show love, inclusion and respect to everyone else in the community, we should do that for each of those individuals.

And then there are a number of issues that need to be thought about about prison regulations, about fairness in elite sport – things like that – that we have to think about and work through as we try and we try to do it inclusively.

Most people in their lives won’t end up playing elite sports, most people won’t end up in jail, most people in their lives will meet someone who is transsexual at some point and I think what really counts is the openness and spirit of inclusivity about how you encounter them.

And I, who have certainly met, known, and appeared on stage with transsexual women, believe that part of that inclusion is referring to them the way they want them to be referred to, using the pronouns they say about want to use them – I would try to do that in that circumstance – I would try to do it if I met someone from an ethnically diverse background, if there was a certain way they wanted to be referred to, if their ethnicity was referred to , then I would adopt that way and the list goes on and I think if we can all do that, we can kind of take the temperature out of this.

And I think the temperature is often created for political reasons, not because it’s inherent in the discussion.