Polka Dots To Gst Spots: A Woman's Life In Politics Ink
The Age
Saturday June 5, 1999
CANBERRA
A few weeks ago Meg Lees was a frumpy housewife. Then she was a dominatrix. And following that, the mother of a deformed - or chimpanzee-like - GST.
Cartoonists have had a field day in their portrayal of the Democrats leader.
One has her serving humble pie to John Howard and Peter Costello, her fellow architects on the GST deal. ``Now this is what we would define as processed food and therefore subject to a GST," she says. You can almost hear her saying ``tut-tut-tut" under her breath. And is that a brunchcoat she is wearing?
Labor's health spokeswoman, Ms Jenny Macklin, has been keeping tabs on the depiction of women and says cartoons of Senator Lees as ``Madam Lash" or talking about ``a GST spot" are stand-out examples.
``In all of (the cartoons) it is all about not being taken seriously," she said. ``You have not got a brain yourself or the only way you can be perceived is in sexual or dominatrix themes."
This is hotly disputed by cartoonist Bill Leak, who has drawn Senator Lees twice as a dominatrix. He was swamped with letters of complaint but could not care less.
``The cartoon has a life expectancy of about seven seconds, in fact instantaneous, and the important thing is to get your message across quickly," Leak says.
``Here was a woman who up until a few months ago was in a powerless position ... and this little wimp John Howard ... to me that is the perfect parallel as a metaphor for it."
In one recent cartoon, Senator Lees is conspiratorially leaning over the side of a double bed, hunched over a mobile phone and (presumably) whispering, ``He found my GST spot". A hairy-chested Mr Howard, hands behind head, smiles next to her. A bra is draped over the padded bedhead.
Ms Macklin says she has found only one cartoon so far that resembles a ``level playing field" scenario.
It is by The Age's cartoonist Ron Tandberg, and shows Senator Lees and Mr Howard engaged in a card-game. The novice Senator Lees has four aces, but Mr Howard comes up with a 10 high.
The former Victorian Premier Mrs Joan Kirner, during her years as leader, was forever being drawn in a spotted dress, often with moccasins.
After enduring the joke for some time, she finally told the cartoonist she had never owned, nor would ever wear a polka dot dress.
According to Mrs Kirner, he said: ``I have never had to draw a woman in power before and I do not know how to do it."
``It goes back to the suffragettes," says Mrs Kirner. ... They are drawn as big-bosomed women with umbrellas and spotted blouses."
So Mrs Kirner produced ``spot-on Joan" t-shirts and held a ``spot-on Joan" concert to parody the treatment.
When Cheryl Kernot defected from the Australian Democrats to Labor, she was pictured as Juliet being wooed by the joint Romeos of Kim Beazley and Gareth Evans.
Ms Kernot says she found particularly offensive the images of her as being wooed, cajoled and seduced and not responsible for her own decision.
In her first major speech, the Lionel Murphy lecture, she felt compelled to say the move to Labor was all her own doing.
Tandberg, who admits to once drawing Mrs Kirner in a polka dot dress, said cartoons should say more than what the story says.
``I zoom in on the personality, not whether they are male or female," he said. ``I think women have got a reason to be angry about the way they are portrayed.
``When (cartoonists) go on to GST spots and things like that (they) have nothing to say.
``I think there is a lot of pressure on editorial cartoonists to amuse and make people laugh," he said. ``Editors feel safer doing silly stuff that may not be as offensive to management."
A variation on the same theme was run in Sydney's Daily Telegraph. Again the satisfied look from Senator Lees. Mr Howard has his arms crossed and is smoking a cigar. This time, however, the marginalised Opposition Leader, Mr Kim Beazley, is peering through the window. It is hard to say whether it is an expression of anger or envy on his face. Cartooning is a somewhat inexact science.
P.S. One of Senator Lees' staffers purchased the Leak cartoon as a present for his leader.
© 1999 The Age