The major news story of the week – radio broadcaster Steve Price labelling columnist Van Badham “hysterical” on Monday night’s Q&A panel – has turned into something increasingly troubling.
While scrutiny initially encircled Price’s gendered comments (as well as his attempt to shift the focus from domestic violence victims to himself), Badham says she is receiving vile hate mail off the back of her fellow panellist’s efforts to portray her as an “aggressive woman”.
Watch Steve Price label Van Badham “hysterical”. (Post continues…)
In an impassioned Facebook post and video, the Guardian writer and author detailed exactly what the last few days of her life have looked like.
“[After Q&A Steve Price] spent the next 36 hours trying to deflect criticism of his behaviour through a campaign of attacking me personally on radio and television.
“[Price]’s demonisation of me over the past couple of days is another excellent example of how cultural messaging works,” the Melbourne-based writer said in an attached video. “Because in the wake of how Steve Price has been acting since Q&A, this is the kind of feedback I’ve received.”
Listen to Mia Freedman explain why ‘hysteria’ is such a loaded term. (Post continues…)
Those threats of violence are – unsurprisingly – inherently misogynistic. Among them are calls for the esteemed journalist to get “a hole drilled in her arse so she can be carried around like a bowling ball”. Others commented “if her husband beat her up, I’d have to say good on him”.
And all this abuse, says Badham, is just another perfect example of toxic cultural attitudes towards women. The exact ones we need to challenge so that people left behind like Tarang Chawla – the brother of domestic violence victim Nikita Chawla, who was brutally murdered by her husband in January 2015 – do not see what happened to their loved ones become normalised.
For Badham, that change needs to take place at the top.
“This is what my week has been like, thanks to the comments made by Steve Price. Cultural shifts have to happen. And Steve, they’ve got to start with you.”
You can watch Van Badham’s full video below.
Top Comments
It seems because Van is a woman she is completely absolved from this silly mess on Q&A. Have any of you seen her twitter? It's rants of the C word, F word and juvenile chatter. How can you take her seriously?? And really, who actually watches Q&A apart from journos and opinion piece writers? Most average Joes are too busy with real life for political crap.
I think most people are too busy for either Twitter or Q&A honestly.
I think you'll find that Q&A is actually a ground-breaking show that sets the bar for a representative democracy in that ordinary people actually have the opportunity to ask politicians, policy makers and other influential persons in an open forum broadcast to the general public pretty much any question they want. Even if people don't watch it, the discussions are often reported on in many types of mainstream media. There are not many other countries that have such an extremely valuable resource for the community as a way to hold decision-makers accountable and bring attention to issues important to the citizenry.
Have people read her tweets? e.g. "YOU F***** A****** YOU STUPID PACK OF C*** A***** SH*** YOU F***S YOU M****RF****R DUMB C*** WANK F*** SH***" is a quite typical one. She really isn't someone you want to have a coffee with - let alone have her on the nation's flagship current affairs program with civilly engaged commentators ... .