Under stress people revert to type. Sadly, it is the real Julia.

The great irony is that Gillard and many other ALP women are only in parliament thanks to an archaic and sexist quota system. There is no other job in Australia filled by women in the way Emily's list operates so for her to cry sexism is deranged.

I have a daughter who was raised not to play the poor widdle girl card and at 40 holds her own with anyone - she does not like Gillard.

I have two 22 year old granddaughters and a 13 year old one who would never dream of using the poor widdle girl card because they have been raised by a very strong and determined mother who is one of the gutsiest people I know.

I fought the fight back in the 1960's but I fought for all of us to be equal - Anne Summers is still back there and todays new girls don't have a clue what it was about.

When a PM who is female is as cruel as Gillard towards women in minority groups and invents men in blue ties as bogeymen she has lost the plot.

What a shame to have to break this to you, Sonia, but you’re NOT a feminist.

You are actually a female MRA activist posing as a feminist. While you think you are being clever by calling yourself a ‘feminist’, everything you write about after that point renders you a dead giveaway.

Female MRA activism posing as feminism has been around at least since the early 90s. It was pioneered in the US by the Heritage and Olin foundations and imported to Australia via the Murdoch media – which is most likely how you picked it up.

The writing style is based on faux-feminist mea culpas, in which a self-proclaimed ‘feminist’ actually sets out to discredit feminism by lots of faux soul searching about how bad and mean and awful it’s being to men, and how bad and mean it’s making women (because feminism stops them from growing up and taking responsibility for themselves, ya know), and how bad and mean it’s making women and men act towards each other.

Your real agenda is to pile guilt onto women (and men) who dare to question and challenge male privilege – which is what REAL feminism is about. Criticise feminism all you like but don't call yourself one until you learn something about it.

I’m sure all the pats on the head you received from the resident MRAs here (who ferociously guard the commentary gates against any stray feminist dogmas creeping in) was your best reward. So you don’t really need feminism, kiddo.

Sorry, but you’re OUT.

Excellent satire, Killarney.

It's going on my office wall.

Marilyn

‘Gillard and many other ALP women are only in parliament thanks to an archaic and sexist quota system …’

Which was introduced to offset the archaic and sexist exclusion of women from political life in the first place. (Of course, don't even THINK that those women might be there because they can do the job or that a lot of men are there simply because they are men.) The quota not only increased the much needed and long overdue presence of women in the Labor Party, it also had the flow-on effect of shaming the Coalition to lift their gender game.

Should that quota be dropped, the boys club will very quickly fill the void again. To think otherwise is to be utterly naïve, especially after the rampant misogynist and generic hatred directed at Julia Gillard during her prime ministership, simply because she didn't fulfill every point on everyone's agenda for first female PM.

You’re also being disingenuous to proclaim that thousands of years of male privilege and dominance in every sphere of public life can be overturned in a generation or two simply by having mums raise their daughters to be ‘gutsy’ and ‘determined’. Women have always had guts and determination – they’ve certainly needed it. What they lacked, and still lack, is a 50-50 share of the world in which to apply that guts and determination, one that is commensurate with their numerical makeup.

You’re not doing your daughters or granddaughters any favours - or the general population of women – by using sneers like ‘poor widdle girl card’ to discredit and shame the right of all women to challenge male privilege.

Bravo, Killarney!

A worthy successor.