Monday, August 27, 2012

Julia Gillard is no Cinderella

Must say I find this "Cinderella" angle on the PM's latest footwear malfunction a bit tiresome. Aside from both of them losing their shoes, other parallels are very thin on the ground.

I mean, in any age, you need grace to be a princess -- take Princess Grace for example. And while Gillard is a good looking woman, she's totally lacking in that particular quality.

Also, she's a Fabian socialist whose disregard for the Queen is well known. If you wanna be a princess, you've gotta be a monarchist, surely!

Then there are the supporting characters ...

Firstly, who are the physically ugly stepsisters? Well, Labor is chockas with intellectually ugly ideological "sisters" -- Gillard herself being one. But far from being against her, the likes of Plibersek and Roxon are actually on her side (well, at least for now).

You'd be hard pressed to find a Prince Charming in the Gillard journey to power, too. Certainly not whatshisname, the First Bloke.

Hmm. Perhaps Bruce Wilson fit the bill for a while, back when Gillard was so "young and naive". But that little liaison certainly didn't end up lasting "happily ever after" now did it?

And what about the fairy godmother? No one comes to mind there -- not even Governor General Quentin Bryce (though she is Bill Shorten's mother-in-law). So, no fairy godmother. Just a hairy "godfather" in the shape of Bill Ludwig. 

About the only way the two narratives can be reconciled is if you look at Gillard as Cinderalla as a "post-modernist deconstruction" of the original storyline. And I'll bet some gimlet-eyed hatchet-faced leftie-feminist quackademic is doing just that in an Honours thesis!

Kind of appropriate. The whole time she's been PM, Julia Gillard has been deconstructing Australian democracy, after all.

6 comments:

  1. Pinocchio is a better fit for our dear leader—or the evil step-mother in any number of tales.

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    1. True. And Pinocchio could also be a good one for Bob Brown -- seeing as he's made of wood and all.

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  2. How about King Midas, and substitute 'gold' for 'power'?

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    1. Yes, and spookily resonant considering her choice of shoe brand.

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  3. Julia Gillard is a WHAAAAT?
    Jeebus, Matt. Each to his own, but...!

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    1. Sure, what she's been up to ain't pretty. And she'd never qualify as a pinup. (Somehow I don't think she'd ever aspire to be one, too.)

      But I do not resile from my opinion that she's a pleasant looking woman.

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