HAVING chewed over a smorgasbord of seemingly random thoughts about Sydney’s mayor, big projects, women’s oppression and Irish drunkenness, Elizabeth Farrelly has extruded her weekly log on the Silly’s opinion page. Nominally about the many achievements of Clover Moore, its chief topic is, as always, the special and precious gift to the world that is Elizabeth Farrelly. Why the Silly believes the musings of an onanist, and an architecturally fixated onanist at that, belong on the opinion page is a question unlikely to be put until adult editorial supervision is restored to the newspaper. In the meantime, Big Notin’ Betty will continue to turn out lines like this:
My father, his father and proud eons of bog-Irish fathers before them believed fiercely in the great divide between women's work and the other sort. I don't recall the phrase ''men's work'' figuring too heavily.
Women's work, though, was clear. It covered everything routine, repetitive and mind-numbing, everything that didn't actually get you anywhere - feeding, weeding, sewing, hoeing, scrubbing, tubbing, bubbing.
Men got to do adventurous, limit-testing stuff. Stalking wild boar, caulking ships, walking on the moon. (For a positivist intellectual, my father was noticeably primal in his choice of metaphor. But I digress.)
Caulking ships, the great male adventure! Nothing could be further from the truth, as stuffing oakum into narrow gaps for hours on end would seem a chore for which Farrelly is perfectly suited. Simple, interminable and making use of fluffy rubbish that would otherwise be thrown away, caulking is the boatyard equivalent of her weekly column. View the short video below and observe how a talent for the boring and repetitious makes her a natural..
in today's world being aberrant is heroic.
ReplyDeletedigging ditches on freezing cold mornings to lay sewer pipes was once considered man's stuff because it was protecting women from trench wall collapse etc.
the daily shit people in the real world have to deal with is now open to all women - liberated - unprotected. Freed from the tyranny of Chivalry some women can face the cold hard glare being fully illuminated.
And then write about where are the men to show them deferential respect?
You can take the girl out of the bog, but you can't take the bog out etc.
ReplyDeleteI believe there is a word missing from the heading. Probably pot, but smoking fits too.
ReplyDeleteI haven't bought the Sydney Morning Socialist in months, as a direct result of their employing that person. If I am going to pay to read a columnist I expect to be informed by the experience. Instead I find most blog comment trolls are more coherent.
The Fairfax press have obviously given up on informing the public and making a profit. They now seek to push the narrative of the sneering classes as far down the road as they can before the shareholder's money runs out.
"It covered everything routine, repetitive and mind-numbing, everything that didn't actually get you anywhere - feeding, weeding, sewing, hoeing, scrubbing, tubbing, bubbing"
ReplyDeleteShe should add, "generating my weekly artcle..."
Silly cow refers to granite footpaths on George St. They're effing bluestone (basalt). What a trained observer! Doesn't even know what's under her feet.
ReplyDelete"Elizabeth Farrelly has extruded her weekly log on the Silly’s opinion page"
ReplyDeleteGold medal Professor
One of my Irish-born grandmother's favourite exclamations was: "GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN!".
ReplyDelete