Tony Abbott was right to be angry about the hysterical word-parsing generated by his ''no means no'' comment. ''I'm not going to cop this kind of vicious smear from the Labor Party,'' he said. ''I'm the father of three daughters. No one respects women more than I do.''
Only it wasn't just Labor on the smear. It was the Greens, the Twitterverse, and every angst-ridden feminist who had been waiting for an opportunity to pounce on the Opposition Leader from Testosterone City.
Kathleen Swinbourne of the Women's Electoral Lobby said Abbott was ''playing on the fact Julia Gillard is a woman and using a women's anti-violence slogan against her . . . He wouldn't say it to a man.''
Karen Willis of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre was outraged: ''This sort of phrase isn't a joke, it's really a very clear statement about people's rights to say no to sexual advances and sexual activity when that's what they choose.''
Now Abbott is no better than a rapist. What an insult to a family man who is anything but anti-women. It is just this kind of hysterical overreach that is behind the $37 million sexual harassment lawsuit launched against David Jones by its former publicist, Kristy Fraser-Kirk, 27. By claiming that absurd amount, she has lost credibility. The sympathy and respect she earned from her initial dignified and private handling of the case flew out the window. She is no longer seen as a victim but as another litigious, gold-digging, high umbrage woman egged on by lawyers using feminism to advance a personal cause.
Her press conference on Monday, surrounded by her parents, boyfriend and lurking publicists, would have been heart-rending - if someone had died.
They seem a lovely family so they should think about the advice they are getting, be it from the former part-time David Jones shoe salesman-turned-lawyer Michael Harmer or the 60 Minutes producer turned spin doctor Anthony McClellan. They might be the best in the business, but it's a business best avoided if possible, even if Harmer is acting pro bono. Playing up your victimhood rather than getting on with life invariably makes for an unhappy life.
That is not to say that Mark McInnes, 45, wasn't a sleaze who got away with much more than he should have in the way of predatory, overbearing behaviour towards female underlings. And that's not to say the David Jones' board should not have known of the CEO's proclivities, even if it didn't know of specific sexual harassment, as it has said. If even half of what is in Fraser-Kirk's statement of claim is true, McInnes deserves everything he got.
But that is the point. He lost his job, got a comparatively paltry pay-off, became a national joke and had to leave the country in disgrace. DJs has taken a hit to its reputation, and its share price. It is now the butt of jokes. Why the need for a $37 million lawsuit, even if Fraser-Kirk plans to give any punitive damages to charity? Enormous lawsuits are the bane of our lives, feathering the slick corporate nests of the burgeoning law firms in this city, increasing costs of insurance, ruining community activities.
The worst Fraser-Kirk alleges of McInnes would have distressed most women but it should not ruin her life - unless she dwells on it.
According to her statement of claim, at a lunch in May, McInnes, "placed his hand under her clothing to the point where it touched her bra strap". He repeatedly asked her to come to his Bondi home "with the clear implication that such a visit would be for the purpose of sexual intercourse". He "grabbed her in a hug which lifted her off the ground".
At a cosmetics function in Rose Bay, he "attempted to kiss [her] on the mouth while putting his arm around [her] waist". He then placed "his hand on Fraser-Kirk's stomach before moving it under her clothes so that his hand reached the bottom of [her] bra while [she] was pulling away from his unwelcome touch and turning her head to the left so that he could not kiss her on the mouth".
Unpleasant, affronting, and unforgivable though McInnes's alleged behaviour was, this is the worst of her complaints. Is it worth $37 million?
Women who are raped don't get that kind of money as victims' compensation - they're lucky if they receive $100,000. A woman who was raped by a navy colleague at HMAS Cairns was awarded less than $500,000 in 2007 in a sexual harassment lawsuit.
A David Jones employee who sustained a serious brain injury at work would get less than $300,000 in compensation under Work Cover. So why does McInnes's conduct qualify for such a grand cash grab?
In any case, comments by the designer, Alannah Hill, making light of Fraser-Kirk's lawsuit, tell you how complicated sexual politics can be today, with some women evidently welcoming McInnes's passes. Hill, 47, identified herself on Tuesday as the "brunette" mentioned in the lawsuit to whom McInnes referred in a text message to Fraser-Kirk: "I could have had guaranteed sex with that brunette last night but I wanted you.''
At a David Jones' fashion parade on Tuesday, Hill told reporters: "I wish he'd [McInnes] have touched me up. I threw myself at him." She has since apologised but her remarks demonstrate the divide between the women of Fraser-Kirk's generation Y who refuse to accept disrespectful behaviour from men and the more laissez-faire attitude of older women.
Hysterical legal hyperbole does not help women of any age. Greedy lawsuits only damage women in the workplace by making male colleagues resentful and wary. In the real world, this is a severe handicap for women making their way on their own merits.
devinemiranda@hotmai l.com
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
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