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A review by desterman
On Reckoning by Amy Remeikis
5.0
Guardian political journalist, Amy Remeikis, pens this confronting and important essay in light of the past year in Australian politics and the brave revelation from former parliamentary staffer Brittany Higgins that she was raped inside parliament house. Remeikis struggles with doing her job as being an objective reporter, discussing the facts of this story, and the inherent and uncontainable rage she feels as a victim herself of sexual assault. Remekis focuses her discussion on the way in which the most enlightening aspect of this dark episode of Australian parliamentary history was the fact that it showed us that male leaders cannot seem to discuss nor deal with this issue. She spends time reflecting on the words and actions of Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, in relation to this issue (especially his “Jenny said, you have to think about this as a father first” comment) and the damaging and unhelpful discourse that exists around the issue of violence against women.
Remeikis poses the question that if the leaders of Australia have such difficulty discussing these issues, what hope is there for the regular members of the populace? She asserts that one of the major issues is the language used in discussing these things, as she writes, “When do we ever talk about how many men perpetrate the attacks? Would that begin to make a difference? If we were to speak about how one in three men will commit an assault instead of how one in three women will be assaulted, would the inversion of language lead to a change in the way we think about sexual assault?”
The topic of this essay is exhausting – how can we still be talking about all these things after everything we know? But Remeikis courageously spends this essay traversing the role of political commentator and survivor of sexual assault. The rage she discusses is palpable. Ultimately, she sees that change will come, but until this same rage is felt by men, and we learn how to talk about this properly and confront these issues together as a society, change will be slow.
Remeikis poses the question that if the leaders of Australia have such difficulty discussing these issues, what hope is there for the regular members of the populace? She asserts that one of the major issues is the language used in discussing these things, as she writes, “When do we ever talk about how many men perpetrate the attacks? Would that begin to make a difference? If we were to speak about how one in three men will commit an assault instead of how one in three women will be assaulted, would the inversion of language lead to a change in the way we think about sexual assault?”
The topic of this essay is exhausting – how can we still be talking about all these things after everything we know? But Remeikis courageously spends this essay traversing the role of political commentator and survivor of sexual assault. The rage she discusses is palpable. Ultimately, she sees that change will come, but until this same rage is felt by men, and we learn how to talk about this properly and confront these issues together as a society, change will be slow.