The media coverage of Pauline Hanson has certainly built the following of One Nation. The media focus on Hanson during the lead up to elections in Western Australia and Queensland was astonishing.
Following WA election night, the journalism in the mainstream papers dropped to cheap fashion magazine status. It seemed as though Hanson herself was becoming a victim of sexist imagery in the media — or was she?
Just after the WA election, the February 12 Australian splashed Hanson all over its pages. The front page featured a full-length photo of Hanson with an article headed "Lazarus in a floral frock" — referring to the dress she wore to the tally room on election evening.
Page 4 of the same edition displayed a bizarre photo of Hanson's feet, presumably to get a more detailed view of the shoes she was wearing. Next to the photo was an article that explained, "With an entrance more befitting the Oscars than the Western Australian election, Pauline Hanson swept into the ABC tally room on Saturday night stunning onlookers with a backless Versace-style dress".
Liz Davenport, a fashion designer who stood in the WA election with for the Liberals for Forests, approved of Hanson's bold fashion statement saying that Hanson was being extremely clever with her dress sense and using it to her best advantage. "It caused everybody to pay attention to her", Davenport said.
The next day, the front page of The Australian featured a photo of Hanson getting her make-up done before an interview on Channel Seven's Today Tonight "current affairs" show.
The February 19 Australian Financial Review described Hanson on election night as "besieged by the media, pop-star celebrity in a brown evening gown". It also reported that a "Labor figure" referred to her as "cheap and trashy", although it wasn't clear if it was a reference to her dress sense or policy mix. The accompanying photo was another full-length shot of Hanson, going out of their way to get a good view of her exposed thigh.
The front page of the February 19 Sydney Daily Telegraph pictured Hanson hugging her daughter — the caring mum.
To top off this fawning coverage, there have been countless cartoons of Hanson, usually featuring the "floral frock". This style of image has been shown over and over again on television news as well.
This media coverage is infuriating. The portrayal of political women in the media has a recurring theme — "what are they wearing?", which trivialises women's contribution to politics.
The establishment media give priority to women politicians' appearance over what their opinions or their policies. We've seen it over and over — from Natasha Stott Despoja's Doc Martens to Joan Kirner's yellow dresses — it's not limited to any one particular party. This sort of journalism is never applied to male politicians.
The most infuriating thing in Hanson's case is that she consciously uses her appearance to get more media attention. She buys into the sexist stereotyping of female politicians to get her face on the front page of the papers and on TV.
Her proposal to create a "Please Explain" designer label was an extremely successful way of getting another day of media coverage. The choice of name, emphasising Hanson's ignorance, also reaffirms sexist stereotypes that Hanson is happy to promote.
Hanson is happy with the sexist media because her message is inherently sexist. She actively supports changes to the family law act to reduce income support for women, and make it harder for women to deny abusive ex-partners access to their children.
Hanson's media image is part of this. She deliberately portrays herself as an anti-feminist "feminine" woman. She does not need her policies to be taken seriously, because her support is based on a blind "protest", not a political alternative.
Women should be free to wear whatever they want whenever they want. But the capitalist media judge women on the way they look rather than what they think, what they say or what they do. Rather than fighting this, Hanson encourages it.
But it really doesn't matter what politicians wear — what matters is what they do.
Hanson's policies, opinions and actions should be opposed. The corporate media have built her up to "celebrity status" and have created the image of Hanson that many people in Australia support. But her policies are racist, homophobic and anti-woman and should be debated as such.
BY PATRICIA CORCORAN
[Patricia Corcoran is the national co-ordinator of refugee rights work for the Democratic Socialist Party.]