Jezebel: john molony

John Molony, the mayor of Mount Isa in Australia,...

Maria — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:20:00 EST

John Molony, the mayor of Mount Isa in Australia, won the top award for sexism today at the annual Ernie Awards. The Ernies are awarded based on 10 different categories of sexism, including a top sexist award, an award for sexist females and one for anti-sexist men. Molony, you may remember, was the man who suggested that unattractive women move to his town because of its high population of men. [Reuters]

Women Protest Idiotic Aussie Mayor, Play Right Into His Fame Whorey Hands

Jessica — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Remember the Mayor of ~~Jerktown~~, er, Mount Isa, Australia, who tried to entice "beauty disadvantaged" women to his mostly-male town? Well, the women of Mount Isa aren't taking this lying down (though Mayor John Molony probably wants them to - zing!). According to the local Townsville Bulletin, angry citizens protested outside the City Council forecourt last night; organizer Tracy Pertovt told the paper, "The outraged women of Mount Isa felt that the mayor's comments were archaic and it is totally not the image that we want to project for our city." Some people wore t-shirts at the protest that said "beauty challenged" and my personal favorite, "I'm ugly and I vote." Just as we suspected when we mentioned this story on Monday, Mr. Molony was just pulling this crap for publicity anyway.

"I won't be resigning because I'm quite comfortable with what I said," Molony told the Townsville Bulletin. "Mount Isa, my city, has taken the Olympic Games off the front page of papers all over Australia and the world and I've never heard of that happening before…People have supported me everywhere and at the moment I feel like I'm sitting on the top of Mount Kosciusko."

Someone needs to explain the notion of negative attention to Mr. Molony. You know what other locales have made the front page of many papers? Three Mile Island and Chernobyl! Doesn't mean anyone wants to live in or visit your damn burg.

Anyway, the inimitable Kira Cochrane of the Guardian takes Molony's blustering as an opportunity to explore the stereotype that Australian men are chauvinists. We're all familiar with Australian-born Mel Gibson and his "sugar tits" rant, but Cochrane also points out examples of sexism in Australian media and politics. She quotes Labor leader Mark Latham, who was concerned that Australian men are having a crisis of masculinity, with "mates and good blokes" being replaced "by nervous wrecks, metrosexuals, knobs and tossbags." Hahahaha "knobs and tossbags"!! Sorry. Cochrane concludes that despite knobs like Latham, Australian society is no more chauvinistic than any other. What's more marked about the Aussies is their strong women. "The country has produced some of the world's most prominent feminists - Germaine Greer, Carmen Callil, Lynne Segal," Cochrane notes, and "In fact, if there's one aspect of the Mount Isa story that really stands out for me, it's the women's response…As we went to press, they were organising a protest rally on the lawns of the civic centre. Now, that's the spirit."

Ugly' Mt Isa Locals Turn On Publicity-Hungry Mayor Molony [Townsville Bulletin]
The Ugly Face Of Oz [Guardian]

Aussie Mayor Calls On "Beauty-Disadvantaged" Women To Move To Testosterone-Addled Town

Jessica — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:40:00 EDT

We got a lot of tips this weekend about Australian mayor John Molony, who suggested that "beauty-disadvantaged women should proceed to Mount Isa," the mining town he presides over in northwest Queensland, because there's "five blokes to every girl." In the first place, Molony just ganked the plot of the Janeane Garofalo vehicle The Matchmaker when he made this announcement, but in the second place, I can't manage to foment even a tinge of outrage about it. I mean, yeah, saying that his town is a haven for ugly girls is sexist and deeply lame thing to say, but lame enough for it to be the most emailed story on the BBC's website? Really? Is it that shocking to hear a gross old dude — particularly a man who lives in a town where 96% of the inhabitants are men — say that women who are not conventionally beautiful are not as valuable?

Honestly, I think the most revolutionary thing we could do to halt the onward march of lookism is to stop giving assholes like this the time of day. In some ways, getting upset about it is just proving his point: if being called "ugly" is the biggest, most denigrating insult around, then we're just reinforcing the idea that being pretty is the most important thing. I bet none of you had ever heard of Mount Isa before he started blathering on about ugly women, and ultimately Molony is just the mayor of a bumblefuck town desperate for attention. I'm going to save my righteous indignation for bigger fish than this guy.

Aussie Outback Mayor Seeks "Ugly Duckling" Women [Reuters]
Australian Plea For 'Ugly' Women [BBC]