Quarterly Essay # 50 Unfinished Business: Sex, Freedom and
Misogyny


a direct, unstinting and fair essay with acute timing, 
 

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To tackle the topic of misogyny with balance is every bit as difficult as catching an octopus in a string bag. Goldsworthy is a fine essayist but
inevitably her perspective can always be interpreted as subjective or biased by commentators who, for their own bias or subjectivity, may wish to dismantle her thesis. Her observations are acutely direct and her analysis heads off every possible
contorted argument. Yet, for all the avalanche of evidence it conveys, her voice
does not become shrill or lose its black
humour. Most importantly, her accounts
observe but do not pillory, they retain a central tenet - that which made Nelson Mandela great - most of us do not intend evil and should be allowed a seed of redemption. This reader
believes she has managed an almost impossible balance.

Goldsworthy has trawled every dark place to portray just how fundamental are the roots of misogyny and, therefore, how unfinished is the
business of gender freedom. Yet she does not attempt to blandly join the dots to link
jingoistic male behaviour, or crimes such as rape, to the injustices she identifies. This would risk a level of parsimony which Goldsworthy has otherwise avoided. She lets the reader, the jury, form the conclusion. It is deeply
ironic that only days after the publication of this essay, one of its central stories played out its denouement with the toppling of Australia's
first female prime minister, this occurring very much concurrently with events recounted by
Goldsworthy. Potential readers of this quarterly essay be warned - its succeeding volume will be compulsory reading for the commentary on this essay and Goldsworthy's response.