Jump under the cut!
I barely need to tell you who Gordon Ramsay is. If I do, I consider you a blessed individual. In this day and age of arrogant asshole TV personalities, this man is something of an extreme.
Generally I ignore this fuckneck’s rabid behaviour, but he brought his crap onto my soil and attacked one of my own.
Now, I have had some choice epithets for Tracy Grimshaw at times. I have a loathing of most current affairs programmes aired after the news as they rarely cover anything of real importance. It’s a waste of airtime and generally a thinly veiled advertisement for whoever the network wants to schill that particular week.
A Current Affair, I will admit, is less on the nose than Today Tonight. And Tracy Grimshaw has actually covered some good things in the past. I remember that Channel Nine covered Anonymous’ activities with little paranoia, and put an unforgiving light on some of Scientology’s bullshit. So I have a soft spot for her from that time.
But even if it were the blonde woman on Today Tonight getting the heat, I would stand up for her. Gordon Ramsay’s candor is just too fucking reprehensible. Most people would say “Hah, he’s just being playful! A naughty guy!”
No, no he’s not. He’s seeking to further his fame and fortune, and when Tracie Grimshaw did not play his bullshit game, he attacked her on air. It was childish, manipulative and cruel.
You can see some of what happened here.
For the link-phobic I can sum up what happened thusly:
– Tracy Grimshaw interviews Ramsay on ACA. In the middle of the interview, he asks her what turns her on. She laughs, she blushes, and tries to get the interview back on track. Ramsay is not used to this sort of behaviour, or maybe he is but he doesn’t deal with it very well. To him, she’s clearly rebuffed his attentions on television and he’s embarrassed. So he attacks her by making fun of a little mole on her top lip. On. AIR. She laughs it off but she’s very embarrassed and he’s made a fool of her on air.
– At a book signing in Melbourne after the event, he badmouths Tracy Grimshaw in front of the audience there. He calls her various horrible things. Apparently he even showed a picture of a naked woman on all fours, with multiple breasts (more than one pair) and a pig mask on. He pointed to it and said it was Tracy Grimshaw.
– Tracy Grimshaw calls him on his bullshit on air. She says, “I’m not taking this shot. O yeah, U ugly, natch!”
– Ramsay does the equivalent of call her a humourless feminist. He’s clearly embarrassed by his behaviour, but being the arrogant prick he is, would never bring himself to actually apologise for his horrible behaviour.
– Wassat? Is that a smackdown from the PRIME MINISTOR?! (typo, but it’s funny so it stays). OOH BURN, SCROTE-FACE! I THINK IT IS!
I applaud for Tracy Grimshaw seeing his crap for what it was and NOT taking it. I applaud her for not letting it slide. I applaud her for calling the fucker out on national television and defending herself. I’m pretty sure Gordon Ramsay can get away with that shit elsewhere, but I’m relieved to see that in Australia, it wasn’t recieved light-heartedly, but with the gravity it deserves. Sure, we’re still a fucked-up country with problems of our own, but it makes me damned proud that when one of our reporters is treated so damned absymally, being dehumanised and belittled so horribly, that the Prime Minister takes time out of the very important affairs of running a country in the middle of an economic downturn to say to this buttwipe Ramsay, “STFU and STFD, jerkwad!”
It’s not much, but it’s something that made me feel like maybe, just maybe, it’s not a sea of misogyny and cruelty out there. There are some oases to crash at.
Crossposted at my LJ.
ETA: Special thanks to my mate greteldragon on LJ for this link! Julia Gillard, our "VP" for any American readers out there, told a silly man to get back into the kitchen! OH YEAH, BISH GOT SERVED, YO!
