I am very pleased to announce that the inaugural Wingnut Awards have been voted upon by JB festival attendees, and that the following nominees have been successful in achieving the status of Wingnuttery.
Bernard Keane, in his well rounded article which clearly demonstrated he knew nothing about homebirth or the attack on women’s rights involved in the new maternity legislation, decided to call homebirthers “wingnuts“. One good turn deserves another and we thank him therefore for the inspiration he provided in this way and announce the inaugural Wingnut Awards which were voted on by members of Joyous Birth at our end of year festival. Thanks, mate!
The Wingnut award for “Journalism” is awarded for contributions to the general ignorance of the people of Australia, and may be awarded for both general and specific offences against women. The Wingnut Award for “Journalism” goes to Miranda Divine for her consistent efforts in the fight against human rights for birthing women. Congratulations Miranda! Andrew Bolt also receives a special mention in this category.
In the category of Disservice to Human Rights for the total denial of human rights for women and the upholding of surgeon’s rights above all else… the Wingnut Award goes to Nicola Roxon. Congratulations Nicola!
PM Kevin Rudd also received an honourable mention in this category.
The Bastian Award for people who persist in regurgitating disproven, ancient, poorly done studies as being their sole criticism of homebirth. The Bastian goes to Andrew Pesce for the unchecked invention of statistics and in particular his assertation that homebirthed babies are seven times more likely to die than babies born in hospital. Congratulations Andrew! Your imagination knows no bounds.
The Wingnut Award for Birth Gadgets was awarded to the inventors of The Stationmaster – a device for “objectively” monitoring the station of the baby’s head, complete with an inbuilt retractable amniotomy hook. Where would birthing women be without such a useful device!
The Wingnut Award for Online Contributions to the Homebirth Disinformation Campaign was awarded to Dr Amy. Congratulations Dr Amy! If anyone knows where we can send her certificate, please let us know!
The Wingnut Award for Activism was awarded to GetUp! for ignoring the pleas of people to take up the legislation against homebirth as a campaign issue, then misrepresenting the legislation to ensure that their members were unable to understand what issue actually was. Congratulations GetUp!
All of the Wingnut recipients will be receiving a laminated certificate to honour them for their disservice to women.
I’d like to offer a special thanks to April for crocheting a rather amazing wingnut hat for me to wear whilst presenting the Wingnut Awards. It really did make the ceremony very special! I’m looking forward to this year’s awards which will be voted on by members at the festival in Brisbane in October.
Once again, congratulations to the winners. Craptastic effort all round! Good thing there are still so many people happy to shoulder the burden of keeping women in our place or who knows what we might achieve?!
