The petition is in response to two articles written by Latham – a regular columnist at the Fairfax business daily – that attack the parenting choices of two prominent female journalists. The AFR columns have been widely criticised on social media and condemned by the media, including in its own pages.
Edwards wants the two columns in question to be removed because of their personal attack nature.
Edwards told The Weekly,
“I felt that something needed to be said. We can’t allow supposedly reputable news outlets to boost their flagging readership by attacking women under the guise of parenting advice. It’s hurtful to his targets, damaging to the status of female writers and to mothers in general and adds nothing to public debate,” she said.
Last month the AFR ran Latham’s piece, Why Left Feminists Don’t Like Kids, which attacked journalist Lisa Pryor for revealing in her Good Weekend column that she gets by as the mother of two children, working journalist and medical student with “caffeine and antidepressants”.
Pryor and her supporters called for an apology from the AFR for Latham’s column, which included lines such as, “Why do people like this have children in the first place? How will the children feel when they grow up and learn that they pushed their mother onto anti-depressants?”
This week Latham has launched a scathing attack on another female journalist, Sarah Macdonald, in response to her Daily Life article on the stereotypes around parenting.
So far the petition, which launched last night, has received 250 signatures with Edwards saying that the feedback has been positive.
“So far the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Many people, both men and women, parents and non-parents, have thanked me for saying what they would like to have said themselves,” she said.
You can see Edwards’ petition here.
