“You’re just being hysterical”

Radio and television personality Steve Price has shocked a Q&A audience with his response to a question about domestic violence and Eddie McGuire’s controversial ‘drowning’ joke, claiming a fellow panelist on the ABC show was being ‘hysterical’.

The question came from family violence campaigner Tarang Chawla who told the room of his sister Nikita’s shocking death at the hands of her partner. He also referred to the incident involving The Age’s Caroline Wilson, who was the subject of a joke made by Eddie McGuire at a charity event last month.

“How will politicians and the media play a better role in bringing about long overdue culture shifts so tragedies like what happened to my family are not normalised?” Chawla asked.

Responding to the question, Price stated he knew Sam Newman, Eddie McGuire and Caroline Wilson very well before saying, “Eddie apologised immediately. If you listen to that broadcast in context, it was a bunch of blokes laughing about things they shouldn’t have laughed about.”

Price says he thought far too much had been made of it.

However, columnist for The Guardian, Van Badham, responded by saying the issue of domestic violence needs to be discussed seriously, and suggested Price was making apologies on behalf of McGuire and Newman.

“It’s one of the reasons why we have to look at the cultural attitudes around the different treatment of women and the disadvantaged treatment of women in our society because what you see as jokes made by a bunch of blokes, you know, from the position of being one of those blokes is probably being in on some of those jokes I see as a woman who is part of a social world where violence is…” Badham says.

Things got heated and Price insisted Badham retract the statement as it implied he was in on those jokes.

“Don’t tar me with their brush, please,” Price said.

“Steve, do you know what you’re doing? Do you have any understanding what you’re doing? This man [Chawla] has given us an extremely upsetting story about what happened and you are defending yourself in the context where we have to have a conversation about cultural attitudes that treat women differently and you cannot create paradigms where there are blokes…” Badham says before Price interjects.

“Thank you. You’re proving my point very excellently about the attitudes… We have to stop creating these ‘binary men are this, women are this, masculinity is this, feminity is this, men have high status, women have low status’. We can make jokes and it’s all jokes and, yeah, they apologised and that fine but on the receiving end is the ludicrous proportion of women who do endure violence,” Badham says.

“I think you’re just being hysterical,” Price then told her.

How will politicians & media play a better role in shifting the language of VAW? @StevePriceMedia @vanbadham #QandA https://t.co/74wqYGM9jA

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) July 11, 2016

How would you have responded to the question originally asked by Tarang Chawla? What’s your opinion on the debate between Badham and Price?