THE National Geographic story was headed, “Sex, Sex, and More Sex. Then Death”. “The males of these mouselike marsupials practice suicidal reproduction, which is just what it sounds like: mating until they drop dead,” the story opened. Male Australian Antechinus only live for about 12 months, but what a life! Six months after they’re born, they reach adulthood, gain weight for the next five months, then for a wonderful three weeks spend all their time mating.
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And it’s three weeks we can only dream about. A single coupling can last 14 hours! But as mammalogist Andrew Baker points out in the story, all this “… testosterone keeps cortisol gushing when it should shut off. As the cortisol hits toxic levels, males’ immune and other systems fail, and they drop dead by their first birthday.” But what a way to go!
In the unique alcohol-fuelled Canberra environment the endangered love-rat often mimics the behaviour of the Antechinus, if you can believe former senator Sam Dastyari’s crude comments to Kyle Sandilands on radio. Asked if there were a lot of people sleeping with each other in Canberra, Mr Dastyari replied, “Of course.”
But sex with other partners in Canberra doesn’t always lead to political death. Sky News journalist Caroline Marcus pointed out that manager of Opposition Business, Tony Burke, had warned his fellow Labor MPs not to heckle Barnaby Joyce during Question Time.
Ten years ago, Burke himself was making news when he spent $225,000 in overseas travel expenses for himself and then-staffer Skye Laris. Both were married (to others) at the time but she has since become his partner.
Bill Shorten was in a similar position to Barnaby Joyce. As Ms Marcus quaintly put it, “… he knocked up his wife Chloe – the daughter of then governor-general Quentin Bryce – while both were still married to other people, Shorten to first wife Deborah Beale.”
Bob Hawke, talking in the recent ABC documentary, was not shy about affairs, eventually leaving his wife to marry his biographer. Yet, Bob Hawke is still accepted as the epitome of a knock-about great Australian.
The ReachTEL poll commissioned by Fairfax Media showed that all age groups agreed the press was right to release details of the Joyce affair, except strangely, the over-65 group. And 43 per cent of females disagreed with the media coverage. I would have expected all females to have relished the opportunity to “out” a wandering husband.
Maybe the wheel is turning full circle very quickly. The days of free sex may be coming to an end. Only last week the Sydney Morning Herald published an article entitled, “Get ready to gorge on 50 Shades of Non-Consent” as that movie has been dubbed by the Online Outrage community.
Author Celia Walden says, “You can't have female nudity unless it's the empowering kind.” She quotes Oscar-winning Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, who said, "I don't enjoy the insertion of soft porn into straight narrative, which has happened more and more over the past decade, and the awful blackmailing of actresses …” Even the “Chopper” series last week featured unnecessary sex scenes.
Prime Minsiter Malcolm Turnbull’s ministerial standards announcement banning sex with staff is part of a world trend. Perhaps we are about to enter a new era where sex in movies and sex outside marriage will not be acceptable in polite society.