Julia Baird

Australia · 23 Oct 2026Column links Lambie's prolapse disclosure, Hanson cartoon and Haines attack to history of women's silence

In a column published Friday, historian and journalist Julia Baird argues that Senator Jacqui Lambie's public disclosure of her pelvic prolapse, the subsequent mocking cartoon from Pauline Hanson, and the recent attack on independent MP Helen Haines are all part of a long pattern in which women in public life are expected to endure pain and hostility in silence. Baird links these modern events to Queen Victoria's undisclosed prolapsed uterus, which she says contributed to her later mobility and temperament.