the microphonophobist from the bush.
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 2:35 pm
Ladies, this is an extract from ABC Rural.
It’s an outrage.
There’s a scurrilous disease running rampant in our country areas and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
It’s called microphonophobia and it usually presents itself something along these lines:
ME: “Hi It’s Flint here from the ABC, just thought I’d give you a call about your new cropping/stock/farming system, it sounds really interesting...”
Need to know more ?
Well, read on -
THEM: “It is! It’s saved us x% on our inputs and increased our profit by y%, it’s really innovative because we’ve done x, y and z and that means a, b and c and now we can do l, k and j and….”
ME: “Wow, that sounds great. Would have you have time to do an interview about it?”
THEM: “What…. Me? Oh…..no, I don’t know much about it. You’ll have to speak to my husband.”
I have this same conversation almost every single week. And I’m not alone. Several of my colleagues have mentioned the same thing to me:
Rural women are microphone shy.
Not all of them, it’s true. There are some wonderful women putting themselves out there on the radio. But a large proportion of female farmers suffer severe microphonophobia.
***
Maureen, any particular thoughts ?
Jim.
It’s an outrage.
There’s a scurrilous disease running rampant in our country areas and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
It’s called microphonophobia and it usually presents itself something along these lines:
ME: “Hi It’s Flint here from the ABC, just thought I’d give you a call about your new cropping/stock/farming system, it sounds really interesting...”
Need to know more ?
Well, read on -
THEM: “It is! It’s saved us x% on our inputs and increased our profit by y%, it’s really innovative because we’ve done x, y and z and that means a, b and c and now we can do l, k and j and….”
ME: “Wow, that sounds great. Would have you have time to do an interview about it?”
THEM: “What…. Me? Oh…..no, I don’t know much about it. You’ll have to speak to my husband.”
I have this same conversation almost every single week. And I’m not alone. Several of my colleagues have mentioned the same thing to me:
Rural women are microphone shy.
Not all of them, it’s true. There are some wonderful women putting themselves out there on the radio. But a large proportion of female farmers suffer severe microphonophobia.
***
Maureen, any particular thoughts ?
Jim.