‘Defend a woman’s dignity’: Albanese’s melon joke exposes double standard for female leaders

Japanese journalist Waka Ikeda argues that the lack of public backlash over Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s sexualised “melon” joke about Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi exposes a double standard in how female leaders are respected.

“I think it’s really important we should defend a woman’s dignity despite the political differences,” Ms Ikeda told News24 host Chris Kenny.

“A lot of people [in Japan] don’t know about this.”