'Agree with her or not, Grace Tame wears the 'difficult' badge with honour. What was difficult was Albanese's attempted backtrack'

OPINION -- The Oxford Dictionary definition of a 'difficult' person is someone "who is not easy to please or satisfy; awkward." An example: "Lily could be difficult."

It is a word often used to describe women, which is partly why the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling former Australian of the Year Grace Tame "difficult" prompted a collective eyeroll from many women who've copped the same label.

Men with the same traits might instead be called forceful.

There's no denying Grace Tame can be difficult. She refuses to stay silent, she doesn't conform or resile from her beliefs and delivers the side eye to the holder of the highest position in the land when standards suggest she should smile for the official photo or at least keep her obvious loathing of then Prime Minister Scott Morrison to herself.

Instead, Grace Tame is difficult – and it's a badge she wears with honour.

In fact, I won't be surprised if Grace Tame dons an actual badge with the words 'difficult' at her next public appearance. Break out the T-shirts.

What was, however, more 'difficult' than the clumsy label Anthony Albanese applied was his attempt at backtracking.

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He was misinterpreted, he claimed. He didn't peg Grace Tame as difficult, even though we all know full well that she is. What he meant, he claimed, was that she'd had a difficult life, and that the sexual abuse survivor deserves great credit for turning that into a benefit for others.

Cue: eyeroll number two. The ham-fisted apology was worse than the initial stuff up.

For her part, Grace Tame said being called "difficult" was "misogynist's code for a woman who won't comply."

History tends to call her "courageous".

And whether you agree with her methods or not, she's right. Pushing for change as she has and continues to do does require courage – a trait some call being difficult.

The Prime Minister didn't need to backtrack from that description. It's OK to admit Grace Tame is difficult. But even though she doesn't tone down her own actions, perhaps the Prime Minister could have applied the same diplomacy he used for his one word description of one of the most 'difficult' global leaders in history, Donald Trump.

During the same game, instead of calling the US President 'difficult', the word Anthony Albanese used was simply "President."

A cop out? Perhaps. International incident avoided? Absolutely.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)

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