Difficult? You bet she is. Fights hard for what she believes in. Takes few prisoners. A withering sideways glance from her towards a prime minister makes headlines as does a profane T-shirt aimed at the world's most power media mogul. She leads a chant from the steps of Sydney's Town Hall and the whole nation hears.

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Difficult if you're happy with things just they they are and don't want the boat rocked. Inspiring, courageous, fierce, ferocious, powerful if you do.

As Anthony Albanese discovered to his cost last week, great care should be taken in choosing one word to sum up Grace Tame. And even greater care should be applied when trying feebly to explain your poor choice of that word.

As soon as the word escaped Albo's lips during a silly word association game during a public appearance at a News Corp event in Melbourne, you could sense the groans of women around the country.

Women sick of being dismissed as "difficult" when they insist on being heard. Women who still face a gender wage gap of 21.1 per cent. Women who earn 78.9 cents to every dollar earned by men. Women who watch an average of one of their own killed by men every four days.

But it was the partial apology that came after that marked a new low in Albo's week.

What follows is his word salad, with a warning - don't choke on it as I did when he mumbled it: "She has had a difficult life, and that was what I was referring to. If there was any misinterpretation, then I certainly apologise. I think that Grace Tame has taken what is personal trauma and that awful experience that she had and channelled that into helping, in particular, other young women, being a strong and powerful advocate, being quite courageous in the way that she has gone out there."

"Spare me the condescension, old man," Tame fired back. Spare us all, I thought, as the PM tied himself in knots when he could have given a full-throated apology for what was a terrible choice of word. Sometimes, it's best to own the mistake rather than try to blame everyone else for misinterpreting what you said. Instead, what Albo offered with trademark bull-necked obstinance was amateur gaslighting.

He shouldn't have agreed to take part in the word association game in the first place. Albo's preference is for friendly FM radio chats, where he's asked asinine questions like "What's your pet ick?" (it's being caught behind people taking too long in queues) and can cast himself as an ordinary bloke. But the Melbourne event was nothing like that. Agreeing to the word game in front of a large audience at a News Corp event was as bad a lapse in judgment as his choice of word to describe Tame. A trap was bound to be set.

Tame took the word "difficult" as a badge of honour. And so she should. Countless other "difficult" women have come before her - Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I, Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, Julia Gillard, to name just a few - and countless more will follow. The more difficult, the better.

HAVE YOUR SAY: One for the women Echidnas first: have you ever been dismissed as difficult? If so, how did that make you feel? Should Anthony Albanese have swallowed his pride and simply apologised to Grace Tame? What word would you use to describe Grace Tame? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au

SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

- Ousted opposition leader Sussan Ley has set a test for her successor after announcing her resignation from federal Parliament. Her departure as the member for Farrer will trigger a by-election in the regional NSW seat, which is expected to be a hotly contested four-way race.

- Posties delivered a record 3075 parcels every minute during their Christmas run, driving a modest profit for the nation's mail service as Australians send fewer letters.

- Flying taxis could swoop into Australia in time for the Brisbane Olympic Games after a tech giant publicly demonstrated the first of its electric aircraft.

THEY SAID IT: "Grace Tame is not 'difficult' for the hell of it. She is difficult for those who would prefer silence. She is difficult to change the outcomes for so many women who have been destroyed by the system." - Tarla Lambert, editor, Women's Agenda

YOU SAID IT: Garry confesses to treason by giving up on printed books - a romantic scam, he called them - in favour of his Kindle e-reader.

"You will pry my paper books from my cold dead hands ... although I do read quite a bit electronically also," writes Erika from Canberra. "A tablet is easy to carry and great for disposable reads. Over half my library is pre-ISBN and mostly not available electronically. Then there are beautiful editions, works of art in their own right, as well as heirloom books which have sentimental value as well as being historical items. Every book is a relic of its time in content, in context and in physical form - or, for these days, in electronic form. I happily accept that I'm an obsessive bibliophile."

Sandy's son bought her an Audible subscription for Christmas: "Since then, I have listened to at least six books - I can barely recall now as this voracious consumption has taken over my previous non-reading life. I listen walking the dog, working in the office, feeding the horses and ducks, driving the car. And I can't go back. It's like I'm an addict. Kindle is the next step. Your Echidna email couldn't have come at a better time. It has clarified the rational embracing of technology and helped me to realise that words in your ears (or eyes on a Kindle) is far better than no words at all."

"Ongoing issues with arthritis in my hands have made owning a Kindle a gift," writes Jacqui. "I have always been an obsessive reader and now have a vast library at the touch of a finger - albeit with a credit card. I have a Kindle and have the Kindle app on my iPad and iPhone."

Barbara writes: "Thankfully, Garry, there are still people who love to sit down with a physical book or Lifeline Canberra would lose its main fundraiser. Book lovers (and secondhand book sellers) still queue outside on the first day of each Lifeline Book Fair ready to dash in and grab the bargains. Other people wander in later in the day and slowly browse through the offerings and then go home with treasures that have cost them only a few dollars. Long may it continue."

"Quick tip," offers Phil. "All that scented candle will do is fill your lungs with volatile organic compounds and soot. Nasty way to die."

Ron writes: "I, too, have lugged my ever-faithful Great Books of the Western World from rental to rental in my early days. Now they adorn my custom-made oak bookshelf, the decrepit leather and pages pockmarked with silverfish wrapped around a history of knowledge and wisdom. My daughter has laid claim to them so tradition will continue and no doubt she will lug them from rental to rental once, and if, she leaves home!"

"How sad, Garry," writes Old Donald. "Your tactile sense of something so very identifiably human and so ineluctably beautiful has apparently left you. Tragic. In the slightly modified words of Ogden Nash, you really don't even know what you don't got."

Jonathan writes: "Soooo convenient, so affordable, so simple. Just sign over my life, my data and my money to that evil empire called Amazon. A book may have its disadvantages, but it isn't owned by a corporation that is plundering this precious earth of ours. And when the revolution comes, and for shiz it will, my book will be safely tucked away ready to be loved, while your Kindle will be too light to even use as a paperweight."

"Printed books, apparently, are now a 'romantic scam'," writes Mike. "Which is a bold claim, especially when made by someone who immediately admits to buying a scented candle to fake the smell of an old bookshop. That's not progress - that's irony with a credit card. I don't doubt Kindles are convenient. So is instant coffee, but I don't hear anyone claiming it has the soul of a proper brew. What the Kindle crowd always forget is that reading isn't just about consumption - it's about pursuit. The hunt. The thrill. The quiet triumph of finding something unexpected wedged between a Mills & Boon and a 1997 tax guide at an op shop."

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