So why, then, the resounding silence that greeted the attack by senior Aboriginal men who take themselves very seriously on Nicole Kidman's feeble attempts to play a didgeridoo on, of all places, German television? No, they weren't attacking the feebleness of her efforts. They were horrified, shocked, disgusted and offended that a woman had dared to offend an Aboriginal custom barring women playing the didge.

Newspapers reported one Aboriginal leader, an urban and educated man, saying Ms Kidman should have known better, and another educated Aboriginal leader guaranteed, to use his word, that Ms Kidman would have no more children as a result of breaching the custom.

In my column in The Herald today I point out that had white Australian men decreed that women should not play the clarinet, the streets would be full instantly of women playing every wind instrument they could lay their hands on, government would be denouncing the primitive bigotry of the men, and the lampooning industry would be at its vicious best.

Instead, silence.

When the publisher HarperCollins was attacked a couple of months ago for including didgeridoo-playing lessons in its book The Daring Book For Girls, it apologised unreservedly and removed the lessons from future editions!

So I begin my column in The Herald today with didgeridoo-playing lessons specifically for girls.

And while they're hard at it, you might find a few minutes to explain why we the masters of parody acquiesce in the face of stone-age hogwash.